Dealer has had my truck for 7 hours

[JARichard]

I had an appointment to have the front door panels changed out and find the rattle!



My office is just a couple of miles away from the dealer and I told them to call me if they couldn't produce the rattle. The tech actually took my truck at 7:00AM to do the doors. I haven't heard from the dealer to say it is ready.



I wonder if they can't freaking find it or just aren't loooking into it? I hate having her disemboweled by a stranger.



The service writer is kind of a friend of mine and he said they have had a lot of problems with an AC line that runs behind the coolant tank causing a dash rattle!

 

[RobertP]

i had a truck come into my dealership customer was complaining of a rattle when putting the truck in gear. i found that the trans dipstick was too close the a/c line and when it was put in gear they were touching causing the rattle. just something to look at.



Robert

 

[JARichard]

nv 5600 no dip stick tube!

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Did you happen to pull the panel and look for yourself first? Unlike the older trucks panel removal is a easy 5 minute job on 3rd Gens.

 

[JARichard]

Here is the whose story!



They called me at 3:30 and said they could not duplicate the rattle. I said, " Well send the tech over here in the truck and I will let him hear it. "

They said no can do that I have to find a ride to the dealership and show them there!



Well, when I show up they get my truck and want me to leave. I say get the tech and we are going for a ride!



When I got to the dealership that morning I had given the service writer a piece of paper with a list of everything I had done to find/stop this rattle.



Well, they finally find the tech and all of a sudden the service writer pulls him aside and gives him the list.



We go for a ride and the tech says he just drove the truck around the brand new dealership parking lot :--) . Well, for the longest 10 minutes of my day the dang truck wouldn't rattle! Then she did it finally rattled for the tech.



We get back to the dealership and they say we can't work on it today bring it back tomorrow!



I am fuming! I had to go once to order the door panels so we put off searching for the rattle until today. I made an appointment and went out of my way to be there for 7:30. They obviously didn't touch my truck until sometime around 2 PM. Now I got to go back tomorrow!



It was very apparent to me that they didn't even try to find the dang rattle and play it off!



No wonder they have a bad name!

 

[Jeepr]

It's the fault of the whole "book time" way of warranty reimbursement and billing. I don't know the details for Dodge, but my brother has worked for dealerships for years, and said they hate rattle problems, because the book gives them very little time to diagnose it. So, unfortunately if they are only given, say 15 minutes, and beyond that they aren't paid, they won't try very hard. It's a bad system, but unfortunately it's what everyone uses.

 

[JARichard]

Part of the agreement when I left was to drive the truck long enough to have the parts loose enough and rattling on Friday morning! So drive her around from 6:45 until I drove up at the dealership at 7:20. I was a carryover ticket so I should have been first and the whole point of me driving around was so they could look at and hear it immediately!



Well 2 PM comes around and I decide to call and see why my truck isn't ready. No return phone call until 3:30. At this time I am hungry and upset. they send the shuttle service to pick me up and I go to the dealer a whole 2 miles!



Hop in my truck and within 5 minutes ( just long enough to loosen the suspension I guess) rattle rattle rattle. So , I look at the service sheet and it says put foam on molded splash guard. Well, I just put the damn splash guards on and the truck has rattled since new, I knew that wasn't it !

Pull the splash guard off no foam.



Call the dealer and they say, Yeah we found it it is by the front bumper. They put some 1/2" thick foam tape on the black plastic wheel liner. They made no effort to find it and just stuck the stupid tape on there to say they did something.



I will be pulling apart my dash tomorrow and PRAY i don't set the airbag off!



I had given them a detailed list of everything I have tried and was honest with them. I spent about $100 to find and cure the rattle myself before I even bugged my 5 star.

 

[DPKetchum]

The NOT getting paid is a lame old wives tale. Its called STRAIGHT TIME and if the tech uses the system correctly and DOCUMENTS what he does HE gets PAID. I've known a few techs that all they did was trim,water leaks,rattles and loved it. Made lots of money and were good at it.

 

[Bob4x4]

The NOT getting paid is a lame old wives tale. Its called STRAIGHT TIME and if the tech uses the system correctly and DOCUMENTS what he does HE gets PAID. I've known a few techs that all they did was trim,water leaks,rattles and loved it. Made lots of money and were good at it.

Times are changing Man. The dm's are playing hard ball and deny tons of 00 time,the svc managers do not want to get charged back so most just don't pay any. We have to get the svc manager to sign for it. It still doesn't mean we will get it. You keep talking about dealer policy and procedure but you left when? and why? :-laf



Bob

 

[DPKetchum]

2001. Been hearing the same thing for 25 plus years. I left because I had a disc exployed in my lower back and lost some use of my left leg,foot,ankle. I NEVER had a issue with moderate use of straight time. Its if its abused. Its there for a reason. I still run into a couple of reps from time to time. Not much has changed talking to them. They still want to have vehicles repaired and will pay for it if its not B. S. and documented correctly. I have handled Nissan/Mazda/G. M/Isuzu and D. C. products. Worse reps and hardest I ever had were G. M. reps. Use to see them turn red when I showed them their OWN policy and procheadures out of their own book. Had VERY few claims every kick or not get signed for. Very few. I met some service managers that THOUGHT they were doing the factory a favor by not using straight time ever or the little ops. They were really screwing themselves,customers and their techs out of lots of dollars. I wanted vehicles fixed,customers happy and to be PAID for it. So did dealer owners. I was friendly with reps but not out to save the factory a penny. Hours were to long and the business is too rough to work for free. THEY(factory)make it with issues and WANT them fixed. To fix them cost bucks. I have had techs try to abuse it also. That didn't happen eaither. But if THEY want squeeks,rattles,water leaks,rail dust etc. worked on they got to pay and the service manager has to know how to get paid. Takes work. My wife writes service in a Caddy dealer. They all get paid and every thing they do to a car. She says the service manager works his butt off on claims every day.

 

[Dodge-Tech]

Times are VERY different now. Some dealers are flat denied "00" time, or straight time. It's true, now most service managers are required to sign off on all 00 time, and when DC comes in to "talk", he or she wants to see all documentation from the tech, writer, and svc manager. If the smallest detail doesn't jive, or even isn't clearly written by the tech, the claim is DENIED! Let's say a truck comes in with a noise. The tech will spend approx. 1 hour diagnosing it. Parts are ordered. The tech just lost 1 hour of his day, because he isn't getting paid, no repairs were made. He gets paid to replace those parts when the truck comes back in. This is total BS. After 15 years of being a dealer tech, I pursued a new career a few months ago. Thing are getting worse and worse at the dealers. They cannot get decent help, and all the good guys are leaving due to the horrible policies from DC and dealer management.

 

[Bob4x4]

I rest my case :-laf :-laf



Bob

 

[DPKetchum]

As I stated I've been hearing the same issues for 25 years. Its all in the pin and it dosen't mean it always have to be straight time. Dealers that use it too much with out proper write up get put on restriction. Always been that way. Techs are nortorious for poor write ups. If time is taken for proper write ups and a decent op cope is used most if not all of that hour could be run through warranty at time of checkout or at least when part is installed by SAME tech. There was a company that dealers could subscribe to that had a monthly news letter about how to get paid for all that was done and missed and not used op codes. I subscribed to it. I loved it. Reps hated it. I came up through the terrible gas shortage and sales virtualy stopped. Manufactures had the same hard nose attitude then and yet we and others continued on. I hate to say it. Most of the time for not getting paid on warranty is laziness by someone in charge or lack of knowledge. As a tech you/them have a right to the policy and prochedure manuals. Read them from front to back. I bet it would be a real eye opener. Lots of service managers rarely open one or go through tickets daily and read write ups,time flagged etc. I learned froma good service manager that certain things were done daily. Tickets on hold,what was in the bucket needing to be picked up,estimates and totals,op codes used(all that can be run on the in house comuter) its not a job for the stupid or faint of heart. I have known some that worried more about their vending machines or golf game or b. s. ing then doing the job that they were suppose to do. If some reps are a hard axx dealer owner can request a review of HIM. The Buick/Gmc dealer across the road from me in 2000 had such a issue with their rep and never got assistance from G. M. that one day when he came he was told NOT ALLOWED on the property! Something finally got done about HIS attitude. Personally I thought that was pretty cool. He was denying and giving a hard time about legit claims month after month. The PIN is mighty if used correctly.