Well, it’s broken:(

[22Rebel_USCG]

This is honestly ridiculous you are going through so much trouble for warranty work! Not a good look for the brand.
Hopefully you are able to get your truck up and running soon. Also, Thank you for your service.

Thanks man

 

[22Rebel_USCG]

The ram care advocate from the 1800 number said the Area manager says it’s not covered because of outside influences. And that there’s nothing they can do because that decision is final.

 

[22Rebel_USCG]

I see I've been summoned.

@22Rebel_USCG, here is my advice (this also goes to all others who end up having a similar issue). Let me first state, though, that while I am an exceptional lawyer, I'm not your lawyer, so this is not meant to be legal advice to anyone, just my personal opinion.

First things first, when something like this happens, it's best to keep your descriptions on a public forum to an absolute minimum. As some mentioned in the first few pages with regard to what you should say to a dealer, the same applies to any public forum. While your particular case, @22Rebel_USCG, is unlikely to get to the discovery stage of a lawsuit, posts in a public forum like this are absolutely discoverable, so anything anyone says could be used against you. This is especially true in a case like this where RamChat was summoned to this thread. The simple rule to remember here is: don't give details. I understand the desire to share details on the forum, but they need to be watered down. "Welp, guys, I was getting ready to go to the gym this morning and as I put the truck in drive to leave my driveway, I heard an awful clunk. I put the truck in park, jumped out, and noticed the front drive shaft lying on the ground." That's about as descriptive as you want to be, even if you did nothing wrong (which, IMHO, appears to be the case).

Second, to all the ASE Master Techs in this thread, you aren't doing the OP any good speculating as to what happened. Again, I get that this is a public forum and one of its main purposes is for lively discussion and debate, but when something this bad happens, without a physical inspection and metallurgical testing, there's no way anyone here can reasonably conclude what happened, at least not in any way that can help OP. Again, I know this will fall on deaf ears, as everyone here has an opinion they want to share, but I'd suggest keeping the posts and comments specific to what the outcome of this situation is (i.e., what has the dealer done, did a Lemon Law complaint get filed, etc.) and not what OP did or didn't do wrong.

Third, @22Rebel_USCG, if I were in your shoes, I'd check with base legal first (it looks like you may have already done this). While I never had occasion to deal with Coasties while I was in the Corps, I do know that the CG tends to attract the best lawyers because they offer a better training program, better rank (Coastie lawyers commission as 03's as opposed to 02's in the other services), and better career progression, so you should be in good hands. If base legal is unable to help, then read on.

Fourth, if base legal is unable to help, your best bet is to seek outside counsel. I did some digging around and called a lemon law attorney who was highly recommended to me after I asked around for a recommendation. I spoke with him and, unfortunately, he advised that your situation would not be covered under the Massachusetts Lemon Law because a prerequisite to liability under the law is that the dealer admit the issue is covered under warranty. So, to the extent you have to take legal action, you'd likely need to hire a products liability attorney to fight this issue. Unfortunately, given the low value of the claim, I don't see it being economically feasible to hire someone to fight over a $2,000 repair.

I recently hired a friend of mine from another firm to work for my firm. Before he came over to my firm, he represented FCA/Stellantis in numerous warranty/products liability cases. I pitched your situation to him and he had some ideas of avenues you can take to get this on track to resolution. Feel free to shoot me a PM and I'll be happy to walk you through what he recommends.

Thank you Sir, sending PM now.

 

[LimitedGRR]

The ram care advocate from the 1800 number said the Area manager says it’s not covered because of outside influences. And that there’s nothing they can do because that decision is final.

You should be able to ask them to show you the signs of outside influences, like rock scrapes, etc. and they should certainly be able to show these influences if they saw them and made the decision they made


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Camelot]

Any news channel close to you that covers shady businesses and can do a blurp on it? That seems to change many corporations mind when they find out they will be in the news.

 

[bigdodge]

But it's not out (of service) for a service attempt, they are refusing to warranty presumably claiming negligence.

I don't know think this qualifies as a lemon law case despite what many are saying

really
it is parked at the dealer
isn't it?

 

[HEMIJAKE]

really
it is parked at the dealer
isn't it?

Correct. This is what I said a couple pages ago ha. Park it at the dealership and hope that it takes a long time to get the parts in. Then he would qualify for lemon law based on time (not failed attempts). He might have to pay out of pocket for the repairs, but at least he could be compensated through lemon law.

 

[Shots]

The ram care advocate from the 1800 number said the Area manager says it’s not covered because of outside influences. And that there’s nothing they can do because that decision is final.

You should be able to ask them to show you the signs of outside influences, like rock scrapes, etc. and they should certainly be able to show these influences if they saw them and made the decision they made

It's certainly possible those outside influences weren't physical damage that they can show you signs of. It's possible they are driver actions. This could be based statements of how it occurred such as ".....Gave it a little throttle (was not enough to start a spin), I did turn the wheel and then the sadness happened....."
Also, don't forget these trucks are monitoring everything. If the dealership has the equipment (and I'm sure they do), they can simply plug into the OBDII port with a Bosch EDR tool and the ACM will tell them gear selection, steering input angle, throttle position, and a whole lot more. I'm sure they've also got tools that can scan the PCM and ECM that will likely give the same (or more) info. So even without any statements, the dealer may know what happened, because the truck can tell on you too.
External factors could mean "the driver" not "prior damage."

really
it is parked at the dealer
isn't it?

Correct. This is what I said a couple pages ago ha. Park it at the dealership and hope that it takes a long time to get the parts in. Then he would qualify for lemon law based on time (not failed attempts). He might have to pay out of pocket for the repairs, but at least he could be compensated through lemon law.

Yes, but they've already looked at it and denied the claim. It's not like the truck is sitting there waiting for parts, or waiting for someone to do work on it.

But it's not out (of service) for a service attempt, they are refusing to warranty presumably claiming negligence.

I don't know think this qualifies as a lemon law case despite what many are saying

Agreed. Not the answer anyone wants to hear, but I think it's the correct one.

For an absurd example to maybe put it in a more obvious perspective:
Let's say someone ran over a nail, and took it to the dealer for warranty work of for a defective tire (maybe they don't know about the nail, they just know the brand new tire is flat).
The dealer said no to the warranty, deeming the nail as an outside influence. They've completed their service call at this point
The dealer would likely offer to replace the tire at the owner's cost, or the owner can take it to whatever shop they want for repair.
The truck owner can't just leave it at the dealer's lot for another 2 weeks trying to get a "yes" and then claim it's a lemon when they don't get a "yes" because it was there too long.
The service call was complete. Any delay on repairs at this point are the owner and won't make it a lemon.

I am but a simple engineer so I'll leave the lawyering to the lawyers, but it doesn't sound like there's a case to be had for lemon law based on the information at hand.

 

[HEMIJAKE]

It's certainly possible those outside influences weren't physical damage that they can show you signs of. It's possible they are driver actions. This could be based statements of how it occurred such as ".....Gave it a little throttle (was not enough to start a spin), I did turn the wheel and then the sadness happened....."
Also, don't forget these trucks are monitoring everything. If the dealership has the equipment (and I'm sure they do), they can simply plug into the OBDII port with a Bosch EDR tool and the ACM will tell them gear selection, steering input angle, throttle position, and a whole lot more. I'm sure they've also got tools that can scan the PCM and ECM that will likely give the same (or more) info. So even without any statements, the dealer may know what happened, because the truck can tell on you too.
External factors could mean "the driver" not "prior damage."



Yes, but they've already looked at it and denied the claim. It's not like the truck is sitting there waiting for parts, or waiting for someone to do work on it.


Agreed. Not the answer anyone wants to hear, but I think it's the correct one.

For an absurd example to maybe put it in a more obvious perspective:
Let's say someone ran over a nail, and took it to the dealer for warranty work of for a defective tire (maybe they don't know about the nail, they just know the brand new tire is flat).
The dealer said no to the warranty, deeming the nail as an outside influence. They've completed their service call at this point
The dealer would likely offer to replace the tire at the owner's cost, or the owner can take it to whatever shop they want for repair.
The truck owner can't just leave it at the dealer's lot for another 2 weeks trying to get a "yes" and then claim it's a lemon when they don't get a "yes" because it was there too long.
The service call was complete. Any delay on repairs at this point are the owner and won't make it a lemon.

I am but a simple engineer so I'll leave the lawyering to the lawyers, but it doesn't sound like there's a case to be had for lemon law based on the information at hand.

I am simply speaking from experience with our case, I don't pretend to be an expert in any field. We were able to do a lemon law based on the fact that it took so long to get parts. I'm not saying he should park his truck there for as long as it takes to qualify. I was trying to say actively have them attempt to fix the vehicle, and hope it takes forever to get the required parts, thus making lemon law an option. One caveat though, my case was approved through warranty at no cost to me, and the dealership is the one that pushed me to pursue lemon law. The car was fixed (after 59 days) and we still pursued the case, got a settlement, and traded the car. Again, I'm no expert, but from what I have read lemon law can still be an option if the warranty claim is denied as long as the vehicle meets the criteria. Lemon law would be pursued based on the inability to fix the vehicle in a reasonable amount of time here, but this is a state by state process I believe, not the magnusson moss act, which is federal.

 

[Finn5033]

I am simply speaking from experience with our case, I don't pretend to be an expert in any field. We were able to do a lemon law based on the fact that it took so long to get parts. I'm not saying he should park his truck there for as long as it takes to qualify. I was trying to say actively have them attempt to fix the vehicle, and hope it takes forever to get the required parts, thus making lemon law an option. One caveat though, my case was approved through warranty at no cost to me, and the dealership is the one that pushed me to pursue lemon law. The car was fixed (after 59 days) and we still pursued the case, got a settlement, and traded the car. Again, I'm no expert, but from what I have read lemon law can still be an option if the warranty claim is denied as long as the vehicle meets the criteria. Lemon law would be pursued based on the inability to fix the vehicle in a reasonable amount of time here, but this is a state by state process I believe, not the magnusson moss act, which is federal.

I also am no expert but I believe the issue here is they are refusing to cover the repairs under warranty. From what I understand lemon law only applies here if they had agreed to fix it under warranty coverage and then not able to do it within the 30 days.

 

[HEMIJAKE]

I also am no expert but I believe the issue here is they are refusing to cover the repairs under warranty. From what I understand lemon law only applies here if they had agreed to fix it under warranty coverage and then not able to do it within the 30 days.

You may be correct, I don't know for certain. I thought I read that there was a provision under the law for non warranty claims though, but I don't remember. I'll have to do some digging.

 

[Cbty2050]

Good news is the parts are readily available, bad news they are sticking you with the bill. Your insurance may cover the bill due to an outside influence causing the damage(i dont agree with that diagnosis). They would perform their own assessment of the damage and try to figure out what has happened.

My guess/assumption is the dealer has a base warranty code and all powertrain claims has to go to corporate review. This is 100% on the dealer to fight for you and get it covered, if they think it's a manufacturer defect. Hopefully they didn't restrict your warranty.

 

[JF19Longhorn]

..sounds like it's time to get a lawyer.

 

[ShortStack]

Well after reading everything in this thread it sounds like the dealer wants money.
Also, having worked at an air craft engine manufacturing plant and the temperature you were experiencing at the time, it could very well be a bad casting.
If it is not covered and you have to pay for it make damn sure You Get The Failed Parts. There a lot of places that can do checks for bad casting and metal fatigue.

Best of luck.