Good Service.

A disclaimer. This post will make me appear, immature, manipulative, and like the customer from HELL. I'm just so sick and tired of paying BIG bucks for CRAP. I've had it up to HERE ladies and gentlemen,,,,, Up. To. Here.

I love my car. It's the best car I've ever had. It's comfy, it's cute (in an suburban housewife kinda way), it's roomy and it's got get up and go that will knock yer socks off! It's a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder. Don't judge me on it's fuel economy, I rarely drive it more than 5 miles away from the house. It's a "grocery gitter" for sure.

On Monday night, I needed to drive over to my mom's to take us to Circuit City. I went out to get in the car like a normal person but what happened to my newish, beautiful SUV was not normal at all!

I tried to open the door and nothing.

I did the "weep weep" with the auto remote and tried again.

It still wouldn't budge!

I tried again and it went POP!

Whaa? Hmmm,, musta been frozen. We've had lots of really cold weather lately. That musta been it.

So I got in and tried to SHUT the door. No dice, it won't shut.

POOP.

I went back inside and told the husband of the predicament. We thought, it must be frozen, we'll get the flash light and the hair drier. Well guess what? It wasn't frozen, it's BROKEN!

When he said this I literally stomped my right foot down like a 4 year old and crossed my arms. "NO!"

Real mature right? But wait, that's only the first part of the saga!

Part 2 begins with me telling the husband, explain to me what's actually wrong with the door and why don't you get online and see if there is any recalls. He scowled at this. "None of that matters, it's under warranty, take it down and tell them, 'IT'S BROKE, FIX IT'" I tried to stress to him that women can't do that. I have to be able to go in there with confidence and information or they're going to try and rip me off and basically screw me. Still, he insisted that in this case there was nothing to know and that worry was unnecessary. The next morning I pack the kids up and tell them to pack a backpack full of stuff to do because we were spending the morning down to Moses Automotive on Rt. 60 in Huntington WV (in case you want to deny them any of your hard earned money).

Keep in mind that I'm now climbing my fat body over the passengers side of my car when I enter and exit the vehicle. Luke Duke, I am NOT.

We arrived at a little after 10am and I walked to the desk and told the lady my make and model and that "the door is broke".

The lady who had no interest in customer service, and could have been Tammy Faye's twin says "what?"

I reply "I went to open it and it popped and now it won't open or close"

"hmmmm, well, I don't think we can do anything about that today." TFBT said.

"what? I'm climbing over my passenger side to get in and out!"

"we could probably see you in 10 days"

"TEN DAYS??"

"You're not hearing me lady, I have a bad back and shoulder that needs surgery, I'm not going to climb through my car for 10 days. You can't even find any one to look at it and see if it needs parts?"

TFBT said "well,, I'll see"

... yeah,, you'll see,, imagine that....

So, a scruffy mechanic that must have been 90 years old comes out and walks to the drivers side door, TFBT is following him all the while saying "she says it's broken and it won't open and close". He gives it a go. "She wasn't lying, it's broken"

Me- "so what do we do?"

Mechanic from the Crypt says "hmmmmm, welllll, I don't know"

....... you don't know?.......

MFTC "it's gonna need parts, and then it's going to need to go in the body shop to be repainted..."

"WHAT?"

MFTC continues "yeah,, that color is going to be really hard to match"

...... SILVER?.........

A brief aside from the stooopid woman who knows nothing...

You see, the entire mechanism inside the door is broken and the door handle is connected irrevocably to the interior mechanism. Therefore the door handle is part of the part that needs ordered.

Next MFTC asks me "Did you try to take this door apart?"

"WHAT?!!! , NO, I didn't take the door apart?!"

" 'cuz it looks like it's been tampered with"

"What are you saying?"

"That'd void the warranty"

"Don't you even go there"

About this time the parts department manager strolls over and asks what the deal is. It might have been the look of horror, shock, disgust and general dismay that I had on my face. I don't know. So they say to me..

"what do you want to do?"

"ME?" "What are YOU going to do?"

"Well, we need to order the part"

"Well, then you should do it."

"It'll be 2 weeks"

"Oh no, it will not."

"excuse me?"

"Will you give me a loaner vehicle?"

"no ma'am, we don't do that"

"Then it needs to get here faster"

Now they have the look of shock and horror. I'm sorry, my car is less than 18 months old, this is total crap, if you want me to buy another Nissan then you'd best fall all over yourself to provide me with reasonable service. I don't even need exemplary service,, just reasonable.

"There's no way for it to get here faster, it's THE HOLIDAYS"

This is where I loose it. The Holidays? So what now,, people just don't work in December? My husband it working his butt off. Everyone else I know is working THEIR butts off. What the heck has it got to do with the Holidays? If it were this coming Friday, yes, I understand that. It's not though,, it's MONDAY.

I got off on this ugly UGLY tirade about climbing over the seats in a dress and heels for Christmas and blah blah blah and he is still unbudging. I have to break out the big guns.

Yes,,, ladies and gentlemen..... I cried.

You heard me... I teared up and he PANICKED!

"oh God, don't cry,, hold on, let me see what I can do,, hold on,, let me make some calls"

It was all I could do at this point to not giggle. He stepped over to his desk and was saying things like "yeah, I don't know what else to do,, this lady is having a melt down, she's CRYING" He walked back over to me, put his hand on my shoulder and assured me that they are over-nighting it and we'd get it fixed first thing tomorrow morning.

That's more like it.

Don't get me wrong, I have deep shame for having to pull out the tears, it's not a tactic I use often. I actually don't recall the last time I had to use it! But oh man,, does it work!

Part 3.

I show up early this morning bright eyed and bushy tailed. I'm excited to be getting the door fixed. The boys are all packed up with books to read and games to play in the waiting room. Oh course, I have my knitting I spot the parts dept manager and say to him,

"are we ready to do this thing?"

He replies "oh,,, yeah, didn't they call you?"

An anger washed over me from the pit of my being that is just indescribable.

"NO" came from deep in my throat, filled with ire.

We walked over to the ordering guy who looked EXACTLY like the maitre D' at Chez Quis in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

PDM asked him "hey, didn't you call her?" (with no explanation about WHAT)

and Mr. Maitre D' said "oh yeah, I called you, remember?"

"NO, you did NOT call me"

"yeah, I talked to you"

"NO, you did NOT"

"yeah, I left a message"
"I don't have an answering machine"

"I left a message with someone"
"I've been home since I left here yesterday, I ASSURE you,, you did NOT"

"Yes, I did, it says so right on this paper"

"WHAT THE H*LL ARE YOU TRYING TO PULL, YOU DIDN'T CALL, YOU DIDN'T TALK TO ME, YOU'RE LYING!"

"well, I'm real sorry"

"apology not accepted, you're sorry alright, a sorry lying sack of crap" (I'm being nice for some of my more sensitive readers)

"well, I'm not a liar, I did call you."

"YOU DIDN'T CALL ME, I'M STANDING HERE, IF YOU'D CALLED ME I WOULDN'T BE HERE WOULD I? I'M NOT GOING TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THIS ANYMORE"

"you're part should be here tomorrow."

"FINE"

I stomp off to the waiting room and retrieve the children from the packed room.

"IS IT DONE?" they say.

"No, they incompetent pieces of crap can't seem to order a part or use a phone" I say at a level that no one in the room would have had to guess at what I said.

Stay tuned. Part 4 comes tomorrow. I don't even know how this story will end but I have a feeling that it will include a trip to Charleston to a different Nissan service center.