quakerroatmeal

iTrader: (3)

The whole paying the dealership for maintenance to be in their "goodwill standing" is a load of BS.

I couldn't find out in the previous post unless I missed it. You end up having this done at Nissan right? How much was a difference it was having it done at Infiniti vs Nissan again? That's a big hit in the wallet, could you had claimed it on your insurance instead?

Black Betty

iTrader: (60)

$53/hr difference in labor rates between Infiniti dealership and Nissan dealership. I don't think a repair such as this is covered by insurance.

cecrops

iTrader: (4)

Damn BB, Good luck tomorrow. I think you are in a good position because you have proof on your side. We now know for sure there is a part number for the gasket and a quick search result hits at the top as an infiniti part. You also have the scan from another sales receipt for the same repair with the correct price. I hope they see their mistake and give you the difference for the extra work they forced you to do.

Like you, I do not want to have infiniti touch my car for most things, their prices are insane and I enjoy doing those things myself. Although I have to admit I get my all of oil changes there.. They send me one or two fliers a month with discounts for the express service department. Normally I hate junk mail but literally 4 days ago I got my oil changed for $20 out the door. Couple months before that I paid $30. This is less than the oil costs and I figure it helps me later if I have to play the 'I get all my oil service here' card.

HoldmyMouse

I think that's the mentality that made Infiniti to point the door for you. While I too enjoy working on the vehicle myself sometimes you have to throw them a bone to chew on. But I know at the point it is waaaaay beyond that and it's about not getting gang raped on cost. Just don't be overly aggressively angry and guns blazing when you go in because you heard this and that from person A (although it is/can be true). They can always have the tech BS all kinds of goddamn lies to recant what you know and justify what they discovered and charged like they are doing YOU a favor. Bottomline is don't burn any bridges. I truly hope they will do what's right and refund a portion of the cost for you.

Black Betty

iTrader: (60)

Like I said, I'm not now nor in the future going to take my car into the dealership for service unless it's a warranty repair or something beyond my abilities or something I just do not want to do. If that means I'm not a good customer, so be it. If I'm out of warranty, no amount of money wasting on their expensive maintenance will guarantee that I'll get any favorable consideration anyway. I could have had them do all the service on the car and it could have very well been the same decision.

I going in with clear evidence that they performed unnecessary work to fix a problem and charged me much more than was necessary to fix that problem. The fact that I was explicitly told that the part to fix my car the simple (cheaper) way does not exist was a lie has made me upset. Whether intentional to bilk me out of more money or unintentional because an ASE certified Master Technucian knows less about the repair than I do as an amateur, it doesn't matter to me because it has cost me in the neighborhood of $1000 that I should never have been charged. There's nothing that can be said to refute that unnecessary work was done on my car. I don't intend to be the victim of that. I have photos of the problem. The gasket to fix it exists and has a Nissan part number. If they won't admit they screwed up and did unnecessary work and refund the extra money I was overcharged, then I'll pursue legal means to get it back. I'll give them the choice of doing it the easy way or the hard way. How they respond is out of my control.

Chris11LE

Im even more interested now....what if they in fact just swapped the cover plate and gasket onto the existing rear cover while it was still attached to your engine.

Im not one for conspiracy theories, but this has always bothered me about any work done on my cars. Since Im not standing right next to them while they do it, how do I know they dont have a quicker process (being that they *should* know the cars in and out better than I), but are charging for a long slow drawn out process (i.e. replacing the gasket straight away, vs removing and replacing the whole rear cover). This has ALWAYS bothered me about every dealer Ive taken my cars to, warranty work or not.

I know they can "get in big trouble" if anyone ever found out.....but we've all seen bigger things get covered up a lot longer.

Good luck BB....hopefully it doesnt take too much to get satisfaction. I bet they "settle" pretty quickly, especially if they know they were trying to get one by you and couldnt.

Black Betty

iTrader: (60)

The thing is, the service advisor was very cool and a nice guy through the whole process. He did some things that went above and beyond to help us. He kept me informed every step of the way, he had them try an engine flush and oil change to see if there was a blockage that maybe would be freed up and fix the problem in case the gasket wasn't bad, and he came across as very sincere in trying to help me with the issue. However at the end of the day I'm still out of a bunch of money that I shouldn't be for the repair. If it were $100 I wouldn't argue about it. But I can't let that amount of money go without a fight.

Black Betty

iTrader: (60)

Reading through this, I probably should split this thread into a new one because it has diverged from the original thread into a completely new and different issue.

HoldmyMouse

Just curious any updates on the situation?

Black Betty

iTrader: (60)

I went in and spoke to the service advisor today. He brought my concerns to the service manager who will be in touch with me tomorrow.

Varjo

Well goodluck and keep us posted.

2008G-Man

Translation .... the Service Adviser will tell the Service Manager .... blah, blah, blah..... blah, blah.....blah, blah blah.

Chris11LE

I have it from a good source that giving them a bad survey response, or even one that isn't all tens, will put somewhat of a hurt on them as a service dept.

So Id start asking "when will I get your survey in the mail", just to leave it out there that you know its coming.

Black Betty

iTrader: (60)

If we can't reach a satisfying resolution I'd certainly tell about my dissatisfaction on a survey. But I don't think that every customer gets one of those surveys and I don't know of a way to guarantee that I will.

In talking to the service advisor he brought up a few reasonable counterpoints. Tech took close to 3 hours diagnosing and attempting things to fix the problem without major repair that I wasn't charged parts or labor for in the final bill (oil change, engine flush). Fair point. I have no problem whatsoever paying for that as we discussed it and there is legit material and labor costs associated with that work. Maybe $350 or so. Also he pointed out that he discounted the invoice $100 "just because" on the line that says insurance. I wondered what that was for. So in the end I was overcharged for an unnecessary $287 part and about 8 hours of labor @ $105/hr (conservative estimate). $1127. I wasn't charged for a $25 part and about $350 worth of labor and supplies used. And given a $100 credit. So a fair resolution IMO is about $650 or close to that amount coming back my way.

twin_snails

iTrader: (2)

Well, from the sound of things, they do indeed give replace with the same paper @$$ gasket so there's the chance it could go out again in the future.

This.

Cause for the dreaded P0011/P0021 codes that everyone is curious about - Page 3 - G35Driver

That may add more to your arsenal Jeremy. In post #31, VQSmile had an Infiniti mechanic tell him that you CAN infact, get JUST the gasket.

And this.

http://www.justanswer.com/nissan-inf...de-around.html

The Infiniti expert references the said part numbers for the gasket that "go bad" on our engines.