Fuse Fiasco

Hi Ratchet,

After an unbelievable run-around from Nissan UK we finally got an answer from them today - basically, it was "tough, you're on your own". So thanks for that Nissan.

They did ask our dealer to try a few other tests to confirm it was the combimeter and they are still insisting that is the problem.

As a last resort I rang another Nissan dealer, further away, today and asked them to quote me to fit a new combimeter - they said £458.26 all in AND you get free use of a courtesy car while they fix it!

Bit different from £616.

I was also told that it would only take them around 45 minutes to fit. The part itself costs £352 + VAT.

I rang the dealer that has my car, cough, Glyn Hopkins, cough and asked them why they were charging so much more and they didn't know! The only think they could come up with was if the 2nd dealer didn't charge so much labour. They informed me that they personally charge £94.95+VAT an hour (I'm in the wrong job)

Anyway, all that aside, we will still have to pay them the £114 diagnostic fee meaning that taking it to the new people would save £43.74. I know its not a massive amount but to be honest I am sick of GH and am reluctant to pay them another penny. This could have all been sorted a week ago if they had returned Nissan UKs phone calls and not messed about so much.

It is interesting to bear in mind that they were not going to be charging the diagnostic fee if we went ahead with the repair meaning that they were £157.74 more in the first place. Guess someone has to pay for their fancy showroom

Thanks again for all your help and listening to my moans, I'll let you know what happens.

Nissan UK have given me an address to write to and complain, I don't suppose it will do any good but it might make me feel better.

Know anyone that wants to buy a 2008 Nissan Note with a brand new combimeter? Only done 15,000 miles......

Hi Blackridinghood, yes, it is a 'used' Nissan. It is a 2008 model and we bought it in September 2011.

We went to pick up the car yesterday thinking that we would take it to the other dealer but when we told them what we would have to either wait till we had saved up the money or have to find somewhere else cheaper they suddenly decided that a) they could lower the part price by 10% and b) they really only needed one hour to install it.

So now we are only paying £494 for a job they originally priced at £616 - funny that, isn't it?

We now have to wait approx 2 weeks for the part to come in - hmm, at the higher price they were going to carry out the job 3 working days later but there you go! - and then, hopefully, everything will be ok.

They did try and claim that THEY contacted the Nissan help desk to find out if they could do any other tests to find a cheaper outcome, erm, I don't think that's quite what happened, but we let them off that blatant fib.

We will still be writing to Nissan to tell them of our disastisfaction with their customer service but might wait to make sure nothing else goes wrong.

Just in case anyone was (still) interested we have now had the combi-meter replaced and all seems to be working ok (fingers crossed) except that now, of course, we have a mileage reading of around 16 as the meter is where the details get stored.

Should be interesting when we come to sell but there you go.

Thanks again for taking the time to read & reply, especially Ratchet who was a great source of help.