Christine Strusz

Disgruntled Nissan customer (points at self)

I have almost always driven Nissan. They run well, and for a long time. I had a pathfinder that I bought with 120.000 miles for 5 grand. This was my first actualy car purchase.  Big spender, I know.

I drove it hard to 264.000 miles with under 600 dollars in repairs. My dad then drove it, probably even harder knowing my father and still sold it for a little cash, 500 I think. It was still running, and I am sure close to 300,000 miles by then. It’s probably still running and being used as some mean woods hunting machine.

My mom droves a Nissan Quest to the ground running us kids everywhere.  Between the four of us, I am sure across the states and back in mileage many times.

I then purchased the xterra I am driving today. It has been good to me, especially considering it has reached 179,000 miles with little repair. Again, under 600 dollars. I Bought this one with 50,000 miles already on it. Minus the wipers that were really a wind storms fault, it has been flawless. It seems Nissans typically fall apart around the engine. The interior, and plastic parts on outside go before many repairs become due. My dad and I have a joke that the little storage spot that subs as an arm rest in Nissans ALWAYS breaks soon after purchase.

I wanted to plan ahead and make sure that I had a safer trip gping back home, now that the majority of weather and rain was probably behind me ironically enough. So we called a Nissan dealership a week ago to secure the parts in California while I was here for a few days. They told my grandmother the part went out on most of that make and model, it was common and that they were in stock all the time. A little sceptical, she again explained that it was not just the wipers, but the inside working underneath the hood.  That my, her granddaughter, or “shinning-star” as she calls me had stopped several times to tear the car apart to get inside and reattach the inner pulleys.

She called again to confirm twice more making sure they new it was not just the wipers but the actual lever inside the hood, and that we did not need an appointment as they had previously stated.

They reassured her that they understood and that I could just come by. No appointment necessary and that the parts would be waiting for me.

A little unsure and apprehensive my grandfather and I made they 30 minute trek to Visalia together in my vehicle.

The gentleman tells me immediately that they do not stock those parts, and they are special order. That the man my grandmother spoke to was “new,” and had no business diagnosing the issue. The issue, it turns out, even after my grandmother explained everything about the INSIDE of the hood was miscommunicated yet still and this new guy thought we simply meant the wiper blades.

So this gentleman actually thought that I was tearing apart my my xterra just to replace two very simple wiper blades… Enough said there. I am assuming this man, as many people often do, was simply not listening to the full story.  Or, was answering questions he had no business answering.  It is ok to say “I don’t know.”

The man I spoke to in the store was very apologetic and nice, but irritated me because he kept blaming the issue on the salesman my grandmother had spoke with and was not offering any sort of solution.

As a customer, 3500 miles into a trip away from home, with no wind shield wipers that had intentionally planed ahead with the company that built my car. I was a little frustrated and uninterested in hearing him tell me that all of this is “Eddie’s” fault.

Seriously.

My grandfather and I spend a few hours waiting for them to tell me they could not come up with any solution, but would go ahead and start my forty dollar nissan oil change.

Um, “no.” I think I will skip the oil change with you today.

I am getting ready to leave when the manager stops me, I am unsure if he heard I was disgruntled or if the salesman mentioned it to him.  He repeated all of the phone call steps that had been made, and the confirmed again that he regretted not being able to help me. He was very sorry though for the inconvenience.

Personally, I feel like at this point… maybe he could have offered me something.  A car wash, an oil change.. a safety check on my vehicle.  Really, something would have been nice.

I am getting ready to leave and a mechanic walks buy and says “Mike, I think I have it.”  This very smart gentleman came up with the idea of pulling the parts from the 2003 Xterra they have on the used lot.

Now.. we are talking.. This is what a customer wants to here.  Fix the issue, make an effort to problem solve. Don’t just apologize and tell me you have someone on staff that needs more training. Help assure me a safe trip home!

Another hour passes, and all is well but they need one more part.  This part can be “expedited and will be here in the morning.”

They offered a car for the night so my grandfather and I could drive the half hour home, which was nice.. but not quite enough in my opinion.

Today, they call and have the wipers done at 207, but also want 98 for power steering, 168 for new belts, and 169 for a transmission flush in order to assure that my vehicle is good to go.

No discount on any of these services, not even the wipers…

I should say, that they were all very nice… Especially “Mike,” the final guy that I delt with, however I do not feel like this rectified the situation.

Why doesn’t this sit well with me?  Do I expect to much as a customer?  Should we not get the service we deserve from companies???  I know it is not a new vehicle, but don’t they want me to buy a Nissan next?

Subaru.

I WANT a subaru.  No, I cannot hose the back of it out like the New Xterras, no… it don’t have that rugged back road appeal, but…

Suburu had an entire website dedicated to there customer stories!  These people are fanatics!  They LOVE the,, rely on them and rave about the company.

That is someone I want to give my business to,..

I am sitting in Porterville California watching my grandmother in the kitchen, my “dog-kid” roam the yard, and my grandfather… who is a character no matter what he is doing.  I picked up the car from the shop this afternoon, and… that is a story in itself  later. Nothing ever comes easy with me!

My grandfolks and I will be heading toward Kingman and the Grand Canyon on Friday morning.  So, we are looking at the skywalk on Saturday afternoon.  I will stay with them another night in Kingman and will set out toward Utah.  I have been contemplating routes and going back and forth.  There is the short route, through New Mexico, but I can’t let go of Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Arches National park in Utah.  It would also cut out Colorado, which is a must on this trip.  I am working on the research and should have a estimated route nailed down by Thursday Night.

Welcoming suggestions there.

I drove in the rain for most of the day, this was even more difficult as I had to fidget with the wipers again.  I am growing used to it now, and have gotten the rubber band wrapping down to a science.  I drove most of the day with just the drivers side working, as it was much easier to tear one apart, then both overtime I stopped.  I am adapting to my habitat well!

I did not get to see much of the southern Oregan coast line, as the fog did not allow you to see much further then your own headlights, so I look forward to today.  It looks beautiful outside, a little warmer, and the sun is shining.

Most of my things are a little wet from Oregan, so I am hoping to find a spot soon enough to lay them out for the sun to find.

Heading to San Francisco today.

“Random train thoughts” or random train of thoughts
9:07 Oregan Cape State Park

“They say people teach what they need to learn.”

These words echo through me as I sit, facing a fire… it is sprinkling rain, a little chilly, chirping birds, the trees and my “Dog-Kid” are my only companions.

I often give advice, and many instances of this are playing over and over in my mind suddenly. I am such a teacher, on the inside, that I always find myself in awkward positions. Wither or not I create these, I don’t know. Do I seek them, or do people seek me.

I believe all of us meet people for different reasons, often those reasons are for life “lessons.”

I was just drifting away earlier thinking about how I was going to write an un-names person a letter. Letting her know what was surrounding her in hopes that she would find the time to explore. The ultimate goal being to spend time with herself spiritually. I sit and think about how I will draw her a map, look up all the places, distances from her house, and what she may hope to find at each one.

Now, part of me thinks… this is really sweet. The other part of me thinks. Why, in the world would you spend YOUR time doing this for someone that would never return that sort of thought or time. I am not one to do things to receive, but the bottom line is. I should be doing that for myself. I need to spend the time with myself, exploring, traipsing through woods, swimming, hiking, meditating, and discovering.

I had the realization that many of my relationships with friends, and otherwise are like this. I am always trying to help people find themselves, and personally I think I give some pretty damn good soul-searching advice.

I just never take the advice myself.

Today, I vow to listen when I speak. Not just when others do.

I left Portland and headed west.  The farthest west the map would allow.  My destination, Highway 101 in Oregon.  I had a good evening, spent the night in an urban setting, experienced Portland a little, and met soem good people.  I was aching to go back to the woods, and spend more time exploring, both the land, and myself.

I was mystified at what I found.  Several times on this trip, I have seen myself revert back to that of a small child seeing something for the first time.  The ocean, never fails to do that to me.  Out of everything I have run across in travels, overseas, and otherwise, the ocean is always the one thing that centers my entire mind, and body.  It is the thing I identify the most. The smell, the sounds, the waves crashing, and the water pulling in and sucking back out whenever it wants.

I was excited, and beside myself.  I headed to Beverly Beach campground to meet another good friend for the night.  She was more then willing to understand that I wanted to see her, but did not want to travel any further inland.  I needed the coast, I was ready.

It was beautiful, and I found a campsite steps away from the beach, the driftwood, and the ocean.  It was a busy campsite, that I didn’t really care for, but the location was amazing.  The further in to evening it got, the calmer the campsite seemed.

We set up, and took a walk on the beach.  I was surprised to find the water was freezing, she says at a constant 50 degrees.  “Dog-Kid” and I chased each other around in the waves anyway.  It was amazing to see her react to seeing and feeling waves for the first time.  She would chase them, then they would chase her as they pulled in and out of the sandy shore.

We sat, and talked, caught up on old friends, my hometown, which is also her hometown, and life.  How funny everything seems a little later, when time is taken to reflect on it.  I had forgotten, how similar our minds are. As well as how similar our experiences with people, and their perceptions are.

I needed to listen to her, watch her face think back… let her listen to me, so I could let go of a few part grudges.

I find it funny, that many people still imagine her and I in their minds in our twenties. Who we were then, to them, so many years later is still… who we are now.

She was there in the beginning of a very long relationship that ended abruptly with a car accident.  She was not there to watch me fall, but was a subtle reminder now,  that I deserved to fall. Many people still don’t understand the crashing waves of a loss like that. Like the ocean… sometimes calm, and sometimes with a crash. Never really leave.

She found happiness, worked for it, and seems content.  I enjoyed her company emencly, and was glad that I had the chance to spend some time with her.  Especially with a crackling fire.

Rory and I took a late night walk on the beach in the moonlight.  It was magnificent, and calming.  It feels very strange to be alone on an unfamiliar beach in the dark.  Not really knowing what could actually exist on the shore as you walk, or more importantly what your off leash “Dog-Kid,” might accidentally discover. For example… a pile of sea kelp.  In which she decided to roll around in for a bit.  I caught the last few seconds of her getting up, shaking sand, ocean, and kelp off her golden fur.  I know for sure this is what it was because i recognized the smell later. It got cold, and she woke up, and crawled into “bed” to spoon me as the weather got colder that night.  That was when it was very clear, that my dog… had discovered the rotten sushi aspect of the ocean.

Overall, the ocean walk was a very good reminder of how small I really am.  The ocean is always a good reminder of that.

I went to bed thinking about promises of sea lions, and seals the next day toward Newport.

My sister-unit and I decided to camp at the Northern Cascades National Park, which contains a mix of beautiful mountains, trees, valleys, waterfalls and glaciers. Inside the park is Diablo Lake, which we camped on via Colonial Creek campground–off SR-20. The campground itself is located in an old growth forest and our campsite was right on Diablo Lake, comprised of reflective green-blue glacier water, at an elevation 1200 feet. It was absolutely amazing. Each campsite had its own little area within the tall trees, some of which were located within a hop, skip, and jump from Diablo Lake. We had an inflatable two-person kayak with us, so we spent some time finding our perfect campsite with access to the water bank. After finding the perfect spot, we realized that a couple, meaning two people (because that is what couple is), had taken all three of the spots surrounding including and surrounding the allegedly empty spot we wanted! They had cones to block parkers, and an RV taking up two spots! We tried not to become frustrated, but we viewed this as the perfect spot. We ended up right next door to them, and found out later it was just them and they didn’t even use any part of there sites other than for parking the RV.

We set up camp, and decided to give the two person inflatable Kayak a go. It took us a little bit to blow the thing up,as it is massive and has several compartments for air. Even mundane tasks are never dull when the sister-unit is involved, we were soon ready to go.

The water was FREEZING as it was coming of the mountains. We had to hike the Kayak in over fallen trees, and limbs because the easier access campsite was of course taken by the man and his wife. It was an adventure in itself trying to get to the water with the 15ft Kayak above our heads…water, life-jackets, water, camera and all. Once we made it to the water, we had to muck our way through the cold water and mud. As it turns out it is very difficult to paddle a large two-person inflatable Kayak up stream on Diablo Lake. We didn’t get very far, but we enjoyed our attempts. We did manage to watch many other smaller Kayaks enjoy the stream and current as we paddled in full 360′s over and over again. We tried very hard to go in a direction other then a circle, but no matter what we tried all we would do was turn….around and around…over and over again. It was still beautiful, there were geese, and you could see all the way through to the bottom of the sanded stream. The water was a crisp blue green from the reflection of all the pine trees.

Later, we went for a walk with the Dog-Kid to check the rest of the area out. We ran into a “Ranger Dylan” along the way who informed us of a special educational talk at 8:30pm at the park amphitheater, where he would talk about the climate change in the North Cascades, the glaciers melting away, how it effects them, what we can do and a special rendition of a Dr. Seuss book called The Loraxthat he would be reading.

We decided after continuing our walk that we should most certainly join Ranger Dylan for this talk since we got a special invitation and it would be rude not to attend. We were very glad we did when for his rendition of The Lorax he put on a Dr. Seuss hat and became “Ranger Seuss.”

We were very impressed with his version, and enjoyed the show.

We spent the night by the fire, playing with flashlight photography. Sister-Unit made some inappropriate things with the flashlight before making smores and going to sleep.

I woke up early, made coffee, started a fire and enjoyed the quiet of the morning. Sister-Unit stirred latter and we worked on cleaning up the sight. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon exploring the sou rounding area. I was mystified by the glaciers and the man made lakes from the mountain and glacier snow that powered Seattle city lights. Awesome adventure, I enjoyed teaching my sister some photography tricks and settings and watching her play with the Nikon D90.

We stopped at the Cascade Farms and enjoyed some frozen yogurt.

I have added all photos from trip thus far.
Check them out.

Heading to the North Cascades today to spend a night in the mountains.
Diablo lake

I love this place, and I haven’t even crossed into the city of Seattle yet this trip. I have walked quite a bit with “Dog-Kid” because there is no yard to just “let her out in.” She can be out, without a leash because she is just that amazing, but I don’t feel comfortable just letting her out for an hour without me near. Thus, we take walks, lots of them. This morning while we were out we noticed something we don’t usually pay attention to. THE BEES! After sitting in my sister-units “Urban Bee” class we seem to pay more attention to them. I enjoy watching them now, and ached for my camera.

The hills in Seattle take some getting used to, they are everywhere you turn. Always a climb up, or down. I like seeing the blue sky peek out of the top of a hill, like it is saying “Hey, walk over this one!” Dog-kid is still getting used to the falling pine cones, she jumps a little when they crash down in front or behind her, then likes to chase them, like they are squirrels.

It was an interesting morning, as I had to venture into the city of Everett to fetch my sister-unit from a sleep clinic near a naval base. I sat in the line to enter the naval base with the rest of the obviously navel employees thinking, that maybe I shouldn’t be trying to enter the naval base! The sleep clinic couldn’t actually be inside of it, unless…. it was some sort of government experiment, which would not surprise me given my families history with the military. Maybe Jamie, the sister-unit was like the women in Alias, the tv series. The one Lydia and I were addicted too! I thought better of it, and my imagination and turned off to the right… where I found my sister with goo in her hair, and red marks on her face. She was not abducted by aliens…and seemed her “un”usual self.

I like all the parks in Seattle, and that you can never really drive fast. It takes twenty minutes to get to a dog park 6 miles away. I like the calm, it doesn’t seem like everyone is in a hurry.

I like that their are dogs everywhere, and people walk them and take them to dog parks.

They just opened a dog park in Murphysboro, well, from what Chris says, the grand opening is in the morning. I am excited for Rory. She loves the smells.

I just finished reading the book I started a few days ago, “A Dog’s Purpose,” and my heart is carrying a mixture of happy and sad. It was an excellent book. I would highly recommend it, but it tugs your heart strong when your best friends and soul mate is furry with a wrinkly face, spotted tongue, and four legs.

I wonder what she is thinking all of the time, and what she thinks of me. Is she loyal becuause that is what dogs do, or does she really have the deep love for me that I have for her?