RAM dealerships refuses to service my vehicle due to low survey score (long post)

[Bdersch]

I actually have an appointment tomorrow at 8am at a different dealer. Keeping it undisclosed as to where just incase someone is trolling this and plans to make my life difficult by calling them. I already asked to ride with the service tech and plan to show them the squeak, vibration, window.lock issues, not sure how to show them bluetooth issue maybe have them call while on highway, and im going to attempt to describe the tire winch situation a little better. I have a free 1 day rental included in my CPO agreement so thats already setup for the day. If they plan to keep it for more than than ill have to bite the $35/ day fee. They dont offer loaners either.

i am still confused on the whole loaner situation and how some dealers do it and some dont.

 

[SYKRAMMAN]

Well good luck bud.

 

[Bdersch]

Dropped truck off to dealership #2

so far so good. Dropped truck off to dealer #2 this morning at 8am. So far so good. So lets go down the list of issues and how this new dealership handled them. I pulled in and was greeted very nicely in the bay. the service tech was nice. I asked if he heard the loud squeak as i pulled in and he said yes (good start here lol).
Issues/ response so far
1. Battery- i decided to just let this issue go as its pretty much a lost cause at this point
2. Key fob/ door lock issue where they stop working after a few times locking the door. The service tech explained that it has a time out where if its pushed numerous times it will time out and not work. Which made sense cause if i waited a few seconds locks would work again.
3. Passenger window not automatically going up- did not mentioned since at the time was working fine
4. tire winch- i talked to the service advisor/ tech manager about this. I explained that i do have bigger tires but that even with the stock tires it doesnt work. I explained that the bolt itself is stripped out. He asked if it was the tool or the winch itself and i said the winch. Seemed like we made some head-way here.
5. bluetooth issue being loud on highway- explained this to the service tech. He seemed a little confused by this like hes never heard it before. I explained the computer just got reflashed. I told him i had a galaxy S7 and he said hmm.
6. Squeak when stopping front left brakes or struts... i took the service advisor for a ride and he heard it. i explained ive already inspected brakes and that everything is fine so it could be a strut. he said okay and that he does hear the squeak (which is better than the last place)
7. now for my mysterious front vibration- i explained that its only at slow speeds and when turning. explained that it was fixed once before and they fixed the overhead console. took him for a ride which it took a while to actually hear the noise. but he did acknowledge hearing it (big step forward there). He said its going to be very difficult to find though. He said it could be a wire or something rubbing/ vibrating.

so far so good i guess. We will see what actaully happens when i pick it up today or tomorrow.

I did get up into a rental car (gave me a minivan haha) but they said that as long as something is fixed under warranty that they rental actually is 100% which i didnt know! I was told that the first days always free but after that its $35 / day. so that was kind of cool/ nice to know. So far this dealer did impress me more since they actually acknowledged my issues. I mentioned the larger tires quite a few times and no one said anything about them being an issue so lets see what happens.

 

[Pull Ya]

So far so good!!!!!! Maybe the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train coming----
Jay

 

[Bdersch]

So far so good!!!!!! Maybe the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train coming----
Jay

Well the dealership closed for the day and i didnt hear from them. I guess that may be a good sign? The service tech did mention it would probably roll over into the next day since there was so many things to be looked at. I kind half expected a update call before closing but not a big deal. I will give them a call in the morning once i wake up.

 

[quietpeen]

Like you said they have a big list. Give them time to diagnose and track things down. I personally wouldn’t call in the morning. If come 2 or 3 In the afternoon you don’t hear anything maybe call and say you are just looking for an update.

 

[Bdersch]

Like you said they have a big list. Give them time to diagnose and track things down. I personally wouldn’t call in the morning. If come 2 or 3 In the afternoon you don’t hear anything maybe call and say you are just looking for an update.

Makes sense. Yeah my only issue is I might have to work tomorrow night so i will be sleeping a majority of the day. But i can sleep and just wait for their phone call/ voicemail.

There is quite the list for them to fix and the vibration issue is something that might take them a while. But i think this is a good sign being that they didnt give it back after like 6 hours and say "its fixed."

I am hopeful.

 

[O.R.T.]

Results or it didn't happen.

 

[Bdersch]

A little treat for the devoted follower to this post

So I got off work this morning and went to get my truck. I had a crazy busy and long night at work (im a nurse) and had just about zero patience left for any type of BS.

Yesterday when i work up for work around 5pm I had a voicemail from the dealership saying the truck was ready (so they had it about 2 full days). The voicemail already didnt sound good but they didnt answer when i called back.

Returned my soccer dad minivan to the super sweet and nice lady and ventured into find my truck.

Service tech that originally helps me tells me to go see cashier and she will get you settled up. So i get my paperwork that explains what the issues were/ there "fixes."

Alright boys and girls heres the "i knew it!" spot.

Issue #1- Vibration at low rpms/ turns. Issue has already been fixed once 9 months ago at a different dealership. turned out to be a broken piece in the over head console.
Response from tech- well the service tech definitely heard the noise on your ride. However, when we looked for the vibration we couldnt find anything. There isnt anything lose and nothing looks to need repaired. He says well i guess it just has to get worse so that we can find the issue before we can fix it cause right now we cant find it. I told him about the console being fixed before and hes like ya we dont see any issues there...

Issue #2- squeaky brakes/ front suspension
Response- we definitely hear the squeak too. Your brakes are good to go though you have about 60% left on the brakes. (NO ****! i told you I looked at them myself before i brought it in.) He said unforunately they are just going to squeak and thats just how they are. I said well a squeak isnt really normal on a new vehicle. I said well maybe its the struts did you look at those? (since others have had this similiar issue turn out to be a strut). Oh yea your truck gets a full inspection when its here and we would find an issue if there was one.

Issue #3 bluetooth sounds like im in a wind tunnel for the person receiving my call.
response- we dont know what the issue is, we made a call on it and it sounded fine to us. May be a phone issue. Only thing we can recommend is to call us off the bluetooth if you want.

Issue #4- tire winch nut stripped and cant get winch up.
response- tire winch works fine! yea we raise and lowered it no problem. Im like so my spare tire that was in the bed of my trucks on there now then? Hes like oh no i dont think they put the spare tire on there... (first off WTF why wouldnt you put the customers spare tire on if you are already using the tire winch???). I said so you lowered and raised the winch with a tire on it completely and it worked fine? Hes like yeah there was no issues at all. Im like really cause i couldnt get it to go at all. I said well if i cant get it to work can i bring it back or what? hes like yeah we can definitely look at it again if you cant get it to go up...

So after this im tired and just so done with dealerships i just said okay whatever. I asked since i only have 1500 miles left in factory warranty... what if these issues get worse (like they want) after my warranty is up? Will it be covered? hes like well we do have this documented but we can try and help you out if that situation comes.

Long story short- this dealership atleast didnt blame my tires for the issues (Small victory?) but they still refused to fix any of the issues at hand or said there was no issues. I am SOOO fed up at this point.

Long term- once i get my house mortgage finalized and i get settled into my house i may throw a new pair of brakes/ struts to see if that fixes the issue. Honestly, i can deal with the bluetooth since i can hear find on my end haha. The tire winch is kind of BS cause now i have to keep the tire in my bed (i will attempt next week when i have some days off to raise/ lower it again). The vibration is just annoying for one and for two clearly thats not normal...

I also might just consider trading it in since its held its value and just cut my losses and go with ford or chevy or maybe even a Yota! Just kind of done with all the BS.

Enjoy my faithful followers as the BS trains continues to plow through the town of me.

 

[SYKRAMMAN]

Sorry to hear that they couldn't help either bud. They cranked the winch with the spare on it to check it but didn't keep it on, wtf, I smell ********. Imho just cut your losses and trade that sucker in dude, your almost out of warranty and you personally know there will be more problems to come so 86 that pos.

If that dealer also gives you a survey, what would you say?

 

[huntergreen]

I work nights also but I would have asked him to show me how the spare tire Gizmo works.

 

[adrianp89]

Just fix what you can your self. Grab some dynaliner and put it where the vibration noise is. Get the stuff from autozone to prevent squeeky brakes.

What type of phone do you have? I am willing to bet that it is your phone that is the problem... working in the 12v industry - there are a lot of phones that struggle with BT quality. Maybe even check to make sure that your phone is using the trucks mic and not the phones mic.

 

[Bdersch]

Sorry to hear that they couldn't help either bud. They cranked the winch with the spare on it to check it but didn't keep it on, wtf, I smell ********. Imho just cut your losses and trade that sucker in dude, your almost out of warranty and you personally know there will be more problems to come so 86 that pos.

If that dealer also gives you a survey, what would you say?

I would most likely give them okay reviews. i wouldnt give them 9s/10s. But would give them 6-8 most likely. I mean they were very nice and my rental car was free... just the whole part of fixing the actual issues is kind of annoying.

Yeah im definitely going to cut my loses on this one i think. I mean sure it might just be the pads/ rotors and replacing one or both could fix it. but if i replace those and the struts and then its still not fixed what do i do then?
The vibration may be a dash piece lose, or it could be a body mount lose (old dealer suggested that at one point). But i really have no idea. And once the warrantys up im screwed.

 

[Bdersch]

I work nights also but I would have asked him to show me how the spare tire Gizmo works.

Yeah i was at that point but i was also at the point of just being so over them and their BS.

Just fix what you can your self. Grab some dynaliner and put it where the vibration noise is. Get the stuff from autozone to prevent squeeky brakes.

What type of phone do you have? I am willing to bet that it is your phone that is the problem... working in the 12v industry - there are a lot of phones that struggle with BT quality. Maybe even check to make sure that your phone is using the trucks mic and not the phones mic.

Well the issue is i dont know where the vibration is coming from... I have cleaned my brakes 100% and inspected and taken them off and on with no luck on fixing the squeak already

yeah like i said i dont care about the bluetooth since its fine for me, but is annoying for people i talk to.

 

[Demon-HeMi]

Yeah i was at that point but i was also at the point of just being so over them and their BS.



Well the issue is i dont know where the vibration is coming from... I have cleaned my brakes 100% and inspected and taken them off and on with no luck on fixing the squeak already

yeah like i said i dont care about the bluetooth since its fine for me, but is annoying for people i talk to.

ill be honest, ive had bad brake pads that made noises, hell my pads on my 3/4 ton have less than 5k on them and squeak when i hit the pedal, and i def agree with the bluetooth thing being phone related, in my 14, my phone sucked on bluetooth but when i got a new one all my problems went away, the mopar Uconnect system sucks so I usually just remove the OEM system, in my 13 i put in an aftermarket BT system and completely ignore the OEM Uconnect bluetooth

 

[O.R.T.]

Go grab yourself a little spray bottle.

Fill it w water. Spray the lower mount of the front suspension like the sway bar. Go for a drive. Repeat this after the sway bar but only one side first on the lower shock mount, lower spring plate, upper spring isolator/plate, and then move onto the right side.

The water will clean out any silt or dust or just make it wet enough temporarily to isolate the source of the noise in front.

Unless you find it on the left side first.

Then go play drums with the roof and headliner and front pillars, a light fist bump works wonders.

Just so you have a better chance going forward.

 

[Bdersch]

Go grab yourself a little spray bottle.

Fill it w water. Spray the lower mount of the front suspension like the sway bar. Go for a drive. Repeat this after the sway bar but only one side first on the lower shock mount, lower spring plate, upper spring isolator/plate, and then move onto the right side.

The water will clean out any silt or dust or just make it wet enough temporarily to isolate the source of the noise in front.

Unless you find it on the left side first.

Then go play drums with the roof and headliner and front pillars, a light fist bump works wonders.

Just so you have a better chance going forward.

might have to give that a whirl.

I am also in a pickle in this sense... IF i sell my truck ill probably only sell it for a diesel 4x4 but i want to spend less that $20k so that will limit my options which isnt a bad thing ive seen quite a few for sale lately. Or i would buy a truck with less than 50k miles thats under $20k also.

Either way those vehicles will NOT have a warranty on them at all since theyll be over 36k for sure. Unless they have a CPO 100k warranty or something.

I guess either way im losing a warranty. So do i get something with unknown issues or do i stay committed to this one with the issues i already know and then try and fix them. I mean 35k miles isnt a bad time to replace all the brakes and possibly front shocks (i could throw billisteins on there anyways).

 

[WarrenRam]

Regarding the front end noise, it may be a longshot but maybe this might help?

http://www.ramforum.com/f38/odd_rattle-46155/

 

[Bdersch]

Regarding the front end noise, it may be a longshot but maybe this might help?

http://www.ramforum.com/f38/odd_rattle-46155/

thanks for looking out. unfortunately does match my noise

 

[Bdersch]

In the land of BS... i received this reply from the BBB from the dealer today.

"I was made aware of this customer when I returned from Texas with the owner. That is a completely dishonest statement from the customer. This customer has purchased a used truck that has oversized tires and wheels on it. The issue with the spare carrier is directly related to the weight of the aftermarket wheels and tire. This is NOT a warranty situation and I will not commit fraud. This customer also had an aftermarket battery installed in the truck with the Mopar battery on the L/F floorboard….stating that the battery was the original and wanted us to warranty that as well. Again, not a valid claim. My process is to actively deliver every vehicle and advise about the survey and ask for a return. To provide each customer with my business card and a letter that I have prepared requesting anyone to reach out to me if there is any issue. This is followed up the next day with an email thanking the customer for their business and again to advise on the survey and how Chrysler interprets the survey. In the event of a bad survey, yet another point of contact to customer to apologize and to seek reconciliation. It was the CUSTOMER who said, “Fix the car and stop accusing me of causing the problem and then I’ll give you a good survey!”. Please let me know before I address my advisors if there is a part of this that you are in disagreement with and I will communicate that with all them immediately to comply with your request. Thank you"

At this point im pretty much ready to reply with just "F You." The quote he said i said never came out of my mouth. I only tried to tell them that i was not changing my survey until i felt like they represented the score i was giving them. I was not going to lie to make them feel better. I am 100% done with RAM/ Chrysler at this point and will be looking to trade my truck in once i find an appropriate deal. I can not believe he had the balls to say that i made a dishonest statement.