It was great meeting some you at Carlisle this past weekend. You all rock!
Aside from that, I’m wondering if you could help me out with some clarification on the seatbelt warranty. I’m having difficulty with a dealer over the warranty repair for the seatbelts on my 1993 240sx.
The trouble is with Gainesville Nissan of Gainesville, FL. I would use another dealer, but there isn’t any other convenient to the area.
The drivers side auto seatbelt has failed and is stuck in the “get out of the car” position, rendering it useless and a safety hazard (not to mention a traffic infraction).
My brother, who is driving the car for college, brought it in and the service manager, Stacey Calhoun (male) determined that the switch was faulty and that it would be $180 to repair. Not knowing any better, my brother left. I pointed him towards Ian’s article and he tried bringing it in again. This time the “regional manager” said "the part was no longer made by Nissan and that it was actually not a part covered under the lifetime warranty.” More on this elusive "part" later. He presses that the warranty states “seatbelt or related component.” But I digress, this is where I get involved.
I call Courtesty Nissan where I spoke with Butch. He told me that he has everything needed for a seatbelt warranty repair.
I call the Gainesville Nissan and ask for the general manager, Glenn Wood (352-378-5208). I promptly get him and inform him of the issue. He was actually quite accomodating and he says that all warranty work is appreciated since they make good money on it and would check into the situation. A half hour or so later, I receive a call from Stacey who tells me that the "signal sender unit," (previously mentioned as the "elusive part")which he describes as "the switch on the door that turns the lights on and off also sends signal to the seatbelt to lock and unlock." Sensing that he was full of it, I called my brother to check on this hypothesis. It is true that that particular switch is not functioning on his car, but it is FALSE that that switch is a function of the seatbelt. This is because the switch on the passenger side functions correctly and supplies no such "signal sending function" to the seatbelt to make it move. Armed with this fact, I called Stacey back and asked to make an appointment for him to dig into the car. He transferred me to service writer, Kevin. Appointment is set at 11:30 am tomorrow 5-14-10.
In the meantime, I file a preliminary complaint with Nissan North America as I anticipate the worst here. I should hear back from them tomorrow. I also sent an email with Ian's write up, service work orders, and warranty page from the 240sx manual to Glenn Wood as reference.
After that, I call Glenn again and leave him a message. He calls back and informs me of the same thing that Stacey said. I did not tell him that they weren’t a function of each other; I want that ace in the hole so he can see that his service manager is a lying scumbag who can’t diagnose simple issues, even when the answers are provided to him. But, I did tell him that there is an appointment set, asked if he would be around tomorrow, and that the car would be there to diagnose at the gamble of the $180 fee. He stated that he'd be "in and out of the office." Fine, at least he might have a chance of being present.
The goal tomorrow is that they will tear down the door and locate the issue and realize that it most certainly indeed is a warranty repair. However, Glenn Wood told me he contacted his regional Nissan rep who told him that "that switch isn't under warrranty." They still have no clue that they're suspecting the wrong switch!!! But I have a very good feeling that they are STILL going to try and blame the light switch and doop over a customer for a lifetime warranty repair because something as silly as a light switch doesn’t work- even though the two functions are completely unrelated!! Furthermore, I don't think they know where to get the part, so I called Stacey back and informed him that Butch at Courtesty Nissan (very helpful guy) has whatever is needed for the repair in stock. I also provided a phone number.
Its unfortunate and EXTREMELY frustrating that I can’t get honest work out of a dealer!
Does anyone have any suggestions or any other way that anyone can help me out here?
I'm hoping not to post all over the web and have this guy deal with the trouble.
Elijah Miller
Internet Manager
[email protected]
1-888-318-7247
