Truck buying war story

[OTW]

So last time I posted was I think April. I am now CLOSE to being ready to take this setup camping. Bought trailer early April and truck late April. This is now mid-July. It has been that much time worth of un-freaking-believable weirdness.

VERY long story short, I saw an ad for a 2002 Chevy 2500HD, crew cab, tow package, only 86K miles. Ad screamed in full caps NO RUST!!! Said it was a southern truck. Drove 2 hours to see it, liked it. Oh yeah, upon greeting, the heavily tattoo''d, very burly, loud-speaking seller asked if I brought a man. I said no. He scolded, "when looking at trucks you should always bring a man!" I laughed out loud, not meanly, I was truly amused. And said I knew of nothing in the genetic code... well anyway. Man or not, I arranged for it to be given a full pre-purchase inspection by a Chevrolet dealership not far away. I stressed to them that rust and signs of heavy plowing were of high interest but otherwise I wanted it fully checked out, and I meant fully. The morning of the inspection I even emailed them a detailed line item of things to check (friend sent me this) "any of which would be in addition to whatever you would normally check." Phone report back" Truck in excellent condition, mechanic amazed for its age, it does need rear brakes and one backing plate, otherwise great." All details I asked, positive answers. Bought it!

Took it to my mechanic for the prescribed brake work, and very quickly after leaving, he called and said "Come right back here. I want you to see this." He included photos. Totally rusted out whole front part of frame and everything attached to it. Horrible! Here's where the long story is short. 1-1/2 months of hassling with the official Chevrolet dealership who did the pre-purchase inspection, including having the truck taken back up to them so the GM could see it in person, and a big "etc." later, they fired the mechanic who did the pre-purchase inspection and paid my mechanic's bill of $3,200 to replace the whole front frame and all its attachments, rear shock mount and I also got them to throw in the cost of the brakes and backing plates as penance. That took almost a month because my mechanic's expert fabricator was having twins and taking the whole month of June off.

Now I FINALLY have the truck and mechanic found a great donor frame so it's now a really nice truck. And the trailer dealership "forgot" to assemble the hitch so I did that myself, set ball height, took the assembly to my mechanic to torque the bolts and by the end of the day (still some stuff to do on that part) I will be able to hook up to the trailer. And I made reservations at a campground from Thurs. through Sunday this coming week. Still have not pulled the trailer yet. I will practice backing it up on my 600-700 ft. driveway starting today (actually it's more like a dirt road) and then leave earlier on Thurs. than I'd otherwise do and practice some turns and backing turns in Walmart's way-back parking lot, then take off.

Geeez! This has been beyond insane. Oh! Forgot the kicker. I did a google search on the seller. It turns out that he used to work at that same official Chevrolet Dealership. Yup. While the GM wasn't yet employed there when Paul was, the mechanic who did my pre-purchase inspection was. Hmmmmm.

[Liz]

Wow, good for the GM for taking responsibility.

[BirdbyBird]

An honest GM and a woman with excellent records of notes......wonderful the some good customer service still exists! The other connecttion of employees with ex employees......

[grammynmaggie]

What a nightmare but I'm so happy that turned out good for you you did a good job

[OTW]

Actually, it wasn't quite like that. The GM brought out every get out of jail free card he could possibly conceive of from the sublime to the truly farfetched ridiculous, none of them fitting, and dragged each step out as long as he could--this hassling back and forth went on for over a month! He had no leg to stand on and finally acquiesced that they would do the frame replacement there. I said fine, but just understand, the work would have to pass final approval of my own mechanic. I assured him that it wouldn't be unreasonably withheld. Turned out their mechanic took a few things apart and decided it was just way out of his own wheel house of experience. This is not the kind of thing a dealership deals with. Also the donor frame they had located (which he sent me photos of) was horrid. Ugh. Chunks of scaley rust had crumbled into piles on the ground where they set it down for the photos. My mechanic has a master fabricator on board who's done this before and it simply turned out to be safer and way easier for the dealership to just pay my guy's bill than to take a chance on their own guy screwing things up worse. Good result in the end, but it was mega frustrating every step of the way.

But! Finally I have a very nice truck (along the lines of what I was assured I'd be buying). And I like it a lot! I've named it Sal. (For a while its name was Rusty.) I still have a little hitch assembly to finish up but tomorrow but will do that early while it's cool and then can start practicing with it here on property. It's a pretty straight shot where I'm going to camp but there's a lovely good sized stream right there at my campsite and it'll be nice to work under the awning with a babbling brook in the background. So this trip will be my "maiden voyage." I'm soooo looking forward to it!

[snowball]

Wow so glad it worked out in the end..even if it took a lot to achieve it...hope the seller helps his bud out since he got fired for doing him a favor....
have fun on your maiden voyage
sheila

[OTW]

Thanks Snowball!

[Bethers]

I'm glad to hear there was a good ending to your war story. I hope you have a wonderful first trip!

[OTW]

Thank you Bethers! It took me an embarrassingly long time yesterday morning to get everything hitched up this very first time but everything's at the right height. Practiced moving it around on the wide part of my driveway a little bit and I was surprised how reactive the trailer is. Will do more today and tomorrow.

[gingerK]

Glad you got this situation taken care of. Also glad you had a mechanic and fabricator to do the proper work; frame off restoration isn't something that a dealership is qualified for.

[SoCalGalcas]

What a story!!! So glad you persevered, went through hell, continued to rant and ended up with a nice truck!!! Thanks for posting this interesting story. lyn

[OTW]

Thanks. Yeah, I had to bring out my best rendition of [BitchSlap/Hug} {BitchSlap/Hug}. I EARNED a good truck out of all this, lol. I bought the truck in late April and today will finally be maiden voyage now that all's said and done. Better late than never.

[avalen]

Wow, what an experience