Hello, I'm new to the forum. I would like to share my experience in hopes of saving other's the headaches and money that I encounterd in dealing with a Dodge dealership and taking them to small claims court. I'm also wondering if others have gone through this, all comments/opinions welcome. The following is what I posted on FB.

 

This is why I don't do small claims court. It REALLY helps to have a lawyer there, that actually has an idea about how the system works. But, for 140 bucks, I wouldn't bother. I would just find another dealer to go see, even if I had to drive some more miles to get there.

 

Yes, lesson learned. I'm the type of person that if I feel I've been ripped off, taken advantage of, I will pursue my legal rights even for $140. I did contact two Lawyers after filing my complaint. First one said it would be a conflict of interest to represent me and the second one never returned my calls. Made a complaint to FCA also, they said they would file my complaint, I responded with "is that all you do and will I hear any thing back" as of yet I've not gotten a reply. Needless to say I will not be doing anymore business with that dealership and after owning Dodge vehicles all my life, I will never buy another one. Just want people to understand how the courts look out for Big Business and how the cards are marked and stacked against individuals. Thanks for your opinion.

 

I have successfully fought 'big business' in small claims... but, it wasn't fun. It's mostly about luck of the draw. If you get a decent judge, you have a chance. If not, you don't.

 

You're in the wrong spot, this should be in 4th gen.

 

Valid point. Moving it.

 

Good to know there are decent judges out there. The one I had, I felt belittled me every time I tried to speak and present my case, he even told a joke about a guy ordering or looking for a woman online and it didn't turn out as he expected, of corse the dealership owner laughed as he thought this was funny. I didn't say anything at the time but I did not find it funny and felt the judge was not comparing apples to apples and was very bias in favor of the car dealership. So yeah my bad luck.

 

100% markup for parts is not at all abnormal in any service industry in fact its the norm in my line of work as far as what the manufacturers suggested retail price be vs what my employers paid when I worked for previous employers..... some things are much more. I just paid $9 each for new fobs with shipping... dealership charges about $250 each I believe. sometimes aftermarket and OEM manufacturers are one in the same.
I dont know what the details of this scenerio were but in some cases, when you replace or adjust one thing it can cause another to fail shortly afterwards. I work on machinery and have run into this situation from time to time. When doing time and material work we quote estimates but make no guarantee that there might not be additional costs. when it comes to compression fitting and hoses this is often why some places wont even mess with adjusting or tightening without replacing them at a much higher cost unfortunately.
That said, if the failure was the actual replaced part the dealership provided then the additional work should have been on them to correct.

 

I knew they all marked up their parts, just was not aware it was that much and consider normal, so thanks for that info. I was an industrial state certified maintenance mechanic for over 37 years and if I would have pulled apart or rebuilt a machine and not replaced seals that are critical to the function and to prevent leaks I would not have had a job in that field for very long. In this case the dealership pulled apart the power steering pump and reservoir, but did not replace the seals between the two because they said they could not get them, but after talking with the parts place where the dealership gets their parts from they only sell the pumps and reservoirs as one unit because of this issue. The truck was 18 years old and anyone with common sense know's if you pull things apart you will do damage to the seals and they should be replaced. The dealership actually created a much worse leak that what it was when I took the truck in the first place. When I tried to explain all this to the judge he responded that this is all hear say. It discussing this issue with the owner of the dealership he stated that replacing the seals is not required by Dodge, I stated that Dodge is wrong and given the same circumstances 99% of the time it's going to leak, the parts place understands this which is why they only sell them as one unit. Others on this forum have experienced the same issues on these pumps/reservoirs. I understand what you are saying about working on machinery and agree with you. IMO this was just poor workmanship, ripping me off and the Courts letting the dealership get away with it.

 

a third party inspection from another shop may have helped. the seals should be replaced. You paid for a repair and did not get one.


I never put new pumps to old reservoirs anymore....they always leak somewhere down the line..gm, dodge ford. buy a built assembly.