The (Lack of) Service Department

So, after my Thursday evening garage mishap, I called Friday morning to my local, favorite auto repair place to see if they could get me in to repair the tail light. The owner of the place said that they were too busy to get me in. Try Saturday. I should have just waited and taken it to him on Saturday.

Instead, I called the dealer from where we bought the vehicle. I asked if they could get it in the same day, and the young man in the service department on the other end of the line consulted his schedule and determined that, yes, he could indeed get me in. When could I bring it in? I looked at the clock on the microwave. 8:47am. "I can have it there by 9:30." Nine-thirty it is, then, he said. See you then.

I drove over to... for fear of potential legal repercussions, let's call them Dumschitz Nissan (but I will tell that they're the only Nissan dealer in Chicago on Irving Park Road between N. Kenneth Ave. and N. Kilbourn Ave). As they were processing my car -- writing down the VIN, license plate number, counting the tires -- I noticed this sign above the service desk that reads, in essence, that, no matter what they do to my car, there will be a minimum "inspection fee" charge of half the flat labor rate of $95. Okay, well, this IS an emergency. I needed the car back on the road by Monday. I also asked them to take a look at a little annoyance with the driver's side front door dome-light button. Seems the car won't tell me when I still have the keys in the ignition when I open the driver's door. They said they'd take a look at it.

About two hours went by before the service dude at Dumschitz called me. But since I'd taken the day off, I'd gotten back into my jammy pants at home, so my phone rang unnoticed on the belt of my jeans upstairs. About two hours after he called I noticed, so I called him back. "Yes, sir, we don't have that part in stock right now, and nobody in the area has one. Even if they did, the roads as they are (we just had a big snowstorm) makes it really tough. We won't be able to get it in until next week, Tuesday or Wednesday. Would you like me to order the part for you and schedule you for service next week, sir?"

I told him to wait. I called my favorite place and asked the question I SHOULD have asked when I called him the first time (but I had thoughts that I could make it in to work by noon), "Can you get me in tomorrow?" I've known they have Saturday hours since I started bringing our cars there. I also asked him, "Can you get your hands on an '02 Xterra right side tail light?" He said to hold on a minute. When he came back on the line he said that, yeah, he could get the part no problem. So I said, "That's funny. The guy at Dumschitz Nissan said nobody in the area had it." Then he laughed. He told me that Dumschitz is the place he just called, and they said they have it!

He told me to come in Saturday morning and he would take care of it. I took public transportation back to Dumschitz Nissan, paid $105 for them to tell me they didn't have the part and that the problem with the door switch is the most expensive of the potential problems. Then this morning I went to the reliable guy who had the part from Dumschitz Nissan, and, embarrassingly, he replaced the tail light housing outside in the freezing cold, in full view of everyone in the lobby, in approximately one minute.

Tomorrow I will spend part of the day crafting my nasty letter of complaint to the service manager at Dumschitz Nissan. It's a shame, too, because they were the best new car dealer experience my wife and I have ever ...um... experienced.