DEALER NAME REMOVED BY ADMIN. Katy Tx.
On Mother's Day, coming home from work in a rainstorm, some jack*** driving way too fast loses control of his car on the freeway and slams into the front left corner of my truck. He tears up the fender, bumper, headlight bucket and cracked grill. He's got insurance, I'm not happy, but not really that big of deal. Mind you, I am **** about my vehicles. I have 3 and no one works on them but me. The vehicle in question just happens to be, by far, my favorite so the idea of having to take it in to be fixed I do not like. The very next day I take it to the dealership and have a long detailed discussion of my concerns and expectations, I have an alarm so I disable it to prevent any problems, they hook me up with a rent truck and I am on my way. I am building a house and keep all my tools in the toolbox on my truck so I go by there occassionally to get tools out of it. first week. No progress. They say "waiting on parts". Week 2, I go by and new fender is on, front end still part, waiting on bumper brackets. The end of week 2 I go by agian. still sitting like it was 4 days ago. One of the guys in the shop sees me and says "hey how does this alarm work. we can't get this thing started to take it to paint" I look inside and all the alarm wires are pulled out from under the dash and the button for turning it on and off is pulled out of the dash and hanging down on the floor. I am instantly furious but i contain myself and ask him what he did. He said he was gonna move it to paint and saw it had an alarm so he pushed the button and tried to start it. It wouldn't start. one of the other guys in the shop said he knew about alarms and came over and started checking the wiring but we haven't been able to get it started. They had cranked on it until the batteries had gotten weak. I go in the office and blew a gasket on the bodyshop manager. He gives me a completely different story and convinced me that he has no Idea what happened. I refused to touch it myself. The truck was mechanically perfect when I dropped it off and it will be no different when I get it back. I go to the dealership manager and insisted that no one besides a diesel mechanic touch the truck again until it is running and ready to go back to the paint shop. To make a long story.....not any longer, it is still in the automotive shop, still needs to go to paint, and I'm so mad I can't see straight. The moral of the story is that I'm just gonna have to learn to do my own bodywork, I guess

 

I don't know what to say..............

 

I've had problems with them before.

 

DO NOT TAKE IT TO THE DODGE BODY SHOP in CONROE. I won,t mention their name, but if from the area you know who they are.

wk

 

if it was only a fender, why didnt they paint it and then install it anyways?

 

Unfortunately your story is not unique.

My neighbor has a '99 2500 Sport and he t-boned a Jeep last year. His insurance decided to repair his truck rather than total it so, thinking that the dealer was the place to get the best work done (he had the dealer do the oil changes and everything), he went to the local dealer who gave him an estimate and said he'd do the job. Long story short, he went by 2 weeks or so later to drop off a different tailgate to get painted when they did the front end and found that the truck wasn't at the dealership but at a body shop a few miles down the road. He went there and was told that they had been told that the truck (his) had been traded in to the dealership and they were to do a quick hammer and bondo repair because it needed to be sold fast. They were planning to use a standard chrome bumper and used parts. He clearly explained to them what the real story was and they promptly ordered the correct (and new) parts and got it fixed. The kicker was that when the insurance company found out what the dealer had done, they paid the body shop directly (because my neighbor was satisfied with the shops work) and refused to pay the dealer anything leaving the dealership hanging out to dry. Needless to say, my neighbor doesn't get his oil changes done at the dealership any more.

Best of luck in your fight and make sure you don't sign off on accepting anything until you're sure that everything is right. You may even want to get your insurance company involved in making that they didn't screw it up.

 

Thanks for your advise. Just an update. I wandered off in the dealership body shop yesterday and started quizzing some of the guys in the shop and one of them slipped up and told me that they pulled the left side battery out to replace the bent battery bucket and forgot to disconnect the other battery. After his buddy put the battery down and walked back in front of the truck the cable had fallen on metal and sparks were flying. The truck hasn't run since.
The diesel mechanic made them pull all the new parts off of it that they put on and he ordered a new ECM for the truck. Of course the guys in the shop didn't tell him about the battery cable incident. The diesel mechanic told me that the bodyshop guys told him they didn't know what happened...just won't start. I'm not too sure what to do at this point and I'm almost convinced that my truck will never be the same. If anyone has any idea what shorting it out like that will do to the truck or ideas on what to do about it, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

every single electrical component in the truck could be damaged due the the power spike that shorting the battery caused. blown bulbs, fried computers the whole nine yards.

 

That's what I'm afraid of.

 

WOW, I don't feel so bad now about my dealer driving my truck thru the back wall of the shop during an oil change.

They got it fixed up better than it was and I'm happy.

I feel for you when it comes to stuff like this.

 

Call Chrysler in Dearborn and they will tell you that these dealers are independents and they are not responsable for what happens in these dealerships

 

That is totally unbelievable and unacceptable. I can't really say what I would do in this situation but I'm sure ot would not be pretty.
I would start off by having a long talk with the dealership owner and see what they plan to do about it. I would ask for a loaner if you don't already have one while yours is down. If this does not bring satisfactory results, I would start down the legal road. It seems like the consumer just can not win anymore. Good luck.

 

http://dodgeram.info/survey_dealer/Dealers.htm

 

Ive been done over like that with a grage near where I live. I called in to find out how much a new clutch was gonna be. 700 plus time to install. Take the truck down there and my mother want them to do the works to it, brakes, steering, tune up. So they give an est. 2000 bucks, Not bad for the works. 5 days go by and i call about it. Waiting for parts. 3 More days they call me and tell me my brake somthin is broke and they have to repair it to bleed the system mom oks this. any way after a nother week i get my truck back. 2800 and change. pay for it and drive home. 3 days later im pullin out the drive way goin to school and the clutch just rolls like its slippin. Then at school im leaving and the truck is in rev from backing in the spot I push the clutch and start it up the truck goes back with the clutch in hittin a girls car. Now im mad as heck i drive down to the shop and ask what the heck is goin on. I tell them what happened and the guy looks at me and Says "Maybe the clutch is going out." what is all i could say. "We didnt drop the tranny we just replaced the slave and master cylinder. Normally i dont get very mad or cuss but I let this guy have it. I told them there better be a new clutch in 3 days or We were gonna tangle. well they wanted a nother 2000 to fix it i said no i brought the truck down here a new clutch and your gonna put one in.

They didnt do it and we fought and fought but nothin was ever done. So from then on Ill do myself.

 

i really like these trucks but if toyota or honda were to offer a diesel 3/4 ton ????, i wish the so called american car manufactures could grasp the concept of customer service --- customer relations.