Jeep Dealers Suck *OR* What Happened To Basic Customer Service?

[rcadden]

This is going to be a rant. Just a heads up.

So my 2021 2.0L has the recall on the coolant bolts. TSB says it's a ~60 min job - they basically just need to pull the bolts, apply loctite, and then torque them back in. No new parts, nothing that could be backordered, etc.

There are 4 dealerships on the Fort Worth side of the Metroplex. All of them suck.

1. Meador - booked an appointment via the Jeep app when it was a TSB (not the current recall). They called to tell me it was a $200 diagnostic charge just to look at it, plus they're on a one-week backlog with no loaners. Jeep has to be physically at the dealership to "be in line". I legit thought she was joking. Who is able to just not have a vehicle for a week+?

2. Roger Williams - I figure any dealership with a legit Jeep shop onsite has to be good, right? Nope. I'd already had a bad experience with Ray, the Service Manager basically ghosting me, but thought I'd give him another chance. Emailed him directly. He passed me off to Leland, his "top service technician". I last heard from them on November 3. Emailed Dec 7 and got an auto-response that he's out till Christmas. Ray was CC'd on all of my inquiries to Leland, hasn't once bothered to reach out.

3. Moritz - booked an appointment this Monday at 3p. Arrived and basically stood in the entry for a solid 5 minutes with no greeting before finally walking into one of the offices and clearing my throat. Finally acknowledged, passed off to Angela, my "assigned service technician" who proceeded to continue working on her computer for another 5 minutes with me literally standing behind her (she knew I was there, but "needed to finish something"). Finally checked me in, she says "well, I'm not sure if they'll be able to do this today, they leave at 5p". I said, well, let's try - the recall documentation says it's a ~60 min job. Sure enough, she came back about 30-45 min later, said they're not going to get to it today, but if I can leave it overnight, it'll be first on the roster for Tuesday. No loaners, but she offered to Uber me home. Despite the lack of welcome, I was happy at this point - at least they're being communicative and offering solutions.

Today's Thursday. My Jeep has been there since Monday at 330p. I have not ONCE received any communication from the dealership. The only time I get any update is when *I* take the initiative and call them, and every time I do, I get passed to Angela's voicemail for a status update. Apparently no one but her can check on my vehicle? Left two voicemails on Wednesday - one woman actually said, "Sorry, but we're very busy" before sending me to Angela's voicemail. Today I called as soon as they opened, finally got ahold of Angela live. She says "oh they haven't started it yet, but I'll see what I can do to prioritize it.

Seriously?!

WTF good is a warranty if 3 out of 4 dealerships suck so hard at basic customer service 101?

I realize I'm not a paying customer. But I'm 6K miles away from being out of warranty - at which point everything and anything I need done on my Jeep will cost me out of pocket. As a business owner, would you not recognize that and try to make sure that I have a great experience?

At least greet me when I arrive. Proactively communicate when things aren't turning out as expected.

A 3 minute phone call on Tuesday afternoon - "Hey Mr. Cadden, this is [doesn't matter who] at Moritz calling about your Jeep. Unfortunately, our technicians got a bit backed up, so it looks like it's going to be tomorrow before your Jeep is ready. We really apologize for the inconvenience."

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[laroo]

I have attempted to make an appointment for 2 recalls via phone or online for about a week. Online reservation system is broken with no availability for months, and phone calls resulted in extremely long hold times, and dropped calls when I finally made it through. Finally just showed up at the dealership this week to make an appointment in person. All 3 service advisors seemed aggravated, probably from overwork and dealing with frustrated customers all day every day. I feel for them, but you're right, they still need to treat customers better.

The key to keeping myself from getting angry is very low expectations. It's sad it's come to this, but that's what Jeep service is now. I do remember my experiences with my 14 JK were much better. My 19 JL, and now my 22, I just expect to get treated like trash when I bring it in. Maybe they'll surprise me next week at my appointment, but I'm not counting on it. Success will be them not screwing something up or damaging my Jeep.

 

[Shibadog]

Sadly, customer service these days is non existent in MANY areas. A combination of a non existent workforce as many can’t seem to be bothered by taking a job, plus a poor attitude among many who actually DO work has killed the customer service concept. If you do, somehow, find a company/dealership/whatever that DOES care, be Good to them, they are the last of the breed,

 

[rcadden]

Sadly, customer service these days is non existent in MANY areas. A combination of a non existent workforce as many can’t seem to be bothered by taking a job, plus a poor attitude among many who actually DO work has killed the customer service concept. If you do, somehow, find a company/dealership/whatever that DOES care, be Good to them, they are the last of the breed,

I make it a habit to recognize and reward good customer service anywhere I find it. It's why I only buy tires from @Discount Tire, for instance. My local one, even when they're slammed and I don't have an appointment, at least acknowledge me when I walk in the door - just a quick "Thanks for coming in, we'll be with you as soon as possible", and their reps are always knowledgeable and honest. One time I needed tires for my wife's car, but knew we were about to sell it. Started the conversation with that "Look man, I just need these for about 3-4 months, so whatever's cheapest but quality." No issues, the rep got it and didn't try to talk me into anything crazy.

We have a local lube and tune shop with a car wash attached that's the same. They quickly acknowledge me, make recommendations but not hard sells, and I've been going there for years, across multiple vehicles.

 

[Xcoaste]

I use a RAM dealership for all Jeep warranty work. They are a really small dealership in a small town.

Some people don't know that you don't have to use just Jeep dealerships.

 

[Discount Tire]

@rcadden, thank you for the shout out to your local Discount Tire store, they are very busy at times but still try their best to acknowledge new customers coming in.

 

[Maverick909]

This is going to be a rant. Just a heads up.

So my 2021 2.0L has the recall on the coolant bolts. TSB says it's a ~60 min job - they basically just need to pull the bolts, apply loctite, and then torque them back in. No new parts, nothing that could be backordered, etc.

There are 4 dealerships on the Fort Worth side of the Metroplex. All of them suck.

1. Meador - booked an appointment via the Jeep app when it was a TSB (not the current recall). They called to tell me it was a $200 diagnostic charge just to look at it, plus they're on a one-week backlog with no loaners. Jeep has to be physically at the dealership to "be in line". I legit thought she was joking. Who is able to just not have a vehicle for a week+?

2. Roger Williams - I figure any dealership with a legit Jeep shop onsite has to be good, right? Nope. I'd already had a bad experience with Ray, the Service Manager basically ghosting me, but thought I'd give him another chance. Emailed him directly. He passed me off to Leland, his "top service technician". I last heard from them on November 3. Emailed Dec 7 and got an auto-response that he's out till Christmas. Ray was CC'd on all of my inquiries to Leland, hasn't once bothered to reach out.

3. Moritz - booked an appointment this Monday at 3p. Arrived and basically stood in the entry for a solid 5 minutes with no greeting before finally walking into one of the offices and clearing my throat. Finally acknowledged, passed off to Angela, my "assigned service technician" who proceeded to continue working on her computer for another 5 minutes with me literally standing behind her (she knew I was there, but "needed to finish something"). Finally checked me in, she says "well, I'm not sure if they'll be able to do this today, they leave at 5p". I said, well, let's try - the recall documentation says it's a ~60 min job. Sure enough, she came back about 30-45 min later, said they're not going to get to it today, but if I can leave it overnight, it'll be first on the roster for Tuesday. No loaners, but she offered to Uber me home. Despite the lack of welcome, I was happy at this point - at least they're being communicative and offering solutions.

Today's Thursday. My Jeep has been there since Monday at 330p. I have not ONCE received any communication from the dealership. The only time I get any update is when *I* take the initiative and call them, and every time I do, I get passed to Angela's voicemail for a status update. Apparently no one but her can check on my vehicle? Left two voicemails on Wednesday - one woman actually said, "Sorry, but we're very busy" before sending me to Angela's voicemail. Today I called as soon as they opened, finally got ahold of Angela live. She says "oh they haven't started it yet, but I'll see what I can do to prioritize it.

Seriously?!

WTF good is a warranty if 3 out of 4 dealerships suck so hard at basic customer service 101?

I realize I'm not a paying customer. But I'm 6K miles away from being out of warranty - at which point everything and anything I need done on my Jeep will cost me out of pocket. As a business owner, would you not recognize that and try to make sure that I have a great experience?

At least greet me when I arrive. Proactively communicate when things aren't turning out as expected.

A 3 minute phone call on Tuesday afternoon - "Hey Mr. Cadden, this is [doesn't matter who] at Moritz calling about your Jeep. Unfortunately, our technicians got a bit backed up, so it looks like it's going to be tomorrow before your Jeep is ready. We really apologize for the inconvenience."
[/QUand at this point i would have gotten a ride down there and picked it up and also made a case with @JeepCares . I cannot put up with people ball face lieing all the way through.

 

[rcadden]

I use a RAM dealership for all Jeep warranty work. They are a really small dealership in a small town.

Some people don't know that you don't have to use just Jeep dealerships.

We don't have any RAM dealerships around here that I'm aware of. These are all CDJR dealers.

 

[Powelligator]

All the Jeep dealers in the metro Denver area seem to be way busy and backed up, so on a fellow forum member's advice I took a drive an hour away and stopped in at a smaller dealer, smaller town. Very personable service manager, was apologetic that they too were backed up, but they scheduled me in. On the appointed day again they were very nice, admitted that they are short handed, despite that they have been very communicative with me and in the end, the Jeep will be ready (after a delay getting a new rear axle from Toledo) ahead of schedule.

And yes, Discount Tire also gets all my tire business, always polite even when busy.

 

[rcadden]

All the Jeep dealers in the metro Denver area seem to be way busy and backed up, so on a fellow forum member's advice I took a drive an hour away and stopped in at a smaller dealer, smaller town. Very personable service manager, was apologetic that they too were backed up, but they scheduled me in. On the appointed day again they were very nice, admitted that they are short handed, despite that they have been very communicative with me and in the end, the Jeep will be ready (after a delay getting a new rear axle from Toledo) ahead of schedule.

And yes, Discount Tire also gets all my tire business, always polite even when busy.

Glad that worked for you - that's how I got in with the Roger Williams dealership. They're ~an hour west of Fort Worth, and I've always heard/practiced the same; drive out to the small-town dealers, as they're more thankful for your business having a smaller market around them, etc.

Which is why it's so weird that even the guy at the top of the service department just straight up ghosted me - 2x. The first time, it was for paint chips on my hood. After a bit of back and forth, he said it wouldn't be covered normally, but he was able to get it approved as a goodwill repair, and just needed to coordinate with his body shop to repaint it. Literally never heard from him again.

 

[Steph1]

Unfortunately, most of them suck and Jeep is not alone. Had a bad experience where I stood alone at the Audi parts counter for a good 15 minutes before being aknowledged. I could see the parts guy chatting with the service guy in the garage area and quite a few times they looked my way and never budged. It was when he finally came to serve me that I realized that he wasn’t a service guy but the idiot that I was waiting for.

Best dealer for customer service is by far Land Rover where they still greet you with coffee and muffins and no chairs, but super comfy sofa chairs. Problem is that you are there ‘’way’’ too often‍

Porsche is the same as LR but you hardly ever go

 

[rcadden]

@Steph1 yeah my wife likes to remind me that she always has an awesome experience at the Lexus dealership.

The problem with that is now you're driving a Lexus....

 

[Whaler27]

Sadly, customer service these days is non existent in MANY areas. A combination of a non existent workforce as many can’t seem to be bothered by taking a job, plus a poor attitude among many who actually DO work has killed the customer service concept. If you do, somehow, find a company/dealership/whatever that DOES care, be Good to them, they are the last of the breed,

I attribute this trend to the "everybody gets a trophy" mentality that polluted the American landscape starting in the late 80s... The incentives for performance, and disincentive for non-performance, have been all but eliminated.

The state I work for instituted an inflexible "pay equity" policy ("equity" is a real misnomer). When it comes to pay, the policy allows consideration of only education/training and length of service in the job for government... That means the three year employee who did eight years of the same work in the private sector, plus three more for government, MUST be paid less than the employee with four total years of doing the job for the government. That's true even if the former private sector employee is quick to volunteer, eager to accept additional work and responsibility, twice as productive, nearly error-free. The four-year government employee who is an apathetic, slow-moving, error-producing slug MUST be paid more. There's no way around it. Of course, some people are just committed to excellence, even if they are treated poorly, but many folks will slow down and try less when they see there's no meaningful corporate recognition of performance.

It appears as though the private sector is starting to emulate the worst of government practice and policy. The people I dealt with at FCA during the diesel reflash/settlement were indescribably stupid and incompetent. They lost my file/documents twice, and my certified mail receipt for the documents was of zero value. I don't think that will be a successful strategy once the economy has slowed enough to restore competition.

 

[Odyssey USA]

It’s a small symptom of the state of our society like many problems.

 

[Deleted member 59498]

I don't know of any that are just Ram dealers. Same here all CDJR. They are pretty decent here so far though. But have not used one post covid apocalypse. Even McDonald's and grocery store service suck these days not just Jeep but just about every where I go.

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