Are you getting the proper repair?????

This. Also as a service writer I'd tell the customer to take it back to the expert giving them the advice.

 

if I am wrong I would sell all my trucks and wait for emails and phone calls and charge for my opinion.

 

You mean like I took my truck to a kW dealer for a rear hub seal with 280k miles, they said new pads and drum were required as a safety issue. $700.00. 2 weeks later the other side of same axel goes. Take it to diffrent location but same owners and its a waranty replacement and they will not change pads or drum "free". Now both these kw dealers are owned by the same owners and located about 70 miles apart. 1 said no waranty and have to replace brakes and drum to let it out of the shop other said free but pads and drums not nessasary.

Would you have known seal was still under waranty and what would your call on the pads and drum been? I know what my answer was but curious as to your call?

By the way the second fix the roller came out of the brake 200 miles down the road and locked it up!

What would you have suggested I do then?

 

This all happened a couple of weeks ago. The $700 was put on our account because I was not going to argue with the punk about the waranty I believed it would be covered under. Took used brake drum home with me. ( can steel drums get oil soaked) Second one reminded THEM of the coverage I knew the truck had and it was done under waranty. They then credited the previous repair minus the new drum cost ($119). When down I had t/a repar it in the middle of the night, took pictures and parts back to dealer that performed the work after the load, And made a deal for them to credit our account for 80% of the t/a bill. If I had waited till morning I'm sure they would have covered the whole repair.

Point is if YOU had enough knowlage to prevent the first bill I would have gladly paid you 1/2 the cost of the drum ($64) for the advanced knowlage.

I can't for the life of me know how a large kW dealer doesent know the terms of there own warranty!!!!!!!!! Service manager seemed shocked to see it was in fact covered. Wonder how many have paid and not known?

 

This is where it's tough, there are so many different coverages available for a truck when purchased, some are aftermarket and some are dealer or manufacturer. Freightliner has from ew-1 through ew-4 to cover the bare necessities or if you opt for the 4 it covers most everything. All the manufacturers do this and charge when purchased accordingly. The brake and drum being wet with gear oil is in fact illegal as far as the fmcsa is concerned and if you were allowed to leave and caused an accident they could somehow be held liable for letting you leave with a faulty brake they did the repair on so its not that they wanted to screw you it's the liability they have. Everyone wants to sue people so you can't blame them.

 

I know that, just asking what you would have advised I do in that particular senecio? Had someone hired you to perform the services you are describing would you have answered the phone all three times before authorized the repairs?

I think this might be helpful to someone who doesent have knowlage of the mechanics of a truck or no backbone of there own I guess. You would need to become very proficient in knowing all the different products though. I wish you the best of luck.

 

Somehow Freightliner Man if you could assemble mountains of invoices and repair information it would be possible to rate dealership service departments based on
1. Customer service / satisfaction
2. Willingness to make it right
3. Percentage of fixed correctly the 1st time
4. Percentage of time customers are overcharged

Funny how if businesses know someone is checking up on them they are more likely to get rid of employees who could care less about the customer.

 

Why did they replace the brake drum the second time? They could not have cleaned it?

I would be hot if they tried to sell me another brake job on work that was done 200 miles ago by a dealer tech especially with the roller falling out