Gerald Nissan of Matteson — Local services in Rich Township

I thought this was a great place until I left off of the lot. I would not recommend this place to others because the service department here really isn’t that great. When I test drove the car of course they make you drive along the route THEY prefers which is the small road around their facility that does not have that much traffic on. So of course the pavement was pretty smooth. However, literally a week later I heard the car that THEY sold me making a “hushing” noise when I braked for lack of better word. I scheduled an appointment with them on the 2nd week of the noise getting worse. They pushed my appointment out twice afterwards because they sold me a car that was NOT a Nissan so they said they had to wait for a mechanic that specializes with the car that I had. Well that wasn’t necessarily true. They just didn’t want to work on the car. As soon as my appointed schedule came due, they told me that in order to even look at the car they had to charge me a $160 dollar diagnostic fee in which will NOT apply towards fixing the car, as well as if it wasn’t something as simple as an oil change, I would still have to take the car back to the manufacturer dealership and start all over and the diagnostic fee is refundable. Then they proceeded to tell me there wasn’t anything wrong with my brakes because they’re new, and they’re reason for saying that was because upon making the appointment, they asked what was my reason for bringing it in. Well coming to find out by another general car repair shop, the “new” brakes that they had put on the car, had a hardware issue that was rubbing against the rotters. But of course they didn’t decide to look further into it because it wasn’t a Nissan car, as well as they DENIED me an extended warranty for the car because 1) it was already an old car.. 2) I was a customer with not the greatest credit score.

Althea credit score I know is a real issue they had also, because upon entering the door once I told them my situation, they actually was about to turn me around without even asking for any paperwork on me, not even asking my name. It was the disappointment they saw on my face that made them change their minds in which at that point the SALESMAN became great. However, the financier and the service department are liars. They also granted me a one year maintenance package in which half way through the year they reneged on their contract and said some services was only for half a year.

Not to mention when I first got the car, there was another family there loud talking with them over a terrible car that they sold her and didn’t want to fix.

I say all of this to say: the salesman are great to an extent. But before you buy the car, make sure to take a mechanic with you, and drive the car on your own preferred route,; like where there’s pot holes and such. Their service department are scammers. Ever since they switched from Hawkinson Nissan, this place don’t even do complimentary rinses like they used to. The service department truly sucks, respectfully. The cashier even talks to people with her head down.

3/10- do...

This place used to be Hawkinson Nissan, and we enjoyed doing business with them even though it was a 25 mile drive to get there. NOW ! ! It's Gerald Nissan, and the service department should be called the "NO" service department. When we saw that Hawkinson was under new ownership, we decided to get our service work done locally, since it often took an hour to drive to the Matteson dealership. The first time we took it in for an oil change locally, the attendant doing the change called us over to see the oil that was all over the top of the engine. He said it could be something as simple as the last oil change sloppily done, or as serious as leaking gaskets or worse. He suggested we take it back to the dealer for a diagnostic. As soon as we pulled in to Gerald Service and showed him the pictures we had taken, we started getting attitude. Or to steal a phrase - "Disrespected". He immediately stated that we would have to pay $200 for a diagnostic. The car was less than two years old, and barely had 6000 miles. With a look of disgust, he said I'll check the warranty. The next day they called and said the car was done, and there were no leaks found. We immediately asked if they had cleaned up the mess, and they said yes. Got more "Disrespect" when we went to pick up the paper work. It almost seemed like the woman behind the service desk was pissed off that she couldn't charge us for the work. When we got home I opened the hood and it looked like their clean-up amounted to the mechanic wiping off his hands with a rag, and then making a swipe across the top of the engine. There is still oil setting in all the indents where it's bolted together, and when I took a few more pictures it was easy to see that that even the easy to get to areas still had an oil sheen. We won't be making the drive to Gerald again, and definitely will try to deter any of our friends from going to them. UPDATE: I just finished reading the response from "Gerald" and am not surprised that they're trying to blame it on someone else. Yes I did take the car to another Oil Change Service - the day before I brought it to Gerald. The attendant wouldn't even touch the car until he showed me the mess on top of the engine. I took pictures of it and told him not to clean it, because I wanted to take it back to Gerald exactly the way it looked, before the other shop did the oil change. I gave Gerald copies of the pictures, and the note from the employee who showed me the mess on top of the engine, (And also the appearance under the car of another possible leak spot) I'm still not convinced that the car isn't leaking since if Gerald actually cleaned the top of the engine, it already had oil on top when I got it home after a 24 mile drive home. I've read the other reviews regarding poor service since Gerald took over this dealership. I guess I should have read them before I made the appointment, but my hope was that the store responsible for the mess Should...

Based on my own experience with Gerald Nissan, I am writing this review. We took my daughter's 2012 Nissan Rouge in and have the service department do a road-ready check. After the completion the service department gave us a list of repairs that needed to be done. We had several repairs done which cost over 1000$. We took the vehicle home. The second day the vehicle had leaked fluid all over our driveway. I took the vehicle back and showed them the picture. They checked the vehicle out and said nothing was wrong. I said impossible look at the picture again. Darius the employee who was our contact person had no explanation. I told him the vehicle was not leaking before we brought the car to your service department.

They suggested we get another repair costing over 1000$. We trusted them so we got the work done. Around 5 days later my daughter called and was stranded, and she said the car would not move without making a loud noise coming from under the vehicle. I had the vehicle towed to Gerald Nissan the guy Darius said they could not look at the vehicle until Monday as it was Saturday.

I received a call from Darius telling me the car needed a repair which would cost 5000$ or more. I told him the care was not experiencing this before we brought the car to your service department. He said would you like to talk to a sales person about a new car. I told him I believe you all did something to our car to possibly get us to by a new car. The car is not drivable.

After telling my wife of the situation she decided to write a unfavorable review regarding our experience with Gerald Nissan. Latter that day I called Darius to inform him I would be having a tow driver come to pick the vehicle up. He asked would the fee for checking the vehicle out be paid then. I told him absolutely not our car did not have the issue until we brought it to your service department. He said he would talk to his manager and call me back. He called back and told me his manager said they would release the vehicle if the negative review that my wife posted was removed. I told him absolutely not and we will be adding another one informing people of the unethical, and illegal practices of your business. By trying to blackmail us we believe that the law was broken, and we have informed the Illinois Attorney General office of the practices of Gerald Nissan, and that they are holding our vehicle hostage.

In closing in my opinion any business that tries to blackmail a customer, and stop the truth from getting out is not worth my business. We have also informed Nissan Coroporaye Office of the illegal practices of...