Wow, what good people! I took my truck up to H.W. Hunter Dodge in Lancaster yesterday (8/18) for some warranty work and trans service. I DID NOT go to my local dealer because I went there to have them replace a molding that was coming off and the hood pad was sagging and they told me they would order the parts and call me back. Well, that was almost 2 months ago and my warranty runs out in 500 miles, to which I put on roughly 250 miles a week at least.

Gave my friend Chris a buzz, played phone tag for a bit (He was busy when I was awake and I was sleeping when he wasn't busy, gotta love working the graveyard shift!!), I still had the card he gave me for his friend, Barry Fulp at H.W. Hunter Dodge in Lancaster. Left a message with Barry. Chris pm's me and says he got my message and will be expecting me Monday at 8am. Get up there Monday, find out they open at 7am. No biggie, I shoulda looked up their hours. Nice dealer, nice waiting area, all service bays are enclosed, looks like even the lot where the cars get parked when finished is covered. SWEET!

Barry writes me up for everything, calls Enterprise to get my loaner and I go home. I had them service my trans (heh, supposed to do it at 30k, I had 35k, oops), replace a shift solenoid in my trans (slow speed gear hunting), replace the "multi-function" switch (turn signal switch) due to it flashing the opposite way I intended to go at times and the 2 things that my local dealer waited 2 months to get and still never contacted me, new piece of side molding and the hood pad, were replaced. My local dealer told me that they were gonna drill more holes in my hood and put more of those plastic clips in there to hold it up. Oh hell no, I want a new one, not no half-*** Mickey Mouse repair!!

Now for the real treat, I was expecting it to be gone for about a week. I got a call at 3pm TODAY (8/19) telling me it's DONE!! So I busted tail to Lancaster, picked it up, and now I'm home! Now my trans is back to it's firm shifting self, all my molding is where it's supposed to be, my hood pad isn't sitting on top of my engine, my turn signals aren't possessed, and my wallet is only $117 lighter for the needed trans service. I can't wait for the survey thing to come in. 5 stars all the way!! Much worth the 32 miles each way drive for me!!

 

We need more dealers like that!!!!

 

AMEN to that!
i stopped getting the customer survey form in the mail, when the quality of their work turned to crap.

 

By your local dealer you mean Power right...One word retards

I'm facing the same exact issues as you were... (slow speed shift hunt and possessed blinkers) My truck has been to Power oh only about 6 freaking times at least. They say they replaced a shift solenoid ($100) it still felt sloppy so they adjusted the bands after that it took them another 3 or 4 visits just to get the trans pan not to leak. After seeing Hunter Dodge at the pulls in AV and hearing your testimony I think I'll be paying them a visit soon.

Don't think I've seen your rig around town BigHorn...

 

Hahaha, yeah, Power. Just for grins, I asked them about my parts and they told me they're still on order. I told her to cancel the order and when she asked why, I told her. She said "oh" and walked away. As for my truck. It's not exactly a stand out per say and since I work at night and sleep during the day, the truck sleeps in the garage. Here's a pic last week I took after I clay bar'd and polished it

 

(H.W. Hunter) was a horrible dealership when I was getting my truck worked on there. That was back in 2006. They probably learned from there mistakes with me. They put a bad taste in my mouth.

 

You must be talking about Michelle Real "customer service attitude"

Nice looking truck! Definately have'nt seen that around... You live in the Shadow Pines area. ( just a guess based on the house in the back round)

 

I have heard good things about hunter. My uncle and my buddy both got their trucks there and have had good service. The diesel tech at power valencia on the other hand. I had my vp44 and lift pump done there under warranty I told them my vac pump seal was leaking also. He said it was my drool bottle leaking even though you could see it drip out of the vac housing. He also couldn't get my idle back below 900 with the new pump. I gave up and got someone else to fix the idle. He was working on a p-pump truck when I went back up there he said it was the third time the pump had jumped time, so I was trying to be neighborly and told him cummins had changed specs on the pump nut tourqe and procedure. He said " I have to go by Dodge specs only and cummins spec didn't matter" in a very I am better than you attitude. I will not go back there.

 

What in the world is a drool bottle?

 

A bottle on some 24vlvs that caught the slobber from the breather tube and basicaly made a mess of the front of the engine and radiator.

 

"looks like even the lot where the cars get parked when finished is covered. SWEET! "


Ed those are solar panels covering the lot, they are only using about 10% of Edison power for the dealership the rest comes from those panels!

The truck looks as good as new still

 

Don't want to burst your bubble or anything, but Hunter dodge is a terrible dealership. And Barry is the worst of all of them. Couldn't even get me a new battery on my brand new Jeep when it went dead and he argued with me about having to drive it every day or it would go bad. The diesel tech there diagnosed my new truck with a clogged DPF and they were not going to let me take it with out signing away my warranty rights. And the cherry on the ice cream was when their oil change guy told my customer that his tranny fluid was brown and smelled burnt, right after I did a trans service for him.
You probably got lucky when you went there. But I would watch my back if you go there again. They lost their 5 star rating for a reason.

 

Sickandtwisted, yes, Michelle and yes, Shadow Pines area. I've lived in the area all my life, rest of my family is less than 5 minutes away which can be a double edged sword..................

DieselLady, honestly, I've had better luck with the non 5 star dealers. When I was living in Sunland, I used to go to Glendale Dodge to get work done. When they turned "5 Star", the service dept went in the toilet. The writers that I dealt with left. The final straw was when they brought my truck back to me after a service with greasy boot prints on my carpet of my Dakota in 2002. I told them about it and they tried to tell me that I brought it to them like that.

And from what I observed when I was there, Barry and the others was a pro to everyone I saw that came in. I was recommended to see him by a friend of mine that's been dealing with them for many years with never a problem. I'll continue to go up there, but if they do screw with me, you'll hear all about it, I'm not afraid to say how it went. A company I dealt with only once actually tried to sue me over the bad buisness practices they did to me, I bought and paid for parts for my hot rod and waited over a month with nothing but excuses and lies in return and I then talked about it on other forums I belong to. They backed off when I had my attorney and the local pd contact them after they made threatening phone calls to me a year and a half later.

 

Ya I am sure they are on their best behavior right now. But like I said, watch your back. You can ask anyone here in the AV about Hunter and especially Barry. But then I have gotten Great service from Power, so I guess you have to live far away to get them all to treat you right. LOL!

 

They have regained the five star again, so does that mean they're going to go down hill again?

Does it matter, we may not have dealers to deal with anymore with the way things are going.......