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We got Rammed!

6K views 50 replies 17 participants last post by  sonocativo 
#1 ·
My dad just bought a brand new 2011 Ram 1500 ST Quad cab 4x4 5.7 v-8 hemi 5-speed trans on Monday and drove it home. On Tuesday, he took it to meeting and the back end started shaking and bouncing around like crazy on a smooth paved road as if he had a blowout. He had put about 14 miles on it from the dealer and took it back home. The tires were fine. He looked underneath and saw scratches, dings and marks that show the rear end had been up on a lift. He's put a total of 15 miles on the vehicle and had to have it towed back to the dealer. Someone knew this truck had a problem and frauded my father when they sold it as a new vehicle and I am mad as hell. Where do I go and what do I do to get this resolved immediately?
 
#3 ·
i would think chrysler head office would be a good place to start but i would be sooooo pissed and i would bring that truck back and leave it and prolly go buy one from a different place cuz thats a pretty big issue
 
#4 ·
First place to go is to the GM (with your father) at the dealer with a cool head and facts- leave the emotion in check. This will usually get you further than going in with guns blazing....

After that, you have the corporate ladder to climb (dealership owner, regional rep, etc)...
 
#5 ·
I need to have the corporate numbers in my back pocket. Anyone have them?

My dad paid cash for this truck and we can't just leave it and tell them to stick it. He took photos of everything because he's a retired mechanic and knows what things should look like and what he saw was not a new truck.

Having those numbers might save us from threatening a lawsuit which we'll do if we need. In the meantime I'll tell everyone, everywhere about our experience until it gets resolved to total satisfaction!

Any help or info is greatly appreciated!
 
#8 ·
Start your documentation now. Take many pics of the marks under the truck. Go first back to the dealership and start with the manager and document everything. Dates, times, people, dialogue etc etc etc. And like what was said earlier, be civil...we understand you are upset, and rightly so, but keep a cool head! Guns a blazin should be your last and final option! Best of luck to you and your father.
 
#9 ·
Wow, that really sucks, very sorry to hear about your situation! I agree with what has been said so far, having a cool head and dealing with them rationally when you talk to them will definitely go a long way until you feel like you're getting the runaround. Document EVERYTHING as has been said and just follow the chain of command, starting with the dealership. That way, when/if Chrysler has to get involved, they can see that you have taken what steps you could at that level and there still has been no resolution but best of luck to you and be sure to keep us posted!

- Cajun
 
#10 ·
Start documenting everything. When was the truck built. Did it have the k39 recall. If it had the recall, the dealer then had teh dif open!!!! Where do you live. Sounds like my shady dealer.
 
#12 ·
actually it sounds like it was damaged in route from the factory, either on the freight train or while being trucked
It is strange that no one at the dealership caught it, unless someone at the dealership did it while it was on a hoist

I think that i might be thinking about Buy Back, they sold you damaged goods & that would always be on my mind, i could not trust that vehicle
 
#15 ·
Thanks for the info, everyone. And yes, dad is a bit obsessive with pics. He took one of the odometer before it left the dealer and one when it was being towed away. He's got multiple shots of the marks under the truck. He's probably got pics of each drop of gas he put in it, I don't know.

Actually, it went from bad to worse when I talked to the service manager on behalf of my dad. My dad was too upset to talk to anyone and asked me to handle it, besides, he can't hear well on the phone(years of working in noisy diesel shops). The service mgr said he test drove it 20 miles and there was no problem or shaking. I told him what my dad said and how he felt that there was something wrong in the rear end and what it felt like and the fact that my dad was a mechanic and knew what things should and shouldn't look like. (Heck, he's not your average schmo, he fixed trucks for a living.)

I told him my dad gave a good tug on each of the wheels and heard a clank and felt play in the rear tire/suspension area(I didn't remember which side, but said if he'd just check them, they'd find it). But the svc manager didn't even listen to me and talked over me as I was explaining and he argued with me about what my dad said and treated me like an idiot(I am a girl, I must be stupid). He didn't even listen to what I was saying. He was a total ass and if he thought I was a raging lunatic, he should have passed me off to his boss, under the circumstances, and when he suggested I speak to the owner of the dealership, I agreed and asked him to transfer me. Then he went to a rage that I couldn't just talk to Mr. Oz< I mean Johnson, I'd need to call and get an appointment and I asked for the number and waited until the line went dead.

I'll mention again, there was NO blowout, it just felt like the whole rear end was coming apart and my dad had only put 15 miles on the vehicle and the dealer had the truck AND the 35k in cash from my dad and they're going to treat me like that? Bad, bad move.

So dad found the cust svc # for corporate and I called and the woman I spoke to(Sue) couldn't have been nicer! She documented the issue, the rough handling at the dealer, my dad's feelings and fears and empathized with my dad's lack of confidence in the vehicle and said she'd see what she could do to resolve the issue AND she'd get back to me by Monday at the latest.

Now that's what I needed to hear. I feel much better having talked with the corporate office and she assured me that they would do everything they could to satisfy my dad. I told her all they needed to do is supply the vehicle that he ordered in the condition one would expect of a truck that was just driven out of the showroom. Not too much to ask, is it? I want nothing more than to come back and say that Dodge is a solid, honest and reputable company that stands behind their vehicles.

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
#16 ·
Someone at the dealership will be getting a polite ass chewing
I would have to believe that a factory Rep will be in touch

Sounds like you handled it correctly
 
#17 ·
Great avenue of approach, Dodged...you (IMO) have made the correct strides!! Please keep us up to date. Again, best wishes for you and your Dad!
 
#19 · (Edited)
Updates:
It was sweet having the service manager argue and yell at me about what my dad said until I had to yell back, "Please listen to me!"

... Regardless of how poorly a person does or does not behave when their 24 hr old vehicle becomes a deadly hazard at 55 mph on a highway, a service manager should NEVER, EVER yell at a customer or refuse to listen to an explanation of where the problem came from or the area of the vehicle where it might be found in. And a service manager should never, ever consider a simple test drive as the single holy grail of deciding if a customer is 'over-reacting'. Which, by the way, the salesman told my dad he 'personally' thought dad was 'over-reacting' when dad returned the svc depts' call today. Of course, svc had already left for the day, just minutes after their call. Dad told the salesman, "Over-reacting? If you were in the truck when the rear end started hopping all over the road, you would have jumped out!"

I don't expect that the selling dealer knew of a problem with the vehicle but the dealer it was shipped from(220 miles away in the next state) most probably does and that's where the real question of fraud comes from. Did they know there was a problem and were they thrilled to pass it off to another dealer to sell to my dad?

We can't ignore a major problem like this and have an accident or have a useless vehicle a year from now. My dad brought his truck home Monday at about 3:30 pm and broke down tuesday around noon. The dealer has had it since they towed it back and we have no answers or any idea if/when we'll get it fixed/replaced or if we'll need to see a lawyer, until we talk to the rep at corporate on Monday.

My dad has a silly amount of pics of this truck as well as pics of paper work, odometer readings etc. So here are just a few. I really was amazed at how many pics he had and I had no idea the 'marks' were so obvious. I'm no mechanic and I've never had the desire or privilege to crawl under a new car but does anyone else think a day old vehicle should not look like this?









 
#21 ·
Something fishy on the rear end, it is rusty, but the brake cable looks new so the rear end has been changed out? the diff cover shows it has been serviced ( gasket sealer on bolts and oozing out the cover ) and looking at the side of the bed, you can see there was some repair, the top rail of the fence in front of the well has a "jump" in it where the body has been repaired but not perfectly... apparently this truck was hit in the side at one time or another dented the bed as well as prbly damaged the axle so the axle was probly poorly repaired or replaced with another damaged axle thinking it was good because some placed buy salvage yard parts since they get a steep discount, and whoever did it did it under the table or "hid" the damage ( possibly traded in to the un suspecting dealer ) there are lots of possible reasons.... but to me it looks like there was a cover up... if it was done at a reputable place there will be a car fax on it... if done at a small shop or DIY then it wouldnt show up on car fax.
Does the title show factory new or was there a previous purchaser? (Dates on title will show when transfered )
 
#22 ·
Good eye sonocativo. I didn't notice any of that. Looks like it could have been tboned in the bed possibly during a test drive or when a salesman took it home. Look up the car fax and see if it's on there or the dealer that traded it to the dealer you bought it at could've fixed it at their shop or a shop they're partnered with and not reported it
 
#25 ·
I would go to a reputable mechanic for an evaluation of just what exactly is wrong with the truck. Then, you will know what it will take to resolve the situation. Otherwise, you're talking about scratches and a bumpy ride. Also, when you know the straight story, chances are better you can actually see that the problem has been fixed by looking at what was done to fix it.
 
#28 ·
I'm surprised you can figure all that out by a few pics but again, what do I know...? It explains why my dad took so many pics and why he was convinced that someone tried to fix this vehicle and maybe didn't find the problem and passed it off to dad's dealer. If the problem existed with the transferring dealer and the selling dealer was unaware, it in no way excuses the selling dealer for their behavior.

I have a few more pics that I didn't post because nothing looked obvious to me but maybe you guys would see something in them. I didn't mention before, but dad said he thought the odometer may have been rolled back to hide an issue because there was even a coffee stain on the rear door handle and hairs in the back seat. I figured they could have come from people testing the car at the dealership... Maybe, maybe not. And if the hairs came from the dealership it would probably have more miles on it than the 223 it had when dad took delivery. Especially since the dealer it was driven from is exactly 220.6 miles from the selling dealer, not including stops to pee(see GPS routing pic on photobucket). I thought dad was silly to take so many pics, but maybe he was right.

Here's the link for photobucket of the pics I uploaded. I didn't upload all the documents and signed stuff for obvious reasons. http://s1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee449/dadsram/

Some pics:


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