Dealership wants to paint door scratch outside!

[Tim Sloper]

When I purchased my truck there was a deep scratch starting in the driver's door and extending into the rear door... ultimately going into the primer. The weather here in FL has held up getting this fixed but today I call the service manager to see if tomorrow is good. He said yes but if it is raining don't bother to come down. I asked why and he said that they do the work in the parking lot! That's rediculous. To properly fix this in terms of longevity of the repair they should be pulling the handles and moldings... sanding... blending... and clearing the entire panels. How could they possibly prevent contamination of the paint outside? I'm not thrilled about having to pay out of pocket to fix this but there is no way that I'm going to have my new vehicle painted in a parking lot. I've gone through a dealer "paint job" on my 98 Z28 and now the clear coat is flaking off because they taped off rather than shoot the entire panel like they were supposed to. The rest of the Z looks as good as the day I bought it.

The dealership is Classic Nissan in Orlando.

Tim

[1Titan]

You should if you have not already tell them what you are saying here on how you think you should have it painted. That is really strange to hear how they are planning to take care of this. Obviously they are just going to patch the affected area. I agree with you on how it should be done. Basically you should have the whole darn door painted. Why do you have to pay for it?

[Blizzard]

You might want to check with the City or County there, I know in some areas of VA it is illegal to spray paint a vehicle outdoors. They might have similar laws in FL.

[Tim Sloper]

Well I went down to the dealership this morning and politely explained to my sales guy and sales manager that spot painting my vehicle outdoors was not acceptible. Even the bodyshop they use (3rd party) for more heavily damaged vehicles said that what they were planning to do was not going to workout very well especially with the metallic paint.

At this point they have agreed to send it to the actual body shop. They are supposed to be calling me back by the end of today to get it scheduled. I told them I would be needing a loaner vehicle as well.

Hopefully they will do as they say they will.

Tim

[keiffers]

Once I saw who the dealer was, doesn't surprise me. I've never dealt with that particular Classic dealership, but there is a Classic dealer here that does absolutely stupid things when it comes to how they treat their customers. Several years ago I was in the process of buying a Honda Civic and stopped by the Classic Honda dealer to see if they MIGHT be able to beat the deal I had already setup with another dealer. Well that was where I started my mistake. They wanted to give me less than what the other dealer ended up giving me, they refused to give me my keys back when I needed to go back to work (telling me they would give me the keys when they were done) and wanted to start me off at the $$ amount that I ended up driving off the other dealers lot with. In addition, no matter how many times I told them I had already been preapproved through my insurance company's bank for a loan, they demanded that I take one of their loans and I would get a better deal. Anyway, I finally left after they gave me my keys (should have just gone in and swiped them off the desk and left - I admit I should have). Called them later and said that I decided not to go with them, etc. Anyway, I make it a point to try and get people to not goto that dealer and I refuse to step foot on their property. Honda wasn't happy when I wrote a letter of complaint, but I have not once heard back from them to apologize for how I was treated. Oh well, word of mouth is alot more powerful

[BiXLL]

they refused to give me my keys back when I needed to go back to work (telling me they would give me the keys when they were done)

I'm sorry, I just don't understand anybody tolerating that! Somebody, or a bunch of somebodys would have been bleeding badly had they said that to me.

[carbap82]

I had the same thing happen to me, except they would'nt give me my drivers license!

[BiXLL]

Wow, you guys apparently have MUCH MORE self control then I! There is no doubt in my mind if a business had some thing of mine and would not give it to me when asked, it would get physical immediately!

[Rondretti]

Hey Tim Sloper, how much do you expect to pay to have your Titan repainted if you do?
Thanks in advance,

[scottryla]

Tim I too live in Orlando, but bought my Titan from Reed Nissan on West Colonial. Can't say that my expeience was much better. The only reason I bought from there was I knew the Sales Manager.

[keiffers]

No reason to get physical over something like that. Getting physical solves nothing and only makes you look like an a-hole cause you stooped to their level. Granted this was 4-5 yrs ago and would never have happened now. Word of mouth has alot more affect than getting physical does.

[Tim Sloper]

Rondretti,

I have estimates from $400 - $600. I'm now seeing the effects of a crappy dealership paint repair on my Z28 from years ago. I don't want to see the same on my Titan so I'd pay out of pocket to get it done right the first time around.

Scottryla,

I stopped at Reed on two separate occasions over the summer. Both times I felt like I became invisible when I stepped onto their lot. So I buy my truck from Classic and two days later a woman in my complex yells out asking me how I like my truck. It turned out to be someone I knew that happens to be a salesperson at Reed. I probably could have gotten a bit better deal through her but there was nothing I could do about it at that point. She did get me a 10% discount in the OEM nerf bars from Reed. At that price it didn't make sense to have them mail ordered.

Tim

[Birdhunter]

Guys, physical never works, but a quick and loud call to the police stating that the dealership is refusing to return your property and you want to file theft charges against them works wonders, gets apoligies and the whole nine yards!

[BSL]

1. If you are paying out of pocket for the scratch repair do some shopping, like carsmetics, any "good" can match paint.
2. When the dealer did that to me, although I had my cell phone with me, I asked to use their phone. They asked who I was calling, local or long dist.? I replied," Local Police". My keyes were returned impidiately, with sort of sincere appologies. Needless to say, complaint letter followed.

[garo1]

Originally Posted by BiXLL

Wow, you guys apparently have MUCH MORE self control then I! There is no doubt in my mind if a business had some thing of mine and would not give it to me when asked, it would get physical immediately!

Yes indeed BiXLL, a serious can of whoop a$$ would've been opened up on 'em!