You can't imagine the absurdity of Stellantis Road Side Assistance program

[jebruns]

I have used Coach Net for 20+ years. Have been towed twice, in Class A motor homes. Both tows over 60 miles one way. Both times the bill was over $1200. I paid zero. They are not the cheapest out there, but they are the best.

Did it really pay off though? How much do you pay a year vs paying for the 2 tows? Doesn't your RV insurance already cover towing?

 

[RamCares]

At 5:30 pm on Friday June 30, 2023, traveling on RT-90 in a brand new Ram 3500 with HO / Aisin AS69RC transmission (2000 miles on the vehicle) - the transmission completely blew up on the interstate off ramp, cutting us off from power completely while towing a 38” travel trailer exposing us to an extremely dangerous highway situation in highly congested stop and go traffic.

Shout out to another kind Ram 3500 owner towing rescued vehicles on a flatbed who tugged us to the closest parking lot

Stellantis Road Side Assistance was contacted at 7 pm when safe to do so to begin process of rescuing truck and trailer.

After numerous back and forth contact, Stellantis Road Side Assistance was unable to locate an “in-network” tow service to tow the truck 6 miles to the closest Ram dealership, and was unable to move with any sense of urgency ultimately leaving us stranded overnight - informing us at 10 p.m. that they will “try tomorrow”( are you kidding me?? luckily we were towing a travel trailer, otherwise we were just expected to sleep in the truck on the side of the road all night)

The next morning at 5:55 a.m. Stellantis Road Side Assistance contacted us, claiming that they have been unable to locate a provider for our vehicle type, and asked if we “still needed assistance” ( are you kidding me??.. x2) Stellantis Road Side Assistance was hoping we were so fed up with the service we took care of the job on own into the night...?

Stellantis Road Side Assistance finally found a provider, issuing a 90-120 min window, the provider never showed up, Stellantis Road Side Assistance then contacted us at 8:30 am informing us the provider cancelled, that “they couldn’t do it” Stellantis Road Side Assistance again asked if we still needed help, and is “escalating” the situation…( are you kidding me??… x3) no more words.

Stellantis Road Side Assistance has stopped contacting us entirely, and have no longer checked to to see if we are okay in the brand new truck that has stranded us on the side of the road, shame on you for doing this to any customer in need of assistance and who has paid for this service. What an absolute joke for a failed attempt providing even **** service. ( are you kidding me??… x4)

Meanwhile, two other vehicles have been picked up (behind and next to us)

# DONE WITH STELLANTIS

Hello,

We are so sorry to hear about this experience. We would like to gather some additional details in order to document this and see if we can offer any additional support as your vehicle is being diagnosed and repaired. Please send us a private message with your VIN to get started.

Lex
Ram Cares

 

[Steve_Cornell]

Hello,

We are so sorry to hear about this experience. We would like to gather some additional details in order to document this and see if we can offer any additional support as your vehicle is being diagnosed and repaired. Please send us a private message with your VIN to get started.

Lex
Ram Cares

Can you tell me why there is a TSB for the new on the lot trucks for the K1 snap ring issue with the Aisin transmission to check them before they are sold and the rest of us with Aisins in our HDs that were built during this same time frame have to wait until we are stranded along the road?
I have a late 22 build 3500 and use it to travel across the country in my RV, why can't I get it checked like the new unsold units?
I will be very very upset if I am stranded 1000 miles from home with a 44' fifth wheel trailer when this could have been prevented by having the dealer check the transmission.
Thanks!
Steve Cornell

 

[1ram]

Can you tell me why there is a TSB for the new on the lot trucks for the K1 snap ring issue with the Aisin transmission to check them before they are sold and the rest of us with Aisins in our HDs that were built during this same time frame have to wait until we are stranded along the road?
I have a late 22 build 3500 and use it to travel across the country in my RV, why can't I get it checked like the new unsold units?
I will be very very upset if I am stranded 1000 miles from home with a 44' fifth wheel trailer when this could have been prevented by having the dealer check the transmission.
Thanks!
Steve Cornell

I just inquired the same thing.. TSB January 11, 2023.. I rolled away January 30, 2023 without any knowledge this was an active issue.
My experience was preventable.

 

[SargeW]

Did it really pay off though? How much do you pay a year vs paying for the 2 tows? Doesn't your RV insurance already cover towing?

Yes, actually it did. Those 2 tows would have cost me over $2500, and that was in 2006 dollars. I have paid for all of my yearly dues with those 2 events. And not to mention the ease and peace of mind that came with making one simple phone call, and then the Coach Net operator handling all of the details. Even calling us back several times during the event to insure that all was going smoothly. To go through that process just once and the helpless feeling you have about being out of control of the situation, having someone take care of the details and get you serviced and back on the road is priceless.

Some RV policies may include a certain amount of road side service, but that usually entails relying on who ever is local, and they respond if they have time. Many don't want to be bothered as towing RV's can be a PITA. Just like the OP found out. Nope, that once yearly premium would be worth it at twice the price. And it does cover anything you drive, not just the RV related stuff.

 

[jebruns]

Yes, actually it did. Those 2 tows would have cost me over $2500, and that was in 2006 dollars. I have paid for all of my yearly dues with those 2 events. And not to mention the ease and peace of mind that came with making one simple phone call, and then the Coach Net operator handling all of the details. Even calling us back several times during the event to insure that all was going smoothly. To go through that process just once and the helpless feeling you have about being out of control of the situation, having someone take care of the details and get you serviced and back on the road is priceless.

Glad it's working out for you. I've read some long and bitter threads on RV forums about them over the years, though. I think I'll take my chances with my "free" towing through my insurance. Luckily, we've never had to have an RV towed in the 25 years we've been RVer's.

 

[SargeW]

Yep, that's also a possibility. I haven't needed them to rescue me since 2006-2007. But, I know my luck. I would cancel them and the next day and something major would break on the rig..........

 

[joace]

Feel sorry for OP's bad experience and shame on Stellantis' service, I had a 5th wheel tire blew up when towing on toll way back home last weekend, thought I had everything needed to change the spare tire, but I didn't, when calling RV insurance for road assistance, a toll way road incident response guy happened to saw me stopping at ramp side with emergency light flashing, he brought tools and helped me chnage tire in 30 min for free, then I could get back the road home. It was both a bad and lucky day for me, didn't know how well or bad insurance road assistance would go, but I really appreciated the help from that guy.

 

[1ram]

Apparently, nothing like public attention motivates a large company who can afford to frustrate and alienate customers with poor after purchase support.

Here’s an update on how Ram Cares doesn’t seem to Care..

2023-06-30: Friday

Stellantis Road Side Assistance was unable to locate an “in-network” tow service to tow the truck 6 miles to the closest Ram dealership. Ram Cares contacted and authorize rental reimbursement in interim, open case and assign a case manager, so that we can move our travel trailer.

2023-07-01: Saturday

Stellantis Road Side Assistance stopped all effort to help us after another failed attempt to obtain a network tow service Saturday morning. Case team unavailable, message left for case manager, for urgent help. We were forced to leverage our vehicle insure provider for tow assistance help, and they actually stepped in to get the vehicle towed to the Stellantis specified dealer.

2023-07-03: Monday

No contact from RamCares, another message left for case manager.

2023-07-05: Wednesday

3rd message left for case manager, had to contact main line for time sensitive help in resolving immediate issues. Case manager contacting Herb Chambers Dealership where the vehicle was towed to, and discovered they have a backlog, only 1 truck lift, and won’t be able to begin looking into the issue until the end of the NEXT week (week of 7/10). I communicated that we have commitments and need OUR truck and be back on the road by July 17th. Case manager was to contact Crowley Dealership and make arrangement for truck to be transferred to original dealer who has an existing appointment on July 14th to perform warranty service on this vehicle.

2023-07-06: Thursday

Voicemail phone tag. Left 2 voicemails on 7/6, and immediately on morning of 7/7.

2023-07-07: Friday

I didn’t receive any contact until Friday afternoon. At which point I was told I would have to make arrangement with the same Stellantis Road Side Assistance that failed to help us, and initiate moving my vehicle between dealerships. We received the same link to go through the same process we went through last week. The form prompted for payment of $605.50, unacceptable. Ram Cares Case Manager said towing services are included in our contract and does not know how to resolve, and it will have to wait until next week… more delays in anything happening. Asked to speak with supervisor, told I would receive a call next week… no urgency in resolution.

After further taking into our own hands, speaking with a representative from CROSS COUNTRY MOTOR CLUB. They need someone from Stellantis RAM Cares “officer in charge” to provide them an authorization code in order to move the Ram 3500 from Herb Chambers (MA) to Crowley (CT). Cross Country was unwilling to provide me this in writing per Stellantis policy, and stated that Stellantis knows how to contact them and process the authorization. This confirms that Stellantis is in the drivers seat, and I can not (nor should I) be in the middle of processing this transaction to move the truck between dealers.

We’ve now lost over 1 week of time due to Stellantis Ram Cares employees lacking an understand of internal policy to handle logistical items in a timely manner in order to provide acceptable levels of customer support.

2023-07-10: Monday

Per Friday, I was to be contacted with how to resolve the tow service, and hear from a supervisor. Neither occurred. Contacted Ram Cares for an update, issuing another reminder, still waiting to hear anything.

2023-07-11: Tuesday

Still zero contact or any form of follow up from Ram Cares about helping to properly resolve our transmission issue, or coordinating logistics to get work STARTED, after 11 days. Clock continues to tick.

I would really like to see the Stallantis support policy, and how success is measured, because this is by no means close to acceptable standards by what I would consider my reasonable expectation.

Apparently assigning problems to the customer and then ghosting “hoping the problem goes away on its own” is the new practice.

Word of caution to those experiencing similar issues with service… be prompt and DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.

 

[Will_T]

Your story is pitiful even though it is specific to roadside service. Around here we hear stories all the time like this about the Ram dealer service after the sale in general. I don't get around town all that much but even I have run into several people with horror stories about their truck and the dealer service dept. Everything from plain old mistakes, to not being able to figure out a problem, to just not moving on a problem. It is normal to wait weeks or months before a truck get looked at and then weeks or months more to get parts and a repair. And forget about recall service. I have been on the dealer recall "list" since December. They still claim no parts for either of the recalls on my 2021. I know that is not true, but I can't physically force them to do anything, and I do not want to travel hours away, stay in a hotel, etc. for the recalls. So, on the grid heater relay, I disconnect. On the 68RFE recall, I watch the dipstick to make sure it stays seated and cross my fingers nothing else comes up.

 

[JimKIII]

Time for an attorney? One that will take these jackasses to the cleaners.

 

[1ram]

Your story is pitiful even though it is specific to roadside service. Around here we hear stories all the time like this about the Ram dealer service after the sale in general. I don't get around town all that much but even I have run into several people with horror stories about their truck and the dealer service dept. Everything from plain old mistakes, to not being able to figure out a problem, to just not moving on a problem. It is normal to wait weeks or months before a truck get looked at and then weeks or months more to get parts and a repair. And forget about recall service. I have been on the dealer recall "list" since December. They still claim no parts for either of the recalls on my 2021. I know that is not true, but I can't physically force them to do anything, and I do not want to travel hours away, stay in a hotel, etc. for the recalls. So, on the grid heater relay, I disconnect. On the 68RFE recall, I watch the dipstick to make sure it stays seated and cross my fingers nothing else comes up.

The parts for this recall were on back order for weeks, the truck was scheduled to receive the work on 7/14, because all the parts came in and needed to be assigned to the job order to not “lose them.” Transmission blew on 6/30, and have found no one willing to move (tow) the truck to the parts for the scheduled appointment; or transport the parts “down the road” to the truck that can not be drive to “receive them.”

This issue in need of attention is so stupidly simple to solve in an era of connected technology and as smart as these vehicles are. A mere few phone calls and a driver would have this resolved and off the books in a couple hours effort, then a few more to complete the job.

 

[1ram]

Time for an attorney? One that will take these jackasses to the cleaners.

Case manager has been put on notice, contact from legal department requested.

 

[mbarber84]

I just inquired the same thing.. TSB January 11, 2023.. I rolled away January 30, 2023 without any knowledge this was an active issue.
My experience was preventable.

Based on all the data and info I have collected since January 10th 2023, It is my understanding that the original TSB 21-002-23 was released on January 11th 2023. That document detailed how to diagnose and fix failed units that were brought in demonstrating the issue. It made no mention of preemptive repairs or a means by which dealers could identify trucks as potentially having the K1 snap ring flaw.

The revised version of TSB 21-002-23 was released on March 8th 2023. It was at this point that the document was upgraded to an RSU (Rapid service update) and un-sold inventory VIN’s for affected trucks were uploaded to DealerCONNECT. As I understand the situation, it was at this point that dealers had the ability to scan the unsold trucks, identify by VIN the ones Ram had deemed in need of preemptive repair, and then order the necessary parts to fix them before they were sold.

From what I can tell, some dealers did this and others did not.

I’m still absolutely baffled as to how or why they can identify unsold trucks, but they can’t identify sold units. I’ve documented 261 confirmed K1 failures since 1/10/23 and I’m very confident that’s only a small sampling of the total number that have failed to date. There will also likely be many more to come. The stop-sale for the grid heater relay temporarily suspended sales of 2022 trucks. Now that parts are slowly becoming available, those trucks are now selling again so new 2022’s are still just hitting the road (some likely without having the RSU repair applied). The other thing I’ve noted is that prior to the initial release of TSB 21-002-23, dealerships that encountered this issue had no idea what was causing these failures. Many misdiagnosed these failures as valve body failures. They wasted time installing new valve bodies that didn’t fix the issue. When the new VB’s failed, they were close to the 30 day window for lemon law, and likely wanted the trucks back on the road. The quick solution was to simply swap the entire transmission for a new one so that’s what happened many times over. Only issue with this was many of the transmissions that were swapped out contained the same flawed snap ring as the trucks’ original transmissions. I’ve recently documented several K1 failures that were the result of early transmission swaps.

 

[1ram]

Based on all the data and info I have collected since January 10th 2023, It is my understanding that the original TSB 21-002-23 was released on January 11th 2023. That document detailed how to diagnose and fix failed units that were brought in demonstrating the issue. It made no mention of preemptive repairs or a means by which dealers could identify trucks as potentially having the K1 snap ring flaw.

The revised version of TSB 21-002-23 was released on March 8th 2023. It was at this point that the document was upgraded to an RSU (Rapid service update) and un-sold inventory VIN’s for affected trucks were uploaded to DealerCONNECT. As I understand the situation, it was at this point that dealers had the ability to scan the unsold trucks, identify by VIN the ones Ram had deemed in need of preemptive repair, and then order the necessary parts to fix them before they were sold.

From what I can tell, some dealers did this and others did not.

I’m still absolutely baffled as to how or why they can identify unsold trucks, but they can’t identify sold units. I’ve documented 261 confirmed K1 failures since 1/10/23 and I’m very confident that’s only a small sampling of the total number that have failed to date. There will also likely be many more to come. The stop-sale for the grid heater relay temporarily suspended sales of 2022 trucks. Now that parts are slowly becoming available, those trucks are now selling again so new 2022’s are still just hitting the road (some likely without having the RSU repair applied). The other thing I’ve noted is that prior to the initial release of TSB 21-002-23, dealerships that encountered this issue had no idea what was causing these failures. Many misdiagnosed these failures as valve body failures. They wasted time installing new valve bodies that didn’t fix the issue. When the new VB’s failed, they were close to the 30 day window for lemon law, and likely wanted the trucks back on the road. The quick solution was to simply swap the entire transmission for a new one so that’s what happened many times over. Only issue with this was many of the transmissions that were swapped out contained the same flawed snap ring as the trucks’ original transmissions. I’ve recently documented several K1 failures that were the result of early transmission swaps.

Funny thing (not funny at all) is our truck was identified for this issue when it was brought in for a different alert (Relay and anti lock brake sensor) and we were told parts are ordered and backlogged. Don’t know when available.. gave truck back and told keep driving as-is. I had no idea the magnitude of the issue until experiencing it, then finding your thread.

I don’t know others experiences but when these things go they go (and if you’re hauling a decent load), it’s a very dangerous safety issue to be with out power in many traffic scenarios, including ours on the highway offramp. Completely unacceptable for owners to be driving these time bombs and there really should be a stop driving until fixed.

I filled a notice with NHTSA, and everyone experiencing this should.

 

[WXman]

That's a carbon copy of the experience my Dad had with his new L5P Duramax a couple years ago. Broke down, and it took GM Roadside Assistance two days to get a tow truck to pick up the truck. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

[mbarber84]

Funny thing (not funny at all) is our truck was identified for this issue when it was brought in for a different alert (Relay and anti lock brake sensor) and we were told parts are ordered and backlogged. Don’t know when available.. gave truck back and told keep driving as-is. I had no idea the magnitude of the issue until experiencing it, then finding your thread.

I don’t know others experiences but when these things go they go (and if you’re hauling a decent load), it’s a very dangerous safety issue to be with out power in many traffic scenarios, including ours on the highway offramp. Completely unacceptable for owners to be driving these time bombs and there really should be a stop driving until fixed.

I filled a notice with NHTSA, and everyone experiencing this should.

It is unquestionably a safety issue. I’ve said that from the beginning. Losing gears 1-4 in any situation on the highway would be serious. Especially if you’re stuck in a lane and cannot move the truck out of the highway, or coming down a steep grade with a heavy load. Losing 1-4 also means you lose the exhaust brake. It is absolutely irresponsible and dangerous to have people get into these situations.

 

[Eatonpcat]

AAA has NEVER let us down. EVER!

Have you broken down with a trailer and had AAA tow your vehicle and trailer?? I had some seals on a transmission blow out while driving on the OH Turnpike pulling an equipment trailer...AAA came and loaded the truck on the flatbed and wanted to charge me to take the trailer. I called a buddy to get my trailer off the side of the road.

 

[lordbond]

I had similar issues with roadside assistance. My truck blew a snapring 600 miles away from home. Cost me close to $4000 to get my truck and 37 foot 5th wheel home. My dealer didn't have a transmission guy. Second dealer was backed up over a month to even be able to diagnose issue. Third dealer fixed my truck in 2 days. Had to pay both tows from my home to 1st dealer and then from the first dealer to the second one. My truck had 6100 miles on it when it failed. There is another thread where someone is tracking issues.

 

[1ram]

2023-07-13: Wednesday
Still zero contact from Ram Cares. Sat on hold waiting for an “available case manager” to speak with us. Was informed our case manager (who was new and unknowledgeable in the first place) has left the company, and I should have been assigned a new Case Manager, and the Ram Cares representative does not know why our case has not been re-assigned already. A task has been “created to assign a new case manager.”

What a JOKE, and still waiting for a Ram Cares supervisor to speak with. Is this really happening @RamCares ?????

Nearly 2 weeks have passed, about to be assigned 3rd case manager, and we haven’t moved an inch in progress.