Chrysler Customer Service?

Hi,

I've been having problems with a local Chrysler dealership to whom I had
taken my car for repairs a few weeks ago. To put it bluntly, without
going into much detail, they did NOT fix the problem (a problem with the
car not starting intermittently). I'm out in excess of $1,000. I've
tried dealing with the dealership management and have also called the
1-800 customer service line to no avail. Is there a name, number, or
address of someone higher up in Chrysler whom I could contact? I asked
the customer service representative, but he stated he could not disclose
such information. Thank you for your help.

 

What did they do in attempts to correct your vehicles issue??

 

You would have to go thru the proper channels as you are doing now, may I
ask what Year/make your vehicle is and what the symptoms are?

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

The repair should be under warranty. If put on a credit card in the US you
may be able to threaten the dealership that you will ask the credit card
company for a chargeback if they don't fix the car properly.

 

First of all, let me go a little more in depth as to my situation. I
have a 1998 Chrysler Sebring JX convertible. I had been having off and
on problems with the car not starting intermittently as I stated
earlier. The car would crank fine, but it would just not turn over
occasionally. Once it would run, however, it would usually run for
sometimes weeks at a time.

I had taken the car to two local mechanics who were unable to diagnose
the problem. The one mechanic suggested I take the car to a dealership
as they have far more elaborate testing equipment (that--- coupled with
the fact that Chrysler techs work on these cars day in and day out would
eventually put my mind at ease that this problem would be solved---boy
was I wrong). I held off for a few days as the car was running. Then low
and behold, I went out one morning to go to work and it would not start.
I then had the car towed to Chrysler.

Chrysler gets back to me and says the car will not start because it
needs a PCM (powertrain control module). Fine. I okay them to do the
work. It was over $1000, a lot of money, but my intention was to sell
the car anyway. I knew going in that I would pay top dollar to a
dealership, but I expected the problem to be solved.

They get back to me and tell me the car needs an additional $300 (this
basically entailed cleaning the fuel system). I okay this work as well.
Then as I am getting ready to go pick up the car a day or two later,
they call and tell me I need a catalytic converter. They wanted over
$900 more for this! I tell them not to do anymore work on the car, and I
will be over shortly to pick it up. They say the car is undriveable,
that it will stall out, (that's odd, I didn't have stalling problems
before taking it there), but it starts. I go over to pick the car up,
and it will not even start! I called around to numerous mechanics who
all agreed that the catalytic converter has nothing to do with the car
not starting.

After talking with the manager (a very condescending person) the
following day, he
assures me he will have the car running. Ironically, the tech who worked
on my car was out 'sick' for two days. Three days later they call and
tell me the car starts and runs. I pick it up and immediately take it to
have a converter put in by another mechanic. Two mechanics came to me
and said the converter was absolutely fine after I specifically took it
there to have one put in!

The car ran for three days, then it would not start. I called the
dealership, but they will not do anything. I got nowhere with customer
service.

What makes this even harder to swallow is the fact that I was even
contemplating buying another Sebring after this one was fixed and sold.
Two of my immediate family members have financed vehicles through
Chrysler financial recently. At this point, unless this issue is
resolved, I would NEVER recommend Chrysler to anyone. This is the
absolute worst customer service I've ever received.

 

Sounds like 5 star service. Screw the customer and get the highest bill.

DC doesn't have customer service or reliability.

 

wrote in 3233.bay.webtv.net:

You have no beef with anyone but the dealership, chry. is not even
involved unless under warrenty. You can go to small claims court if they
refuse to try to fix it. KB

 

thats what happens when mechinacs are paid flat rate

 

not everything is covered under warranty esp. after 3/36 has expired and u
should not EXPECT it to be

 

Most dealers warrant their repairs. The repairs did not do the job so
therefore they should fix them under the dealer repair warranty. I was NOT
referring to Chrysler new car warranty.

 

Sorry but that is not an excuse for crappy workmanship and the dealer is
still responsible to do the job right or refund his money.

 

Once again, Year/make and problems???

 

What makes this even harder to swallow is the fact that I was even

take it to the same dealer and trade it in, while its running of course.

 

He did not go to Chrysler he went to a dealer. A dealer is a privately owned
business.

 

Perhaps the original poster should identify the dealer and the location so
we know to avoid it. I'm thinking of buying a Pacifica but if that dealer's
in my area, U'll stay away.

 

Perhaps the OP should post what his complaint was so the readers could get
all the info?

 

There use to be a Zone Representative for Chrysler whose main job was to
arbitrate these types of disputes. Daimler bought Chrysler, I do not know.
I think it is very suspicious that they will not give you the name of the
zone representative. You might want to ask again and perhaps, although
this might take balls, ask in writing that they WILL NOT give you the name
of the zone representative. Maybe write it on the next oil change form
for them?

You can contain Chrysler directly to some degree. They have their website,
something like daimlerchysler.com. They may have phone number in their.

There may be the phone numbers for the corporate office so you can call
them directly in the USA, a regional office. I would assume the real
corporate office is now in Germany, but that is also a phone call away.
You can pursue it with Chrysler, but who knows now they are a German
company.

You can pursue it in small claims court.

You can also see if your state has a lemon law and if your car qualifies
for that. Something about so many fixes and they cannot fix it then they
have to take back the vehicle?

Who said he would not give you the name of the zone rep? The owner of the
place or the service manager? Some dealers are the pits. I have been to the
best and the worst.

I have used the zone rep, I forget why. Something about the paint peeling
on a brand new car. Everybody was pretty nice about it because it was
an honest, clean dealership. They did not hold it against me when I went
up the food chain.

But then I am a little different, marching to my own drum, bang bang...

 

Your experience is similar to the one I had with my then new '03 300m. Just
befor the 1000 mile mark the transmission would slam from 4th to third hard
enough to get the attention of people in the cars next to you. I brought it
to the dealer I bought it from and was told that evening that they could not
reproduce the problem, the Chrysler engineers had said that this was due to
the transmission being in a "learning" mode and to give it back and drive it
as is. I hadn't gone a mile and the problem manifest itself (the first time
it went from fourth to third) so I turned around and brought it back to the
dealer. After an aborted run around attempt by the service writer, I
insisted that a mechanic do a ride along or they could give me my money and
the keys to my old Grand Voyager back (I had the car less than a month).
The tech plugged in his DRM and we went for a ride. To make a long story
short, the tech reset the PCM parameters back to default which stopped the
shifting problem, and sent me on my way.

500 miles later, the problem expressed itself again. I got the usual run
around from the service writer, although I had been promised when I called,
that a mechanic would be available to ride along when I came in. The
service write "researched" the problem and said that this was a known
problem and that it would take 3 days to get it in and to bring the car back
(a tech had yet to lay eyes on my car at this point BTW). Since it was for
the most part undriveable, I told them to keep it and to rent me a
replacement for the 3 days. When the writer said she couldn't do that, I
insisted that she review the factory service contract.

Well they updated the firmware in the PCM as Chrysler wouldn't send them a
new one (it's their story and their sticking to it) and called me three days
later. My wife picked up the car during her lunch break. When I washed the
car the next day there was a deep scratch approx 9 in long on the right
front corner. It went through the color coat and into the soft bumper
panel.

I called them on Monday about the damage to the car (which I had bought new
from them less than two month prior) and they said they would have their
"touch up specialist" repair it. The resulting repair was worse than the
original damage!! After three attempts, the bumper was still splotchy and
had a surface texture of 400 grit sand paper. I took it across the street
to a collision shop that had done excellent work for me before and it cost
$700 to bring the bumper back to it's original finish - actually probably
better. The body shop mentioned that I was not the first victim of this
dealer that they had dealt with.

Well 1000 miles later, the transmission problem arose. I took it to a
dealer 25 miles away by manually shifting it to keep it out of 4th. They
called me that evening to tell me that they would need to replace the front
pump on the transmission under warranty and if I needed transportation, to
rent a car from a local company that Chrysler had a contract with and they
would reimburse me. I now drive the car 50 miles round trip to have my car
serviced rather than give the local dealer any whiff of my hard earned
money. The service attitude at this dealer is impeccible. When I show up
for an appointment, they take it right in and have me out of there in short
order. I checked the local dealers through the BBB before I took my car to
the 2nd dealer and they had been rated highly. The original one had
outstanding complaints.

After all this, as you might guess, my recommendation would be to talk to
another dealer (check BBB first) for the information that you want about the
complaint channels in DC. Be sure to tell them that complaint is about
another dealer.

Good luck. I apologize for the verbosity of this post but I hope it helps
your situation.

David B.

 

Well, this will continue the top-down posting tradition, shhh.

How true it is. Halfway through your literate and informative post,
complete with clean grammar, like the smell of a brand new car,
I thought, get thyself to another dealer.

It's amazing? I went to a local dealer. Sometime great, the parts man
and the service writer came out to help me for free. The next time,
the service writer, a female, apparently did not like the shape of my
face and was quite unhelpful to a fellow whose car might just not start.
I began to get a very bad feeling. They would help you for free but
once money was brought into the equation, their co-workers turned
into predatory sharks. Weird. Disappointing.

I did not go to the BBB, an excellent suggestion for you. I went to
Click and Clack and found a dealer I could not believe. They even had
a shuttle service which I refused. They had freshly ground coffee that
was
safe from slaves on plantation. They had rugs on the floor of the
waiting
room. They fixed my car the first time perfectly, knock on wood,
and it was the TCM, similar to your problem. I had programming
firmware that needed upgrading.

And they did not even charge me to read the EEPROM the first time.
I knew it was bad from the subtle slow shifting of the EECM. No need
to read, just re-program it with the latest TSB firmware, dudes.

Jargon, acronyms, ain't it grand?

Keep posting. Reminds me of when people could write whole paragraphs
and make sense.