
Gene of Troy, MT on Jan. 30, 2007
In July of 05 we leased a 06 4x4 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel pickup from Tom Addis Dodge on a 3-yr contract. (vin 1D7KU28633J554039). The following January we had excessive rain here. The pickup's water in fuel light came on and the pickup would not restart. I called Tom Addis garage and they advised me to call roadside assistance--they towed the pickup to the nearest garage in Bonners Ferry, ID.
I told them that highway rain water must have somehow gotten into the fuel tank, they said it was impossible, that someone must have poured it in. When they drained the tank they discovered about a gallon of water in it. I had to pay the garage $341.76 because they said it could not possibly have been a Dodge fault. (also out 25 gal of diesel). It happened again, I hired others to remove the tank and a local garage cleaned and sealed the tank, they advised me to attach hoses to the vents--where the water must have been entering. We then receive notification from Chrysler stating that is exactly the case! Still the pickup wouldn't start and so I contacted the Bonners Ferry garage again.. this time they acknowledged it was the fault of the fuel tank and they replaced the injectors and this time the warrantee paid.
The Chrysler notification of the faulted tank stated that they would reimburse for any costs that came as a result before the notification. So I sent them a bill for $714.79, actual cost (not including hardship and expense of being without my pickup). They refuse to pay. I have repeatedly contacted Tom Addis Dodge in Coeur d'Alene for reimbursement.. one will say, yes, it will be paid.. then they are no longer available.. another says you should have brought it back in the first place! (yet I did as they initially advised, by calling Roadside assistance, who would only take it as far as nearest Dodge garage).
To make a long story short.. I am repeatedly given the run-around and they refuse to pay the costs that came about as a result of faulty tanks, which they have acknowledged by the TWO notifications they sent out.. in which they CLAIM that I will be reimbursed. Can you please help me to regain my cost? I am really steamed over this and feel that I have been unjustly dealt with. I have come to regard Tom Addis Dodge garage as crooked, and am thinking no more Dodges for me, going back to Fords in the future if this is the way that Chrysler/Dodge does business. Thanks for listening, Gene Bushnell.