2001 2500 Ball Joint Replacement..?

I purchased new tires and wanted to have the front end aligned at the same time my dealership was going to mount the new tires.

My dealership has informed me that that will not do a front end alignment because my upper and lower ball joints have excessive play in them.. I was also told this would be covered under my extended warantee as long as I pay the the deductable..

I brought the truck back in today to have the ball joints replaced and I was told they only did one side because the other side was not a problem..

Is this standard practice..? Personally, I have never heard of such a thing! I always thought these things were done on BOTH sides at the same time... How can one side only be bad and even if it was, wouldn't it be best to replace these joints in pairs..? Both right and left sides together..?

Please share with me your thoughts. Is my dealership just jerking me around trying to make some money..? Thanks.

As warranty work, yes it's pretty standard practice. In the late '70's I was a dealer mechanic, I was new to dealers and didn't know how things worked yet. We had several of the then new 301 Pontiacs come in with noisy lifters. I think I replaced three sets of lifters before Pontiac caught on and screamed. I was informed to replace only the bad one despite the fact we didn't have any of the equipment shown in the service manual to test them.

Then I was informed you could tell which one to replace just by listening. So the next one that came in, I told the service manager I couldn't figure out which one and would he please help. He couldn't really tell either so we replaced four on that car. I quit not long after that, there were some other problems there as well. The dealer was out of business two or three years after that.