AJT
Enthusiast
In 2002 I bought my Viper from Bill Pemberton at Woodhouse Dodge & he shipped it to Houston. After talking to Bill he wanted me to send him a email with my problem. Here is a copy.
Dear Bill,
I wanted to write you a letter discussing my visit to
Northwest Dodge in Houston Texas. I took my car in to
have all the fluids changed on 8-16-05 when I saw a
small bubble in the paint about the size of a dime.
The bubble is behind the passenger door where the roll
bar slopes up to go around the top of the back window.
My service advisor noted this & took digital pictures
to send to Dodge.
When I took my car back in for service on 10-03-05 to
have the paint fixed & weatherstripping installed that
had been ordered from the previous visit on 8-16-05, I
was informed that Dodge had turned down my request to
have the paint fixed. My service advisor stated that
Dodge said that the paint had been buffed thru to the
primer & this was not covered. I believe that this is
due to a poor picture. When you look at it at a angle
the shine looks almost white to a camera. The bubble
is very easy to see & feel in person and there is definately no primer showing.
I had the service manager, Gloria Cruz-Sanchez come
out to look at it in the sunlight & she could tell
that the problem was not that it was buffed thru.
Gloria then said that the car was out of warranty. My
last day still in warranty was 10-03-05 & the problem
was reported on 8-16-05. I told her that I would like
to take this to the next level & she stated that she
would call me when the District manager would be at
their location.
On 12-6-05 I was called around 3:30 pm that the
manager would be in the next day. Houston's weather
was 80% rain & cold for 12-07-05. My Viper with the
soft top on is not very waterproof & I do not drive
her on days like this so I took a couple of pictures
as best I could & thought I could meet the service
manager & set up a future meeting with my car. I got
a call around 3:30 from my service advisor saying that
the manager was there & leaving in a few minutes. I
told him I would be there in about 5 minutes since I
was only 2 exits away but he did not know if the
manager would wait for me. The manager knows I have
been trying to meet with him but he cannot even give
me a little time to get to the dealership???
I then met Gerald Basham the District Manager Houston
Zone. Gerald knew I wanted to talk to him so instead
of going to a office or somewhere quiet he talked to
me in the middle of the service advisors & Service
Customers.
Gerald then proceeded to tell me that my car was out
of warranty, & of course I stated that it had been
reported while still in warranty. Gerald, with an
attitude like I am taking up his valuable time, tells
me that it has already been looked at & declined. I
said that I thought the picture was not a good
indication of the problem & I asked if I could meet
him another time with my car so he could look at it in
person & he said NO! I sat there stunned! I said
excuse me? He said NO in a rude tone & that Ed from
the service center had looked at it & Dodge had looked
at the picture & both declined the repair. I asked
him if we could talk to Ed & see why he declined it.
Gerald said NO!, Can we meet up with Ed one day so I
can hear why & he said no? Gerald said NO, Good Day
Sir!!! with hand motions that he was finished with me.
I told Gerald that bubbled paint was a fairly common
problem with some Vipers & the Viper Club of America
site had quite a few people with bubbled paint from
certain years. He stated something to the effect that
you can not believe everything you read on the
internet & if that were true it would have been on
CNN.
I could not believe Gerald would not give me a answer
as to why my claim was declined. I asked to speak to
his boss & he said NO, & that we were thru with this
matter, Good Day Sir & he left the service room.
I am sitting at my computer typing this with my knees
still shaking from the adrenalin going thru my body.
I have been in sales for 25 years, I own 2 companies &
I have never been talked to so rudely by anybody! I
hope Gerald Basham is not an example of your upper
management & Dodge customer service that I have to
look forward to.
I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with
someone other than Gerald Basham & take a look at my
problem. If it is declined, I would at least like to
know why.
Thank you for your time,
Andy Tanguay
Bill had me take my car to Berli's Body shop in Austin. I dropped it off on Wednesday & by the next Monday I had a call from Joe Berli saying Bill Pemberton had taken care of it. Dodge was going to stand behind their product to the tune of $ 3700.00
I worried a little about buying a car from out of state for reasons like this, but Bill Pemberton did what I would have done & you can bet my next truck & viper will come from Bill.
THANKS BILL!
Andy
Dear Bill,
I wanted to write you a letter discussing my visit to
Northwest Dodge in Houston Texas. I took my car in to
have all the fluids changed on 8-16-05 when I saw a
small bubble in the paint about the size of a dime.
The bubble is behind the passenger door where the roll
bar slopes up to go around the top of the back window.
My service advisor noted this & took digital pictures
to send to Dodge.
When I took my car back in for service on 10-03-05 to
have the paint fixed & weatherstripping installed that
had been ordered from the previous visit on 8-16-05, I
was informed that Dodge had turned down my request to
have the paint fixed. My service advisor stated that
Dodge said that the paint had been buffed thru to the
primer & this was not covered. I believe that this is
due to a poor picture. When you look at it at a angle
the shine looks almost white to a camera. The bubble
is very easy to see & feel in person and there is definately no primer showing.
I had the service manager, Gloria Cruz-Sanchez come
out to look at it in the sunlight & she could tell
that the problem was not that it was buffed thru.
Gloria then said that the car was out of warranty. My
last day still in warranty was 10-03-05 & the problem
was reported on 8-16-05. I told her that I would like
to take this to the next level & she stated that she
would call me when the District manager would be at
their location.
On 12-6-05 I was called around 3:30 pm that the
manager would be in the next day. Houston's weather
was 80% rain & cold for 12-07-05. My Viper with the
soft top on is not very waterproof & I do not drive
her on days like this so I took a couple of pictures
as best I could & thought I could meet the service
manager & set up a future meeting with my car. I got
a call around 3:30 from my service advisor saying that
the manager was there & leaving in a few minutes. I
told him I would be there in about 5 minutes since I
was only 2 exits away but he did not know if the
manager would wait for me. The manager knows I have
been trying to meet with him but he cannot even give
me a little time to get to the dealership???
I then met Gerald Basham the District Manager Houston
Zone. Gerald knew I wanted to talk to him so instead
of going to a office or somewhere quiet he talked to
me in the middle of the service advisors & Service
Customers.
Gerald then proceeded to tell me that my car was out
of warranty, & of course I stated that it had been
reported while still in warranty. Gerald, with an
attitude like I am taking up his valuable time, tells
me that it has already been looked at & declined. I
said that I thought the picture was not a good
indication of the problem & I asked if I could meet
him another time with my car so he could look at it in
person & he said NO! I sat there stunned! I said
excuse me? He said NO in a rude tone & that Ed from
the service center had looked at it & Dodge had looked
at the picture & both declined the repair. I asked
him if we could talk to Ed & see why he declined it.
Gerald said NO!, Can we meet up with Ed one day so I
can hear why & he said no? Gerald said NO, Good Day
Sir!!! with hand motions that he was finished with me.
I told Gerald that bubbled paint was a fairly common
problem with some Vipers & the Viper Club of America
site had quite a few people with bubbled paint from
certain years. He stated something to the effect that
you can not believe everything you read on the
internet & if that were true it would have been on
CNN.
I could not believe Gerald would not give me a answer
as to why my claim was declined. I asked to speak to
his boss & he said NO, & that we were thru with this
matter, Good Day Sir & he left the service room.
I am sitting at my computer typing this with my knees
still shaking from the adrenalin going thru my body.
I have been in sales for 25 years, I own 2 companies &
I have never been talked to so rudely by anybody! I
hope Gerald Basham is not an example of your upper
management & Dodge customer service that I have to
look forward to.
I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with
someone other than Gerald Basham & take a look at my
problem. If it is declined, I would at least like to
know why.
Thank you for your time,
Andy Tanguay
Bill had me take my car to Berli's Body shop in Austin. I dropped it off on Wednesday & by the next Monday I had a call from Joe Berli saying Bill Pemberton had taken care of it. Dodge was going to stand behind their product to the tune of $ 3700.00
I worried a little about buying a car from out of state for reasons like this, but Bill Pemberton did what I would have done & you can bet my next truck & viper will come from Bill.
THANKS BILL!
Andy
