Infiniti of Kansas City

David Grooms, our long-time service advisor came up to me with a hearty handshake and a smiling “Hello”. He asked how the 2007 G37 was doing and when I told him I’d just traded it for a 2012, he broke into the widest smile of the day. He’s such a wonderful man to work with!

I brought my car in for a bad fan bearing and AWD shuddering. I told Brenden, my service advisor, that there was a service bulletin for the AWD shuddering issue that advised the technicians to replace a solenoid in the transfer case.



Brenden called me the next day and told me that the squeaking sound that I heard were the electronics shutting down in the engine bay(???) and that they were unable to duplicate the issue with the shuddering AWD. He also told me that he could not find the service bulletin that I described.They told me since they were unable to duplicate the issue that I had to pay $125 for the diagnostic. I was very upset, but remained as professional as I possibly could, but was very stern when I told them that I shouldn't have to pay that. I told Brenden that when I got there, I was going to take him for a ride, and show him the issue. I called him back and told him to look up service bulletin number ITB100-002. He said he would and he would call me back. He called me back and said that the service bulletin states "IF the issue is present, to replace the solenoid. We were unable to duplicate the issue." I took Brenden around the parking lot and duplicated the issue 3 times and he acknowledged that he heard/felt the vibration all 3 times.



I told him that we are parking the car and we are going to go back inside and figure out what we are going to do. He went talked to his service manager, Jerry. Jerry came and talked to me and told me that I would have to come back between 7:30 and 4:30 and let one of his technicians ride with me so that I can duplicate the issue for him.I agreed. Brenden was finishing up my paperwork and then said that I owed $125 for the service work that was done. I said there was no service work done, and the issue is not resolved. He immediately referred the issue to Jerry, the service manager. Jerry told me that I had to pay the invoice and there was no way around it. I asked him this question: "If Infiniti fixes something under warranty, does the customer have to pay the labor charge?" Jerry stated no. I said then why do I have to pay these charges? He said because they haven't been able to determine if it is covered under warranty yet. I said well...that's not my problem, the issue is not resolved. The only way we can "determine" if the issue outlined in the service bulletin ITB100-002, is if your technicians hear and duplicate the issue. I told him "Why don't we wait until Thursday so we can determine this first, if it isn't ill pay it". He said no. He said I had to pay the labor charge anyway, and contradicted what he said about warranty work in the previous questions. I said okay, if I pay this invoice, and it is covered under warranty, I want a credit of $125. He said I'm not giving you a refund. I told him I didn't understand why I had to pay for it, if we don't know if its covered under warranty or not, and your technicians can't look at it today. He said I had to pay the invoice no matter what. I told him, yet again, that this isn't fair that I have to pay this if this should be covered under warranty. He said the technicians worked on it all day, were unable to duplicate the issue, and the technicians have to get paid. He told me again that I had to pay. I told him that I refused. He told Brenden to pull my car up and park it and to bring him my keys. Brenden told him that I had my keys. This made him really mad because he couldn't get his way, like he has probably been used to his entire life. He then said to me "You know what, I'll take care of this (waving the invoice). You can take your car and leave and don't ever come back." I told him that he was acting rather childish, and that I simply would like to work this out with the owner and determine if this is necessary that I pay. He continued acting like a child, huffing and puffing, and said we're done and continually told me to leave and never come back.