This is both to vent and to inform people of the poor customer service of a company. I had been up to this point doing business with FORT DODGE TRANSMISSION in Ft Dodge, IA but I will no longer.

This all started when my truck broke down on me and had to pull my engine for service. I had been having problems with the pump in the transmission and decided to fix it while the engine was out since it would be easy to acess at this point. I was replacing the pump due to it wanting to lock up the convertor when putting the transmission in reverse when warmed up. To make a long story alittle shorter when the truck was all back together the convertor would not lock up at all. We checked and rechecked everything thinking we screwed up something. This was late in the afternoon after the trans rebuilders was closed so I called a AMCO shop and aranged to bring the pump over to look at it in the morning as this truck was already over due for being back on the road at this point. My son ran the pump to the shop in the morning to be checked and they imediately found it had not been assembled properly, the keeper holding the convertor control valve in place was not seated and fell out when they where blowing it off.
So after everything and reinstalling the convertor worked perfectly so by this time we had alot of extra time in the repair plus a bill at AMCO for their help fixing the issue. So I call FORT DODGE TRANSMISSIONS the first thing I got was attitude and complete denial and basically accused of making it up. I was being as polite as possible and letting them know they could call AMCO them selves and find out what was wrong when they looked it over. I was told unless they seen it themselves they wouldnt do anything about it. They would not even cover the small bill at AMCO to repair thier mistake. Now this is a large trans rebuilder that has now decided if it isnt brought to them all the time they will not honor any kind of warrenty at all.
So my thoughts go to what if I was a long ways from home and one of their products failed that is suppose to be under warrenty, I am suppose to haul it back to them only for repair or inspection.
To top it all off I have spent thousands of dollars with them over the years and even reminded them of that fact also. I lost it and told them exactly where they could stuff if and what they could kiss and said xxxx you and hung up.
I dont think they realize they have lost a long time customer over this small item as well as possibly several new potential customers just because they have forgotten what customer service is.

I am done complaining about it and anyone that wishes can post this anywhere they would like. In my opinion if you are thinking about doing business with FORT DODGE TRANSMISSIONS I would think twice.

 

sorry to hear about this, but thanks for sharing. would be worth it to post up in the hall of shame on obn as well.

 

I hear ya, One thing I HATE about cars/trucks is not being able to fix every thing myself NO ONE touches my vehicles as much as possible ...If you take it to a shop you have NO CLUE on what they really replaced unless you stand right there and watch....Now most shop say to stay out of the service area.

I had mine with Big 10 tires,I took my wheels to them to have new tires put on get home and put them on one kept leaking air so I took it back...When I was getting it out of my car I noticed the wheel weight was painted black (I painted them before I got new tires) I also noticed the valve stem wasnt replaced aether,So I asked why it wasnt balanced he looked at me like I grew a new head right in front of him "How would you know?" I said because it has paint on it and so does the stem! And they charged me 150.00 for balancing and stems!

Long story short.....

I got home and looked at the rest and NONE were balanced and the kicker he blamed me for the air leak because I painted the wheels!!!


Now I'm having tranny converter troubles I'm still debating on rebuilding it or just doing a converter and pump upgrades hoping I can fix it myself that fun project starts next week.

We need a sticky shop complaint section!

 

I can and do fix most things myself. I own my business and would never dream about treating someone the way I was treated right from the start. I have had companies hand deliever a package to a shipping company for next day rush with a return tag for the old part before even fully finding the main problem because they knew the situation was important.
The biggest thing is just being polite about it, have a dipute process, forms ect., and not just blow off customers.

 

this isn't as black and white as it appears.
there are two sides to every coin.


xcite,

you run a garage right?

let's say your working on someones car.oh,let's just keep the analogy simple; you perform a brake job.
the customer drives home and notices something wrong.they are much much closer to another shop and that shop notices you simply forgot to tighten up a brake caliper bolt.
(well ok.this ones a little dangerous.pretend i made up something less dangerous for the shake of argument lol.bare with me,to the point.)
the customer calls up and informs you that you had trouble with the brakes.they took their car to a closer shop to have it fixed instead of you,and asks what your willing to do to resolve the issue.the customer is hoping you'll pay the bill to the other shop that fixed the brakes.
you don't know for sure that you forgot to snug a bolt up.perhaps something happened that was not your fault at all.you didn't get a chance to inspect the so called failure.you weren't given the opportunity to resolve your mistake (we all make them.) how would that make you feel? what would you do?


i run a tree service.and am proud of the quality work i do.
i do have to say,if i had forgotten to cleanup a stick of wood or something,i wouldn't be real happy that my customer just called another tree service because they knew they were just down the road and could get it resolved quicker or something.i would expect to be called back asap,and i would drop what i was doing instantly and get right over.apologize and resolve the issue.
if my customer didn't even give me a chance to make it right,but instead called another service co instead to resolve the issue for me and then asked what i could do to resolve the issue then...................oh boy.id keep my cool.i really would.but i tell you what,i wouldn't be too pleased about having to send $ to a another co. that resolved my work for me,without even have been given a chance to resolve my own work!!! id be a bit steamed,and have to work hard to be polite and understanding.know what im saying?

there's two sides here,and i do understand why you did what you did.i don't agree with it.i don't think you should have bothered with the original co.your the one who chose to resolve the issue elsewhere.your the one who broke the relationship you guys had.not them.
i bet they would have resolved the issue no problem at all.you being closer to another shop so it was more convenient for you,doesn't make your actions right toward the co you first had the work done at IMHO.
you didn't give the original shop a chance or even notice that something was wrong.you simply called them up after resolving the issue some where else on your own.that was your decision (and i completely understand it.with these fuel prices,that would have been a costly run,not to mention the time involved) but you didn't even get a chance to see if the original co.would have resolved the issue,apologized for any inconvenience and perhaps refunded a little labor costs to help with your fuel and time......who knows.you didn't even let them try.
you shut the door on them first,not them on you IMHO.


there are two sides to every coin.
i see and understand them both.
you did nothing wrong,until you called the original shop back after the fact.a phone call you should have never made after you decided to go elsewhere (even though for perfectly good,logical,and very understand reasons) to resolve an issue outside the relationship you guys had.