I am extremely disappointed by the experience my husband and I had at Nissan of Rockville Centre…read morethis evening with Jamie and Richard.
My family and I I have been loyal Nissan customers for over 20 years, owning or leasing an Altima, a Rogue, and currently a Murano. My husband and I walked into this dealership fully prepared to turn in our current Murano and leave with a new Nissan lease. Instead, we left feeling disrespected, uncomfortable, and completely turned off by the way we were treated.
We previously worked with a broker who secured a great deal on our current Murano, but this time we decided to give the dealership our business directly. We were upfront about the offer our broker had provided and simply wanted to see whether the dealership could offer us a better deal.
After Jamie "ran the numbers," we were repeatedly asked to provide a credit card before receiving the dealership's offer, and only will we be provided numbers if we commit to leaving with the car today, supposedly to demonstrate that we were serious about purchasing. I made it clear that I was uncomfortable handing over my credit card simply to hear their pricing. We were physically sitting in the dealership, with our current leased Nissan outside, ready to make a deal that evening. I'm not sure how much more serious we could have been.
After I refused to provide my card, Jamie presented an offer that essentially matched what our broker had already given us. We asked whether there was any room to do better, which I would consider a completely normal part of negotiating a car lease.
That is when the entire interaction changed.
Jamie became increasingly aggressive about asking us exactly what numbers we wanted, so we provided them. A manager, Richard, then came over with Jamie and spoke to us in a manner that I found abrasive, condescending, and completely unnecessary. At one point, while discussing the numbers, Richard told us that we should just ask our broker and remarked that "it's simple math."
There is a way to tell a customer that you cannot meet their desired price without speaking down to them.
At that point, my husband contacted our broker from the dealership. Our broker was able to offer us the same lower pricing we were trying to negotiate; without demanding a credit card upfront, without making us uncomfortable, and without treating us disrespectfully.
That is what makes this experience so frustrating. This should have been an incredibly easy sale. We walked in as longtime Nissan customers, already driving a Nissan, ready to sign another lease. We weren't asking for anything unreasonable - we were simply negotiating a price.
Instead, Nissan of Rockville Centre lost the sale and potentially a customer who has remained loyal to the Nissan brand for more than two decades.
I left genuinely distraught by how we were treated. No customer should be made to feel belittled or uncomfortable simply for trying to negotiate the price of a vehicle. We will happily return to our broker, and this experience was an unfortunate lesson in exactly how to lose a customer.
