stevenknapp

Thanks for the survey link. It did seem that some people posted after only one visit, which worries me. As some have said, it's not how they act when things go right, it's how they act when things have gone wrong.

5-star is meaningless to me. I had some really bad dealer experiences with my Jeep from a 5-star dealer. Things got lots better when I went to a small dealership. They had a lot less flash, no waiting room, no computer system for your service order. But the service writer and his brother (lone salesman) were the owners. They even called the 5-star dealer and somehow got them to pay to repair one of their mistakes.

XTOAK

AKRAM, I too have dealt with Roy at Anchorage Chrysler and feel he was very fair and did his dead level best to make it good for the customer. BUT, the folks above him tend to hamstring him at times and that's where the dealership suffers. Roy was very courteous and polite but unable to get his mechanics or his boss off their backsides to get the job done. He apologized and I told him I understood he was between a rock and a hard place. I have never had that experience at Kenai Chrysler.

Welder27, I agree that John Lybarger is a peach of a fellow and as the owner does a very good job. He is alot like Bob at Kenai Chrysler in that he is very hands on and customer oriented to the point that the both make you feel like you're the only customer they have in the world - even after the sale, even years later. I knew John when he was sales manager at Anchorage Chrysler back in the late 80's and early 90's, and he was the same way...wanted to meet the customer face to face in his office before he sold you a truck. Wanted to know the wife, the kids, etc., and made you feel like a friend. Bob is the same way. There is nothing like hands on, make the customer a friend and keep them that way, take care of them kind of owners. Udd, owner of Anchorage Chrysler, walked right past me like I was a nobody after I had just signed for a $40,000 truck. And then his sales manager had the gumption to call me two weeks after the sale to tell me they has messed up on the deal and undercharged me $2200...and then asked if I would send them a check. I laughed and promised I wouldn't be back.

Dieseldude4x4

This is a lot better. Like I said before, I knew the original posters were upset but you can get your point across without bashing and cussing. I would say for every lesser than great dealership, there are probably six or eight great ones. I guess I have been very fortunate, my 99 has only been back to the dealership once for them to install the running boards (and then only because Chrysler had a medical rebate going at the time). I bought the service manual the day after I bought the truck and do all my own work. The truck is five years old this month and is coming up on 142000 miles. Purchasing the truck was great at the dealership. I called them Monday morning, after I had seen the truck on the lot Sunday while out riding around, and said I was coming to get it and to have tags on it for me to drive for a few days. When I got there, it had D tags on, the sales man threw me the keys and said see you in a couple days (the truck had six miles on it when I left the lot). I drove the truck for three days and went back to work out the deal. They came down like $4k right away off the price and gave me what I wanted for my other two trucks. I talked to the salesman for a while after we had closed the deal and he said a lot of people try to make a deal hard. I said there is nothing hard about it, you got what you want to get for the truck, I got what I will pay for the truck, and if the numbers don't match, see you later have a nice day. That's all there is too it.
Anyway, keep up the good work guys. Post the bad stuff too but just please don't bash and if you're going to mention names for bad service, please keep them limited to PM's and preferably e-mail. I know, it seems one sided but the site could be held liable for slandering and all kinds of bad stuff like that.

Thanks again.
Joel (aka Dieseldude4x4 with a capital D thanks to Dennis)

spots

One thing you must remember with surveys is that if someone is mad or had a bad experience they WILL fill out a survey form. If the service goes well then it slips to the back and the survey form may not get filled out. Ford sent out survey forms to all new car/truck purchases and service work. About 10% would fill them out, and usually about 20% of those were negative. So Ford would say we had a 20% neg rating on service when in fact we had 20% of 10% (the other 90% didn't fill the surveys in so either they are happy with the service or are indifferent or just so mad they would shoot us if they filled it out)
So in actual fact 2 out of every 100 customers were upset at our service. We ran 2000 r/o per month through the shop.

Jonesey

Does anyone know if you are to receive a survey from DC whenever you have warranty work performed? In the past, sometimes I have and sometimes I have not. For instance, when the windshield was removed on my Gen II and dropped on the hood causing a fifty cent piece size dent I did not receive one. The service manager knew I was not happy. The main reason being, I was not told it had happened. I picked the truck up after hours but instantly noticed it and called the service manager the next morning. The truck was in for a water leak in the cab. They had the truck four times for a total of 17 days in the shop for this leak. The sad thing is I had traced the leak to the upper passenger side corner of the windshield and had told them so on the first visit. They replaced the door seal on the first visit. The next two visits nothing done. Just a can't find the leak and couldn't recreate the leak reply. Finally I told them to pull the windshield and if nothing was found I would pay for it even if they broke the windshield taking it out. The windshield was pulled and the problem was found. It was missing body seam sealer at the upper A pillar. Too bad the hood was dented. I told the service manager I was not interseted in having the hood repainted to have the dent repaired and would just live with it. No sorry for your bad luck, nothing. A couple of months later I heard about Dent Wizard and had them remove the dent. I submitted the bill for $42.40 to the service manager and he refused to pay it stating that I had to take it to him to have it repaired. If he had mentioned at anytime that it could be repaired without painting I would have done so. A call to the general manager also did no good. I wrote a letter to the owner and he sent me a check. Needless to say they lost a customer due to their service manager. They did just recently let the service manager go. My problem was with his performance, not the dealership. I may try them again sometime in the future. Once again not bashing just sharing my experiences. Unfortunately bad experiences. Even as it may appear, I hate to have to complain. By some our trucks are treated as just trucks not as $44,000 automobiles. A few bad apples do spoil the bunch. Hopefully my luck will change and I can tell you about some rosey experiences. This will be my final post on this topic. I have vented enough. I wish you all good luck with your service needs.

AlpineRAM

When reading about some of the dealer problems I see that lots of customers complain that vehicles get more expensive after signing the contract. How can that be? Over here you do sign a contract that states like: I buy vehicle XYZ for € 50 000- - return vehicle ABC for € 25 000- and therefore pay the balance of 25 000-
I won't get the new vehicle unless I have paid the cash. Financing is done through the banks and the dealer sometimes can give you an idea about rates etc, but isn't directly involved.

Just asking....

AlpineRAM

spots

Dealers tack on PDI fees, prep or DOC fees licence fees and crap like that that jacks the prices of the vehicles up. Freight is one of the biggest ripoffs. I don't pay them and have walked out more than once when "joe finance dude" try to stick it to me. Don't even get me started on the undercoating.....

matthopp

Living in Houston, our Dodge CTDs are very common at dealerships. This is probably not the case across the country. I bought my truck at a small-town dealership about 2hrs North of Houston b/c CTD's were a majority of their business (rural, country town). Their service department is excellent and well experienced with CTDS's-that is pretty much all they service. On the other hand, I have been to servce departments who knew very little about CTD's and the dealership just had a few HD trucks. Just b/c a service department services Dodge vehicles doesnt they have much experience with our trucks. They should know about our CTD, but practice makes perfect, and no practice leads to lack of knowledge.

spots

This is so true. I started working for a Ford dealer in the country. We worked on trucks, trucks and more trucks, the odd big car and boatloads of Escorts. I changed to a city dealer and I didn't work on a F150 (they were horrible for leaks in the '90s) for 3 months. The city dealer sold SUV's and mid-size cars, hardly any trucks.

jarmar

I see lots of trucks here in the central valley and foothills of Northern California. Wonder what the stitistics would show.

jr

Gadgetman

Originally posted by Jonesey

"Does anyone know if you are to receive a survey from DC whenever you have warranty work performed? In the past, sometimes I have and sometimes I have not."

I think you get first CSI survey the first time you take your truck in for a warranty repair,and/or at the 1st 3 months of ownership,and then again at 12 months,depending on how many visits are in between ....

deje

If you leave the dealer upset you wont be getting a csi survey. If the service advisor is on the ball that is. I read these posts and cant help but wonder does anybody realize how hard being a tech at a dealer is?Im not trying to dismiss shotty work or poor service .But i really beleive most people come into the shop with a big chip on there shoulder and a severe fear of being ripped off .And im sorry to say that no matter what you own you will experience some difficulty in getting warranty repairs done period.Dodge has to warranty the truck but they dont have to make it easy.Techs get raped on warranty work, it pays on average less than half of what it would pay if the customer was footing the bill. Untill the system is changed all i can say is there will always be complaints.















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