Overheat issue continuance!

[LaMonte Monnell]

Well, Report filed 12-7 with Caterpillar. Haven't heard back from there yet. I did speak with a guy named Todd at CAT. He basically told me that since this CAT(Ring power Cat )is privately owned that I have to deal with them on this.

After explaining some of the issues he said he would call the service manager and call me back. Maybe that would help. He called back and said that they were getting on it and would be calling me soon.

The wife and I decided to go in person once again as it's only 10 minutes away. Went in the Service manager office but he tried to act busy....saw the shop foreman, and we stood behind the motorhome and talked. He showed me some new coolant lines they installed and a new crank seal. He said they had the water pump off and it is fine. Then the big question, even though I had asked it many times before today. Are you sure the fan was installed properly...I asked him to get the fan and hold it up to the engine, I told him I had a print out of a 3126B engine and fan to compare it with as the tech had it marked in and out.....then he finally admitted that it had been installed wrong from the beginning and he had found it out yesterday. wasn't going to tell us at all and was going to blame it on the lines he replaced. Covered up and caught. He said he didn't ever check the techs work and he should have. He said he was sorry and had a rough weekend thinking about our issues.

So now tomorrow they will begin putting it all back together as it never had to be taken out to start with, almost another month and a half of extra non required work that they will eat....plus the parts they put in to cover up the fan issue......I don't like being lied to and exposing it face to face during a discussion. But that's life. Maybe we will get it back before the holidays and our trip.

It will never go there again......

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

La Monte,
Glad you got them to admit their error. Trying to cover it up is inexcusable (IMHO) but I'm sure it occurs a lot and probably to all of us one time or another.
Steve

[LaMonte Monnell]

That is the hardest part of it all. And I had asked at least three or four times if they were sure the fan was installed right. Also they pulled the thermostats back out Friday and tested them in hot water yesterday to be sure they opened correctly. And yesterday pulled the water pump and checked it out. I have asked about that too. If I hadn't of asked to put the fan up to the mount he would not have said a word....but he was caught at that point! That's what disturbs me most...and the $130 an hour labor rate. But I won't be paying very much of that!

[Lee Welbanks]

La Monte,

This whole deal just makes a persons blood boil. The tech's in this place are too stupid to figure out that the fan was installed wrong all along.
I would not give this place one dime for all the trouble they have caused you and your family.

[Dave Atherton]

LaMonte, I real happy you will soon be on the road. Being a retired cat tech I know
first hand mistakes can be made and myself have learned from  my mistakes. The 
good that will come from all this ( you had the shop foreman come clean and admit
fault ), being a leader, will take the heat to cover his people. But yet he can sleep
tonight. AS we grow older having a person come clean and have dealership adjust your
bill restores my continue respect for caterpillar.equipment and caterpillar Dealers.
Dave Atherton Retired Cat Mechanic

[Bob Wilgus]

Glad to hear the resolution of your overheat issue. I was afraid you were going to receive a large bill for no apperent reason. Thanks for posting in such detail, it was very informative.

[Edward Buker]

La Monte,

There are Cat signs at private dealerships and then there are large Cat dealerships that can tie into the Cat larger real time resources for problem solving if they need to. I had a similar experience with a Cat sign type, Trans West in Denver where I was first towed in after my 89 Contessa motorhome died on the road. I waited a day and a half at Trans West and nobody looked at my coach after repeated requests and the run around routine. I called coach net and had them come and tow me across town to the Wagner Cat main dealership that ran a three shift operation.  The coach was brought in, worked on that day, with the job being finished on second shift that night. A night and day difference that is hard to sort out dealership wise before hand.

I am so glad that you are at the end of this difficult and stressful time. It is admirable that the party involved finally fessed up to the error and came clean. I hope they learned a lesson in customer relations...honesty is always best. If they are honorable they will write off all the bill except what you requested done and the real problem fix. It would be best of they just wrote the whole bill off..... time will tell.

Later Ed

[LaMonte Monnell]

Thanks everyone for your advice, and especially having you all behind me. I don't like confrontations at all, but I did have to finally have one.

The shop foreman apologized over and over and seemed sincere. He said he has learned a lesson, and will now follow up the work of people below him. He knows I had asked several times to check the fan install, but he kept going different directions.

He did call this afternoon at 3pm and said they have it almost completely back together and will be ready to test drive it tomorrow am sometime. I told him I want to be in the coach when he does. I have a lot of stuff to verify that was completed and look it over before we have a sit down and figure out the bill.

I have an idea about labor times so I know what it should be for just the work I requested. And I have a list of the parts they installed. So it should work out, hopefully!

Thanks again for the support and I will give a final report tomorrow after the test drive.

[Larry Dedrick]

LaMonte:
                I expressed my concern of quality work from Ring cat in a previous reply. As, I too, have learned by experience, I now check over all work done on my coach to the best of my ability, but this is something I have done all my adult life. You never know what you will discover.  Had I not done this, I would  not have discovered mistakes done by techs at Ring Cat, and I could go on and on, but that would take too much time. I share your opinion on the facility and my experience have been with two different Ring facilities. I will only use them if absolutely necessary.

         Glad to hear your problems are over. Whats that saying about a Gut feeling?

                       I don't claim all Cat facilities are questionable. I have been repaired, and serviced by a few Cat facilities that I would definitely recommend.

                 Larry D.

                       

[Lee Welbanks]

LaMonte:
                I expressed my concern of quality work from Ring cat in a previous reply. As, I too, have learned by experience, I now check over all work done on my coach to the best of my ability, but this is something I have done all my adult life. You never know what you will discover.  Had I not done this, I would  not have discovered mistakes done by techs at Ring Cat, and I could go on and on, but that would take too much time. I share your opinion on the facility and my experience have been with two different Ring facilities. I will only use them if absolutely necessary.

         Glad to hear your problems are over. Whats that saying about a Gut feeling?

                       I don't claim all Cat facilities are questionable. I have been repaired, and serviced by a few Cat facilities that I would
definitely recommend.

                 Larry D.

I don't think I will ever take my coach back to Cat here in Phx, was not at all happy with their service. Got the coach ran into by a idiot truck driver, took them all day and I mean all day (8am to 4pm) to change oil and filters and change out the coolant to ECL. Ran the motor out of fuel by not installing the water/sep filter correctly.Didn't add enough coolant, the service mgn caught that on, guess it is hard to look at a sight glass. Then wanted to charge me all the labor time, they adjusted the bill after a little confab.