RamCare and Ram remain useless

[Docwagon1776]

Damn, I have lifetime Maxcare, too. I certainly hope getting jacked around like this isn’t par for the course if my tranny ever grenades on me. Sorry your going through this Docwagon.

It's some combination of incompetence at this particular dealership, outsourcing warranty work authorization to a 3rd party to save a few dimes, and a general lack of concern. I think they realize most people will just sit on their thumbs and stew. I've made enough noise I've gotten a loaner car as a hostage now.

 

[bm02tj]

I think a person should add to the sales contract a loner be supplied if repair takes more than 24 hours

 

[tones2SS]

This is 100% accurate. I've sat in on a dealership call trying to get this resolved. It's like talking to an AI, but with a thick accent. "So I understand your problem is you don't have a transmission and you want a transmission, am I understanding the problem correctly?" is a real sentence I heard.

In all honesty,...you probably were talking to AI.

Things are gonna get a whole lot worse than better, and fast! Not just in this industry, but all industries.

 

[Mpgrimm2]

The movie that predicted our fate...

Idiocracy

Two human guinea pigs awaken 500 years into the future to see a society dominated by idiots in this irreverent satire.

www.hulu.com

 

[Docwagon1776]

In all honesty,...you probably were talking to AI.

Things are gonna get a whole lot worse than better, and fast! Not just in this industry, but all industries.

I doubt it. Who would program in an Indian accent and speech mannerisms? Now it may be an Indian reading an AI generated script, but I think it's just scripted conversations for people with less grasp of the language.

If you were told to respond with empathy and restate the issue to show you understand it, you'd rephrase it because you speak the language to a degree that lets you express a concept multiple ways without much thought. Much tougher to do as a limited speaker.

 

[JoshsRam]

The movie that predicted our fate...

Idiocracy

Two human guinea pigs awaken 500 years into the future to see a society dominated by idiots in this irreverent satire.

www.hulu.com

Agreed. After I watched this movie the first time, I realized that this is the direction we're heading....supposed to be satire, who knew it would be as accurate as Nostradamus?

 

[Mpgrimm2]

Agreed. After I watched this movie the first time, I realized that this is the direction we're heading....supposed to be satire, who knew it would be as accurate as Nostradamus?

... And they had Crocs in movie before they even came out! ... Still a fashion fail today!

 

[Docwagon1776]

Emailing Tim Kuniskis and his assistant finally got the ball rolling. Vanessa in Executive customer care actually listened to me about transmissions being in stock at other dealerships. She said the parts department couldn't get one so I asked why. She said she didn't know and would ask.

Funny thing: suddenly they absolutely can do it and the transmission was shipped.

It's a shame I had to work my way up to the CEO to get anyone to do the right thing on this, but being persistent, professional, and not taking non-answers worked. "Why?" is a very powerful question when you don't let people off the hook until they answer it in a way that makes sense.

 

[Jeepwalker]

I won't rant about off-shore tech support (you guys have done a pretty good job already...LOL). But many companies who have off-shore India tech support, you can request Tier-2 or Level-2 support which is often in the USA....and they are usually great.

I wonder if Stellantis has that option?

My sister used to work tech support for a major cell phone carrier, and she was always surprised at the endless conveyor belt of the most dumb and stupid questions people could have. So many callers who call in w/o having their information handy. So...the India support is probably a good screening tool.

Yeah, it would be interesting to try to request tier-2 or Level-2 support, or on-shore support from Ram.

 

[Jeepwalker]

I agree ...with AI, it's going to get TERRIBLE!! Just get into an endless loop-loop-loop!!

Has anyone noticed with long recorded menus, for some companies anyway, when there's no option to 'talk' to anyone ....if you drop an explicative or two, you suddenly get a pause, "Please wait a moment while I transfer you to a customer service representative." ? And then you get someone 'real'. And usually the issue resolved in a couple minutes.

 

[aszumilo]

Emailing Tim Kuniskis and his assistant finally got the ball rolling. Vanessa in Executive customer care actually listened to me about transmissions being in stock at other dealerships. She said the parts department couldn't get one so I asked why. She said she didn't know and would ask.

Funny thing: suddenly they absolutely can do it and the transmission was shipped.

It's a shame I had to work my way up to the CEO to get anyone to do the right thing on this, but being persistent, professional, and not taking non-answers worked. "Why?" is a very powerful question when you don't let people off the hook until they answer it in a way that makes sense.

Year ago, I did a similar thing, with a $23,000 Hewlett Packard printer. We bought a printer from them that could do custom size paper, for menus. Didn't come with Windows Drivers. Called support, gave them the model number, and they told me that it was a computer and not a printer. After 2 weeks of run around with support, I called the Corporate Office and asked for the CEO's office. To my surprise, they put me thru. Asked the secretary for the CEO's home address, so, I can ship the printer to him and see if he could get the damn thing to work. Next day, I had a software programmer working with me writing the driver for the printer. Turns out, the printer was designed for the Medical Billing industry and they use Unix, so, they never wrote drivers for Windows. Programmer told me there were so many red marks attached to my name that I could probably get just about anything I wanted from them. Tried for a new truck, they didn't go for that. The driver ended up being included with Windows 2000

Sometimes, going to the top is the only way to get the ball rolling.

 

[nlambert182]

I won't rant about off-shore tech support (you guys have done a pretty good job already...LOL). But many companies who have off-shore India tech support, you can request Tier-2 or Level-2 support which is often in the USA....and they are usually great.

I wonder if Stellantis has that option?

My sister used to work tech support for a major cell phone carrier, and she was always surprised at the endless conveyor belt of the most dumb and stupid questions people could have. So many callers who call in w/o having their information handy. So...the India support is probably a good screening tool.

Yeah, it would be interesting to try to request tier-2 or Level-2 support, or on-shore support from Ram.

I worked for Verizon's call center back in 2009 for about 6 months. At that time, all of their call centers were in the states. We had to know the products inside and out and had to know our system so that we could troubleshoot. If you needed Tier II support, it was a serious issue.

I've heard that isn't the case anymore. I dealt with AT&Ts yesterday trying to turn on internet service at my son's new college apartment. It took 4 phone calls from some guy in India and half a day to cancel the active account that was tied to the apartment so they could turn on ours. I ended up emailing him my lease agreement so he could see that I have the apartment before he'd even ship our modem and equipment. We submitted the request last Tuesday and they didn't even respond to tell us there was an issue until yesterday. We move him in this coming Friday. Not even sure if we will get the equipment in time now.

Back in the day, even with all the dumb questions we got, we had a target time to solve a customer's problem in 6 minutes or less.

 

[Docwagon1776]

*Finally* got it back. Absolute absurd combination of incompetence and lack of integrity made this so much harder than it should have been.

I don't know what their re-work rate is, but while I was waiting for them to find the keys to my truck (which they'd managed to misplace but of course they did) two people came back with issues not fixed. One was at least an appointment, the other hadn't gotten out of the parking lot when their parking sensors and some other warnings popped up on the dashboard (no idea if that's what they originally brought it in for or not). Ridiculous.

 

[OldSchoolRam]

I agree ...with AI, it's going to get TERRIBLE!! Just get into an endless loop-loop-loop!!

Has anyone noticed with long recorded menus, for some companies anyway, when there's no option to 'talk' to anyone ....if you drop an explicative or two, you suddenly get a pause, "Please wait a moment while I transfer you to a customer service representative." ? And then you get someone 'real'. And usually the issue resolved in a couple minutes.

I’ve noticed that when calling the same number for Ramcare, is that I get different prompts. I can hang up and call again and it will be a different message with different options. I called over 8 times today to try to get through, after the same claim advisor told me a supervisor from the Us was going to call me today. I even took off work so I could talk to ramcare. So a liar is a liar. I waited the majority of the day since they said they would call me today. But it was the same ram advisor that also said she would send me the lemon law paperwork, and didn’t do it till 3 days later when I called and got put on hold. This is for a truck that has had electrical issues and drivability issues since day one. This truck has left me stranded twice, once less than a month and then 5 months later on Easter again, when I was going to go to church. Mine has spent over 2 months in the shop off and on with less the 6K on it.
I have always been Ram/Dodge/Chrysler dedicated owner for over 30 years, buying over 7 new ones and numerous used ones. That shows how much Stalantis cares about customers.

 

[TJP440]

I agree, going to get much worse. Almost like the late 1970s early 1980s type of bad, if not worse. I remember back then when a differential assembly was on "back order" for a year! I suggested pulling one off the assembly line, which was a "thing" that could be done in days gone by.
New vehicle assembly and parts distribution, while being the same part, flow through different streams.

had the same game with the wife's almost new Mazda. 7K on the clock and less that a year old. they said drive it, I said BULL.
I'd get the NTSB involved if it's a safety issue

 

[Grams]

Assembly-LInes operate under the “new, efficient process” of “Just-in-time” …they don’t have a warehouse of parts to be installed next week anymore.

For that reason, “pulling parts off an assemblyline” is a Non-Starter (pardon the pun).

It’s not just a French company doing business in the U.S. with parts from Asia and product-support from a failed British multi-ethnic colony that revolted. It’s a new process of mfr which runs on minimalist-inventory made with latest-tech-software that out-runs it’s developers.

Stellantis is not alone. My son’s 2025 Chevrolet Silverado…a supposed U.S. built vehicle, is now without a transmission for 3 months and no end in-sight and no rental-vehicle… I’m loaning him my deceased parents 2005 Buick…a car I’d love to sell except that it has remained in almost continuous “loan” to family-members while their recent vehicles are parked awaiting parts. (Seriously, FOUR family members have used this car over the last two years in this scenario, usually need the loaner for 2-3 months each.)

I believe there may be a recourse on long-waits for warranty-service in a forced buy-back and/or warranty-extension. Check your new vehicle warranty literature.

Also, dealers do Not make any profit on warranty-work. The get paid substandard labor rates and make Zero money on warranty parts.
For that reason, they will take-in repair-work off the street which is profitable…and DELAY warranty work until there is no profit-work and “techs” are just standing-around.
How are they to handle the unhappy customer under that scheme..?? Simple: “Sorry sir, Parts are on BackOrder.” Now the customer has little choice but to be at the pleasure of the dealership.

My brand new Ram 2500 w/CTD ($103K actual selling price) had a leaking transmission seal the first month at 1200 miles. “Parts on backorder” while it was parked out in the weather at an unsecured dealers parking lot.
After 3 weeks, I found another Mopar dealer only 50 miles away who listed TEN of these seals ON-Line. I told my dealer who replied “Warranty parts cannot be transferred between delaers, they must come through warranty-channels.
So I ordered one, it arrived overnight delivered, intending to replace it myself. (retired Toyota tech)

NEXT DAY: My dealer called to say they had the part tracking-number, would have it the next day and my truck readhy in Two Days.

When I picked the truck up…the Service Mgr stated, “You know that source you told that had the seal “in-stock”…? ? …. actually, that was a Marketing Ruse…. they had NO Parts!”

“That’s funny,” I replied, “They delivered one to Me Yesterday….AND when I called and Thanked the Parts Mgr….He told me “Yes, we shipped one to Your Dealership also.”

AND THAT IS HOW IT IS REGARDLESS of which brand vehicle you buy….although FORD is probably the least affected.