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Company
Truck AG & Auto 875 E South Loop, Stephenville, TX 76401 (254) 965-4403 Email Address: [email protected] Location on Google Maps Latitude: 32.2194437 Longitude: -98.1860290 Company web site click here |
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The opinions expressed are those of our contributing readers. RVServiceReviews.com has no means and is unable to make any determination about the experience, competence, integrity, or honesty of any of its contributors. We encourage our readers to seek a variety of information resources, and to make whatever additional and independent investigation may be necessary or appropriate before making any commitments or taking any steps in reliance on any information which is posted at this site. If you are the service provider and want to respond to this review send an email to [email protected]. Please provide the name of your company, as it appears on the review, the date of service provided by the reviewer and the explanation of the problem from your perspective. |
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| Date of Service: | 12/29/2016 | ||
| Work Done on: |
Class A - Diesel
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| Service Performed: |
"Wet" wheel bearing service and new seals, new
alternator, air brake inspection/adjustment, coolant hose replacement. |
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| Evaluation of Service Performed: |
This is a report about a recent service experience
with Truck AG & Auto in Stephenville, TX (west of Dallas/Fort Worth). The service was performed in December 2016. It's long-ish as I make a specific recommendation at the end against using this facility, and I want to provide context for that recommendation. It's worth calling out that this is only one side of this encounter, although I've attempted to accurately and dispassionately portray the events in question. My wife and I purchased a 1998 Newmar Dutch Star DP M-3883-FRL from a widow friend in October of 2016. Although it had few miles showing (about 13k), it is still nearly 20 years old and I wished to have the cooling system serviced including all hoses replaced, the wet wheel bearings and seals serviced, and the air brakes inspected/adjusted. There was other work such as fresh tires, fluids, filters, batteries, and so forth that was performed outside of this service engagement by different vendors, but I wanted the aforementioned items done by an actual Freightliner facility so that I could have additional confidence in the proficiency of the work. I visited the official Freightliner Custom Chassis of certified service locations. I cross-referenced the ones in my area against online reviews. I selected Truck AG & Auto as the best-reviewed of the bunch (although that, frankly, is faint praise). After explaining my wishes an appointment was made to take the coach to them (about a 3 hour round trip). Their expectation was that all service would be performed in two business days. That timeline was met, sort of. Right on time, two days later we picked up the coach and headed back home. We made it about 10 miles when the "Low Coolant" warning light and alarm sounded. Pulling over right away, I found the entire back of the coach (and our toad) covered with coolant. I filled the coolant reservoir and headed back to their shop, cautiously watching the temperature gauge, and stopping another time on the way to top off again. Once back at their shop they raised the rear bed platform to access the engine bay and discovered that they had mispositioned the new upper radiator hose, causing it to be cut through the bottom by the fan blade. While they were in there I observed several coolant hoses that had not been replaced. As it turns out, NONE of the coolant hoses except the two radiator hoses had been replaced as directed. They didn't have a new replacement hose but did have the old one. As we were scheduled to go out of town in the coach the next day we asked them to temporarily reinstall the old upper radiator hose, carefully positioning it away from the fan blade. We brought up with the service manager that the other hoses in-scope for the repair weren't done and agreed to revisit the issue upon our return to have the 2nd new upper radiator hose installed. Once again leaving the coach behind we took the filthy toad in search of a car wash to cleanse the coolant from the paint and then went back home. Returning the next day (trip departure day) I retrieved the keys and went outside to find the coach in a lake (a lake - not a puddle) of coolant that was running out of it. The tech had forgotten to tighten a hose clamp and it simply was running out on the ground. I am genuinely puzzled at how this could have been not seen. More delay ensued whilst a tech was brought out to go back in and tighten the offending clamp. After leaving the shop again, down the road I noticed a terrible rattling sound coming from the front left wheel. Stopping at the side of a busy road, I discovered that they had not tightened the nuts on that wheel - at all! They were all only finger-tight and were backing out. Thankfully, I had the tools on hand to properly tighten the nuts, and double-checked the remaining wheels just to be sure. A couple of weeks later I still had not heard back from the shop about the arrival of the replacement upper radiator hose. I finally called them and set a time to return to the shop for the third time. I had a conversation with the service manager about the additional hoses and we came to an agreement that for an additional sum they would complete that work. As a side note, I asked the service manager if I could have communicated my expectations more clearly and he confirmed that the expected scope was clear but the work simply wasn't done. No explanation for this discrepancy was offered, and since at that stage there was nothing to be gained by pressing the point I allowed the statement to stand on its own. Yet again, a few hours later we departed. Yet again, the next day we came out to find coolant on the ground. Despondent and no longer trusting this shop to fix their self-caused issues, I ended up fixing the leaks on my own by tightening three loose hose clamps (yes, more loose things again). To wrap up - the scope of work was not completed in the original visit, a significant safety issue was introduced by the loose wheel nuts, and after three visits they still couldn't manage the simple replacement of coolant hoses properly. All of these issues were workmanship-related and not defects in materials or any other factors. I never lost my temper with the staff or management of the facility nor engaged in negative verbiage or facial expressions, but privately I certainly wasn't impressed by the work performance. The staff I encountered were reasonably personable, and it would have been great to have their demeanor paired with good workmanship, but alas, such was not the case, and ultimately I can't recommend this repair facility based upon my experience. |
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| Value of Service: | Fair | ||
| Quality of Service: | Poor | ||
| Email Address of Reviewer: | [email protected] | ||
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