BLOOMBERG: Nissan Aggravates Customers Attempting to Turn CE

[leafkabob]

It seems to me that FilmMixer is not as active on this forum as some of those who seem to imply that he could have avoided losing the $5K by merely contacting Brendan or Brian. I doubt that FilmMixer knew he could do that. Although we know that is no guarnatee of help, as Daniel was told Brendan would call him, but never did.

Nissan has never invited anyone to do anything other than to contact CS. FilmMixer did that and now he is somehow at fault for the outcome? Really?

 

[Stoaty]

Nissan has never invited anyone to do anything other than to contact CS. FilmMixer did that and now he is somehow at fault for the outcome? Really?

No, he isn't at fault, but knowing about a potential solution now I would think he would take advantage of it. Takes a lot less time & energy than dealing with Nissan CS.

 

[leafkabob]

Well, Nissan had a FIFO policy. But someone (or a team that delivered the software) messed up the implementation. Nissan is apparently trying to correct that now - but obviously it can't be done overnight given the production capacity and disruptions to it ...

I have to disagree with the "Nissan is apparently trying to correct that now" statement. I see no evidence that they are trying to correct anything. Their stategy has always been: We will fix this problem by increasing production.

To say they are trying to correct their messed up implementation implies that they are doing something different with their implementation. If you are referring to their re-routing of dealer demos, that apparently didn't last long as we recently received reports of dealers getting demos (including my dealer here in AZ).

I do agree that Nissan is trying to improve the situation, but there is a big difference between trying to make the best of a bad situation and actually changing the way you do things.

 

[HIOJim]

Nissan has never invited anyone to do anything other than to contact CS. FilmMixer did that and now he is somehow at fault for the outcome? Really?

No, he isn't at fault, but knowing about a potential solution now I would think he would take advantage of it. Takes a lot less time & energy than dealing with Nissan CS.

For the record, I tried to use the 'Magic Brendon' email and it was ignored. I was polite and factual but got no response. So it's by no means a Silver Bullet and it disturbs me that this is being used as an excuse for Nissan's abyssal customer service record. Face it: people who tried to play by the rules were not served by CS.

 

[Nekota]

Nissan said in the 20 April reservation process would reserve a place for the first 20,000 vehicles. However, Nissan never communicated what our order positions were and could have avoided this quagmire by establishing a simple numerical order and conveying this to the population of 20 April early adopters. The result is we all thought we could get a LEAF in December and the result has been many days of rejection over and over again. Then the injection of out of order reservations further compounded the issue. Of course it may not be Nissan's fault - the web contractor for the order system created a very poor user interface which may have had no concept of timestamps on the orders. The bottom line is we will never know and the suffering has not been equally applied to the early adopters.

 

[tps]

Nissan said in the 20 April reservation process would reserve a place for the first 20,000 vehicles.

Will those of us who reserved outside the initial roll-out states be part of that first 20,000? When I reserved, I was under the impression I would be. It's looking less likely.

 

[LEAFfan]

I don't know who those two people are.

Brian Carolin is Sr. VP of Nissan and Brendan Jones is VP of Sales. Here's their email addresses: [email protected] [email protected]. You have to be one of the few Sept. orders left. I'm sure they will help you.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Marc; there is always hiccups in new processes. I work in a a rapidly changing field and experience fuses issues every day so I don't blame Nissan for the inevitable mis steps made. However their escalation policy appears to be non existent and that is rather shocking.

I did not read thru this thread so don't flame me (too much) but complaints of range estimates are peculiar. To me. We all know how those figures are calculated so statements. That u r losing 15 miles of estimated range in the first 5 miles are not really making any point

Now its easy to see why Nissan did what they did with the limited rollout etc. The LTE rollout by AT&T and Verizon is being done the exact same way despite the fact that massive roll outs in unpopulated areas would be much easier faster and cheaper and would give bragging rights for more area covered

But neither is doing that. Instead they are going into
the most populated areas first which is harder due to more regulations more red tape more expense etc

But this allows the greatest chance of success. Customer acceptance and word of mouth advertising

 

[evnow]

I have to disagree with the "Nissan is apparently trying to correct that now" statement. I see no evidence that they are trying to correct anything. Their stategy has always been: We will fix this problem by increasing production.

You see no evidence of what ?

They can't obviously correct the wrong order of cars produced now using time travel. What they can do is to put the cars missed out back in production queue (or as in some cases reassign cars).

Tesla is "by design" (not by mistake) putting people who order a higher value car ahead in the queue.

http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/reservation-numbers-dont-mean-anything

Niether does your loyalty to Tesla. Based on my conversation minutes ago with Tesla Customer Service ANYONE who will pay for a 230 mile battery pack, even if its next year, will get ahead of me in production number (I want the 160 mile pack). We are not talking signature series, we are talking Production series, it doesn't matter when you reserved.

Customer service specifically told me that eventhough they appreciate my loyalty for having reserved a year ago the reservation number are loose suggestions and holder will not receive their cars in order.

 

[evnow]

.. then them canceling my order after I requested they include the charger in the lease in October, etc...

Are you saying you changed your order in October ?

 

[FilmMixer]

I don't know who those two people are.

Brian Carolin is Sr. VP of Nissan and Brendan Jones is VP of Sales. Here's their email addresses: [email protected] [email protected]. You have to be one of the few Sept. orders left. I'm sure they will help you.

Thank you and email sent...

Late last night the article was updated and Mr. Jones was mentioned, as was some comments by the CEO.....

The author also reported to me that Nissan was not too thrilled by the article, so at least we know their are keeping up with their press.

 

[FilmMixer]

.. then them canceling my order after I requested they include the charger in the lease in October, etc...

Are you saying you changed your order in October ?

No I am saying that I contacted my dealer in October about the details of getting the charger put into my lease...

Without notice and related to me through a phone call message, Nissan cancelled my order and had me RAQ again on 11/03.. and on that message, they emphatically stated that my place in line was not in jeopardy and this was the only way to roll it in... which, in the end, seems to not be the way in which they needed to add it at all.

 

[jwatte]

The difference between company 1 and 2 is only 9% of customers. The difference between 2 and 3 is only 0.9% of customers. But it actually affects *all* customers because they *all* have to worry about the probability of getting shafted.

I guess people have different priorities.

Would you buy from
- A company that crushed EV1 and bad mouths EVs at every opportunity
... lots of GM badness ...

I imagine my next EV (whenever this one dies unrecoverably, assuming I get it at all ;-)) will probably come from Audi/Volkswagen, or perhaps Volvo.

 

[evnow]

I imagine my next EV (whenever this one dies unrecoverably, assuming I get it at all ;-)) will probably come from Audi/Volkswagen, or perhaps Volvo.

Nice way to reward a CEO who said this ...

"EVs won't be viable for 35 years"

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1032538_u-s-volkswagen-ceo-evs-wont-be-viable-for-35-years

 

[smkettner]

Marc; there is always hiccups in new processes.

Except sorting by date, color and model and filling a batch to go down the line could be done by a sixth grader.
Nothing really new about getting orders in sequence that I can see.

 

[evnow]

Except sorting by date, color and model and filling a batch to go down the line could be done by a sixth grader.
Nothing really new about getting orders in sequence that I can see.

Well, may be it was done by a sixth grader - and he didn't know the difference between mm/dd and dd/mm

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I see people who ordered on sept 8th or oct 10th and so on. Well the ordering process started aug 31st and that was determined by who got in line first.

Now if u were invited to submit a quote in august and waited a week well then u should have to wait.

Now none of this addresses people who did not do anything wrong and were skipped over anyway. That is unfortunate and inevitable. There is no perfect system and there are very very few very good systems out there.

But at this late date I find it strange that orphans are out there along with people in the initial launch areas who ordered last year who are still waiting.

I know several who ordered as late as feb who already have theirs

 

[LEAFfan]

Well the ordering process started aug 31st and that was determined by who got in line first.

Not really. The ordering process was also determined by the EV Project Questionnaire Qualification and your state/region.

 

[smkettner]

There is no perfect system and there are very very few very good systems out there.

Drop the data in Excel and it might take an hour tops to put together a production plan.
Then a day for a committee to review and approve the plan.

Sorting 20,000 rows is not a huge undertaking. It really is that simple and Nissan knows it.

 

[FilmMixer]

I see people who ordered on sept 8th or oct 10th and so on. Well the ordering process started aug 31st and that was determined by who got in line first.

Now if u were invited to submit a quote in august and waited a week well then u should have to wait.

Now none of this addresses people who did not do anything wrong and were skipped over anyway. That is unfortunate and inevitable. There is no perfect system and there are very very few very good systems out there.

But at this late date I find it strange that orphans are out there along with people in the initial launch areas who ordered last year who are still waiting.

I know several who ordered as late as feb who already have theirs

Like most Leaf geeks, I sat around waiting for the emails and followed through ASAP.
On April 20, my reservation was delayed because they had issues processing American Express cards... which most assuredly pushed my request a quote place in line

On September 8 I submitted my order within minutes.

Outside of acting as fast as I could, I was told numerous times my April 20 date and time was my shareholder.

Regardless, the issues happened for those of us who played by the rules in hopes of benefiting from the incentives we knew to be available, and to be early adapters in the new EV nation.

As another follow up, I emailed both Brian and Brendan. Within hours I received a personal email from Brendan and an awaiting a follow up phone call or reply.

We shall see......