[tcup]

I'm having a terrible time with PM customer service.

2015 1500 EcoDiesel purchased new
125 miles - needed a new starter, off the road for 10 days, ruined 1st planned trip in the van

ongoing - regularly loses power to 20mph and scary flashing red lights between 8000-9000 feet elevation, apparently it's a computer glitch. that has been fixed 2x but keeps happening. Just pull over, turn it off, turn back on, proceed. But still.

8800 miles - dies on day 1 of 10 day Thanksgiving road trip, stranding 2 travelers in a strange town 11 hours from home. Needs a new ENGINE. Takes THIRTY FIVE days to repair, as replacement engine is in "quarantine" for weeks with no consistent explanation of why or notice of when they will even tell us when it will be shipped.

So many details of how customer service was terrible at PM central but some highlights:

Customer service is so useless they start calling the dealer where the van is stuck around week 3 asking if they have fixed it yet and are surprised when told no it's not fixed because they have not shipped a replacement engine yet.

HOURS of my time on the phone with customer service. Every single person has to be harassed into doing their job.

Latest is they said they would consider receipts for reimbursement. So I send receipts for lodging, etc and they ask for BANK STATEMENTS to "prove" that I have paid for these things?

I end up with a $264 charge on my credit card for the rental car bc customer service failed to communicate to the repair shop that they had authorized more than 20 days on the rental. Customer service is able to call the places I stayed to confirm that I lodged there and that I paid, but apparently unable to call the car rental company to ask them to send a receipt, so they can reimburse me. More work for me.

They were willing to pay $1100 to ship the van back to me (after I pitched many fits). Instead of that I asked that they cover my prorated van payment and insurance for the 35 days it was off the road. Which comes to nearly the same amount of $. Which I realize is an ask, but seems a customer service no-brainer and same $ for them. But no, they are currently dicking me around about a $99 airbnb charge that I paid with an airbnb credit, which I cannot find an adequate way to "prove" to them that I actually paid $99 for.

Obviously the problems with my van have been extreme, and I am hardly getting extreme level customer service from Ram. It's not eligible for lemon law and that wouldn't solve things anyway.

Suggestions? Leads? Am I just **** out of luck and at the mercy of their terrible customer service with no recourse?

Thanks!

 

[charity's van]

My experiance with customer service is about equal to yours. my van has been broken since may. it has been at a shop 4 hours away since september. I looked for lawyer help but was told commercial vehicles are not eligible for lemon law or breach of warranty help.

 

[tcup]

Argh that's awful! What's broken on your van?

 

[charity's van]

Argh that's awful! What's broken on your van?

my trans jumps outta 6th gear

 

[Rhodanish]

I have a few posts here I also get the scary lightening bolt light and a turbo boost code took alot of screaming and 24 days later they replaced to turbo. Promaster just repeats what the dealer says... I guess if you get a restraining order on your from the dealer promaster would be helpful. I'm heading to get my van now scary thing Is thr dealer won't drive it long enough to re create the issue so who knows if the turbo even fixed it...

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[KeepMeMoving]

I have had a few issues with my van. Central Ram in Norwood Mass has addressed them quickly and professionally.

 

[tcup]

Thanks - everyone at the Dodge repair shop where the van ended up stranded were AWESOME, it's Dodge central customer service that has been utterly hideous.

 

[fuzzy]

Facebook was the only way I could get some real attention. It still didn't matter and they really didn't do much work to solve it. I mostly arranged the fix in the end. I kept detailed records of the time I spent but could see from my lousy interaction I'd get no where trying to get any $$ for the time and effort. Small claims court was recommended as an approach, but I've been too lazy to get that moving...

 

[BillMac]

My original van 2015 118" diesel was down almost 5 months, mostly due to the dealerships poorly trained staff. Ram customer service always was helpful, made my payments and provided an upgraded 2016 136" diesel replacement at a reduced price while throwing in a bumper to bumper warranty. While long and very annoying process they took responsibility for a dealers errors and I'm happy.

Curious why you can't use the lemon law?

 

[Rhodanish]

My original van 2015 118" diesel was down almost 5 months, mostly due to the dealerships poorly trained staff. Ram customer service always was helpful, made my payments and provided an upgraded 2016 136" diesel replacement at a reduced price while throwing in a bumper to bumper warranty. While long and very annoying process they took responsibility for a dealers errors and I'm happy.

Curious why you can't use the lemon law?

How has the replacement been how many miles are you at

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[BillMac]

Great, just under 60k and about half way thru a camper build. Only problem is the amount of time I have to finish the build and get in road trips that are not work related.

 

[tcup]

Lemon law as I understand it applies when there is a problem that is not getting fixed in spite of multiple attempts to fix it.

Everything major that has malfunctioned with my van: starter, engine - got fixed. It just took it off the road for a long time and caused huge inconvenience and stress (10 days starter, 35 days engine van is stranded 12 hours from home)

The dying at elevation hasn't been repaired in spite of multiple fixes, but it doesn't keep it off the road.

And honestly trading it in would screw me out of $15k in buildout, so not an option I am keen on.

The repair is fine. It's just that customer service has done nothing to compensate me for having such major problems on a new vehicle or it taking so long to repair. I'm even having to jump through endless hoops to get the car rental covered, due to failures in communication on their end. The latest is they are now lying and saying they never agreed to ship it back to me.

 

[tcup]

"My original van 2015 118" diesel was down almost 5 months, mostly due to the dealerships poorly trained staff. Ram customer service always was helpful, made my payments and provided an upgraded 2016 136" diesel replacement at a reduced price while throwing in a bumper to bumper warranty"

Interesting.... so they compensated you for the repair center errors, but in my case won't compensate me for THEIR errors. They won't even clean up their errors.

 

[Rhodanish]

Lemon law as I understand it applies when there is a problem that is not getting fixed in spite of multiple attempts to fix it.

Everything major that has malfunctioned with my van: starter, engine - got fixed. It just took it off the road for a long time and caused huge inconvenience and stress (10 days starter, 35 days engine van is stranded 12 hours from home)

The dying at elevation hasn't been repaired in spite of multiple fixes, but it doesn't keep it off the road.

And honestly trading it in would screw me out of $15k in buildout, so not an option I am keen on.

The repair is fine. It's just that customer service has done nothing to compensate me for having such major problems on a new vehicle or it taking so long to repair. I'm even having to jump through endless hoops to get the car rental covered, due to failures in communication on their end. The latest is they are now lying and saying they never agreed to ship it back to me.

Lemon law also applies If your vehicle has spent more then 30 days being repaired does not have to be consecutively or for the same issue.

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[Rhodanish]

Also... Remedies under the PA Lemon Law include a complete repurchase of the vehicle, a brand-new car, or significant monetary compensation along with continued ownership of the vehicle.

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[BillMac]

Yep, They did and even after my original van was fixed and given back to me to use while waiting for the replacement to come. I never mentioned or threatened to use the Lemon Law in my case, but did some research and while every state is a bit different seems to me you have a solid case as others noted time out of service is one consistent measurable as well as multiple attempts at same repair. Safety being the main driver so issues at altitude that cause a loss or failure of power would meet the safety guidelines.

When it comes to owner installed accessories in The state I live reasonable expense is included to remove. Lemon law,or buy back is a pain and costs the owner in time and miles driven at a high rate. If it goes that way FCA uses a 3rd party to handle all the paperwork.

In my situation I had a good relationship with the Dealer ownership as an ex employee and long term customer, we also brought in the regional FCA service manager to assist. Extreme patience, decades of industry knowledge and spare vehicles at home made it tolerable and in the end happy with the replacement and how it went.

 

[El Guapo]

This reminds me of an issue I had on a Dodge Ram pickup a few years ago. Immediately after buying it new, all of the paint on the front bumper started peeling off. I took it to the dealership and said that there's obviously an issue. They contacted Chrysler who then denied that it was a warranty issue. The reason they gave was because bugs had gotten on the bumper and I had then gone to a car wash. They stated that bugs are acidic, which puts tiny pits in the paint, and then the car wash gets in the pits and causes the paint to peel off. I argued with the service manager on how ridiculous this was and I could tell he agreed but he still said he couldn't do anything about it. I then immediately drove to the front and asked to talked to the sales manager. I took him and a couple more sales people outside and showed them my bumper and told them what Chrysler had said about bugs on the paint voiding the warranty on the outside of the vehicle. They said they would try to get it taken care of. A week later I got a call saying they talked to the regional Dodge rep and they were going to re-paint my bumper.

 

[KB9LNC]

My 3500 Promaster Diesel 159 Wheel Base turned out to be a turd. It has multiple body issues that all FCA wants to do is try and pawn it off on a body shop to take care of and the ones around here will not be responsible for the warranty. I have active case number with them but what I am finding out that dealing with FCA is a total waste of time. They said well sorry for the fact that you bought a lemon and if the fact that it has been past 18 months according to indiana lemon laws we wont buy it back. HAHA on them I sent them a letter back in Feb stating the fact that i wanted it resolved by a buy back. No the ball is back in there court.I am no way stating the fact that all promasters are junk I have seen some of these guys use these things for serious hauling and have good luck with them. But mine has turned out to be a total turd.

 

[RDinNHandAZ]

I did a quick review of your posts and except for a DEF pump it sounds like the issues were not the diesel! That is good in my mind but I wanted to clarify that the turdyness was other issues. Am I right?

 

[charity's van]

FCA customer care will lie to you, stall you out on repairs while they review your case and refuse to pay for any rental or compensation. I had no luck in talking to FCA about buying back my van, I never tried the selling dealer as they are over 4 hours away. Local dealer did not want it. I tried to call several lawyers about lemon law, most said they would get their colleague to call me back, haha i would then get a call from the national lemon law office in chicago telling me the promaster is a commercial vehicle and lemon laws dont apply. FCA customer care works hard to insure FCA keeps all profits and money and that you the customer get the short end.