How do I get Jeep to fix my brand new Gladiator?

[Hootbro]

OP
Keep this in the back of your mind: A dealer has to service a vehicle under warranty regardless of where it was purchased. They don't have to like it. A dealer does not have to give a "foreign" vehicle owner the same service, or benefits, as they do their customers who have bought from them.

That is a legitimate position because all of those perks and benies are absorbed by the dealer's overhead and paid for out of the profit margin on their new vehicle sales. Loaner cars, free shuttle rides, priority service scheduling etc., etc., etc.. That shit ain't free, the dealer's customers, the folks who buy their cars willingly and happily paid for it as part of the deal (and price structure) of buying from their local dealer.

So what happens when one of their sales customers calls up with an urgent "my new jeep is broke!" call? Do they say, "we can't take you for three weeks because we are tied up with a car that came in from a guy who bought from an out of state dealer"? Or do they say, "come on down, we'll move some jobs around and take care it ASAP"! And of course you get pushed to the back of the queue because a dealership service department is staffed on the basis of expected work loads. And wait for it, what makes up service workloads? The demand from owners of cars sold through the sales department. So there is probably no slack for foreign customers. This is the same as Emergency Room Triage, sickest get help first, only it's not sickest, but "our sales customers".

I don't want to be harsh, but you made a decision to buy your jeep out of state, you now have to live with the consequences.

For all the other posters who suggest being a pain in the ass, don't do it. The odds are most likely things will just get worse. I would suggest you have a sit down with either the service manager, or general manager and honestly talk this out and try to make peace. At this stage all you have going for you is showing the dealership that this is their chance to show you they should have been your first choice, and that they will be your choice for your next jeep.

Pretty much this. Was about to post the same thing. OP is like third in priority for that dealership with local bought and paid customer work ahead of him.

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[Jefe1018]

OP
Keep this in the back of your mind: A dealer has to service a vehicle under warranty regardless of where it was purchased. They don't have to like it. A dealer does not have to give a "foreign" vehicle owner the same service, or benefits, as they do their customers who have bought from them.

That is a legitimate position because all of those perks and benies are absorbed by the dealer's overhead and paid for out of the profit margin on their new vehicle sales. Loaner cars, free shuttle rides, priority service scheduling etc., etc., etc.. That shit ain't free, the dealer's customers, the folks who buy their cars willingly and happily paid for it as part of the deal (and price structure) of buying from their local dealer.

So what happens when one of their sales customers calls up with an urgent "my new jeep is broke!" call? Do they say, "we can't take you for three weeks because we are tied up with a car that came in from a guy who bought from an out of state dealer"? Or do they say, "come on down, we'll move some jobs around and take care it ASAP"! And of course you get pushed to the back of the queue because a dealership service department is staffed on the basis of expected work loads. And wait for it, what makes up service workloads? The demand from owners of cars sold through the sales department. So there is probably no slack for foreign customers. This is the same as Emergency Room Triage, sickest get help first, only it's not sickest, but "our sales customers".

I don't want to be harsh, but you made a decision to buy your jeep out of state, you now have to live with the consequences.

For all the other posters who suggest being a pain in the ass, don't do it. The odds are most likely things will just get worse. I would suggest you have a sit down with either the service manager, or general manager and honestly talk this out and try to make peace. At this stage all you have going for you is showing the dealership that this is their chance to show you they should have been your first choice, and that they will be your choice for your next jeep.

Pretty much this. Was about to post the same thing. OP is like third in priority for that dealership with local bought and paid customer work ahead of him.

Not saying you’re necessarily wrong here, but that would be one hot turd to have to swallow. Either you pay what we say or we screw on your service experience…. I don’t know… that’s kind of hard to swallow as a way of doing business. I find most of these huge dealers are just dysfunctional, disorganized and out right unprofessional, that seems like the easier pill to swallow. Beyond that, a service writer and tech get paid to get approval on work and to turn wrenches respectively, I’m sure there is a measure of pride for some with vehicles going through the lifecycle in house, but 2 hours of warranty get paid the same by the factory whether they bought at Gupton or not.

 

[ZoMojave]

Retired from 30 years in the dealership business, I hate to admit that this is the way things are done. High priority is placed on units and maintenance sold at that particular dealer. The others come later. They are in control and even Jeep itself can't speed up the process. It doesn't necessarily make it a bad dealer.

These days, there is a shortage of qualified techs in the trade and service departments are often 2-3 weeks out for appointments.

And yes, it stinks that Jeep does not offer loaner vehicles. This was mentioned a couple of times before I completed my purchase. It is sad to see that warranty support/service has degraded to this level.

Being employed at a dealer that consistently ranked in the top five in customer satisfaction (in our zone) was very important back then. Not so much now.

 

[Chunky White]

I hope you have luck getting your Gladiator fixed. I thought a loaner would be provided through Jeep though since I have always had a loaner or rental of some kind provided by my local CDJR dealer when I took new or used vehicles there for work and even service.

 

[Hootbro]

......................but 2 hours of warranty get paid the same by the factory whether they bought at Gupton or not.

That right there is part of the problem. Book time for a job might actually be 2.0 hours but when it comes to warranty reimbursement, Jeep/Stellantis will knee cap them and only pay 1.5 hours or less, almost never full book time for warranty work. For many dealers, they are operating at a loss on warranty work.

So you can see how some dealerships will put a customer who bought elsewhere third in line after customers who bought from them and customers paying full labor rate non-warranty work first priority. While the franchise dealer may have an contractual obligation to take in any warranty claim work regardless of where bought, they are going to prioritize that as they see fit.

I will say that not all dealerships are like that as I have bought my first two Gladiators elsewhere and my local dealership treated them the same when taken if for warranty and recall work. Because of that, I gave that dealership a chance to earn my business on my current Gladiator and actually worked a decent deal and bought from them.

 

[HankB]

Not saying you’re necessarily wrong here, but that would be one hot turd to have to swallow. Either you pay what we say or we screw on your service experience…. I don’t know… that’s kind of hard to swallow as a way of doing business. I find most of these huge dealers are just dysfunctional, disorganized and out right unprofessional, that seems like the easier pill to swallow. Beyond that, a service writer and tech get paid to get approval on work and to turn wrenches respectively, I’m sure there is a measure of pride for some with vehicles going through the lifecycle in house, but 2 hours of warranty get paid the same by the factory whether they bought at Gupton or not.

And I don’t disagree with you that it’s a suck situation and in a perfect world it would be different. But the reality is in the competitive world we live in businesses must classify and prioritize customers based on their long term potential.

 

[Jefe1018]

And I don’t disagree with you that it’s a suck situation and in a perfect world it would be different. But the reality is in the competitive world we live in businesses must classify and prioritize customers based on their long term potential.

Haha I love that dealers are so bad we have to try and decipher if it’s because they just suck as organizations or they dislike us personally ?

 

[Nomeansno]

Update on the jeep. Turns out a supervisor at my work knew the service supervisor so he called him on my behalf and they had the jeep up on the lift with the front axle already being disassembled within an hour of his call. Had the service manager call me a couple of times to update and was very apologetic about the delay. I don’t think they’re slammed with work necessarily, I think they just forgot my vehicle was even there in the lot waiting for service. I also had jeep customer service reach out to me and stated that they will reach out to the dealer on Monday to see what parts are going to need replacing just so that they can expedite the shipping and to make sure they can get me parts asap in case they’re on back order.
As far as rental car goes, I didn’t think I’m entitled to it, more so an explanation as to why I wasnt going in person to the dealer earlier as someone else asked me. I don’t think they owe me one since I understand what it states in the warranty in case of a situation like this.
With all that being said, for the people that are saying that’s what I get for buying out of state, dealer behavior like this, if it was purposeful, would be extremely shortsighted. If a dealer quotes me a specific time frame then I do expect them to follow it, and if they cannot meet that time frame then I do expect them to at a minimum communicate that to their customer instead of going radio silent. I did not have to go and get work done with them, I checked with a few dealers in the area and the reason I went with them is because they claimed that they will get me in quicker than the other dealers. If they were upfront with the time I would have to wait then I would have not ended up there in the first place. I understand that this is warranty work and it doesn’t pay as well, but the thing is that there are plenty of services that the jeep will have to get that they make plenty of money on and they would have been my dealer of choice initially for all non-warranty work as well. Servicing my jeep for its lifetime I’m sure would make them plenty of money, not sure why you’d want to turn business away just because someone didn’t purchase the vehicle there. I’ve literally never serviced a single one of my vehicles at the dealer that I bought it from and have also never had a service experience like this where I have to fight to get work done on it. They’re working on making it right now so it is what it is, I just hope I can get it back on the road soon.

 

[HankB]

…. You will receive a customer survey and when you score and reply what you report will go to Gupton .. not this dealership; that is the way the system works. This causes dealerships to focus on Their sales Customers 1st.. just so all Know. Good Luck, up date on how things are progressing.

I did not know that. Is that from poor systems design, or does the jeep mother ship have no clue?

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