All vehicle manufacturers have issues so it is the job of the service side to make things right. There are plenty of people that have troublefree vehicles that take abuse and keep on going, but I was not one of them. A service department can make or break a vehicle brand and in my opinion, FCA suffers greatly in this arena. Every time I had issues with my car, dealing with the service side of FCA was always a fricking nightmare. I dread the times I have to take my car to them for anything because I know it will be some long drawn out saga of ineptitude and regret. After going to the only two dealers, on separate occasions, for major work I have come to the conclusion that FCA needs an overhaul on their service side of the house.
With that being said, the only saving grace has been there Dodge Care Team. After haggling with the dealer, a quick call to the Dodge Cares department and things started to move. When my motor dropped a valve, they were able to compensate free lifetime oil changes and were able to expedite parts movement after the dealer was too inept to figure out the problem. When my transmission crapped out, they made a payment for me since my car was down for nearly a month. The problem rests with the service department and the STAR team that dealers have to interact with.
Basically the STAR team tells the dealer how to troubleshoot and then the dealer has to input the results of the tests into the file system. Then the STAR team takes 2-3 days to get around to your case and then either issue a repair statement OR request that more tests be done. If more tests are required then the dealer will perform the test and reupload the results. Another 2-3 days go by before the STAR team gets back to the dealer concerning the next steps. Unfortunately, by the time the second response comes in then the weekend is upon us and the dealer wants to catch up on other stuff since your car won't be looked at again for a few more days. Now your car will sit there over the weekend collecting shop dust and getting moved around the lot like some hunk of junk that is in the way. A new week comes around and this process starts again with the dealer and STAR team going back and forth trying to figure out the next step. In many cases, the dealer isn't even sure how to perform some of the tests that the STAR team wants them to do. After about two weeks or so of those two idiots going back and forth, a repair statement might be issued to either order a new part or whatever. The part is typically on back order and has to come from some main warehouse which is about 7-10 days of shipping and handling. After the part gets to the dealer then the car has to be put into queue for the mechanic. Since most shops only have 1 specialty mechanic, that means your car may be 2nd or 3rd in line since it was waiting on a part. Another 2-3 days goes by and now your car is on the lift getting repaired. You better hope that whatever they ordered fixes the problem or your are back to square one with this mess.
Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I have never seen such an inefficient service department like this one. I have owned plenty of GM vehicles, and trust me GM has problems too, but I have never experienced crap like this with them. Any time I had a major issue that might take a minute to fix, they usually have a loaner ready to go and that loaner is of equal value to what I brought in. I can also count on one hand where a repair took more than a day or two to fix. Anyways, get Dodge Care involved and at the least if your repair takes a long time or causes you an ass pain they will make it right. They will be the liaison between corporate and the dealer. Any compensation you might want for the asspain you are about to go through will be handled by them. In my opinion, they are saving FCA's service department. Without them, I don't see FCA lasting too much longer with the crap customer service.
