I think Dodge is a decent truck. I think the Cummins is an awesome motor, (probably the best diesel). But the service at our Dodge dealership is incredibly terrible. Im not just talking bad, but terrible!!!! We have an 03 dodge 2400 4x4 Cummins. Has been a good truck. No problems with the engine, but have had some elctrical problems. Nothing major. Well, we took the truck in because it had a oil leak, bad seal. When we picked it up, we noticed there was oil covering the rear differential. We didnt ask for any work to be done to the differential. When we asked the manager what was going on, he wasnt sure. We checked the fluid, AND THERE WAS NONE IN THE DIFFERENTIAL!!!!!!!! No fluid, absolutly none. WTF!!!! We've made probably over 10 complaints over the last few years there. But this is absolutly ridiculous. We'll never own another dodge. WE have 3, 98 12 valve, 01 1500, and 03 cummins. They are all good trucks. But they way dodge handles thier repair service has pushed to the point where we dont want to even drive their products. I know some of you will say, "just go to another dealership dummy!" But I dont feel I shouldnt have to drive another 25 miles, on top of 25 miles to this dealership, to get good service when the place we've bought our trucks promised us good service. We've made complaint after complanit, but apperantly hasnt done any good.
Maybe you should have bought a 2500. rotfl Just kiddin man. That kind of service is unacceptable, but I'm glad to see you aren't sayin "oh man, the trucks suck" or whatever. I hope it works out later on with that 2400, lol.
i think you will find the service with chevy is just as bad. same with ford. they all suck. its hit or miss no matter where you go. Grant
Sounds to me like the solution is to find another dealer. My truck has been absolutely trouble-free insofar as Dodge is concerned - it's never been back to the dealership for any warranty problems, despite towing heavy (see signature) for 90% or more of its working life. Rusty
Dealers are privately owned. Sometimes you get bad ownership with a certain dealership and the quality of service is brought down with crap you experienced. This is very unfortunate. Dealers are like football teams. When the owners want a great team so they can succeed they put tons of effort in to make a great team. Then there are other owners that are just in it for the money, don't care if the team wins or not, just want to make some money. Same idea in my head anyway. I have a supposed "crookish" dealer for my Dodge here locally. I have heard people have bought new vehicles but this dealership doesn't stand behind them. I never bought anything from them, but their service has been decent I guess. Besides them not figuring out my A/C problems and breaking my mirror.... I'd try a new dealership if I was you. I can't blame you either, a vehicle is only as good as the people behind them. If you can't get decent service on a product you buy than it makes life a lot tougher with it. This is what happened at my last stealership visit.... At least they replaced it though.
i agree... maybe not that bad but the dealers never want to pay up and fix what they are supposed to. it seems like you always have to fight them just to get what they are supposed to give you.
Right, I understand what you guys are saying. Some places have great service, some have terrible. Where I take my GMC is usually pretty good, not great but good. I really like your analagy RJF Red Cummins, makes perfect sense. But its so frustrating when my mother or girlfriend calls to get a price quote, and they tell them 3 times as much then when I call for the same quote. They have lied to my mom and girlfriend about simple repairs, which we eventually have found out. When the service is that bad it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I really like the dodges, but there comes a line when enough is enough.
If I got that kind of service from my dealership I'd tell them to pound sand and find a new place to service the truck. I'm lucky in that I have a good dealership to go to which apparently won't complain over modifications, and seem to get everything requested done in a prompt manner (and still get it right). I think if they were doing that to me, I'd notify Daimler Chrysler of the problems with your dealership. True you could just not go back there, but it's for the good of everybody if Daimler Chrysler and perhaps the BBB knows about the issues. The more people that complain the more likely it is to be resolved.
Try reporting them to your local bbb or local group of womens right that ought to help and of course your local news,might work might not. I love Fords wont drive anything but when looking for a new truck shorty before I graduated the dealership sold a truck from under me and then about a month later called offering me a job for less money than I was making changing oil,I said ok I will call you back,just like when they said about my truck offer,just like them never did.
My experience was that DC didn't much give a rip, or at least most of their phone reps. I had a problem where the rear drums on my 98 Ram would warp after only a few thousand miles. First time I didn't get much flack, but after that, it got progressively worse. They accused me of over-loading it and riding the brakes. And the first *2* times it happened, I had not even installed a ball mount OR hauled anything in the bed. Frankly, they were down right rude and plainly indicated it was my fault, and that was not all at the same dealer because we moved out west. Each time they just replaced the drums. More than once they insisted on "just turning it out" even though it was right at the legal limit to remove the warp AND would obviously affect ballance. I had to create quite a scene to MAKE them replace the rotors which they claimed would be fine after already having warped and been turned all the way to the limit with only a few thousand miles. Also, after the first set, I kept telling them that it's not the drums, something else is wrong and just replacing the drums was obviously not going to fix it. I figured it must have something to do with the ABS, master, or prop valve and that it was doing all the braking in the rear, resulting in over-heating. And the only reason it didn't manifest as loss of control (like pulling an emergency brake lever) was the ABS keeping it from locking up. Of course they gave me the “let us pros handle this, these systems are complex” crap. Finally I was told that was what Dodge required and all that would be done. Calling Dodge they said it was the service writer's call. Round and round we go, and I forget how many times I had those drums replaced. Finally, coming up on the end of the warranty, it happened again. I had had enough and REFUSED to let them replace the drums again. They had the records and could not explain why it was reoccurring EXCEPT that it must be something I was doing to it; i.e. my fault. Not for the first time I was told that they would, “replace the drums one more time, but that would be the last set!” At this point the Shop Forman (or whatever he was called) was involved along with their chief service writer or whatever. I responded something to the effect of “You can shove those drums up your collective arses, I’m not wasting any more time or loss of use while you just throw parts at it without a clue what’s going one!” At one point I was threatened with being “escorted off the property” among other things. I finally got talk to a “regional rep” and flat refused to accept the BS, insisting that they do more than replace the drums AND that since this was a reoccurring problem bordering on the definition of “lemon law” (it was not quite over the wire) I wanted them to guarantee support after warranty was out (which the dealership reps actually laughed at me when I demanded). Anyway, to get to the end of this (actually condensed) account, the rep finally told the local dealers to replace the entire brake system from one end to the other. The only thing they did not replace was the hard lines and the pedal. I didn’t manage to get a written guarantee of coverage after warranty, but he gave me his “personal assurance” they would take care of it. At that point I was worn out and fed up with Dodge and decided to let it go. If it came up again, I would just trade it off on a new truck of another brand. Funny thing, but after all that, I never had brake problems again in the next 10s of thousands of miles. But I did get the pouty face 4 year old looks from the service manager and other SoBs involved.
I agree with Sandman, if it really is that bad with this dealership than someone needs to give Daimler a call along with the BBB.
No doubt, try another dealership and report this one to anyone that will listen. But as I said, my experience was that Dodge "policy" did not support the consumer at all. I eventually raised enough stink to get something done with mine, but I had to scream loudly enough AND find someone inclined to do whatever it took to shut me up. That's not a very good customer service policy if you ask me, and it does not encourage dealers to "do the right thing" either. But to be fair, Ford treated many of it's customers hurt by the 6.0 debacle (as supported by Ford techs) every bit as bad, and GM was petty crappy about the 6.6 injectors until they finally had to up the warranty on '01 and '02 truck injectors to 200k.
The smaller dealerships are the better ones. They need to keep their business, so they can't afford to screw their customers over. However, its been my experience that the big high-volume dealerships suck. They have so much in selling thousands of vehicles that they could care less about teh service dept.
Thats makes perfect sense. They made us a screaming deal to sale the truck at the end of the month to meet their quota and promised us good service. They lied about the service.
Some of the problem may be lack of competition. Where I live you can't drive 10 miles without passing about 30 dealerships. So there is a lot of competition. All the dealership commercials around here are competing with one another as far as service is concerned. A lot of places are offering free tune ups (including oil changes) and state inspections as long as you own the vehicle. Other places are offering free tires when the factory set are worn out. The dealerships around here WANT you to bring your vehicles there for service.
