Dealer Treatment

[gruntdog]

Is it common to get absolutely no help at all from a dealer that you didnt buy the truck from? I should have known when that was his first question and his whole attitude changed when I said no. Well took my truck in for popping noises in the front end. Dealer drove it around the block, pulled it in the bay and topped off my fluids and thats it in a span of about ten minutes. Could clearly hear the popping sound and they said its normal noises. Well I got home crawled underneath and my track bar was highly under torqued, sway bar mounts were same way. Now my front passenger coil spring has shifted and popping like crazy. My popping noises are gone now, Track bar torqing fixed that. Just passenger coil spring is making all kinds of noises turning. The coil itself has moved because you can feel the indentation from it on the bottom isolator. Ive ordered a new track bar from Thuren. I am done with dealing with dealers. Must be a Ram/Dodge thing because I have never had this problem with any vehicles I have had with dealers. Family drives rams and say the same thing. By the way its a 2020 Power Wagon. Just had to vent and find it very discouraging. Honestly makes me want to get rid of it.

 

[corneileous]

Not all dealers are like that but there are some that are unfortunately. Is there another dealer you could go to? But yeah, I’ve witnessed the same thing before but instead of getting all worked up about it and blaming the manufacturer for the dealer’s shenanigans and threatening to get rid of the truck because of it, since I do have some mechanical knowledge, I would just as soon rather take care of small things myself rather than deal with the dealer.

Couple years ago I had to have my headliner replaced due to the ******** way they secure the framework around the opening for the sunroof to the headliner to hold it up and being that they had to take the windshield out to replace the headliner, I could’ve taken the truck back to them and and ******* them out for putting my wiper blades back on backwards… Yes, even though they’re both a 24 inch wiper blade, there is a left and there is a right so I just got out there myself and put the wipers on the right way and that several weeks later I had noticed my driver side sun visor wasn’t sitting quite right so the day I decided to look at it, I found out that they had overtightened one of the screws to the point to where the head broke off and when I went to put the screwdriver on it, the head of the screw just fell out of the hole and hit the carpet.

Even though those two screws… I bought me an extra one, cost me a total of $20 for the screws and the shipping, I just bought them myself so I wouldn’t have to deal with The dealership over that as well.

But yes, I realize your drag link and your spring is lot more serious but hey, it sounds like it was an easy fix for you being that you have the tools and the knowhow so I wouldn’t sweat it too much.


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[Purplert]

Not just a ram thing it’s seems many dealers do that, They tend to get butthurt when your didn’t buy from them and instead went elsewhere for either a better deal or to get in exactly what you want and not just settle. Just make sure when those are so wonderful surveys on how the service went comes around your score reflects that. I’ll make it a point to speak with the service manager.


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[gruntdog]

Problem is I live in NW Arkansas, not many places to go to. I know a tech at one dealer and he said he wouldnt have his rig worked on there so I wont go there. Thats where my dad took his and wont go back. Dad was called in 5 times for the same recall. Recall still didnt get done cause my dad told them to stick it. Im just frustrated. I've come from the toyota crowd. First vehicle thats not a toyota. I love the truck and have no problem wrenching on it. But when you pay this kind of money you would hope to get taken care of. Not asking much. I just dont want to dump tons of money to figure out the problem. Hopefully the track bar solves it. If I cant get it figured out I will get rid of it. Hate saying that but I didnt pay this kind of money to drive a problem.

As far as a dealer survey, I wish they would send me one. Its been a week and still havent heard anything. They really didnt give me the time of day. Waited 45 minutes past my appointment and watched them do absolutley nothing but burn my gas up.

 

[crazy jerry]

Is it common to get absolutely no help at all from a dealer that you didnt buy the truck from? I should have known when that was his first question and his whole attitude changed when I said no. Well took my truck in for popping noises in the front end. Dealer drove it around the block, pulled it in the bay and topped off my fluids and thats it in a span of about ten minutes. Could clearly hear the popping sound and they said its normal noises. Well I got home crawled underneath and my track bar was highly under torqued, sway bar mounts were same way. Now my front passenger coil spring has shifted and popping like crazy. My popping noises are gone now, Track bar torqing fixed that. Just passenger coil spring is making all kinds of noises turning. The coil itself has moved because you can feel the indentation from it on the bottom isolator. Ive ordered a new track bar from Thuren. I am done with dealing with dealers. Must be a Ram/Dodge thing because I have never had this problem with any vehicles I have had with dealers. Family drives rams and say the same thing. By the way its a 2020 Power Wagon. Just had to vent and find it very discouraging. Honestly makes me want to get rid of it.

ive got a few question. without a service manual how would you know what the torq on those bolts is supposed to be ? im at work and dont have acess to my manual but i recall something like 285 ftlb on the tracbar, cant recall the swaybar links. to get 285 laying on the ground is difficult. you need atleast a fairly long 300ftlb wrench with extension adapter and even then its no walk in the park because the odd positioning of laying on the ground. im smelling some ********.
so how did you determine the bolts werent tight enough and what tools did you use to tighten said bolts ? and if you had all the proper tools, why bother with the dealer in the first place ?
do you have any photo of that coil spring that you say has shifted ? im curious to see that.
i hate to tell you the bad news but dealers have no obligation to be nice to anyone. hell i dont even think theyre required to even look at your truck. go find another dealer or get some tools and fix stuff yourself

 

[gruntdog]

Well to answer your question, I have a service manual. First thing I do when I get a new rig. Yes its torqued to 284 I believe cant remember the exact number off the top of my head. I torqued it to that. Smell all the bs you want. I went to the dealer because the truck is under warranty. So you would hope the dealer would be doing the right thing which they never do. You live and learn and I wont go back there. Like I said I have never experienced dealer treatment like this. Guess I have been lucky.

As for pics, you wont see the indentation on the isolator, just feel it. I had the truck apart this weekend trying to figure it out better. I have the spring sitting back where it was and looks like it used to but its still got a slight pop when turning only. Its weird.

 

[56PW17]

With a title like this ram cares should be stopping in shortly

 

[CabChassisMike]

It's not all RAM dealerships..
My dealership is amazing. I'm going on week 3 of a DEF pump failure with only 1985 miles on a new RAM 3500 chassis cab. So far my dealer has put me into a free loaner vehicle Chevy Blazer, and on Friday switched me into a RAM 1500 thru Enterprise.
Stelllantis Mopar Cust Care expedited a new DEF pump from CANADA last week only to determine it was a bad replacement pump upon arrival. Now the case manager is expediting a 2nd new DEF PUMP and we're talking about extending my factory warranties out for time p,us miles.
My dealer is Morehart-Murphy RAM in Durango Colorado and I live 102 miles away. I refused to go to the dealership near me as I've been told "never go there"...
Buying my truck in Durango was the best truck buying experience I've ever had in my 55 years. They said "welcome to the family" when I bought the 3500 and when the DEF PUMP failed, I said "what are ya gonna do to take care of me?"
Enterprise wanted me to pay the difference between "dealer rate" and "customer rate" of $7.00 per day, but I said "I'm not paying anything" and the General Manager at my dealer confirmed that "you're not paying anything".
My dealership is the BEST.
Good luck guys, find a great dealership and stick with them!

 

[condor767]

Not all dealerships are like that.
I bought my Ram from a dealer 30 miles away and it was a terrible experience. Then one year later a new Ram dealership opened up just 3 miles from my house and I’ve been taking it there for service, they have been absolutely phenomenal in service and everything else. Definitely will be giving them business as long as I own my Ram.

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

Is it common to get absolutely no help at all from a dealer that you didnt buy the truck from? I should have known when that was his first question and his whole attitude changed when I said no. Well took my truck in for popping noises in the front end. Dealer drove it around the block, pulled it in the bay and topped off my fluids and thats it in a span of about ten minutes. Could clearly hear the popping sound and they said its normal noises. Well I got home crawled underneath and my track bar was highly under torqued, sway bar mounts were same way. Now my front passenger coil spring has shifted and popping like crazy. My popping noises are gone now, Track bar torqing fixed that. Just passenger coil spring is making all kinds of noises turning. The coil itself has moved because you can feel the indentation from it on the bottom isolator. Ive ordered a new track bar from Thuren. I am done with dealing with dealers. Must be a Ram/Dodge thing because I have never had this problem with any vehicles I have had with dealers. Family drives rams and say the same thing. By the way its a 2020 Power Wagon. Just had to vent and find it very discouraging. Honestly makes me want to get rid of it.

Ask to speak to the General Manager of the dealership ... that is what I did when they replaced the filler tube on my truck thinking it was going to fix the issue with it making the pump click off all the time lol ... but they didn't pay attention to what I told them was the issue so now I have to go back to get that fixed but haven't because of all this covid bs ... I don't have time to spend waiting around ... but I am going to eventually go back to get it done right this time ...

But seriously, talk to the dealership manager that is who got on their asses last time lol ...

 

[Farmer Fran]

Neither the FCA dealer or the GM dealer near me cares that you did not buy from them. They lovingly help.

 

[pacofortacos]

Unfortunately, while you did pay a ton of money for the truck, the dealer didn't make $0.02 off of you. So some dealers will, especially if their warranty work percentage is off , just not do much for you.

Other dealers hope that good service will get you to buy off of them next time and or come there for pay service work.

Most auto manufacturers keep a close eye on warranty work and if a dealers metrics are way off of what they should be compared to other dealers, they often play hardball with warranty work with that dealer - there's usually a reason that one dealer's metrics will stand out from the norm.

 

[corneileous]

Unfortunately, while you did pay a ton of money for the truck, the dealer didn't make $0.02 off of you. So some dealers will, especially if their warranty work percentage is off , just not do much for you.

Other dealers hope that good service will get you to buy off of them next time and or come there for pay service work.

Most auto manufacturers keep a close eye on warranty work and if a dealers metrics are way off of what they should be compared to other dealers, they often play hardball with warranty work with that dealer - there's usually a reason that one dealer's metrics will stand out from the norm.

It’s pretty sad how it seems like the majority of the time when somebody gets a nasty taste in their mouth towards a certain brand that it’s more than likely because of the dealership where they bought the vehicle or the dealership where they tried to take it back to, to get repairs and you’re right, when it comes to warranty work, they probably don’t hardly make anything on it and even when they sell you your truck brand new, they probably don’t even make that much on it so it would make sense why they wouldn’t care about how you feel about it but on the flipside, they should be a lot more interested in customer relations so that you’ll come back to them when it’s time to buy a new vehicle.


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[CheechDogg.0n37s]

It’s pretty sad how it seems like the majority of the time when somebody gets a nasty taste in their mouth towards a certain brand that it’s more than likely because of the dealership where they bought the vehicle or the dealership where they tried to take it back to, to get repairs and you’re right, when it comes to warranty work, they probably don’t hardly make anything on it and even when they sell you your truck brand new, they probably don’t even make that much on it so it would make sense why they wouldn’t care about how you feel about it but on the flipside, they should be a lot more interested in customer relations so that you’ll come back to them when it’s time to buy a new vehicle.


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Not only to buy again,but to take our vehicles to them so that they can maintain them lol ... Just like there is crooked dealerships there is crooked ass mechanics .... That is why I try to learn as much as I can about my vehicles so that I can do whatever needs to be done to them if something happens ....

Last weekend @the_goodguy07 and I replaced the manifolds on his 1500 with some AFE shorty headers because he had a broken manifold bolt and warped manifold of course ... it took us all day but we did it ourselves, he saved himself at least $400 which is what the shops around town were quoting to just extract the broken manifold bolt lol .... to add headers was another $375 from one shop and $850 from another for extraction and installation of the headers ....

The dealership where I got my truck from wanted $1700 to extract and replace the manifolds with OEM and the refused to install any headers .....

I would gladly go to a dealership to have them work on my truck if they actually honored the warranty they sell us ... but because it's a warranty fix and they really don't get **** out of doing warranty related work they try to avoid labor due to a warranty issue ...

Having worked at a dealership for a few months opened my eyes to the bs and scams they pulled on the daily ... from not actually draining the oil during routine oil changes to just simply keeping peoples vehicles up on the lifts for 45 minutes without even touching them and then charging the customers for work that was not even done on their vehicles ...

 

[tron67j]

With some knowledge of how some dealerships work (know SMs at Ford and Chevy for years) the issue of if bought from there is not much of an issue any more. With so many ways to comparison shop, buying does not make a lifetime customer. A dealership either uses service to make a customer for life, or they are content with people coming through their door on their own volition and can pick and choose what they really want to get into. They ask about purchase often because it makes it easier to set up service detail. Now, this is not a blanket statement to cover all dealers.

 

[corneileous]

Not only to buy again,but to take our vehicles to them so that they can maintain them lol ... Just like there is crooked dealerships there is crooked ass mechanics .... That is why I try to learn as much as I can about my vehicles so that I can do whatever needs to be done to them if something happens ....

Last weekend @the_goodguy07 and I replaced the manifolds on his 1500 with some AFE shorty headers because he had a broken manifold bolt and warped manifold of course ... it took us all day but we did it ourselves, he saved himself at least $400 which is what the shops around town were quoting to just extract the broken manifold bolt lol .... to add headers was another $375 from one shop and $850 from another for extraction and installation of the headers ....

The dealership where I got my truck from wanted $1700 to extract and replace the manifolds with OEM and the refused to install any headers .....

I would gladly go to a dealership to have them work on my truck if they actually honored the warranty they sell us ... but because it's a warranty fix and they really don't get **** out of doing warranty related work they try to avoid labor due to a warranty issue ...

Having worked at a dealership for a few months opened my eyes to the bs and scams they pulled on the daily ... from not actually draining the oil during routine oil changes to just simply keeping peoples vehicles up on the lifts for 45 minutes without even touching them and then charging the customers for work that was not even done on their vehicles ...

That’s me too. Hell, if I wasn’t going to get a new radio out of it and if the price of the screens wasn’t what it is right now, I’d much rather by the screen myself and replace it.


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[gruntdog]

I appreciate all the comments, gotta agree with all of it. Just very frustrating. If I had a local dealer I could actually trust, I would let them do my oil changes and maintenance stuff but like Cheechdog said you really cant trust most of them and I am not gonna travel the country to find one. So I will do it myself. Just last thing I wanted to deal with, I have enough going on right now.

 

[SniperDroid]

They get paid pretty well for doing Warranty Work on vehicles. This is probably just a Service Writer with hurt feelings.... talk to the Service Manager and your problem will probably go away.

 

[yakalong]

I've taken my Ram to 3 dealerships since I've owned it. The first was where I bought it from for an oil change since it was free and I couldn't get the filter to budge. Didn't like them when I bought the truck from them and had the same feeling when I went in for the oil change. Since then I've been to two other dealerships for warranty work and recall. Neither asked if I bought from them and treated me well. So I really think its just luck of the draw as to which dealerships want your future business.

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

LOL ... so the dealership I bought mine from and this I posted about when it happened to me, the guy that was doing my oil change used my wheels as a stepping stool to add the oil on my truck ... he ended up scratching the **** out of my wheels with his boots and I saw when he did it.... I asked him what was he doing, he answered with "added oil to your truck why" then I said to him "but you are stepping on my wheels!

I called the service manager, dealership manager and all they said was "you can bring it in on a thursday, that is when we have our detail professional" ..

Rather than spending money for labor on most things, I like to spend the money on the tools I would need when the next time comes around for something, most of the times just the cost of labor is twice as much as the tools you need for most jobs on our trucks ... in the last year alone I have done everything I can myself to my truck and my buddies and saved us thousands of dollars ... dealerships have always been crooked and it's very hard to find ones that are genuinely trustworthy ... sucks!