I don't have a Diesel (yet) so I can't comment on that part, but you'll get plenty of info from the rest.

That being said, the thing I love about the dealership I work with is I have a direct contact, I can call him and say "Hey this is me with this car." and he knows who I am, what the car is, and probably even remembers the last time I was in there. I get plenty of advice when I ask for it. no cost, no "Well, bring the car in and we'll see" I get, "hold on, so and so is here and they're familiar with that" or "that sounds like something so and so would know" and I get so and so on the phone, talk to them for a bit, and usually figure out the problem on my own.

I also got great customer service when I needed wheels, they gave me a loaner no problem, even when they could have just driven me to work.

 

Need to be open later, oropen Saturday & Sunday

 

Ok so if you read my sig, you will see that I work at a dealership. I want to hear your answers to 4 questions:

1. What is your biggest gripe about the service department that you visit.
Well, I only had to visit once (ended up a TSB flash) the service mgr was nice and knowledgeable. Now, when he was out, the otehr folks seemed to have trouble giving me an update onthe state of my truck..
I recommend that they keep better records and make sure person B can fill in/pickup when person A is out.

2. Same question about the parts department.
I havent had to deal with parts departments very much. My last experince with Dodge and Honda were good. Ford, not so much.

3. What would be something that you would like to see the service department do or offer you to make your visits more frequent or more pleasant.
I dont let goober at the quicky lube touch my truck.
If you want to work on my truck, you need to know more about it than me. Make the service more convenient. be it easier, faster or more flexible. I'll pay a reasonable amount for good service and if you are really good, i'll go out of my way to use you.
What services do you offer?

If you are working on fixing a problem, keep me informed. Dont make me hunt you down, that just pisses me off. If you don't know what the problem is, tell me you dont know.
If you can't adequestlyrelay what the technician has found, let him talk to me directly.

4. Same question about the parts department.

What do you offer? I buy parts from Genos cause they stock what i need. Do you stock the same quality parts for the do-it-yourselfers? I cant get that stuff at Autozone, etc but you could be more convenient than Genos (they are good though )
You dont have to have the cheapest price but be competative.

 

Here are a few things:

If I have an appointment and I arrive on time, why does my truck sit in the parking lot for 3 hours before it's taken back to be worked on? Excuses like "We're overbooked today" and "The technician was late to work" just don't cut it.

Last time I had my truck in I asked the service writer to check and see if there was an updated flash that my truck needed. The response I got was, "There needs to be a specific problem, you can't just ask for a flash update." Huh??!?? I told the service writer that I knew there were numerous problems with the new 6.7 and the DPF and I was just trying to stay ahead of them. I actually had to talk with the service manager to get the flashes performed which, it turned out, there were two new ones that the truck needed.

All dealership employees need to treat their customers with dignity and respect.

 

1. What is your biggest gripe about the service department that you visit.
Questionable work..... I go in and get 4-5 phone calls with other "problems" I tell them no and years pass with no problem.... (I have not had any trouble with this but other people I know had) Our local dodge dealership has sent out a few repaired vehicles that have had this or that replaced. Well when the owner inspects the replaced part it is just as dirty as their old one and looks like the bolts were never taken off.

2. Same question about the parts department.
The parts department (even though its overpriced) has been pretty knowledgeable(for the most part) when it comes to parts. I really cannot complain about them other than some of their attitudes tend to suck.

3. What would be something that you would like to see the service department do or offer you to make your visits more frequent or more pleasant.
Get the work done faster. Call about legit problems(because more than likely the owner knows about the problem before they take it in). Call about any delay that may cause me to get my vehicle a few days later instead of me calling them and getting POed.

4. Same question about the parts department.
Better attitudes and don't think that just because someone is under 25 they are going to waste your time asking prices on parts.

 

This is the biggest problem in my opinion, I manage 170+ Employees and finding good people who actually give a crap would eliminate half of th BS you get from the Service/Parts departments

 

I agree with most everyone here. I take my truck in ask about a tsb. I have to show the service manager the tsb and provide him with the #. I am not a certified diesel mech, but I have found there are only a select few dealerships that have a actual diesel mechanic that really knows a diesel engine and the diferances between the diferant years. I am pretty possitive I have a bad injector. If I could actually get them to test it I would bet the labor 1 or more would not pass. Its not terrible now but I know with only 15k on the truckI shouldn't behaving to beg them to check it out when you can hear it from across the lot. As usualI will save my money and buy a set from somone other than Dodge and install them myself.With all the technology now on these new engines, its great. But at the dealer if no idiot light is on (wich is set to go off byDC and not by Cummins), there is not a thing wrong! Kinda defeats the purpose of the technology.

I work on airplanes. If I screw up something, people can be KILLED. I refuse to pay another mechanic 2 times what I make to work on a truck!! Not saying that dealers should charge 8 bucks a hour for labor, but 80 - 100 a padded hour?? And not to say that auto mechs are not worth what they make. I am pretty sure the mechanics are not seing even half of what the dealer charges.

I have had no problems with the parts people at all. I do think if the prices were loweror even close to what others charge, they would sell alot more filters, brakes, ect. I am spending my money at Geno's and shipping companies.

 

1. What is your biggest gripe about the service department that you visit.

They are only open Monday-Friday. I think they would get a lot more business if they were open on weekends, or at least Saturdays...you know, the days when the customers are off work and can bring their vehicle in.

I hate being told to bring my truck in for work (and having to get a rental car to go back and forth to work in the mean time) only to find out my truck has sat all week and no one has looked at it because they were "too busy" with other work. Helllooo....you just cost me $175 in rental car fees for nothing.

Get diesel techs that know what they are doing and do not try to BS me. Get mechanics that are knowledgeable about the vehicles as a whole (not just an engine). My 2004 QC 2500 CTD has the annoying buzzing/waaa waaa sound at 70MPH. No one in the service department can either "feel what I say is there" (which is crazy because it distorts everything in the rear view mirror and is strongest in the steering wheel), or the ones that say they can have no idea what the problem is after three weeks of "looking" at the truck. Funny, I can view this forum and find all sorts of potential issues (and fixes) yet none of these techs know any of this. When I try to mention them, the service department guy says "oh, I'll make sure they check that" and then never do.

Someting that I've never seen when taking a vehicle in for non-warantee work until I bought a Dodge..."shop supply" fees. WTF? I get charged for the parts, I get charged for the labor, then I also get charged for "shop supplies". $4.50 for a couple paper towels? Ridiculous.

2. Same question about the parts department.

Price, obviously. "Genuine MOPAR" parts must be gold plated. I always try to by aftermarket when possiblebecause in many cases the parts are better than OEM and certainlycheaper.

Attitude. The few dealings I've had with the parts guys have left me feeling like it was a great bother for them to help me.


3. What would be something that you would like to see the service department do or offer you to make your visits more frequent or more pleasant.

Personally, I think the goal is to be as infrequent as possible. If I have to visit them frequently, I may be looking to buy a different brand of vehicle.

Open on weekends. Do the work you tell me you are going to do in a timely manner. DO NOT make me drop off my truck on Monday, get a rental car and come back on Friday only to find the truck hasn't been touched. If you do that, then suck up the rental car cost because it isn't my fault you can't manage your business.

4. Same question about the parts department.

A little "customer service" attitude would be nice. Cheaper prices, of course.

 

I have only one complaint about the dealer/tech, he is competent but uninformed does not know the computer and all the available programing options.

suggestion; have a Cummins owners meeting every month with the tech and the local Cummins rep. to meet and greet and swap problems and solutions. I otherword be proactive preach what it takes to keep warrentee valid help owners avoid situations that void the warrentee. Work up the enthuasim that these motors inspite in all of us and use it as a sales tool.
Invite prospective buyers to meetings, sales person would then not look stupid when the dont know a thing about the truck.

 

1. What is your biggest gripe about the service department that you visit.
They lie to you and they don't know anything. I had a synchro go out in my transmission, I decided to rebuild it myself. I called to see how much one would cost, and how long it would take to get one. I told the guy that I needed the synchro ring for 5th gear in a NV5600 transmission. First the guy told me it didn't exist, then he told me it wouldcost 850 bucks. Iactually laughed at him andasked him what he was trying to sell me. He told me the input shaft. I told him I didn't want the input shaft,just thering, he said you couldn't get just that.When I tore it apart in my grandpa's shop I found I had a bearing was out. Iordered the bearing from the dealer by him and when I went to pick it up the nextdaytheyalso ordered the ring for mewithout me asking because they said if the bearing was out, usually thesynchroring was shot as well. I didn't even ask them to order it, but they did because they knew the system. Ialready had it so I told them Ididn't actually need it and they were fine with that. So the small town dealer that gets parts from the same supply store in the Twin cities but is 200 miles away vs the one that is close to my house and just 45 miles away from the supply store can get parts that my dealership can't? I highly doubt that. Another time they lied to me. My temp control stopped working, I took it to them to diagnose. They said it was one of the internal doors that was broken. They said they checked all the motors and controls. I wasn't going to pay the 1200 bucks they wanted to fix it so I ordered a shop manual and just looking at the diagram of the system I can tell you the only internal door it can be, all the rest have absolutely nothing to do with temperature.I tore it all apart and the door was fine, it was just the coupler between the door and the motor. I fixed it put it all back together, luckily my uncle has all the A/C system stuff so I could evacuate the system without being ripped off and it breaks a week later. This time I can hear a clicking noise, guess what, it was the motor that was broken and you could see it without even taking a thing apart once you knew where to look. The motor just went in circles, so that tells me they didn't even look at the motor. This next one was my mom's truck, 99 automatic. It started shifting really poorly, I was stationed 1000 miles away so she took it to the dealer. I don't remember what part the dealer said it was, but they said they replaced something and changed the tranny fluid, 3 weeks later it started doing the same thing (gear hunting between 40 and 50 unless you got in the throttle fairly hard). Mom decided she would just live with it because the last time it was 600 bucks and only lasted 3 weeks. She took the truck to Pennzoil or Jiffy Lube or whatever the place is called now, just a 10 minute place. They do their 40 point inspection and they said they hadn't seen transmission fluid that bad in a really long time. They changed it and mom hasn't had a problem since, so I highly doubt they changed anything in the first place. I will no longer do any sort of business with that dealership (Red Wing MN) as they don't know what they are talking about and will straight up lie to your face. On the other hand the small town dealership by my grandpa's house, they are trust worthy, from what I've seen know what they are talking about, and they are faster at getting parts even though the distance is farther. I'd rather drive 250 miles to go to them than the 10 minutes it takes to get to the one by my house. They are the only dealership I've ever been to that is like that though. The ones in CO also were pretty poor.

2. Same question about the parts department.
Peopledon'tknow the system, if I can give them the part number off of the bearing that is bad, they should be able to find it with out me eventually just asking to see a diagram and pointing it out to them.

3. What would be something that you would like to see the service department do or offer you to make your visits more frequent or more pleasant.
Get techs that know diesels and trucks in general.

4. Same question about the parts department.
Learn the system and technical knowledge would also be good.