Complaint Review: Universal Trucks LLC - Omaha Nebraska

On June 11th, 2011, I entered into an agreement with Universal Trucks LLC to purchase a 2005 Peterbilt Semi from Dan Jacobson, who was the salesman.  I sent him a $1000 deposit and took his word that the truck was what it was listed as in the Truck Paper advertising magazine, which they routinely run ads in.

I told them that I would be there on the 19th of June to pick up the truck and was assured that it would be ready for me upon my arrival.  That gave them 2 weeks to get the truck ready for me.  Upon arrival, nothing had been done to the truck that I had asked for.  Dan gave me the excuse that he wasn't sure what day I was flying in which was a red flag to me.

When I told Dan that I was unsure of making this sale go through, he assured me that he would stand behind his truck and that if I found something to be wrong with it, like using his example, "on your way back to Wisconsin, the rearend would go out of it, obviously we would cover it."  Sure Dan....

Upon inspecting the truck myself, I had found that the sleeper conversion they did on the truck was not properly sealed, therefore the back window leaked.  This cost me another night in a motel because they could not fix it in a day.  I found out once I got the truck back home in Wisconsin, that the window still leaked.  This is when the real problems started.
Dan told me at the shop that they do an inspection on their equipment before they sell it.  This is BULL.  Upon having a DOT inspection done at my place of employment, it failed.  The front brake shoes were cracked.  This would have gotten me immediately put out of service at a scale.  The check engine light kept coming on during the drive home and I found out the speed sensor on the motor was bad.

The washer pump didn't work, nor did the heated mirrors.  The front differential had water in it.  This is when it really starts getting expensive.  The king pins were bad which resulted in a $2000 repair.  This is when I contacted Dan for the first time and said, "This is ridiculous.  I should not be expected to fly down to Nebraska and jack the front end of a semi up to check for bad king pins, or bad front brakes."  These are DOT Federal Regulated offenses that will put your truck out of service.  The dealership should cover this to make sure the truck is safe and adjust the truck price.

THIS DEALERSHIP PASSES THIS COST ONTO YOU!

One week after fixing all of this and putting the truck into service, mind you, I had to rent a truck to use to get the repairs done, the clutch went out and I also found out that I needed a new fifth wheel once I hooked my trailer to it.  I went back to Dan with this, again, and he agreed to pay at least for the king pin repair if I sent him copies of the bills, which I did.  We are now three months down the road and not only have I not received any payment from him, he has never answered his cell phone or emails.

Dan is not a man of his word.  His dealership sells crap and if you buy from this place, you will chance sticking $8000 into junk like I did and have them screw you with their word and basically ignore you.  I hope they go out of business.