Dealership rallied my car. What would you do?

tedpan

Drifter50 wrote:

Some of the responses here are a bit off the wall, OP got his refund, no lasting damage, lets move on

I didn't accept the refund.

Odyssey 2005

Refund and suspension replacement is the least I would expect. Is this in ballycoolin ?

tedpan

Odyssey 2005 wrote:

Refund and suspension replacement is the least I would expect. Is this in ballycoolin ?

Yep, around Rosemount.

JohnBoy26

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

Refund and suspension replacement is the least I would expect. Is this in ballycoolin ?

Suspension replacement? :eek:

Atlantic Dawn

Terrible treatment of the car and you as a customer.

On a side note I am really impressed by the speed and handling in the LEAF as shown in the video, never expected it to be so pokey.

I see JoeA3 quietly ducked out with his tail between his legs after calling bull**** on the OP.

Fair played for following through with providing the footage and not accepting their paltry offer tedpan.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

anewme

tedpan wrote: »

I didn't accept the refund.

Ted, what feedback did you get from Nissan Ireland?

tedpan

anewme wrote:

Ted, what feedback did you get from Nissan Ireland?

I haven't sent it through yet, will let you know..

gctest50

You might want to check rear wheel alignment

Odyssey 2005

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Suspension replacement? :eek:

Yep I'd accept nothing less. I know any court in the land would grant this.plus costs.! Don't you !!

Quazzie

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

Yep I'd accept nothing less. I know any court in the land would grant this.plus costs.! Don't you !!

What costs? There was no damage done to the vehicle. Good look proving a percentage of suspension life lost in a court. How would you even go about trying to prove that.

unkel

If there's nothing wrong with the suspension, why would you replace it? The OP has been driving around for a year after this happened and everything seems to be fine.

What the dealer's employees did is not acceptable. The dealer has admitted their guilt and offered €120 goodwill. The OP is not happy with that, and has not accepted that. If I were the dealer, I would have offered more in exchange for silence. If I were the OP, I would have accepted the €120. I've just read this thread for the first time and I've subscribed to see where it will end

Benzino

This would infuriate me, and fair play for not accepting a refund, I don't think it was good enough either.

Are you going the route of Nissan Ireland or posting it on social media/Google reviews? At the very least I would be leaving a Google review, I find these useful myself and think people should know how their vehicles may be treated by staff.

Dia1988

I really don't understand why people are saying the dealer must pay for a full suspension, or are they being humorous?
Won't the dealer also have to pay for a set of new tyres, perhaps alloys too as they could be stressed from the speed bumps. Why not replace the the motor too to be sure to be sure!

There's nothing else the dealer can do, it's not like the Manager demanded those employees to "rally" your car. Is the OP wanting to shut the business down?

Dia1988

Dia1988 wrote: »

There's nothing else the dealer can do, it's not like the Manager demanded those employees to "rally" your car. Is the OP wanting to shut the business down?

They could I don't know

1) Offer a genuine apology

2) Act like they even remotely cared that their staff mistreated a customer's car

3) Engage with the OP to find out what if there was anything they could offer him as way of restitution for the breach of trust

4) Tell the OP that they would be reviewing the process of test driving customers' cars and using them for business purposes to ensure such would not happen again.

5) Offer a free & full suspension check & alignment to put his mind at rest.


or just generally act like they cared one iota about a customer that they did wrong to.

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there's far more.

JohnBoy26

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

What percentage?

JohnBoy26

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

Yep I'd accept nothing less. I know any court in the land would grant this.plus costs.! Don't you !!

Ha ha your funny. So a court will grant the op the cost of a new suspension when there is nothing wrong with the current suspension? :pac:

You do know that cars are designed with these driving scenarios in mind.

That's why manufacturer's have test tracks and put their cars through away more hardship than what the op's car got in that vid to see that they are performaning properly.

Odyssey 2005

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Ha ha your funny. So a court will grant the op the cost of a new suspension when there is nothing wrong with the current suspension? :pac:

You do know that cars are designed with these driving scenarios in mind.

That's why manufacturer's have test tracks and put their cars through away more hardship than what the op's car got in that vid to see that they are performaning properly.

Court costs ;)

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

JohnBoy26

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

If you don't know how can you say a good percentage?

What items would you expect them to replace?

Tbh I think it's total nonsense. It was only a few speed bumps. It will have minimal impact on the suspension. Cars are able to deal with a lot worse than a few speed bumps.

Not that I agree with the way it was driven by the employee but replacing the suspension on a car that has driven fine for the past year after the event is way over the top.

JohnBoy26

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

Court costs ;)

They will be laughed out of court.

everlast75

video not available?

unkel

everlast75 wrote: »

video not available?

OP negotiated a 4 figure settlement provided he take down the video. Not a bad result for a few minutes work first thing on a Monday morning

Seth Brundle

Kerching

tedpan

I decided to take the video down, without any settlement. They've accused me of threatening them and bad mouthed me on Facebook. I just don't need the stress at the moment.

Here's the last email, I have from them.

Seriously, nasty pieces of work.

My mail...

Hi Nigel,


I read what you said on Facebook. You've taken my words completely out of context and accusing me of blackmail is disgusting.


Your company treated my car like a piece of ****. I know this happened over a year ago, but as I said I thought I lost the footage at the time. 


You did not take responsibility for your company or your client. Telling me to accept your offer by responding to your email without even attempting to give me a call is disgraceful.


Anyway, I don't need this stress in my life for something I haven't done. I've removed the footage.

His response..

Good Morning Daniel,


I only quoted exactly what you said - I want a significant offer which our solicitor confirmed , along with the suggestion of social media publication, was a threat.


Good bye.


Regards,

Nigel

General Manager

josip

So what's the state of play at the moment?

• OP's car has been rallied
• He won't be getting any compensation
• He won't be making the footage publicly available
• He's lost the anonymity of his boards account
• Is there any point contacting Nissan Ireland since Ballycoolin have probably gotten their version in there first by now?

anewme

Hi Tedpan,

I am completely in agreement with you all the way along that it is not acceptable the way your car was treated and you should have received a call back from the DP without a doubt.

The Dealer offered €120 which you were not happy with. The footage should have been escalated to Nissan Ireland asking for their comments and feedback before you posted on Social Media.

I think you were wrong to post on social media at all. I am not taking the side of the Dealer here, but as someone who deals with customers I can see how it comes across as a threat. They would immediately go into self preservation mode. When a customer starts that I will call Joe Duffy, post it on facebook, see my Solicitor etc, I just go, thats your perogative and leave it at that.

In my experience, the best way to get a result is to write a carefully worded (avoid over emotional or ranting dramatic language) registered letter to the service provider (in this instance the Dealer, with the MD of the parent company CC'd in)

If that is the DP's full name, I would also recommend you take it off here.

You dont deserve to be stressed out over this, so you were right to take it down.

Lantus

Put the video back up. It's your car. Don't mind the mention of the solicitor. If they were serious you would be getting court summons which costs them thousands. Probably hasn't even contacted one and is trying to spoof you.

rizzee

Yeah, fcuk them. They're getting away scot free now.

tedpan

Thanks for the advice. I think talking to my solicitor would be the best thing to do at this point.

Dial Hard

tedpan wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I think talking to my solicitor would be the best thing to do at this point.

What do you *actually* want out of this, OP? You don't even seem to know yourself and to be fair, if that email you posted there is indicative of how you've communicated with the dealership from the get-go, I can understand why they're washing their hands of you at this stage (not saying that it's right, just that it's understandable). You're being as clear as mud with your expectations, both here and dealing with the DP.

This particular ship has probably sailed long ago, but in all of your communications with the dealer you should have been:

- Cool, calm, collected and polite but firm. No overly emotive language, insults or profanity

- 100% clear on what outcome you wanted

- 100% clear on a timeline for same

And you should have CC'd Nissan Ireland on absolutely everything.

I know you're frustrated but really, this entire thread has been a lesson on how not to handle a grievance with a business.

unkel

^^^

And the word solicitor has no place in any of this.

Leonard Hofstadter

The mistake here was complaining over a year after the incident happened.

Obviously sending an impolite email isn't right either (no matter how badly you feel you have been treated).

I'm not defending the dealer, but I can understand why they've told you to go. I'm actually surprised that they entertained it for so long in the first place and even offered you money given the timeframe involved.

Cars are not so fragile that they cannot handle some harsh driving (and driving at those speeds won't harm the engine at all), especially companies who trade on their reputation for reliability (such as Nissan), if there was a problem with the suspension it would have shown up by now for sure. When cars go through their development programme they go through much tougher tests than that so that they can withstand the realities of how some people drive cars.

I would have taken the €120 and run with it.

Now had you gone back to them when it happened, I would have said your grievances were legitimate and they should have offered some level of compensation and yes as others have said, Nissan Ireland should have been involved from the get go (or at least at the stage when you felt you were getting no satisfaction from the dealer).

gctest50

captainspeed wrote: »

........

Cars are not so fragile that they cannot handle some harsh driving (and driving at those speeds won't harm the engine at all), especially companies who trade on their reputation for reliability (such as Nissan), if there was a problem with the suspension it would have shown up by now for sure. When cars go through their development programme they go through much tougher tests ...........

Nissan should have tested some more

Leafs have a rear axle that is easily bent

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057804576


Bring it somewhere that can check 4 wheel alignment

captainspeed

captainspeed wrote: »

The mistake here was complaining over a year after the incident happened.

Obviously sending an impolite email isn't right either (no matter how badly you feel you have been treated).

I'm not defending the dealer, but I can understand why they've told you to go. I'm actually surprised that they entertained it for so long in the first place and even offered you money given the timeframe involved.

Cars are not so fragile that they cannot handle some harsh driving (and driving at those speeds won't harm the engine at all), especially companies who trade on their reputation for reliability (such as Nissan), if there was a problem with the suspension it would have shown up by now for sure. When cars go through their development programme they go through much tougher tests than that so that they can withstand the realities of how some people drive cars.

I would have taken the €120 and run with it.

Now had you gone back to them when it happened, I would have said your grievances were legitimate and they should have offered some level of compensation and yes as others have said, Nissan Ireland should have been involved from the get go (or at least at the stage when you felt you were getting no satisfaction from the dealer).

You suggest that time is relevant, but you don't explain why. If OP was accusing the dealership of this happening one year after the event, with no corroboration, you would have a point with your sole argument that "time has passed therefore you have no right to complain or feel aggrieved".

Time has passed, yes, but we also have incontrovertible proof that the act happened and in the manner described.

Employees of the dealership

A) Breached the trust of a customer by driving the car in an irresponsible manner not related to work they were performing on the car

Breached contract in using the car for purposes not related to servicing/repairing it

C) Broke the law multiple times in doing so

Why do you believe 12 months makes those things somehow not matter? There are various time limits in consumer law, but I'm not aware of any as short as 12 months - particularly if the evidence only came(back!) to light recently.

Do you have some knowledge in the area to support your assertion that 12 months magically makes illegal actions and breach of implied contract go away?

The OP absolutely could have handled it better, but I haven't seen any sign of bad faith in his actions while we have proof that the dealership ( Hutton & Meade Nissan and Hyundai for the google crawlers) through its employees have engaged in bad faith multiple times, including when presented with proof of previous bad faith actions.

GreeBo

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

It was only a few speed bumps. It will have minimal impact on the suspension. Cars are able to deal with a lot worse than a few speed bumps.

Not that I agree with the way it was driven by the employee but replacing the suspension on a car that has driven fine for the past year after the event is way over the top.

If it has minimal impact why do you disagree with the way it was driven?
Aren't those two statements incompatible?

Toyotafanboi

GreeBo wrote: »

If it has minimal impact why do you disagree with the way it was driven?
Aren't those two statements incompatible?

Not really, no.

The car was driven with no respect, that's clear to see and you do not expect your car to be treated with no respect when left in the care of a franchised dealer.

At the same time, this particular action of disrespect is unlikely to have caused any tangible damage to the car.

flatty

anewme wrote: »

I’d still advise Nissan HQ. they need to know how their network operate.

And put an entire dealership at risk over a pair of apes a year ago? The garage now know, you are 120 richer, and chances are they will read the lads the riot act. You've got to give people a chance to resolve issues internally. I really don't like the current vogue for causing as much trouble as one possibly can. Just let it lie OP. That's what I'd do at this stage. I think it was awful behaviour, but if there's no obvious trouble after a year, you through luck alone appear to have avoided structural damage.

Wailin

flatty wrote: »

, you are 120 richer.

He didn't take the offer of service reimbursement.

GreeBo

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Not really, no.

The car was driven with no respect, that's clear to see and you do not expect your car to be treated with no respect when left in the care of a franchised dealer.

At the same time, this particular action of disrespect is unlikely to have caused any tangible damage to the car.

My point is what does it matter what level of respect was given to the car if it results in no damage or impact to the car?
i.e. the Car doesnt know if it was treated respectfully or not.

To add; I wouldn't be happy with they way they treated it, but I think thats purely an emotional response.

JohnBoy26

GreeBo wrote: »

If it has minimal impact why do you disagree with the way it was driven?
Aren't those two statements incompatible?

How are they incompatible? I don't agree with the way they drove it because was disrespectful and unprofessional even if there was no damage done.

Toyotafanboi

GreeBo wrote: »

My point is what does it matter what level of respect was given to the car if it results in no damage or impact to the car?
i.e. the Car doesnt know if it was treated respectfully or not.

To add; I wouldn't be happy with they way they treated it, but I think thats purely an emotional response.

Because the respect is towards the customer/ owner and your dead right it's an emotional thing.

He paid a premium to take his car to a main dealer and the majority of people who pay the bit extra to go main dealer do so for trust/ reliability/ feeling of security.

Even though the car is probably fine, what happened completely undermines the customer experience.

JohnBoy26

GreeBo wrote: »

My point is what does it matter what level of respect was given to the car if it results in no damage or impact to the car?
i.e. the Car doesnt know if it was treated respectfully or not.

To add; I wouldn't be happy with they way they treated it, but I think thats purely an emotional response.

So you wouldn't be happy either with the way they drove it? Even though no damage has been done to the car.

Is that exactly what I was saying?

josip

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

... and the majority of people who pay the bit extra to go main dealer do so for trust/ reliability/ feeling of security.
..

Anecdotal, but I would trust my Indie more than my main dealer.
The only thing my Indie has to trade on is his rep.
The main dealer will also have the marque name which will attract a large number of customers regardless.

bucketybuck

Without commenting on the dealers behaviour at all, I would also say that if one of my customers acted the way the OP has then I would have washed my hands of him a long time ago.

This is something that could and should have been sorted face to face. There is **** all damage done to the car but the customer is rightly aggrieved at the way it was driven, so walk in, talk to the service manager, he would likely have held his hands up and apologised and offered a bit of compensation there and then. And yes, thats all that is needed, the customer had suffered no material loss.

Instead a full year later they are contacted via Twitter :rolleyes:, threats to go over their heads to Nissan, named and shamed on social media, emails with employee names displayed on prominent message boards and the video now in the public domain.

If I was the service manager here this would have been passed straight to our solicitor to deal with. I see the OP was asked what he actually wanted out of all of this, but I didn't see an answer to that. I suspect there isn't any answer to it.

Toyotafanboi

josip wrote: »

Anecdotal, but I would trust my Indie more than my main dealer.
The only thing my Indie has to trade on is his rep.
The main dealer will also have the marque name which will attract a large number of customers regardless.

The thing is lots of main dealers service custom is by people who know nothing about cars, don't want to know anything about cars and wouldn't feel confident using an independent for numerous reasons, they may not feel confident enough to make a decision on which is a good One, for example. They like the assurance of the manufacturers "blessing" over the door, knowing your car will get a certain minimum standard of care and that's exactly what's wrong here IMO.

I'm not saying there isn't countless excellent independent workshops out there or anything or that the same issues couldn't happen there.

Reati

tedpan wrote: »

I decided to take the video down, without any settlement. They've accused me of threatening them and bad mouthed me on Facebook. I just don't need the stress at the moment.

josip wrote: »

So what's the state of play at the moment?

• OP's car has been rallied
• He won't be getting any compensation
• He won't be making the footage publicly available
• He's lost the anonymity of his boards account
• Is there any point contacting Nissan Ireland since Ballycoolin have probably gotten their version in there first by now?

There is no state of play. The Garage moved and the OP flinched. I can't see the Garage moving ground now.

It's over now for what I can see.

anewme

There are too many people here goading the OP, Armchair Lawyers and people telling OP to name and shame etc. The reality is that this rarely works and ends up with the scenario above.

Softly softly catchee monkey.

By publishing communications from the Dealer including staff names, the OP is in this instance (quite rightly) not going to get any more communication. I would not contact a customer who was publishing my responses and details online, in fact, I would point blank refuse to do so, even if directed by my employer.

The OP has not taken the advice to remove the staff names. That really is poor form.

Voodoomelon

A refund of the service cost and an apology would be about the height of what i'd expect. Sad to see things have turned sour. I'd be livid all the same if that was my car, but the cries above for complete suspension replacement gave me a good laugh.