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In December of 2000, I received a recall notice from
Volvo. This recall concerned the tie rod ends. I was in Houston, Texas area at the time, and was told to go to the nearest
dealer. The repairs were made and I got my truck back the next day. I went immediately back to the dealer as the truck was
not driving right. The dealer said Volvo would not pay for a front end alignment. They used a "tape measure" to measure
the new parts to the old one. They told me "not to worry, it would be okay". I had purchased new steer tires only 5 weeks
earlier, and ended up having to replace them within 3 months. I went back to the Houston dealer soon after, and explained
the situation. I was told that Volvo had some "goodwill" money for cases like mine, and he would check into it. I called
3 times in 3 months, and on one would return my call. The premature tire wear and alignment cost me over $500.00. This is
because Volvo refused to pay for an alignment over parts that they replaced during a recall.
Over a 5 years and 800,000
miles there were many other things that were done. I had to pay for some that were questionable, but I gave them the benefit
of the doubt. I have only mentioned the things that I feel were obvious attempts by Volvo to weasel out of their responsibility.
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In January 2005, I was on a trip to Oregon. I ended
up at TEC Equipment in Portland, OR looking at new trucks. I expressed my concern about several of the unresolved issues
on my present truck and that although I was reasonably satisfied with the truck, I was not at all satisfied with Volvo and
its dealers. The salesman that I talked with was very professional and very polite. He also seemed to be very knowlegable
about Volvo trucks. He seemed he could make things happen if I had a problem. He told me, "You have a problem you are not
satisfied with, call me, and I'll be on it". We spent the next several hours talking about the specs of the 2 trucks we were
looking at. We finally settled on one because it had a Volvo engine and would be just as good on fuel as my current truck.
He also told me, "It might even be better". With the current price of fuel and a fuel bill of over $5,000.00 per month, this
is the single most important cost in a truck.
On Friday morning, 01/28/05, we went into serious negotiations on trading
to another truck. I had several questions about changes to the new truck & equipment that had to be removed from my truck.
We came to agreement and closed the deal that evening.
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