So, I love the Wagoneer. As far as large, luxury SUV's go, there isn't anything like it on the market. It drives better, has better tech and more features than any of the other large SUV's out there. But, after one month of owning my Wagoneer Series III , I just need to vent. We have the same list of issues as some here (Nav, CarPlay, Heated Seats, Static, Apps not Working, Alexa doesn't work), but we got added a nice dash of "Blind Spot Sensor Blocked, Active Lane Management Limited", which I (and Jeep) consider a safety issue and they asked me to limit driving it. We have been working with Wagoneer Client Services (WCS) for a few weeks now to get scheduled and get into a dealer. The closest "Wagoneer Certified" dealers is just over 2 hours away from my house, so needless to say I wasn't interested in the dealers idea of "swing in and we might have a loaner for you". My WCS case manager has been awesome and attentive throughout this whole period, but today I learned the perils of the WCS and Dealer communication, or I should say lack thereof.
WCS has been working with me to get a rental/loaner for about 2 weeks. I had reserved a "Premium 3 Row SUV" from Enterprise as that was what WCS considered equivalent, but they had me cancel that reservation and told me that the dealership was going to take care of the rental so we didn't have to play the reimbursement game, which I was totally for. So I show up at the dealership today and they've decided to go a different direction. WCS was under the impression that a rental was incoming to the dealership for me, but that flatly was not happening. They then questioned our need for a 3 row SUV when I turned down the bottom line Cherokee that they pulled out for us. Luckily enough the dealership that I went to had a director on site for a meeting today and he took a personal interest in my case. He started working through a "regional representative" and the WCS case manager called and updated me while I was in the dealership (after waiting for about 1.5 hours), letting me know that they were going to "Pull a Grand Cherokee L" out of sales for me to use.
Next wrinkle, the Grand Cherokee L was at their location ~30 minutes further away from my house (actually the one that I bought the Wagoneer at originally). They were gonna truck it up to me, but I was crunched for time and they were gonna need ~2 hours to get it delivered, so they asked me to go and pick it up. No problem, I head south for another 30 minutes and get to the dealership. After getting all checked in, a Ford Expedition Max pulls up outside and the lot attendant brings the keys into the Service Manager that I'm dealing with at this location. My wife says "looks like we're back into an Expedition" (we had just gotten rid of ours in March for our other new Jeep vehicle, a 2021 JLU Rubicon Ecodiesel). I told my wife, nope, both WCS and the dealership told me they pulled a Grand Cherokee L off the lot for us (Spoiler Alert, I have a janky Expedition in my driveway right now).
So, we leave the lot a little deflated (we weren't getting a comparable vehicle to the Wagoneer no matter what, but this used Expedition stinks, has the "Oil Change Due Now" light on, and feels like it needs about 20oz of weight to get one of the tires to balance, but hey, at least your butt goes numb from the vibration before you can realize how uncomfortable the seats are vs. the W/SIII). We talked to our case manager at WCS and she was very disappointed but all she can say is she is disappointed and has escalate the issue. We also get an email from her saying that our Wagoneer is being taken back to the closer dealer since it's Wagoneer certified, but when I called to inform the second dealership of the issues with the loaner, they claim that they are handling it all at their location.
I have a feeling that WCS and the dealership network don't have a defined relationship yet. I feel like WCS really needs to up their game in the communication aspect and own the customer service side or give up completely and let the dealers handle this. If they want this to truly feel like a vehicle that is worth the nearly 6 figure price tag, my interaction today at the dealership should have been drop my keys on the desk, pick up my loaner, sign an agreement and go. Why brag about pick up and drop off of your vehicle like they tout so much on the Wagoneer webpage if its truly not available to most of us? Why did I spend 7+ hours of driving and sitting in a dealership today on top of the 15+ calls that I've made and numerous emails that I have with WCS, only to have to go line by line with the service rep at both dealerships that I had to visit today about what issues I'm having?
Sorry for the rant, and I really don't mean to scare people away from these vehicles, but you might want to wait for a few of us to get these bugs worked out. Anyways, I gotta go make my first payment since it's due tomorrow, hooray for paying for something still sitting at the dealership.
WCS has been working with me to get a rental/loaner for about 2 weeks. I had reserved a "Premium 3 Row SUV" from Enterprise as that was what WCS considered equivalent, but they had me cancel that reservation and told me that the dealership was going to take care of the rental so we didn't have to play the reimbursement game, which I was totally for. So I show up at the dealership today and they've decided to go a different direction. WCS was under the impression that a rental was incoming to the dealership for me, but that flatly was not happening. They then questioned our need for a 3 row SUV when I turned down the bottom line Cherokee that they pulled out for us. Luckily enough the dealership that I went to had a director on site for a meeting today and he took a personal interest in my case. He started working through a "regional representative" and the WCS case manager called and updated me while I was in the dealership (after waiting for about 1.5 hours), letting me know that they were going to "Pull a Grand Cherokee L" out of sales for me to use.
Next wrinkle, the Grand Cherokee L was at their location ~30 minutes further away from my house (actually the one that I bought the Wagoneer at originally). They were gonna truck it up to me, but I was crunched for time and they were gonna need ~2 hours to get it delivered, so they asked me to go and pick it up. No problem, I head south for another 30 minutes and get to the dealership. After getting all checked in, a Ford Expedition Max pulls up outside and the lot attendant brings the keys into the Service Manager that I'm dealing with at this location. My wife says "looks like we're back into an Expedition" (we had just gotten rid of ours in March for our other new Jeep vehicle, a 2021 JLU Rubicon Ecodiesel). I told my wife, nope, both WCS and the dealership told me they pulled a Grand Cherokee L off the lot for us (Spoiler Alert, I have a janky Expedition in my driveway right now).
So, we leave the lot a little deflated (we weren't getting a comparable vehicle to the Wagoneer no matter what, but this used Expedition stinks, has the "Oil Change Due Now" light on, and feels like it needs about 20oz of weight to get one of the tires to balance, but hey, at least your butt goes numb from the vibration before you can realize how uncomfortable the seats are vs. the W/SIII). We talked to our case manager at WCS and she was very disappointed but all she can say is she is disappointed and has escalate the issue. We also get an email from her saying that our Wagoneer is being taken back to the closer dealer since it's Wagoneer certified, but when I called to inform the second dealership of the issues with the loaner, they claim that they are handling it all at their location.
I have a feeling that WCS and the dealership network don't have a defined relationship yet. I feel like WCS really needs to up their game in the communication aspect and own the customer service side or give up completely and let the dealers handle this. If they want this to truly feel like a vehicle that is worth the nearly 6 figure price tag, my interaction today at the dealership should have been drop my keys on the desk, pick up my loaner, sign an agreement and go. Why brag about pick up and drop off of your vehicle like they tout so much on the Wagoneer webpage if its truly not available to most of us? Why did I spend 7+ hours of driving and sitting in a dealership today on top of the 15+ calls that I've made and numerous emails that I have with WCS, only to have to go line by line with the service rep at both dealerships that I had to visit today about what issues I'm having?
Sorry for the rant, and I really don't mean to scare people away from these vehicles, but you might want to wait for a few of us to get these bugs worked out. Anyways, I gotta go make my first payment since it's due tomorrow, hooray for paying for something still sitting at the dealership.
