I bought Nissan Sunny Premium Leather in October 2014 from Vibrant Nissan Secundrabad. While buying the car, my friends and family have warned me that the maintenance for the car is going to be expensive. But I need a comfortable car and had prepared for higher maintenance cost.
Till first service, I enjoyed the car and was proud of it. Just before second service, I got 2 major complaints.
1. Whenever I am applying a break, it started giving squeaking notice.
2. Whenever I shifted the gear from 1 to 2, its getting stuck.
ALL SERVICES DONE AT VIBRANT NISSAN, HYDERABAD.
Nissan person has come for car pickup for service. While sending it for service, I have mentioned both the complaints on the complaint/service form provided by the service provider.
End of Happy Days... (23000 KM)
Second service was completed; they gave me a call saying that they have solved the issues.
When I started driving it, I again got the squeaking noise problem on the same day. I was disappointed and immediately informed them. They agreed to take back the car and rectify the issue. They have taken the car for rectifying the problem.
Got a call from the service center claiming that the problem has been rectified and they are sending back the car.
I started using the car and realized that the problem was not resolved. Now I got frustrated and started using the car (Didn’t buy a 11.5 lakh the car just to send it to the service center every other day).
Two months (29000 KM mark) passed and I was using the squeaking car. One day, I was coming out of the factory and observed an auto driver curiously looking at the rim of the front wheel. I went to him and asked him as to why he was curious about the rim.
He immediately showed me the metallic dust on the rim and questioned me "Sir aren’t you getting squeaking noise while applying brakes". I was stunned, told him that I was in deed facing the problem and Nissan service people could not address it. He immediately told me that, the squeaking noise is because of the eroded brake pad and since I have not changed the brake pad in time, it has spoiled the brake disk also.
I immediately gave a call to vibrant Nissan. As usual a smiley face picked up the car and I got a call from service center. Now they are informing me that the both the break pad and brake plate got warned out and informed me the costs.
1. Brake pad: 2500
2. Brake plate: 3000
I called my cousin, who owns a car garage and asked him for the life of brake pad and brake plate.
Life of Brake pad: 20000KM
Life of Brake plate:[protected]KM. (My car brake disk gave up at 30, 000KM).
Scary thing of all is that we do know that the squeaking noise is because of the break pad rubbing against brake disk, but why did this problem occur in Nissan only and not in other vehicles I used (Just for reference, I owned WagonR, Swift, Verna, I10 and Etios). I came across a mechanical engineer who faced a similar kind of problem (erosion of brake disk by 30, 000 KM mark) with micra and gave me the probable reason. I am not a mechanical engineer, so I am jutting down my understanding of his explanation. If there is an alignment issue in the break-pad/disk, it will lead to faster erosion of the disk. Surprisingly, his vehicle was a year older than mine and I did not understand as to why Nissan has not rectified such safety issue. Further raising concern, why did the folks at the service centre did not check for the same when I sent them the car twice (Just imagine the implications of a broken brake disk while cruising at 120 KMPH).
I really got angry at what I came to know and told service centre representative that I will only pay for brake pad and not for the brake disk as the erosion of the brake disk is because of their carelessness/quality consciousness.
I got a call from their service executives and he was telling me that It was a wear and tear part and they cannot replace it for free. I asked they did not resolve my previous complaint which has led to the present status of break pad and they didn’t had answer for that. Instead they started saying that, their procedure for such squeezing noise was to clean both break pad and brake disk and they have done the same (What a lame statement? How can a company’s service center not diagnose the problem before resorting to the manual for procedures?).
Some of their answers for their questions are really spooky.
1. Why did I get problem in Nissan Sunny whereas not in other cars that I used?
a. Please don’t compare Nissan to other branded cars (As if these problem are common thing in Nissan and not with other brands. Nissan has their own set of quality and safety standards).
2. Why did the brake disk erode?
a. Because of the vehicle maintenance (Nissan claims a mileage of 15 KM/Litre and under my maintenance, my vehicle was giving mileage of 18.5 KM/Litre) and dust (Do they really expect Indian roads to be dust free or do they expect me to just buy the car and park it in garage till Indian roads are dust free. Can you really believe that they dared to give dust as explanation on the face of their customer?).
After some negotiations, their service centre head gave me a call and said that they are ready to give me an offer. His offer was, instead of brake plate, he will give brake pads for free and will not charge me for the installation. This was not concrete offer and he will get back to me once its finalized. To settle the issue, I told them that I am willing to settle in those terms.
Then I got a call again with concrete offer:
I will have to pay for brake pads and brake plates. They will not charge me for installation and will give me other service such as shampoo wash for free (WHY DO I NEED SHAMPOO WASH?). I refused the offer telling them that I do not need any other services other than the changing of brake pad and brake plate (Their idea is to inflate the bill and give discount. Everybody knows that services such as shampoo wash are cheaper when done through third party than the service center). Service center people backed out saying that this is their best offer and then cannot replace wear and tear part for free (Although I agree that they are wear and tear parts, but still the parts got spoiled because of their recklessness actions. I intimated the problem in time and they did not do what is needed to solve the problem which resulted in the wear and tear).
TIME LINE FOR GETTING TO THIS POINT: 3 WEEKS FROM THE DAY I SENT THEM THE CAR AND MY CAR IS STILL AT THEIR SERVICE CENTER.
Tired of dealing with Vibrant Nissan, I complained the mother company NISSAN…
START OF MEMORABLE AND EXOTIC JOURNEY, ONE WHICH HAS TRANSFORMED MY UNDERSTANDING OF MULTI NATIONALS.
I called Nissan (the mother company) and explained the problem to the customer service executive. He told me that he is going to look into the issue and get back to me in two working days. I was happy with his response and said that I would wait.
The representative from Nissan gave me a call the next day (Which was Saturday) and I was out of station, so I asked him to call on Monday to which he also agreed.
I did not receive the call till Friday of next week, so I gave them a call on Friday to find out the status. Nissan executive started telling me that the service center guys claim this and that. I interrupted him and asked him whether he is a bridge between me and the service center because If that is what he is doing then there is no point in complaining to the mother company as they are not looking into the issue and reiterating the service center claims. Immediately Nissan executive asked for two more days and told me that he will escalate the issue and make sure that the problem is resolved (Although from his talk, I really doubted that they have administrative setup to look into the issue and solve it. It’s been one week and they didn’t even look into the issue, instead they are playing the game of delaying tactics hoping that I would get frustrated and take whatever offer they propose.).
Finally, after waiting for 13 days (their promise was to get back in 2 days) I gave a call to Nissan HO. This time a lady picked up the call and I felt the shock of the year from their response. It seems that they have discussed the issue and choose not to communicate it to me. So they just left the issue as it is and left me hanging in mid-air (My initial hunch of their delaying tactics in action). I got furious and asked for the representative’s manager to get online. I got a reply that the manager is busy and will call me back in a short while. Knowing their tactics, I reminded the representative that I want him to call on the same day and I will be waiting for their call.
As expected didn’t get any call from them. So I called back the next day and asked the representative to connect to their manager. The manager comes online.
THINGS JUST GET BETTER AND BETTER
During the conversation he accidentally spilled out that the second time I sent my car to the service centre, the service centre people had actually decided that there was nothing wrong with the brake pad and brake plate and they have chosen to send the vehicle back without doing anything.
When I asked him as to why that has happened, he had the guts to tell me that the noise I heard was my perception and there was nothing wrong with the car (Looks like my perception was better than their engineering skill. I am deriving it from the fact that brake plate did eroded). When I started arguing with him, he actually started laughing on my face (What’s so hilarious about a suffering customer. Is it buying a premium car trusting the brand contrary to the market perception) and told me that I was wasting his time while not even listening to me. After some more discussion he reiterated the offer and told me that it was full and final. I told him that it is not reasonable and asked him to escalate the issue. He agreed and when I asked him as to when they are going to get back, I got an expected baffling answer “WHEN EVER WE GET A SOLUTION” (Hinting me that they are not going to get back any time soon).
It’s been one week since that call and I am still awaiting response.
It’s not about money. When we buy a car for 11.5 Lakhs, affording 3000 Rs is not a big deal. But their attitude towards service and customer is what made me tick on and start this fight.
For further evidence on Nissan vehicles, please visit india.jdpower.com. Nissan has the highest rating when it comes to sales process (Getting customers to buy their vehicle) and the least rating when it comes to service satisfaction (Once you buy their vehicle, you are in for a ride).
HOPE THIS HELPS OTHERS IN BUYING NISSAN VEHICLES
Nissan Motors customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
is se mera experience achha raha aur mai next time aapke yaha sayed hi aau dubara kisi car ke liye.VIVAN TOURS AND TRAVELS ke naam book ki thi.