No one likes paying for routine maintenance on a car let alone on a big RV, but it is a necessity to have a “well-oiled machine”. We decided the perfect time for the yearly oil change and the chassis lube etc., would be when we left Menifee on our way back to Pio Pico on September 9. We wouldn’t have pressure to get somewhere afterwards. I would go ahead in TJ to secure our site. As many Freightliner places, Velocity Truck Center in Miramar, CA does not make appointments. It is a first come, first served procedure. No biggie. We got up early on the 9th and arrived by 7:30am. They told Barry it should only take a couple hours. Well, 5 hours later he was close to leaving! To top it off when they drove Vinny out to him, the steering was very “hard”. The Comfort Drive steering system was not engaging at all. The guy driving it even acknowledged that it drove fine when he pulled it in, but not now. Well, after 5 hours, Barry wasn’t willing to wait around for several more hours for them to get Vinny back in to check out the steering issue. They also told Barry that a seal was leaking and a “boot” had a tear, so we should consider getting those both fixed.
After our 12 days at Pio Pico, and 4 nights at the Silver Strand State Beach, we got up early to be back at Velocity by 7:30. The Comfort Drive steering failure was our priority today, but we wanted an estimate for replacing the leaking seal and the torn boot. Well, supposedly the leak is a non-issue, as no leak was found. The boot was verified to have a tear, but they didn’t have one, so the steering issue is the only thing to work on. 5 hours later…No news! And the tech wasn’t around! He must have gone to lunch. About 45 minutes later he was back and came out to see Barry as requested. No problem detected yet! Although he said he thought the wrong steering fluid is in it. Seriously?? How and where could that have happened? We haven’t touched it! FIVE hours and that’s all you’ve got!?! I interjected how additionally frustrating it is because the steering was working perfectly fine when we came in on Sept 9, but when YOU pulled it out of the service area, the Comfort Drive steering wasn’t working at all! Seems pretty odd to be a coincidence. Barry continued to express his frustration and their lack of competency. “YOU told me you work on these! But you obviously don’t have the tool to do the diagnostic checks!” After a few minutes the clerk called the manager to speak with us. It didn’t go much better!
The manager was very calm. He said he understood our frustration, but the better tech for working on this isn’t here. Yeah, that didn’t help. Then he said the (current) tech is going to do a steering diagnostic.
“WHAT!?!? Why has it taken 5 hours to finally do this? “
His response was, “Well, we didn’t have your permission.”
Barry: “Oh My god! This is why we brought it in!!! We’ve been here 5 hours and they had our phone numbers!”
Manager: “Well, I have nothing to do with communication. (wow–isn’t he the MANAGER!?!)
We were told upon arrival this morning that they would run a diagnostic and that it could take a couple hours. We gave them both our phone numbers. Barry assumed (rightly so) that they had the proper tool to run the proper diagnostic. The website for Comfort Drive gave the tool specifics and also stated that most heavy truck places have it to use. Evidently NOT Velocity!. We had had enough! We just wanted to leave, so after they put “things” back, and brought Vinny out to us, we left! We will find a place in the Phoenix area that has their act together! We won’t be back to this Velocity Truck Center.
Velocity put “things” back, and drove our coach out to us. What an exhaustive day of sitting around waiting, and be no further ahead than when we arrived! Extremely frustrating. We hooked up TJ and left for Yuma. Three and a half hours to drive. Carefree Village Resort…we’re on our way to make you our home! We will end the day well.
