As a realitivily new owner of a Freightliner XC chassis I'm very disappointed that I have so many "Rants" about different Freightliner Service Centers. I understand they are franchised and not run by Freightliner however to see such consistantly poor service is a problem.

1. June 2004, Lubbock, TX - $130.86 for a genset oil change that took over five hours. I asked them before they started if they where equipted to perform service work on my Onan generater. They then took over five hours to locate the parts and perform what is a 15 minute job. They charged me $33.32 for a six dollor oil filter and $9.83 for three quarts of oil and $80.00 labor. Lesson learned, do my own genset maintanence now.

2. July 2004, Pharr, TX - Another all day project, this time a 12000 mile lube, inspect and oil change. The worst part of this experience was not venicle related. We travel full time with our two cats, Thelma and Louise. When we where checking in I made it very clear we would take them out of the vehicle if it was going to be necessary. The service manager explained they would not need to get into the bedroom and it would be OK to leave them locked in there. We even put a sign on the bedroom door to warn the service tech they where inside. Well, when the service work was complete they brought our coach around to the front and when we checked the cats, Thelma was missing. I opened the engine access cover in the bedroom and found cat paw prints on top of the engine. To Freightliners credit, they had three mechanics looking for over an hour before Joan found her hiding in the grease pit where the RV had been serviced. Lesson learned, we have now replaced our bathroom door lockset with a Schlage entry lockset so we have a keyed lock and put the cats in the bathroom when we need service.

3. December 2004, Fontana, CA - This was a basic oil change that took 7 1/2 hurs. I was partially at fault as I forgot to give the engine access cover key to the service tech when he picked up our coach at 9:15AM. I received a voicemail message at 10:15AM and was back to the shop and gave the key to the service writer at 10:45AM. When we returned to the shop at 2:45PM the work had still not been started, no one had told the tech that the key was on hand and the service writer had gone home. He got right on it and was finished and had moved the coach out front within 20 minutes. However it then took them over an hour to complete the paperwork so I could pay my bill. Lesson learned, I'm going to find a different service provider in the future.