Are all Ram Techs incompetent idiots?

Here is one story and reason not to let theses jackasses who call themselves tech to touch your truck.

Problem: Driver's side tow mirror signal LED not working.

Service Manager: You need to bring in so we can check out.

Me: Check out what? The light is shot, it gets power the other one works an they have 4 diodes in them one still lights up?

Service Manager: Ok give me your fob and have a seat, while we check it out. (this was my second mistake, the first was going there)

...... an hour goes by

Me: I see my truck pull up, and low an behold they did it and I just knew they would. They broke my frigging mirror! So I go up to the service desk...




Service Manager: We had to order the parts they will be in Thursday can you bring it back then.

Me: Why did you not just order the light before when I called last week to make this appointment?

Service Manager: Gives me that stupid look! (My guess is this way they can bilk Fiat for two service calls)

Me: So what about my about my now broken mirror? When were you going to tell me about that?

Service Manager: Well I ordered the glass and the light?

Me: So you break my truck testing a light an you do not even mention it? I want something in writing saying you guys broke my mirror!

Service Manager: Well I ordered the part.

Me: Not good enough I want it in writing that you guys broke my mirror!

Service Manager: Stupid look again! Oh ok and she prints me a copy of the work order admitting they broke the glass, after I pried it out of her.




Are Ram Techs trained to do anything besides damage someone else's property?

Actually I would hope a ram tech or two would chime in on this thread. What
I am wondering is what does it take as far as education to become one?

And before you say sometimes that just happens, ******** it does it happens when you have moron work on who does not give a **** and has the same amount of brain cells as a tick!

Nope, only the ones North of the Mason Dixon Line.

All else being equal, you seem to have handled it well. What with maintaining your composure an all..
You are obviously experienced enough like myself to know what mistake number 1 was and to have made it, nothing worse that seeing it coming from a mile.

So, they were not going to even mention anything about breaking the mirror then? Disgusting that is. You are also right about the billing methods, Its all about milking the FCA init!

PS, empty out your inbox . lol

It's all in the surveys. I work for a dealership, not in service, though, and those guys complain about getting hit with bad surveys all the time. If Fiat is anything like mine, they'll hit em where it hurts most: money.

There standard answer is, we couldn't find anything wrong.

Great job painting all techs with the same brush. Sounds like you didn't even deal with a tech, it may not have even been a tech who worked on your truck, may have been a lube kid.

You need to understand something though. If your truck is having a warranty repair they can't just order a part because you said so, wether you're right or wrong. Someone has to look at it to verify the failure and what caused it. It would likely be a bad light, but could have been a connection,wiring problem as well.

As for training it depends. I'm in Canada which is vastly different as far as becoming a tech. Here you have to complete a 4 year apprenticeship which includes training at a college as well as on the job training. Then you get your ticket. Your ticket makes you a licensed automotive service technician. You need to have your ticket in order to legally do certain work. Chrysler also has a crap load of training for techs as well, I'm actually at a training course right now.

Now as for the states as far as I know there is no federal governing body that sets standards for technicians. There are things like ASE certifications but you don't have to have it. I was talking to a tech from the states at a course awhile ago and he told me of a guy they hired to be a "mechanic" who was a dishwasher in his previous job. There's no real way to prove you're a tech, where as in Canada you have a ticket to prove you've gone through your apprenticeship.

It's just like any other career, there's good ones and bad ones.

I know several excellent techs at my local dealer and I've never had an issue with anything they've done with a string of 4 MOPARs going back to 1999.

I wonder if you even got a tech on your work order.

Sometimes that just happens.

Tach_tech said:

Great job painting all techs with the same brush. Sounds like you didn't even deal with a tech, it may not have even been a tech who worked on your truck, may have been a lube kid.

You need to understand something though. If your truck is having a warranty repair they can't just order a part because you said so, wether you're right or wrong. Someone has to look at it to verify the failure and what caused it. It would likely be a bad light, but could have been a connection,wiring problem as well.

As for training it depends. I'm in Canada which is vastly different as far as becoming a tech. Here you have to complete a 4 year apprenticeship which includes training at a college as well as on the job training. Then you get your ticket. Your ticket makes you a licensed automotive service technician. You need to have your ticket in order to legally do certain work. Chrysler also has a crap load of training for techs as well, I'm actually at a training course right now.

Now as for the states as far as I know there is no federal governing body that sets standards for technicians. There are things like ASE certifications but you don't have to have it. I was talking to a tech from the states at a course awhile ago and he told me of a guy they hired to be a "mechanic" who was a dishwasher in his previous job. There's no real way to prove you're a tech, where as in Canada you have a ticket to prove you've gone through your apprenticeship.

It's just like any other career, there's good ones and bad ones.

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Well as you know the light is a 40.00 part under warranty. The service manager told me its a 200.00 light and 250.00 labor. I watched a guy change one on you tube in real time in about 5 minutes, and he was just a backyard mechanic! The big thing he did was use WD40 and apply even pressue to the mirror. Pretty complicated stuff there?

Are you telling me these shops have oil changers working on our trucks????

your work order should state what tech # worked on your truck

then escalate this to the service manager, if she still gives you a dumb look, escalate to the service manager

then ask nicely to never have that tech # work on your truck again - if you hate on that person so much


i used to be a mercedes tech, and if your car is under warranty - you sure as hell bet they want your car to come back in again, it all counts per #'s of cars going through the service center

FXCLM5 said:

your work order should state what tech # worked on your truck

then escalate this to the service manager, if she still gives you a dumb look, escalate to the service manager

then ask nicely to never have that tech # work on your truck again - if you hate on that person so much


i used to be a mercedes tech, and if your car is under warranty - you sure as hell bet they want your car to come back in again, it all counts per #'s of cars going through the service center

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I agree with you on that, when they can bilk Fiat 450.00 for a 40.00 part and 5 minutes labor. Oh and they have the oil changer guy do it who gets paid minimum wage but have Fiat pay the technician rate.

Heck they can afford to have some idiot brake the mirror an still be way ahead? My big question is why did they even put it back on and what damage did they do that I can't see?

This is the bigger issue many of these clowns damge plastic pieces, break mounting tabs, don't put all the fasteners back in because they just don't give a ****! Heck sometimes they just throw awy parts heat shield etc because its too much bother to put them back!

The vehicle owner never knows until they have to look at that item.

Here is another horror show we are all gonna face soon the recall for the column harness. Gaurenteed the jerks will not take the time to properly remove the column shroud, the will break tabs, strip out the threads in the upper shroud. theres a good chance they will scratch up the cluster lens.

And after they do and if you call them on it, they will give you a stupid look and tell you "I did not do that it was like that when it came in!"

An no this is not my first oh **** with these incompetentant morons, I have had similar bad experiences at other dealerships. I watched one clown who was a tech put my door edge up against a metal tire rack and put two chips in the paint, the service manager was there with him. I sais hey WTF and they just gave me that same stupid look. I think Fiat teaches them that. And I have a few more but I'm overdoing it as it is!

At the very freaking least I should have gotten an apology from the Ram /Tech / idiot and the service manager as well! To be honest I think they put the mirror back on in hopes I would not notice it, its the blind side mirror, since it got to come off again anyway!

lol the dealer only makes a certain overhead % on parts and labor

any other bonus goes right in the flat rates techs pocket,

it does not go back into the dealer/service centers pockets

that is what flat rate is all about, work a 6 hour shift and flag 12 hours of labor and get paid 12 hours for it.

it is exactly the opposite of what people think, each and every tech wants to touch as many cars and finish as many as he can in a day - so he can get paid.

its not bring the car in - sit on it waiting for parts for 2 weeks - seems to be the belief of this forum and how dealers and techs work

FXCLM5 said:

lol the dealer only makes a certain overhead % on parts and labor

any other bonus goes right in the flat rates techs pocket,

it does not go back into the dealer/service centers pockets

that is what flat rate is all about, work a 6 hour shift and flag 12 hours of labor and get paid 12 hours for it.

it is exactly the opposite of what people think, each and every tech wants to touch as many cars and finish as many as he can in a day - so he can get paid.

its not bring the car in - sit on it waiting for parts for 2 weeks - seems to be the belief of this forum and how dealers and techs work

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No I believe exactly what you said: I think most of these guys have the attitude , do a half ass job don't give a **** what you damage or break along the way, just get those hours on your paycheck. Frig the customer so what if the tech breaks something its not his! And as long as I can charge the hours to it who cares if I know what I am doing I don't!

Theres only one thing I wish from all this is that I never took the truck in, and that I just bought the light and did it myself! Because the bottom line is and will always be these clowns just don't give a **** its only yours not thiers!

cptwing said:

Theres only one thing I wish from all this is that I never took the truck in, and that I just bought the light and did it myself! Because the bottom line is and will always be these clowns just don't give a **** its only yours not thiers!

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yes but this way it was them they broke something and them on the hook. if you ended up messing up you'd be on the way to the dealer ordering marked up parts

What is this, two for two with crappy dealership service for you? Really need to find another dealership for your service needs.

As to them just not taking your word, no dealership or other brand would do it any different. They have to verify before ordering and if it takes two service trips for something so simple, that is what it takes.

Hootbro said:

What is this, two for two with crappy dealership service for you? Really need to find another dealership for your service needs.

As to them just not taking your word, no dealership or other brand would do it any different. They have to verify before ordering and if it takes two service trips for something so simple, that is what it takes.

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No this is actually the fourth such dealership, and is the status quo! Maybe you are not as picky about things as I am but I am sure similar things have or will happen to you.

As far as 2 trips to the dealership maybe your time is worthless or not ver valuable but mine is to me! Oh and I the customer am too stupid to know if a light is burn out, darn I knew I should have sought out higher education and a post graduate degree!

Oh and the subject part is 40.00 retail dealer cost likely less than 20.00, it is also from what I have read a very high failure rate part. So if the dealer ordered it (most likely they have a few on the shelf anyway) and it sta until the next victim came in it could put the dealership into bankruptcy!

And your logic is flawed the two trips is so they can bilk Fiat twice. And it is you and I that pay for that as Fiat is going to pass on and build that into the price of the trucks!

So when this or something similar happens to you make sure you say thank you and they might be nice enough to wear a ****** and even use KY!

cptwing said:

No this is actually the fourth such dealership, and is the status quo! Maybe you are not as picky about things as I am but I am sure similar things have or will happen to you.

As far as 2 trips to the dealership maybe your time is worthless or not ver valuable but mine is to me! Oh and I the customer am too stupid to know if a light is burn out, darn I knew I should have sought out higher education and a post graduate degree!

Oh and the subject part is 40.00 retail dealer cost likely less than 20.00, it is also from what I have read a very high failure rate part. So if the dealer ordered it (most likely they have a few on the shelf anyway) and it sta until the next victim came in it could put the dealership into bankruptcy!

And your logic is flawed the two trips is so they can bilk Fiat twice. And it is you and I that pay for that as Fiat is going to pass on and build that into the price of the trucks!

So when this or something similar happens to you make sure you say thank you and they might be nice enough to wear a ****** and even use KY!

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I am not picking the fight here so back off the attitude. Just pointing out that the way they deal with warranty claims is what it is regardless if it is asinine or not to me or you.

My last truck was a Tundra and had a front grille emblem fall off and was a simple snap in replacement. They would not order the part unless I brought it in for a "serivce" check and a second time for the tech to walk out and spend 5 minutes taking the new part out of the wrap and pop it in. I had the same talk with the service adviser about how asinine it was but they had the same process. Since it was warranty billed, they had to have a service billing for the verification and install. It is not question of a customers ability to do something simple themselves to fix it, but the liability of showing the repair got done properly and the customer just was not handed a loose part to walk away with. If it was a non warranty claim, then you could do it the way you wanted and self repair.

As to your 4 different dealerships having problems, well that sucks donkey balls and you have my sympathy.

Lol....the dealership here did exactly the same thing while replacing my LED on my tow mirror.

cptwing said:

Well as you know the light is a 40.00 part under warranty. The service manager told me its a 200.00 light and 250.00 labor. I watched a guy change one on you tube in real time in about 5 minutes, and he was just a backyard mechanic! The big thing he did was use WD40 and apply even pressue to the mirror. Pretty complicated stuff there?

Are you telling me these shops have oil changers working on our trucks????

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It's pretty common for lube guys to do simple things like light bulbs or a mirror swap.

I'd appreciate it if you backed off on calling techs a bunch of money hungry hacks. I don't expect you to understand how things in a shop operate or how warranty works, you don't have to know that. I've been a Chrysler tech for several years now, I take pride in my work and treat customers cars with respect, that's how I was raised. I am also damn good at my job and make a good living doing it. So I take it personally when I get labeled as not giving a ****, and only caring about money. I get you're frustrated and looking to vent but slandering my career is not ok in my books. I'm a part of this forum because I enjoy being able to use my knowledge and access into chryslers world to help people here. Pretty much everyone here seems like a good person and I'm happy to help anyone, but when you attack my profession I wonder why I even bother.