RAM Customer Care Nightmare

Hopping on here to add my story about dealing with RAM Customer Care and their response to a recall so hopefully others who come across this thread will know what to expect when it comes to the treatment of their customers:

I used all of my savings to buy my 2019 RAM Promaster with 60k miles in March of 2023. I worked night and day for a few months to build out the inside so I could live in it while achieving my dream of traveling around the country. Unfortunately, just 4 months after I bought the van, its transmission failed as a result of the 44A recall which left it completely undrivable. This was the beginning of a 9 month long ordeal of dealing with poor customer service from a RAM Dealership and RAM Customer care.

Ultimately my van was at the dealership for 4 months. During that time I had to find a place to stay (I was living in my van) and cancel any plans I had for the summer. Throughout this time I also had to deal with terrible communication from the dealership. Rarely giving me updates, not returning calls, and then getting an attitude with me whenever I showed the smallest bit of frustration over their lack of communication. The first 6 weeks it just sat on the lot because the dealership claimed they didn’t have anyone to work on it.

The dealership told me to file a claim with RAM Customer Care to help cover some of the expenses I had incurred for the 4 months that they had possession of it. My case manager said she needed to talk to the dealership to confirm that my vehicle was actually there from the beginning of July to November, even though I provided text messages from the dealership showing my appointment date confirmation. For almost 5 months she claimed she couldn’t get a hold of the dealership but she needed to keep trying due to “protocol” then ultimately denied my entire case last week, saying that I didn’t qualify for a goodwill reimbursement because my warranty had expired and my mileage was too high….

By definition, a goodwill reimbursement refers to compensation or payment provided by a company to a customer as a gesture of goodwill or to maintain customer satisfaction, even though the company may not be legally obligated to do so. Goodwill reimbursements are typically offered in situations where the company acknowledges a mistake, error, or inconvenience caused to the customer, and seeks to remedy the situation by offering compensation beyond what is required by contract or policy. All that I had been through with this company, between the dealership and customer care, for the past 9 months was at minimum an inconvenience caused by a mistake/error on their part in the form of a recall. If my case doesn’t qualify for “goodwill” then I don’t know what does. Warranty Expiration and mileage should not be part of the consideration for a goodwill reimbursement, especially not on a car that was less than 4 years old and well under 100,000 miles.

There is SO MUCH MORE to this story and so many extremely problematic interactions with both customer care and the dealership but one of the worst parts is that Stellantis, the company that owns RAM, made a record net profit of $20 billion last year (an 11% increase from 2022) but couldn’t even reimburse me for the relatively small amount of expenses that I incurred from a recall.

This entire situation has caused me so much stress over the last 9 months. Unfortunately I now regret spending all my savings on my RAM Promaster Van. I wish I had seen more threads like this to have some insight on how RAM treats their customers before I purchased it. This experience has actually been so traumatic for me that I am now scared to even drive my van very much because if something else happens that is out of my control, now I know that I won’t be taken care of by RAM. @RamCares your customers deserve better.

Sorry to hear about your problems, it is not a pleasant experience for you. I can't speak to the goodwill issue, but I think your experience serves to show others that if a vehicle is going to be both primary residence and daily driver, buying new or certified used from a Ram dealer is the consideration as a used vehicle can contain unknown issues that may arise after purchase.

Regarding the recall, the issue was the vehicle slipping out of park, did it ever do that? It was a software update to fix. An additional point of your story is to not purchase a vehicle that has not had a full, third-party inspection that includes searching for all recalls and ensuring that work was already completed. Sorry to say, but this recall concern is really on you to a point as due diligence wasn't taken prior to purchasing, checking for this recall could have prevented the transmission issue if you are sure the lack of recall work was the causing factor. This is possibly a contributing factor to Ram not providing any type of compensation, however if you bought this from a Ram dealership you could revisit the issue and try to convince them that service should have checked for recalls prior to selling the vehicle. Good luck with your travels.

The vehicle was designed as a conveyance for people and cargo from point A to point B. Using it as a permanent residence is not what the vehicle or the support infrastructure ( dealership, customer service, parts, etc. ) is designed to accommodate.

The 44A recall is for unintended parking pawl disengagement. Not sure how that caused a transmission failure rendering the vehicle undriveable. Me thinks there is more to this story than has been posted.

Can the OP post a copy of the service order(s) showing the issue, diagnosis and proposed repair plan? This is standard documentation every dealer provides when servicing a vehicle.

What expenses are being requested for reimbursement? Towing would sound reasonable. Domicile expenses would seem unreasonable since the vehicle is designed as a conveyance not a domicile.

Not on anyone's side here..BUT..leaving the vehicle anywhere for any service over a few days would raise my blood pressure to the extreme. Alternative measures perhaps sould have been considered. That list is long and escal
in form. Sorry for your troubles. Makes everyone rethink this Ram Cares. Guess like most of us they are glad to get our money BUT then we are just a number on a sheet of paper if they can get away with it.

You were still able to drive it ? You should have taken it to a different dealer, they are not all owned by the same people. You have not said what the problem with the van is . Unless they locked it in their garage , I would have driven away. You let them keep you house , why ?

Looks like another one-sided one post wonder.

Amazing how some people assume things without ALL the facts...you would never make the grade as a Detective chri5k..

That's a well written 'hook, line and sinker' story if I ever heard one. Surprised there's no mention of a sick grandma or puppy.

Dave Haddon said:

Amazing how some people assume things without ALL the facts...you would never make the grade as a Detective chri5k..

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Hence why I requested more facts and called it one sided.

Never wanted to be a detective. Seems the profession is filled with self-aggrandizing jack wagons.

Ouch..again those assuptions you just cannot shake from your personality..lol

I’m neither a detective or a psychologist but I do see a lot of new to the forum posts where the poster opens with a rant. Most likely to get their frustration out and look for validation from others who may have a similar experience. Unfortunately for those posters they hear opinions that differ from their’s. A forum of common interest has members that have experienced similar situations and already know some of the pitfalls. If these new posters would have searched out such occurrences prior to their endeavor maybe they could have saved themselves such frustration. In the case of the OP it would appear they purchased the vehicle from a non CDJR dealer. A Ram dealer would be responsible for completing any open recalls prior to sale. At least that is the law here in Virginia. Independent used dealers have no such obligation and it’s on the buyer. The OP would have saved such aggravation if they did their due diligence prior to purchase.

Hi there @girldogvan,

We regret to hear that the service you've received from our team has not proved helpful. The experience you've had thus far is not the lasting impression we'd like to leave for you or any of our owners. Please send us a private message including your VIN, a summary of your concerns, and any existing case number. We would like to have a different agent review your case to be sure your concerns are addressed properly. We would truly like to provide you with a better experience.

Gia
Ram Cares

Dave Haddon said:

Amazing how some people assume things without ALL the facts...you would never make the grade as a Detective chri5k..

Click to expand...

I have to agree with @chri5k. The OP joined Monday at 0102, and made the post at 0123. That is their first and only post, and the last time they were on this forum. So, another drive-by ranting.

Kind of wish people would leave out the ancillary stuff and just stick to the issue of what broke. Everybody is put out regardless of situation when their vehicle breaks. Being a nomad by choice or necessity living out of your vehicle does not get one front of line privileges over anybody else dealing with the same issue. Sort of reminds me of women pulling the “single mother” shtick to gain favor in a situation.

Agree with all above. Most RVs don't even qualify for full time living, so unless it is specified as such (including on insurance as the primary residence) RVs get the same treatment. You get in line behind everyone else and it sits until they get to it. IMHO, choosing to use a vehicle as your primary residence with no backup plan for WHEN (not if) something breaks is not a smart thing to do. The OP just found that out the hard way.

I had an issue with my 2018 crew cab 2500 SLT about trying to remove a nut under the seat for the jack for the truck. they had used some kind of glue for whatever, my stepson and I spent over two hours trying to remove this stupid nut. I sent an email to customer service about this and I got a reply about this and their solution was to place the jack somewhere else in the truck once it was removed. Needless I was very upset about this. So what I did was I looked up the email address for the head honcho of Ram gave him the reference number of the response I got from customer care, explained the situation and the attached response. Well i was shocked I got a phone call from no. 2 in command two days later from the response of my email. This gentleman was surprised in what type of response I got from customer care to which he was not happy and he told me that this is going to looked at, plus further more he had not heard of this kind of issue with this nut under the seat. I told him how would you like to caught in a rain/snow storm or even in the middle of no where fighting to get your jack out to change a tire. Especially if you are in a suit going to a meeting or work. This fellow was very apologetic about this and will look further into this. Long story short send an email to the head honchos with your email from customer support that has the reference number on it an they will look into it. maybe this is the route you have to go worth a try. I had to do that years ago when the dealer told me we look after our customers first then we look at towables. I got my truck fixed pretty quick in three days after making that one phone call. Dealers don't like that when you go directly to the horses mouth. Makes them look like duffuses.

Ashman, a girl's husband who works for me did the same thing as you, but only it was a Leer cap for his Dodge. Leer dealer would not help on a production defect so he got ahold of the head honcho at Leer and the guy called the dealer and reamed them a new one.. Dealer was not happy but within one day the parts were there and they fixed the issue. Yeah, go the head guys if you can.....

Well this isn't my first post and I won't disappear. I have a 2009 Ram 1500 hemi. When I bought it the truck came with lifetime engine/powertrain warranty. I've already had one transmission replaced - dealer fought tooth and nail but finally a call to Chrysler/Fiat/Stellaris and they put a remanufactured 65RLE in it.

Anyway, a requirement of the lifetime warranty is an inspection every five years. Previously I got emails about this when the deadline got near, but that has been stopped - wonder why?

I have it in my calendar and so I took the truck to a Dodge dealer about 90 miles away (closest one) for the inspection. It's free. After waiting a couple of hours I asked the service tech what was up. "Oh we give a complimentary evaluation, no charge."

So another hour then it came back with about $5000 worth of things that were "needed immediately". The cooling system HAD to be flushed (I'd just done that two months before when I put a new radiator in), "Tires dry rotted" (they weren't), "Change transmission filter, $550", "Customer says battery needs to be replaced $450" (I didn't and it doesn't); several other "critical" items, and the topper: "Replace license plate light bulb, $262".

The tech explained that the reason the license plate light cost so much was the bumper had to be removed to replace it. Incredibly I was able to do it with no tools and without removing the bumper in about a minute using a $1 bulb from AutoZone. And "the transmission filter is built into the pan that's why it's so labor intensive and it takes twelve quarts of oil".

I told them thanks but no thanks and drove home. Some dealers should be out of business, they are nothing but crooks and ripoff artists.

pscarbor said:

Well this isn't my first post and I won't disappear. I have a 2009 Ram 1500 hemi. When I bought it the truck came with lifetime engine/powertrain warranty. I've already had one transmission replaced - dealer fought tooth and nail but finally a call to Chrysler/Fiat/Stellaris and they put a remanufactured 65RLE in it.

Anyway, a requirement of the lifetime warranty is an inspection every five years. Previously I got emails about this when the deadline got near, but that has been stopped - wonder why?

I have it in my calendar and so I took the truck to a Dodge dealer about 90 miles away (closest one) for the inspection. It's free. After waiting a couple of hours I asked the service tech what was up. "Oh we give a complimentary evaluation, no charge."

So another hour then it came back with about $5000 worth of things that were "needed immediately". The cooling system HAD to be flushed (I'd just done that two months before when I put a new radiator in), "Tires dry rotted" (they weren't), "Change transmission filter, $550", "Customer says battery needs to be replaced $450" (I didn't and it doesn't); several other "critical" items, and the topper: "Replace license plate light bulb, $262".

The tech explained that the reason the license plate light cost so much was the bumper had to be removed to replace it. Incredibly I was able to do it with no tools and without removing the bumper in about a minute using a $1 bulb from AutoZone. And "the transmission filter is built into the pan that's why it's so labor intensive and it takes twelve quarts of oil".

I told them thanks but no thanks and drove home. Some dealers should be out of business, they are nothing but crooks and ripoff artists.

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Well, unfortunately as right as you may be, that sounds like some typical "lifetime warranty" dealership shenanigans that are all-too familiar. Most of these kinds of dealerships will find anything they can to not honor an issue or they have no ther way of selling the problem children vehicles they acquired at a time they believed the market was at a good position to do so.