Made an appointment with the service department to have a rattle noise, coming from the rear of my 2017 truck with less than 22K miles, diagnosed. Appointment was at 7:30 AM and I arrived before they opened. Told the service advisor I would be waiting for my vehicle and I would also like my tires rotated. Around 10:15 AM my truck had still not been looked at or had any work done on it. Was told by Nora Taylor (Service Advisor) that they were trying to catch up from Friday and they had also had a couple of technicians quit. Nora later told my truck would be next after the technician finished what he was working on. At 11:30 Nora told me the problem was in my leaf springs. Nora said she had filed a claim with my extended warranty to have both leaf springs, u bolts, and shackles replaced ($1336) and she would know if it was approved within the hour. I should have been informed about the diagnosis before a claim was filed through my extended warranty. About 1:00 PM Nora told me the claim had been denied because of my low mileage and if i wanted to have it fixed it would be an out of pocket expense. I declined service and left paying $135.88 for the diagnostic fee, $19.95 for the tire rotation, and $7.79 for "unknown" shop supplies.
I contacted my extended warranty company to see why the claim was denied. Representative told me it was declined for two reasons: the low mileage and because of a Technical Service Bulletin that GMC had sent out regarding the issue I was having. Representative stated he was the one that spoke with Nora and he told her the exact reasons that he told me.
That's bad business to not inform the customer of the entire reason the claim was denied. If I would have known about the bulletin I would have paid the labor to have it done if it was not covered under the high diagnostic fee they charged me for.
I found the Technical Service Bulletin (09-03-09-001G) GMC issued June 2019 for my year truck and exact noise I am hearing. Turns out the first thing they are supposed to do is re-torque the joints of the leaf spring assembly. Bulletin even shows the labor time of 0.8 hours. I am very dissatisfied with Walker for numerous reasons. First, what is the purpose of having an appointment if you are going to waste 6 hours of a customers day while knowing they are waiting in the lobby for the vehicle. Second I have a strong suspicion that they were just trying to pocket extra cash from my extended warranty instead of trying the correction that GMC issued for the problem I am having. Third I am disappointed that Walker GMC failed to tell me about the bulletin and I had to find out about it through the warranty company. And lastly my overall experience with the staff in the service department was horrible.
I have called to speak with the service manager regarding this complaint, left a message, and have not received a call back from him (Buster). I have bought my first and last vehicle from Walker in Alexandria. I understand they will not go out of business because of me but word of mouth of bad business practices goes a long way. YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY RECONSIDER IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT BUYING A VEHICLE OR HAVING ANY SERVICE WORK DONE AT WALKER GMC. read more