what's cooking?

On December 21st 2012 we bought my Chrysler 200s. From the beginning, every time I put the car in reverse it would make this horrible loud squeal and grinding sound. Every single time we pass by the dealership we would go in and complain about it. We also did so with every service and had it documented in the service request papers.

We were always told, and it was always put in those papers, that Chrysler knew of this problem and were working on how to solve it but there was nothing to do at this time.

2 years later, Steve bought himself a 200s and those brakes did not make the same awful sounds.We even asked the service people if there was any way to just replace the pads in my car with the ones that they had put in his. We were told that those pads would not fit the way my car was made and I would just have to wait.

Here we are, basically 8 years later, and guess what Chrysler still has never come up with a solution that they are willing to fix my car with. At this point I don't think it's that they don't have one, it's that they just don't wish to fix the problem.

Since I am presently not exactly out and about due to my broken ankle, Steve got all the paperwork and I started calling Chrysler's supposed customer service line.

One woman told me she saw all of what I had been saying and would find somebody to be my advisor and they would call me within 48 hours and she would see to it that my brake problem would at last be taken care of.

She lied. Not only did no one ever call, but when I called back what I got was a person who saw the problem and just kept saying to me: you only have a year that's all the warranty is for and you are out of warranty.

I in turn kept pointing out that I had been complaining about this problem well before the 12 months was over and had been promised that this problem would be taken care of and it hasn't been. I asked him to speak to a supervisor.

The supervisor informed me that they regretted that they couldn't do anything to help me. That any fix was coming out of our pocket despite how many times we complained or the length of how long we had been waiting.

Told this supervisor that after over 30 years and over seven cars and being loyal to their brand, we would no longer do so and would take every chance we had to make sure everyone knew of just how poor their customer service was and continues to be.

I even wrote to Mike Manley, the CEO, and very quickly one of his underlings wrote back that they had gone over the paperwork that had been done and they are citing with their customer service people and not going to help me.

Over a $200 fix they've lost many, many customers. Steve's car has now over 80,000 mi on it and he probably would have bought another Chrysler. Well I don't drive much I'm sure at some point I will need another car in my lifetime but it won't be from them. As promised I posted these problems on Facebook and Twitter and now here on my blog.

I also went on to consumer reports and several other review sites and let everyone know what my experience with customer service and Chrysler in general.

From now on you will not hear me say Chrysler is a good company.

It is one however that should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.