June 8, 2016
This letter is in response to a credit card dispute dated April 27, 2016.
April 23, 2016, we received a call from a truck driver named Keith McCartney stating he needed roadside assistance. When asked what he needed, he stated the studs broke off and his tires flew off the trailer and he did not even know this nor pull over for three miles. Any experienced driver would pull off immediately when a tire goes flat, let alone have two fall off the truck!! When we told him we would send our guy out, he asked if our tire tech would keep a lookout for his wife, as she walked back down the interstate to see if she could find the tires. She was all the way back to exit 176, four miles back from the truck, which was at exit 180, and had leaned the tires up against the railing so that we could find them when we went back.
Service Call #1: Moses got to the truck and trailer to assess the situation and called to tell us that he needed everything including: Studs, hub, drum, brakes, wheel, valve stems, and bearings. Due to the time we received the call and its’ being a weekend, our tire tech, Moses, told Keith he could get him off the highway and to a hotel. He could not get the parts until Monday. Being that it was night time by the time we chained up the car hauler to be able to be moved safely to the hotel, so we went back on Monday morning.
Service Call #2: We went to truck to take wheel apart to get correct numbers for bearings, drum, and hub. We purchased all parts in Ft. Pierce, which is 98 miles round-trip. Keith originally had one steel rim and one chrome-polished rim. The chrome rim was damaged when it fell off the trailer, so he wanted a new one. We had three people calling for hours all over trying to get this rim for him, to no avail. We offered him a steel rim, which was in stock, and he refused saying that was what caused the tires to fall off in the first place. However, we asked several experts here in town and they all said that would never have caused the tires to fall off and that there was only a 10-12 lb. difference between the steel rim and the chrome rim. Still Keith would not accept the steel rim used or new so that he could be on his way and held out for us to find the special order chrome rim, as it was one not used too often anymore. We were told the rim would be in on Tuesday. He returned the 98 miles round-trip to Ft. Pierce to get the rim, took it to truck, and when we returned to the truck, it was not the correct rim. This rim was ordered by St. Lucie Tire who has been in business for 45 years.
Service Call #3: By the time we returned to the truck with the rim which turned out to be the wrong rim, we missed the cutoff for reordering, so we could not place the order for next-day delivery. It would be delivered in two days.
Service Call #4: My tire tech said Keith stood right over his shoulder the whole time, never once expressing any concerns as to his workmanship. Moses has worked for me for close to 9 years, and has done many, many bearing jobs. Keith states in his statement that no torque was used at required times. Earlier in his statement, he said Moses did use the torque and this is when damage happened. As to his accusation that packing a bearing with grease will contaminate the hub oil, this is ridiculous. The Axle Doctor we use here in central Florida agrees to always pack the bearing with grease first, then add the hub oil. Additionally, the Dexter Axle Company, located in Elkhart, Indiana, also states that you MUST pack the bearings with grease before filling with hub oil. (See attached page out of their instruction guide.)
Upon finishing, Moses went to get hub oil from truck and Keith told him he had his own and wasn’t paying for ours. Keith is the one who filled the hub with oil, and he may have overfilled it causing the seal to burst. When done, Keith shook Moses’ hand, and said, “Thank You.”
Mr. McCarthy phoned us from Georgia, said he was at the TA in Brunswick, and wanted our credit card to pay for work he was going to have done, and said he needed a new axle. We told him we were not authorizing nor paying for any work to be done and would have to look at the job ourselves and that after forwarding the picture we received from Mr. McCarthy, The Axle Doctor, located in Tampa, Florida, said, “There is absolutely no reason to replace that axle. The threads just need to be cleaned off with a wire brush and then use a triangle file if needed to align threads.” Mr. Rogers, the TA Tech in Georgia, told Moses the threads were pinched in the back on the bottom of the axle, probably from the tires wobbling before they fell off. It was not noticed by Moses, as the nut was hand-tightened with no problem and without getting stuck anywhere as it does not go all the way to the back of the spindle where the damage supposedly was. The wheel was reassembled and Keith watched Moses torque it with the air gun, then take it back ¼ of turn like it’s supposed to be. When we said we would not give our credit card to pay for these new charges as we needed to take a look at the trailer and correct any problem that had “supposedly” occurred, Keith responded with, “I’m already having this work done, and I’ll let my lawyer handle it,” and proceeded to hang up on me. Per our invoice, it clearly states, “Important Note: All lugs nuts worked on must be re-torqued between 50 – 100 miles after completion of work.” This was signed by both the owner of the truck, Keith McCartney, as well as his co-driver, Gayle Upton. Had they abided by this and stopped within the 50 -100 mile range and noticed that something was “supposedly” wrong, this would have given us the opportunity to correct any problem before they drove the almost 300 miles up to Brunswick, Georgia.
Mr. McCartney being an experienced truck driver and on his last load of his life as he was retiring and on the way to drop off his last load and had the truck sold already, stated that he knew what had to be done to do this job and would have done it himself, yet he stood behind our mechanic and watched him do “supposedly” unsatisfactory work?? This makes absolutely no sense.
We had paid out a lot of money for this job, which includes all the parts, 300 miles in parts runs, and paying Moses, along with Shipping for the new rim, etc. We actually made four service calls to his truck and only charged him for two @ $85.00 and accidentally didn’t even charge the $60 for the shipping of the rim!