I never said that advising corporate of your dissatisfaction with the services you received or the quality of their product never resulted in anything positive (TSB's). I did say that no one has ever received compensation ($$$) from corporate for having done so. If the dealer ultimately gives you free oil changes as compensation, that isn't coming from Dodge corporate - it's the dealer trying to buy back your good will.
Would you suggest that Pedders put out a TSB to their shops suggesting that all nuts and bolts be tightened according to currently-available specifications, or would one 'assume' that this is common knowledge and need not be documented? I'm in the 'common knowledge' camp on this one...
while you stated no one has every recieved anything from corporate... while its highly unlikely, unless we have record of EVERY transaction, can we really say who has or hasnt? seriously.
sometimes corporate DOES have the power to tell the dealer to give some sort of compensation. when the word comes down from the big boys, dealers will more than likely listen, especially if they eventually want to earn their "stars"... sometimes the dealer wont budge, but corporate will. especially if a dealer ****s (word for a male pee-pee) you over, you complain to corporate, and they send you the compensation themselves. to me, service coupons/etc, is just like money, especially if you have to get something done later on.
point being, over the years dodge has prob shelled out sporadically, not constantly. any standup company that is that well known and popular has more than likely had to.
as far as a pedder TSB, they shouldn't have to, but hey, might as well. even bill lumbergh sent out "the memoooooo?, yeaahhhh"...
with their basis of suspension being performance and safety, stuff like this doesnt really compliment each other. if Southwest Airlines started airing commercials of "fly with us, we're top notch the safest, we;re the best"....and then you ride the plane and see rivets missing from the wing that you KNOW should be there.... its only a matter of time until something goes wrong....
i think the logical thing would be that any shop working on ANY car be it papa joes steering rack shack, ford, dodge, or some company thats SO DEEP into racing with 30 years experience already should know that most suspension parts:
1) use bolts normally grade 8 or higher
2) should be torqued to specs, which should already be laid out, if not on a computer and handy..
3) any suspension should be onced over before off the lift.
with this post as with what most have seen and viewed.
the problem isnt pedders parts (i think everyone including metgo has already stated this),
its more or less the way everything has been handled.
we got a summary of MCP by stldocrecruiter, but some of his story (would we consider him a 3rd party?) seem kinda sketchy just based on how this whole thing started...
bragging or boasting the companies 30 year racing ordeal and that they are THE BEST is blatantly contradictory given the service recieved. remember 1 nut missing, others loose?
as a few have pointed out, safety is what pedders has pushed. loose fasteners on any part of a moving car isnt safe. bottom line. you can sit here and go back and forth on, well this is safer than this, and thats not as bad as it seems. bottom line is when working on a car, you tighten things to spec. logically if something has a nut on the end of it, it can come out at some point or time, else there would be no need for the nut... or like some shocks, where the nut is intergrated in the shock end/or welded on.
but according to stldocrecruiter's accounts, MCP, does all this work or cars, but they then tell the guy to take the car to another place and get his exhaust aligned? they took it off, they should realign it. if i am not mistaken, thats part of the job paid for.
a few more pieces are contradictory about the shop, in his accounts just in general so basically this really doesnt excuse the shop itself for its service. nor does it excuse one pedders employee/owner for their actions online.
honestly DMS and Batwood are the only ones i've seemed to get direct answers from so far from the pedders group. not really a big fan of what i felt like were "canned answers". i cant say i wouldnt buy something from them, if a needed a part from them, from a business aspect i'd go to the people of the group i DO trust. case in point when DMS answered a question about tie rods
http://www.chargerforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81439.
in another post i asked a different member about stiffer suspension as a whole, and basically all i got back was he felt pedders is the best, and made it appear like only pedders can accomplish said task in the post, when any suspension-based answer would be that any aftermarket could accomplish said task.
those two examples just goes to show, when someone asks a question or has a complaint, its not always just WHAT is said, but HOW its said.
with that being said, i dont think anyone (or company) is the sum of their worst actions, but also having trust and respect is big in my heritage. thats just the way i was raised.
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