Chrysler Back Order Situation - Looking for some Good Karma
 

This doesn't happen very often, but I had a customer contact the forum indicating that her husband's 2005 Dodge Ram Power Wagon has been down for over a month waiting for a steering gear box. Her family has incurred over $1,000 in rental car bills and the dealer says they have no idea when the part will come in.

Can one of our parts experts offer some help/advice in the name of Good Karma? :)

Here's the part number: RL121986AG

As a side note, the customer found the forum based on a Google Search which linked her to this thread - click here (The irony is the part that was on back order in both cases was the power steering gear box.)

I'm looking at it. BRB

You're the best - thanks for taking the time to see what options might be available. :)

Yikes, this one isn't looking good.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...RL121986AG.jpg


158 orders for this part out there. I noticed two things right away.

1st, there is no VOR (Vehicle Off Road) orders for this part out there. Whoever is the first dealership to upgrade his/her Special Handling ordering to "VOR" will be the first one on the list when stock becomes available. Why that hasn't been done already, I have no idea.

2nd, Supplier Ship Commitment shows zero. In layman's terms, the vendor that produces that part has not provided a promise date for delivery of stock to ChryCorp. Obviously, that explains why Supplier In-Transit shows zero as well. Not a good sign.

I did find one dealership that shows that part on the locator and included that in the image. Chances are the dealership has refused D2D (Dealer-to-Dealer) requests with as many Special Handling orders as I see, but you never know until you give them a call.

Rocket - you really are the best. Thanks for the information and Good Karma to you for helping out another dealership's customer. :)

It's funny, I knew the name of the customer's dealership but decided to leave it out of the first post just in case it might be cause for embarrassment. I don't know why there's not a VOR order in the system but I'm sure that's going to be one of the first questions the customer asks.

Concerning the lack of parts in the pipeline, that doesn't look good at all. :(

Back in the old days I know Chrysler would step up and offer some rental assistance in extreme parts back order situations like this. What's the customer's best chance for getting some help from Chrysler while her husband's truck remains sitting for an unknown length of time?

-----zero!

Try your local parts house that sells "A-1 Cardone" reman products. I called my old parts house that we dealt most with and they looked it up. 05 Ram 2500 or 3500 part number is 27-7616 Retail price is 325.00 with a core charge of 175.00. He said that there were none in his warehouse but the old box could get rebuilt if it was sent in.
Hope this helps.
http://www.cardone.com/English/Club/default.asp

Nah, everyone needs help sometime or another. No biggie.


Whenever we encounter an "intergalactic backorder" situation like this one, here's what we do.

1. Place order as Special Handling. Then, when order is received on DealerConnect, we upgrade to VOR.

2. As soon as VOR upgrade is submitted, I drop a line to our DM and ask for assistance. At that time, we communicate that the vehicle is down in our shop and the customer is in a rental. The DM tries to find a way to assist us in getting the part.

3. If the DM is not successful, and if it's a warranty repair (including Mopar warranty), we ask for permission to use an aftermarket resource (if available) and/or rental reimbursement (and we almost always get it).

4. If the DM is not successful, and the repair is Customer Pay or AftmktExtWar, the chance of rental reimbursement is slim.


Now, it being a month and the VOR hasn't been upgraded yet? The DM will probably tell the dealership to pay for it themselves and I can understand why. Not knowing what the pay type is on the ticket, I can only speculate on the reaction.

Thanks for the idea. :)

I sent the customer an email and told her she should read through this thread to get some ideas on how to get her husband's truck fixed.

Considering that the customer has already burned through $1,000 in rental expense, getting the existing part rebuilt sounds like a great solution.

I'm almost positive it's a customer pay R.O. In the customer's initial email she indicated that they already spent $1,500 for ball joints and a front end alignment and they were told the vehicle's still not safe to drive until the steering box is replaced.

That's a pretty hefty repair bill for a 2005 truck. Unless that rig has 200K+ miles on it I'd be pretty frustrated too. :mad:

Concerning the rental bill, I can see Chrysler's postion if they're being asked to pay for a bill and they didn't even know the vehicle was VOR. That said, my bet is if the dealership had followed your procedure and upgraded the order to a VOR the customer would probably still be waiting for the part.

With no parts in the pipeline there must be a reason why. :confused:

Thanks again for your help. :) (Good Karma for you....)

Hey XDCX...I am your Warranty Admin from Oregon..the town that starts with a 'P'...longtime since I was on here. In regards to the part on back order, the first thing is the dealer should put part on VOR, then check on availability of aftermarket part as previously suggested to see if DM may want to authorize NPN part use. Is this a warranty repair? If it is CP, why is dealer waiting so long to get factory part. Also, the customer should call customer relations, they are in Salt Lake now, and ask for assistance. The factory is back on the 'help 'em ' kick.

Hey, great to see you on the forum. :wave:

I was just thinking of you the other day. The last time we spoke on the phone I was driving through Lake Havasu and they were havng a torrential rain storm. I drove through Havasu last week and remembered the parking lot I pulled into to take the call.

That's a great question. Hard to imagine why a vehicle would need to be down for over a month if there are aftermarket parts that would work. :confused:

That's good advice - it never hurts to make the call and if Chrysler is on a "help 'em" kick so much the better. :)

Anybody know what happened to this truck? Just curious.

RL121986AG shows on in the U.S.A.. in NJ at Freehold Dodge, 732 462 1600. Also, it's not priced. This part could very likely be superceded, as RL means Repackaged. It could be the wrong #.

"RL" in Chrysler means "re-labled"