Taking the plunge. My journey as an O/O.

Yeah. I'm not terribly pleased. The new estimate came up at around 17k, 13k or so to them, based on the warrantee. They responded a while back with an authorization of a bit over 11k.

I've asked for clarification on where their authorization and my calculations differ, but I've not seen a response yet. I'm going to sleep on it.

Eating 2k that I shouldn't, in order to get back on the road, might be worth it. Lawyer fees would also likely eat up 2k before I got any sort of return, even just a settlement.

I will talk to Crete in the AM. Crete sells a lot of trucks to o/o, and TruNorth warrantees a lot of those trucks. The o/o team have already pushed the Freightliner estimate from before (with new parts) through the Crete shop in Lincoln for an analysis of costs and found it to be in-line with dealership costs, so the new costs with cheaper parts and no freight costs are going to be in line with dealership repair costs as well.

Crete also has a representative who deals with TruNorth, and I have been advised that they have intervened admin-to-admin in the past for drivers in situations like mine. Since I haven't blown my stack either on the phone or in emails, there won't be a recorded call or email that TruNorth can use to make me look like a tard.

In addition, the Crete o/o team has advised that they are willing to use Crete's parts discounts to mitigate the costs to me that the warrantee company will not cover. No parts other than the Cylinder head and EGR cooler will be covered by warrantee, but there's a couple grand worth of gaskets, seals, and little fiddly bits, pipes, and hoses, plus there will need to be a full coolant system flush, and an oil change to get the glycol and water contamination out of the oil. The fuel should be fine. The engine never even through a water-in-fuel error, the fuel was just pink. I'll put some dewatering treatment in the tank and have the fuel filter changed the next time I get the oil changed, which will be not long after this work is done, as I want to be sure to clean out the crap in the oil as a result of this entire mess.

At this point, I suspect that the only way I'm going to get a fair authorization from TruNorth is if Crete chooses to poke them. Even then, I'll probably simply get something of a compromise.

In the end, however, I paid a bit less than 6k for this warrantee, and they are paying roughly twice that towards this repair. That's still a financial win (of sorts) for me, even counting the costs for me to stay in this hotel, and the lost (actual) income.

 

The work has not yet started because I did not accept the last authorization. There is a new authorization now, but I have not accepted it yet, and will not until Crete has a chance to have that admin-to-admin talk with TruNorth. Even if they can only get them to move 1k, it's still time well spent to wait a day for it, as that is 1k of pocket money, not income.

Once work begins, I'm hoping that can get everything done in two full shop days. We shall see.

The truck has 568318 miles on it. (I brought my current load book with me to the hotel room because it has lots of useful info written on the inside covers.)

 

Well,

Crete was not able to get TruNorth to move on their lowball coverage. The difference between the authorization and what they should be paying is about 2k, which is a small enough difference that I am simply going to put it behind me and move forward, with the only action on my part being a bad report to the BBB. Not enough money involved to sit on my ### another week, or enough to justify a lawyer's fees, and the time spent dealing with the lawyer.

So, I'll eat the 2k and move forward. My total contribution will be about 6k as it currently stands, which is easily doable, but still hurts. The warrantee was still a good investment for me, having paid out far more than I paid in for it, but it still irks me that they are lowballing the estimate and dodging their warrantee responsibilities.

However, not being a snowflake, and knowing that the world is not fair, I'm accepting reality for what it is, and moving forward, lessons learned. Lesson #1. TruNorth is a dirtbag, warrantee-dodging company that cannot be trusted. Lesson #2. Never volunteer causes of failure to a warrantee company.

My maintenance account allows me to utilize Crete's Pinnacle account for pricing, so my out of pocket will be a bit less than without using the Crete pricing, but I won't know how much less until Crete and Freightliner/Pinnacle do their thing.

This Charlie Foxtrot is one of the scenarios that I imagined on day 1. While I was hoping NOT to be exposed to this type of learning, the chances were good that I would be. While painful, it's part of being an owner.

Next time there is significant work to be done on the truck, I'll better understand the processes involved.

 

You might be right, but to be fair, I cannot recall at any point when Crete told me something that was untrue. Sometimes I have been told things that were unpleasant, but never untrue that I can recall, and I've definitely never caught them being actually dishonest with me.

I've extended my hotel out until Saturday AM. Hopefully that will be enough time, since they have started work.