Freightliner Trucks / Daimler Trucks North America

We bought a cascadia in 2008 and have dealt with a few freightliner dealers with all the various warranty work it has required. but never in our lives have we dealt with such lack of professionalism as we encountered at the orlando freightliner dealership over what should have been a simple job.

We had the repair quoted by another facility far from home who confirmed they had the parts in stock, given what a routine repair it was. I emailed the quote to mr. roy underwood of the orlando freightliner, their body shop manager well in advance so he could have a heads up on parts.

The next week, we met with mr. underwood when we delivered the truck to his repair facility. he said he could start on it immediately. we told him the insurance adjuster couldn't meet us as planned but would be by later that day. he said not to worry — he knew the insurance folks, worked with them all the time.

I handed him the letter from the insurance company stating they were paying for the repair. we signed a work order and agreed to pay for anything the insurance claim might not cover so there was no need for any delay. we asked if there was anything else that needed to be signed and was told no.

Mr. underwood said the job would only take two days. mr. underwood assured us there would be no problem. I left my cell phone number and asked to be called if there is any delay or problem.

Two days later, we called to find out if we could pick up the truck. mr. underwood said the insurance adjuster had not been by until just then (I later learn from the insurance company that it was much earlier in the day). apparently a truck sitting idle losing money is of little concern to mr. underwood since it isn't his money.

And now we were suddenly hearing about parts that needed to come out of canada and the truck might not be done until well over a week!

Like a child with a dog that ate their homework, mr. underwood kept saying it wasn't his fault the adjuster didn't show up. given it affected his deadline to us, one would think he'd call us? nope. we called him.

His whiny excuse about the parts delay was that the quote I had previously emailed him didn't include part numbers. what bull! if he was so inept as to not know what parts were involved, he could have picked up a phone and called the other dealership that produced the quote. these are common parts. the bs line about parts coming out of canada was insulting to anyone's intelligence. then he was claiming he couldn't order parts until two days later when the adjuster finally showed. again, what bull! we said we would pay for anything the insurance would not cover and signed a work order to that effect, in addition to the letter from the insurance company stating they would cover the repair. there was no reason to delay part ordering.

I called and complained to lee, the stand-in "service manager", who would routinely say he needed to check into it and call me back. then he wouldn't call back and I would have to chase him down. after pressing lee hard, I was told the repair wouldn't be done until a full five days for that "two day job".

The day before we were slated to pick up the truck, mr. underwood called with another fire drill born out of his ineptitude — apparently we should have signed a direction of pay form, allowing them to be paid by the insurance company. now he needed to fax it since we live 85 miles away. I was to drop everything and sign it and fax it back. I did so.

On the day we were to pick up the truck, we heard it would be ready at 5pm but we would need to pay the bill since the insurance check would not come in time. both mr. underwood and lee, the "service manager" demanded payment from us!

I must say, in all our time dealing with insurance covered repairs, I have never encountered this double dip arrangement. this was over the top — waaay over. I called the insurance company who covered the repair and they arranged to have the truck released.

We were lied to and hassled — all over a routine $2100 cosmetic repair. needless to say, we won't be using orlando freightliner again.