afchap
Well-known member
I had a "learning experience" about road service over this past year. If I need a mobile service again, I will ask several more questions before I agree to who they send out, and I will try to watch them more closely, and inspect their work after completion no matter how difficult that may be.
I had a drive line vibration in early Sept 201 while passing though OK. On checking I found the driveshaft u-joints coming apart. I have been a Coach-Net member for 14 years or so. After some discussion, they sent out a mobile guy from Interstate Truck Center in Shawnee OK. That experience is described here. I was under the impression from both Coach-Net and conversation with the tech that the mobile service was from a local truck service company. Then end result was a re-built drive shaft & new u-joints for just over $1k. I asked if I needed to re-torque anything down the road and the tech said, "Nope, everything is good!" The only problem we encountered was that it took nearly 45 minutes and multiple phone calls to get our credit card run on the charges. We continued on our trip to Iowa and back down the Mississippi River to Texas.
First bad feeling ...our credit card was shut down about 10 days later after multiple fraudulent charges in the Shawnee/OK City area.
Fast forward ...in January while returning to Texas from a trip to Alabama I thought I was feeing a slight drive line vibration again. I took it into my local shop for annual service and asked them to check the drive line too. They found a disaster. Both the tranny and rear end yokes were trashed due to the u-joint bolts have been cut off and not replaced. One or two of the straps that hold the u-joints in were installed with just one bolt, and one yoke was damaged/chunk missing. The September repair was very obviously/deliberately poorly accomplished to the level of criminal negligence. The new repairs in February cost me another $1,500.
When I tried to trace it back to the source to report my problems all Coach-Net could tell me was Interstate Truck and a mobile number in Shawnee ...that number went to voice mail. After some unsuccessful internet searching I found a number for Interstate Truck Center on my credit card statement. That number took me to Independence MO ...over 300 miles from Shawnee. I was given a number to call in the head office. There I was asked to send photos of what my local shop found. After I had heard nothing a week later I called and was told, "The boss said our repair warranty is 90 days. You are past that so we can't do anything." He also told me the tech who did the work in Shawnee was a "contractor", and that he had been "unreliable" and no longer worked for them.
Coach-Net asked me to send them the info. I have heard nothing from them since.
Bottom line: If I need mobile service again I will ABSOLUTLEY NOT accept Interstate Truck Center as an answer. I will insist on a LOCAL mobile repair solution with the support of a local shop, OR a tow to a local shop.
All road service companies seem to use the same service places, so I caution you to BEWARE any solution that involves Interstate Truck Center. They no doubt have "contractors" along interstate highways in other locations who have no supervision and apparently little or no vetting as to competence.
I had a drive line vibration in early Sept 201 while passing though OK. On checking I found the driveshaft u-joints coming apart. I have been a Coach-Net member for 14 years or so. After some discussion, they sent out a mobile guy from Interstate Truck Center in Shawnee OK. That experience is described here. I was under the impression from both Coach-Net and conversation with the tech that the mobile service was from a local truck service company. Then end result was a re-built drive shaft & new u-joints for just over $1k. I asked if I needed to re-torque anything down the road and the tech said, "Nope, everything is good!" The only problem we encountered was that it took nearly 45 minutes and multiple phone calls to get our credit card run on the charges. We continued on our trip to Iowa and back down the Mississippi River to Texas.
First bad feeling ...our credit card was shut down about 10 days later after multiple fraudulent charges in the Shawnee/OK City area.
Fast forward ...in January while returning to Texas from a trip to Alabama I thought I was feeing a slight drive line vibration again. I took it into my local shop for annual service and asked them to check the drive line too. They found a disaster. Both the tranny and rear end yokes were trashed due to the u-joint bolts have been cut off and not replaced. One or two of the straps that hold the u-joints in were installed with just one bolt, and one yoke was damaged/chunk missing. The September repair was very obviously/deliberately poorly accomplished to the level of criminal negligence. The new repairs in February cost me another $1,500.
When I tried to trace it back to the source to report my problems all Coach-Net could tell me was Interstate Truck and a mobile number in Shawnee ...that number went to voice mail. After some unsuccessful internet searching I found a number for Interstate Truck Center on my credit card statement. That number took me to Independence MO ...over 300 miles from Shawnee. I was given a number to call in the head office. There I was asked to send photos of what my local shop found. After I had heard nothing a week later I called and was told, "The boss said our repair warranty is 90 days. You are past that so we can't do anything." He also told me the tech who did the work in Shawnee was a "contractor", and that he had been "unreliable" and no longer worked for them.
Coach-Net asked me to send them the info. I have heard nothing from them since.
Bottom line: If I need mobile service again I will ABSOLUTLEY NOT accept Interstate Truck Center as an answer. I will insist on a LOCAL mobile repair solution with the support of a local shop, OR a tow to a local shop.
All road service companies seem to use the same service places, so I caution you to BEWARE any solution that involves Interstate Truck Center. They no doubt have "contractors" along interstate highways in other locations who have no supervision and apparently little or no vetting as to competence.
