Hello all. I posted this over in r.o.r-t and somebody suggested posting it here to get some feedback. Oh, some background - I've had the truck for a year and a half, my 5th wheel trailer is 13,500lbs and total mileage is
47,000km of which 70% is towing this 5er (about 20,500 MILES).I'll start off by saying that my Ram is the best vehicle I've ever owned - car, truck or otherwise. I've had no problems despite most of my miles being heavy towing.
HOWEVER, I just took the truck back to the dealer where I bought it for a major service. Over the past 18 months that I've had the truck, I've been travelling whenever it's needed a bigger service than oil changes (I do those myself). I knew I would pay through the nose but I wanted the dealer to have one good look at the truck in case there are any warranty issues down the road - didn't want them to say "We've never seen this truck - don't know if it was well maintained". There was no problem with the 3 other dealers I've used while travelling so I didn't expect any at my "home" dealer. Anyway, their service sucked. It was supposed to be in there for one afternoon and they had it for two full days - TWICE. Admittedly, they had to have it back the second time because they determined that it needed ball joints - they didn't have them all in stock and it was the long Victoria Day weekend.
When I got the truck home the first time, I noticed that they had scraped my annual inspection sticker off and had not replaced it. I called and they said "Oops, we forgot but we can't replace it because the Service Manager is gone for the long weekend". (On the black amrket, these stickers are worth way more than their weight in gold to people with big trucks who don't want to pay for repairs so the Service Manager keeps them under lock and key). I didn't need the truck for the next week so I just parked it - when the truck was new the Ministry of Transport pulled we over twice because I didn't have a yellow inspection sticker - I knew I'd get a big fine if I got pulled over again. Jumping to the end of the saga, when I got the truck back the second time, there was a new inspection sticker. Good! However, the mechanic made the notation on the invoice that they were now able to install the sticker because the ball joints were replaced. So I'm pissed that they pulled my sticker, lied to me about the reason why there wasn't one there, didn't have common parts in stock and let me drive the truck when I didn't need it and put me at risk of a big fine. I'd have preferred to leave the truck there but I didn't know it wasn't finished until I showed up. Somebody dropped me and my two granddaughters off and we need our ride home!
They should have, but didn't check the level of my transfer case fluid (no marks on the plug).
They charged me for 25 litres of ATF when the capacity of the tranny and torque converter is only about half that. I've asked 4 times "Why?" and the service writer is skating "The mechanic is away from his bay and I can't ask him".
They mounted the right duals backwards - these are unidirectional tires that shouldn't run backwards.
They said "You should change your differential fuilds". I said "How much?" "$275". "Forget it" I said. I went to Canadian Tire and bought the fluids for about $70. An hour of my own time and the 2 diffs and the transfer case were changed. $275 my ass!
When I called after the first day the second time to ask when I could have the truck back, the service writer said "The mechanic can't get the old ball joints out so now he's going to have to cut them out with a torch". Yoiks, they're supposed to be pressed in and out. I didn't see any torch damage but with all the other mistakes I'm suspicious.
When they called and asked for feedback on the service I gave it 1 out of 10 (only because the shuttle bus driver was nice) and said I wasn't likely to ever go back. They said "We'll get the service manager to call you to discuss your concerns". That was two weeks ago - haven't heard from him.
Maybe I'll send him this rant and suggest that I'm going to forward it to the "5-star" people and see if that gets a reaction.
I still like the truck a lot, but I'll get my service done elsewhere.
Cheers, Joe
04 Ram 3500 CTD