So you are thinking about buying a Volvo

This is a repost from another forum. Enjoy
Thinking of buying a Volvo ???
My ex driver Ed sent me this via email.


Cambridge Mack & Volvo.
Mr. John Slotegraaf.
Mr. Bob Zettel.

Gentlemen,

I'd like to present you with a hypothetical situation. Let's assume the heating system in your building is in need of some minor repair and regular maintenance. The HVAC staff requires that the building is vacated when this work is done so you make an arrangements to have everybody stay at home on Friday to facilitate this request. Nobody is working, no work is being performed, there is no income for the company. But the furnace man instead of arriving at the appointed time of 7:00 AM, saunters into the building sometime mid-morning. and then when he should be finished what should've been routine work, informs you there's a problem and he'll have to order some parts.

In the meantime nobody can enter the building, there'll be no production and no income. But when this part comes and is installed he finds there's another problem, though he doesn't know what it is. And your building will remain vacant and unproductive. And this just goes on seemingly endless for days! Your business has come to a complete stop, totally unproductive. Your overhead costs, obligations to creditors and staff wages continue on unabated. Employees are sitting at home, everybody is upset.

Sounds like an intolerable, unimaginable situation? I would imagine there'd be some serious concerns raised and perhaps some voices heard. After all, this HVAC person is well trained and paid to perform his duties in an efficient manner. You're paying him big bucks not just for is work, but for his knowledge and efficiency to perform at a minimal acceptable level. It's no wonder you'd be up in arms, just livid, and I'd totally agree.

But yet this is exactly what has happened to me.

I'd made an appointment earlier last week to have an unidentified water leak repaired on my truck and, while the truck was in your shop, to perform minor service and an annual inspection too. The truck was scheduled for 7:00 AM on Friday morning. But I was going to be finished earlier than anticipated that week and I called to inform your staff that I could be there Thursday afternoon in case they could get the truck in earlier. No expectations, just hoping to minimize my downtime and improve efficiency. This is my absolute busy time of the year, I'm trying to minimize my downtime when I need to be making maximum productivity. And the truck was indeed dropped off on Thursday.

But when I called mid-morning on Friday to inquire about the status of my truck, it was still parked outside where I'd left it the day before. Totally untouched and not even looked at or started. It was just casually brought in after that sometime. And then when someone called me later that day in the afternoon, not that it was done and ready to go, but it needed a part brought in to satisfy the safety. But I was assured the truck would be ready to go that evening before the shop closed. O.k., I can deal with that. I arranged to pick the truck up Saturday morning as it was scheduled to go on a productive trip that night.

But when I came on Saturday morning to pick the truck up it was still inside the shop, not done. And it wouldn't start and it seemed to me there wasn't any overly concern to work with this. Nobody seemed to know what the problem was. I'm certainly no mechanic and I'd hesitate to second guess the opinions of professional technical staff, but it would seem to me when I'm paying $100.00 per hour I could reasonably expect to have some specific answers. After all your shop is well equipped with a myriad of diagnostically computerized analytical equipment, none of it cheap I suspect, and numerous well trained technicians. But everybody seemed baffled as to why this truck wouldn't start. I certainly wasn't going to give you an answer I didn't know.

I cannot begin to tell you the embarrassment of having to phone my contract employer on Saturday afternoon that I wasn't able to perform the contract I had committed to do that weekend. The situation this left me and my customer in was intolerable! They were extremely upset with me, and rightfully so. Now it's easy to pass this off as "things happen with trucks", but I don't accept this cop out. I am, like my customer, extremely upset.

Now here it is the following Wednesday. The truck has now been down in my most productive season for almost a week already. And still nobody seems to know what ails this machine and what the solution is. It is an almost intolerable experience! And I need an answer, not just for myself but for my contract employer too.

It seems to me that the new trucks nowadays are far better built than trucks used to be. The performance and comfort level are the best I've ever encountered in my trucking experience, when all is well. But it has also been my experience and observation that although the drivelines and trucks may be much better and last longer, the electronics and other peripherals' are the most unreliable parts I've ever encountered in over 40 years. Is it perhaps that most of these parts are stamped "Made in Mexico"?

And this is not the first time my truck has been held hostage or 'derated' due to the malfunction of some stupid little, seemingly insignificant electronic part. Situations such as this where a productive truck can be held hostage over an electronic sensor or any minor part seem too commonplace and unacceptable. I'm amazed there isn't a greater uproar in the trucking community. I know for sure I'm livid and sick and tired of the unreliability of these small electronic parts that can hold a perfectly good productive truck hostage.

Please respond as to when I can expect this truck to be back in productive service.

Sincerely,
Ed Wesselius.
Guelph, ON.

cc. Ms. Debbie Smith, Volvo North America.