Freightlin........there is a lot lacking.

Yeah I left off the last few letters in the title because they leave a lot out....especially on customer service. I have been in trucking for almost 15 years and am a USMC veteran. I have been working since I was 14 almost everyday of my life and paying taxes the whole time. Ok so in a nutshell, I am not a loser. Having said that, I guess I am in the wrong industry, because I expect to be treated with respect by the people that I paid over a hundred thousand dollars to in return for a new truck.

What I got instead was lies, poor service, and a lot of my precious time wasted. I bought a truck from FYDA Freightliner in Columbus, OH and boy am I sorry about that. The salesperson there kept a very tight lip and barely informed me about anything. Every question I asked, he had no answer. Everytime I wanted work done, he said "I can't help you, sorry". The truck had spotlights that had a short in them. I asked about it and was given a shoulder shrug, a sigh, and then a frown. "Sorry, but that new truck you purchased doesn't come with all the bells and whistles"

You mean like basic set up? I had to argue with him about correcting the lights. Freaking ARGUE with the guy about fixing something that was simple and cheap to fix. Hey buddy! I just bought a freaking brand new big rig off your lot and the lights don't work! Fix it! Fix it now!

Then there were broken plastic pieces in the cab. Guess what? Fix it! Fix it now! Stop frowning and shrugging your shoulders like it's not your problem and fix it before a big black boot appears and plants itself somewhere you won't like it to be!

Next came the almost year long saga of having a (what turned out to be simple electrical problem) switch problem in my dash fixed. They would rather keep on replacing $50 - $100 switches in my dash instead of finding the cause for them going out. They replaced around 15 of them. That is somewhere in the neighborhood of around $500 - $1000.00 in switches to you and me and they wouldn't fix the cause of the problem.

I talked to the service writer in Phoenix, AZ and he said "We replaced the switch, but can't find a problem"

Hmmmm. You have replaced my dash switches 15 times and you don't see THAT as a problem????!!!??? Seems to me that you would rather wait until my warranty runs out and then try to bill me for it and then charge me for the switches on top of that.

I had an old 90's model Freightliner and they would happily take my money and work on it for hours and hours all the while billing me for every second, but when you say "Warranty" a red flag goes up and all the service writers disappear. "Oh well we can't find the problem so we are just going to change a switch and send you on your way"

So armed with a long list of broken switches, I called the corporate office and talked to an engineer. They called the local Freightliner where I live and I went there to have it fixed. Guess what? This scary problem that no one wanted to fix was just a bad ground from the alternator to the frame. It put out 14 volts and had no other symptoms, so no mechanic could figure it out. Most of everyone I talked to said it was probably some detailed electrical problem in the dash that was going to take hours and hours to find.

So Freightliner wouldn't listen to me (the idiot veteran with 2 million miles of experience behind the wheel) and instead of spending 1 day checking basic diagnostics, replaced $500 - $1000.00 in switches and somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 labor hours at $105.00 per hour. Thank goodness I wasn't paying for it

And they cost me a couple of weeks of downtime for whatever reason, I still don't know. Maybe because they are morons?

So here is the last of this long story. I have been complaining about this problem since the truck had 6000 miles on it. Just like clockwork, whatever switch was replaced went out every month to month and a half. I have extensive records of all maintenance perfomed on the truck and it was all done well before the required time it had to be done. Instead of service every 25,000 miles, I did it at 15,000 miles. Keep in mind that this problem has been in existence since it was new and it had been reported every month since it was new and they never fixed the source of the problem. Here you go:

"Sir, you have 100,321 miles on your truck and you were due to have the 100,000 mile M2 service done 321 miles ago which is the service which checks for bad charging systems so I am afraid that this might not be covered under warranty"



So I have been complaining about this problem for 10 months now and you have patched it up every time and not found the source and you think that you can hide behind 321 miles?

You think that you are going to void my new truck's warranty because of a 321 miles? I would LOVE to get your tail in court, so please please please void my warranty. I can't wait until this is heard in front of a room of people. Can you say "local news media attention"? Part of me hopes that they try to stick it to me so that I can sue them and retire early. I hate evil snakes.

Can you say attorney at law?

I am only lucky in that I have never had a serious mechanical problem with this truck like a bad cylinder or screwy computer. Heaven help me if that ever happens. What you aren't seeing here is the apathetic stance that the Freightliner dealers take with their customers and the over 100 hours I have had the misfortune of wasting in phone calls, waiting in line at the dealers, hotel rooms, rental cars, and just basically being ignored and pushed to the side like some loser asking for a hand-out. I don't ask for hand-outs. I work hard and I give a SERVICE to people who pay me. I believe in CUSTOMER SERVICE unlike the people who work at Freightliner.

I have no problems with the actual mechanics that work there. Every one of them I have dealt with has done good work and been honest. It is the service writers and the head honchos that run the dealerships that are snakes. They allow their sales staff and service writers to lie, steal, and push the envelope on how far you can be screwed without them losing a lawsuit.

What bothers me even more is that there are other truckers out there who will put up with this #### and don't complain. This is MY business and I take it seriously. If you don't stand up for yourself, then you make it harder for people like me to get the respect we deserve. The respect that we have earned.

I have local people who work for me outside of the dealerships and , like my old truck, will be using them as soon as the warranty is up. I have no plans to ever buy a Freightliner again....

 

I have brought all of this to the attention of the GM at FYDA and have been thouroughly ignored. I appreciate you sticking up for your people, but too little too late.

 

They both did it and neither one wanted to solve the problem. 2 shops. One where I live, one where I bought the truck. I kept it simple. Both shops know where I live and where I bought the truck. And both shops could have called each other and helped this take a lot less time than it did. I would do that. I would try to make the customer happy. That is what I do. That is why I have a successful business. You see I am not a tough customer. I just expect a good honest days work for what I pay and a salesperson who ignores everything I ask for and doesn't give a flip about my issues is a waste of my time and frankly a threat to my business. Like I said, thank goodness I haven't had any issues so far with the engine or transmission. I see that Freightliner is laying off workers who have been with them for 20 plus years and moving their factories to Mexico. I don't like that either.

http://www.katu.com/news/local/37374909.html


Maybe a giant shake up will force Freightliner to change its operations around and they will shed their baggage and start giving a #### about the customers again. I have always driven Freightliners because I like the truck itself and I will probably keep the truck I have until well over 1 milion miles. I had 1,300,000 out of my last one and it was still running strong when I traded it in. I can only hope that by then, they will have redeemed themselves. I hate to see my fellow American's laid off and I am sorry to see it happening. I can say this. Be good to your customers and they will come back to you. Ride your high horse around and toot your own horn all the time and you will end up in the ditch with no one around to help you out.