Admin
08-17-2008, 11:10 PM
They Stand Behind Their Product….Way Behind!
How would you like to spend $200,000 on a brand new truck only to receive it, put it on the road and find that it was a poorly-made piece of equipment? That is what happened to the owner of an SST100 expeditor refrigerated box truck ordered through Stoops of Ft Wayne IN.
November 10, 2007, the truck was inspected before it left Stoop’s lot. It was obvious that there was a problem. The box doors would not fully open, there was an 11” gap keeping the doors from them going back enough to hook open! The sales representative at Stoops, the local Morgan representative Hoosier Truck and Accessories, and Morgan Manufacturing, the makers of the box, were notified immediately. The owner was assured that it would be repaired as soon as it could be worked back to Ft Wayne as the carrier had put it on the board and there was a load for it already.
On December 13, 2007, the truck was dropped off at Stoops Fort Wayne for some minor repairs and was to be picked up by Morgan Manufacturing. Morgan had agreed to have the truck transported to their facility to correct the problem by replacing the corner posts and hinges. Morgan picked up the truck on December 17. After repair, the truck was delivered back to Fort Wayne, IN on December 20, 2007. The truck went in service until the beginning of May.
May 4, 2008 it was discovered that the bolts on the passenger side, middle door hinge on the box had completely popped out. Again, Morgan Manufacturing was contacted. Morgan agreed to take the truck back to their facility and fix the problem once again, but only after Stoops stepped in.
Apparently, the first time the truck was in for repairs, the corner posts were not replaced as Morgan had promised they would be and the hinges were only repositioned. Subsequent investigation found that all that had happened during the December repairs were that yes, the hinges were repositioned, and the nuts were spot welded on to keep them on the bolts!
Another thing that became known during the investigation was that this was not the only unit with this style of box that Morgan had problems with. It had been an ongoing issue with other trucks with this type of box.
The truck was dropped off at Stoops Fort Wayne on May 5, 2008. Morgan did not pick the truck up until May 20 and did not finish the second cycle of repairs and return the truck until May 30. The delay this time was due to lack of parts initially. Even though Morgan had been told the truck was coming in prior to May 5, they didn’t start looking to even see if they had the parts in inventory to repair it until May 8, didn’t ok the getting of the parts until the May 13, and the parts didn’t arrive at Morgan until May 19. Morgan knew that there was a problem with this style of unit and didn’t have parts on hand.
The owner, who by this time was a little hot under the collar, demanded that he be paid for the fuel for the truck’s round trip to Morgan’s facility and for downtime payment before he would release the truck to be taken to Morgan. All Morgan offered was $1500.00...for an estimated 25 days of down time plus the fuel! Forget that the drivers too had to sit idle for 25 days! Everyone knows that payments go on even if a truck is in the shop and drivers have to eat.
The ineptitude of Morgan in giving directions to the third party driver who was to ferry the truck from Stoops Ft Wayne to the Morgan facility further delayed pick up of the truck. The unit was scheduled to be picked up May 19, but the driver never showed up. Why not you might ask? Morgan gave the driver directions to go to Stoops Indianapolis NOT Stoops Ft Wayne where the truck was. When told of the error, the third party driver refused to go to Ft Wayne. The next morning May 20, Morgan finally sent their own driver in to pick up the unit. No need to rush, they did not have the parts until then.
When questioned as to why the repairs had not been done properly the first time the truck returned to Morgan Manufacturing, time constraint was named as the problem by Morgan. Time constraints for whom one might ask. Because they did not repair the box properly the first time, the owner and team drivers of the truck lost 31 total days of operating time and revenue and almost had their contract with their carrier canceled. All between November 10, 2007 and May 30, 2008, That is a lot of downtime for an owner and drivers to absorb unnecessarily!
Wait! The tale of the poorly manufactured box does not stop there! The team loaded a load on July 18, 2008 and in securing the load, they found that the caulking had pulled away on the inside passenger side of the box along the side of the corner post. On Monday, July 20, after delivering in Denver CO, the team notified the sales representative at Stoops Freightliner of the problem and he instructed them to take the truck to the Morgan franchise in Denver, which the team did that afternoon.
Upon inspection, it was concluded by the service personnel that the posts used in this box are ‘Z’ posts and 1 ½" screws were used throughout the box to connect the walls and e-tracks to the posts. It was noted the screws were too short to connect to the posts. Therefore, all screws in the box had to be replaced by 2 ½" screws to alleviate the problem.
From what the service personnel said, Morgan uses two different frame/post sizes and had put the screws for the other type of frame into the box to secure the walls and e-channels. Hundreds of screws had to be replaced! Imagine that; AFTER being at the Morgan facility for repairs for 25 days in May! With the walls and e-channels held on by too short of screws, it is a miracle that the walls didn’t fall off or the e-channels fail causing a major cargo claim.
Once again, the team had downtime and again, the carrier the truck is leased to was not very happy with another day or so of downtime for the same truck in such a short period especially under load this time. This has to hurt the owner’s and driver’s credibility and reputation with the carrier. Furthermore, Morgan again is refusing to pay for any down time even though this all goes back to shoddy workmanship and the wrong materials being used in the initial construction of the box unit and this can be proven.
We will be watching this story to see if Morgan is going to stand behind their product or not. Furthermore, with the confirmation that this particular box style has had ongoing problems when sold on many different trucks, we will be conducting a survey to find other truck owners that have experienced these same problems with Morgan Manufacturing and their boxes.
By Sally Sue Miller
Globaltruckermedia
How would you like to spend $200,000 on a brand new truck only to receive it, put it on the road and find that it was a poorly-made piece of equipment? That is what happened to the owner of an SST100 expeditor refrigerated box truck ordered through Stoops of Ft Wayne IN.
November 10, 2007, the truck was inspected before it left Stoop’s lot. It was obvious that there was a problem. The box doors would not fully open, there was an 11” gap keeping the doors from them going back enough to hook open! The sales representative at Stoops, the local Morgan representative Hoosier Truck and Accessories, and Morgan Manufacturing, the makers of the box, were notified immediately. The owner was assured that it would be repaired as soon as it could be worked back to Ft Wayne as the carrier had put it on the board and there was a load for it already.
On December 13, 2007, the truck was dropped off at Stoops Fort Wayne for some minor repairs and was to be picked up by Morgan Manufacturing. Morgan had agreed to have the truck transported to their facility to correct the problem by replacing the corner posts and hinges. Morgan picked up the truck on December 17. After repair, the truck was delivered back to Fort Wayne, IN on December 20, 2007. The truck went in service until the beginning of May.
May 4, 2008 it was discovered that the bolts on the passenger side, middle door hinge on the box had completely popped out. Again, Morgan Manufacturing was contacted. Morgan agreed to take the truck back to their facility and fix the problem once again, but only after Stoops stepped in.
Apparently, the first time the truck was in for repairs, the corner posts were not replaced as Morgan had promised they would be and the hinges were only repositioned. Subsequent investigation found that all that had happened during the December repairs were that yes, the hinges were repositioned, and the nuts were spot welded on to keep them on the bolts!
Another thing that became known during the investigation was that this was not the only unit with this style of box that Morgan had problems with. It had been an ongoing issue with other trucks with this type of box.
The truck was dropped off at Stoops Fort Wayne on May 5, 2008. Morgan did not pick the truck up until May 20 and did not finish the second cycle of repairs and return the truck until May 30. The delay this time was due to lack of parts initially. Even though Morgan had been told the truck was coming in prior to May 5, they didn’t start looking to even see if they had the parts in inventory to repair it until May 8, didn’t ok the getting of the parts until the May 13, and the parts didn’t arrive at Morgan until May 19. Morgan knew that there was a problem with this style of unit and didn’t have parts on hand.
The owner, who by this time was a little hot under the collar, demanded that he be paid for the fuel for the truck’s round trip to Morgan’s facility and for downtime payment before he would release the truck to be taken to Morgan. All Morgan offered was $1500.00...for an estimated 25 days of down time plus the fuel! Forget that the drivers too had to sit idle for 25 days! Everyone knows that payments go on even if a truck is in the shop and drivers have to eat.
The ineptitude of Morgan in giving directions to the third party driver who was to ferry the truck from Stoops Ft Wayne to the Morgan facility further delayed pick up of the truck. The unit was scheduled to be picked up May 19, but the driver never showed up. Why not you might ask? Morgan gave the driver directions to go to Stoops Indianapolis NOT Stoops Ft Wayne where the truck was. When told of the error, the third party driver refused to go to Ft Wayne. The next morning May 20, Morgan finally sent their own driver in to pick up the unit. No need to rush, they did not have the parts until then.
When questioned as to why the repairs had not been done properly the first time the truck returned to Morgan Manufacturing, time constraint was named as the problem by Morgan. Time constraints for whom one might ask. Because they did not repair the box properly the first time, the owner and team drivers of the truck lost 31 total days of operating time and revenue and almost had their contract with their carrier canceled. All between November 10, 2007 and May 30, 2008, That is a lot of downtime for an owner and drivers to absorb unnecessarily!
Wait! The tale of the poorly manufactured box does not stop there! The team loaded a load on July 18, 2008 and in securing the load, they found that the caulking had pulled away on the inside passenger side of the box along the side of the corner post. On Monday, July 20, after delivering in Denver CO, the team notified the sales representative at Stoops Freightliner of the problem and he instructed them to take the truck to the Morgan franchise in Denver, which the team did that afternoon.
Upon inspection, it was concluded by the service personnel that the posts used in this box are ‘Z’ posts and 1 ½" screws were used throughout the box to connect the walls and e-tracks to the posts. It was noted the screws were too short to connect to the posts. Therefore, all screws in the box had to be replaced by 2 ½" screws to alleviate the problem.
From what the service personnel said, Morgan uses two different frame/post sizes and had put the screws for the other type of frame into the box to secure the walls and e-channels. Hundreds of screws had to be replaced! Imagine that; AFTER being at the Morgan facility for repairs for 25 days in May! With the walls and e-channels held on by too short of screws, it is a miracle that the walls didn’t fall off or the e-channels fail causing a major cargo claim.
Once again, the team had downtime and again, the carrier the truck is leased to was not very happy with another day or so of downtime for the same truck in such a short period especially under load this time. This has to hurt the owner’s and driver’s credibility and reputation with the carrier. Furthermore, Morgan again is refusing to pay for any down time even though this all goes back to shoddy workmanship and the wrong materials being used in the initial construction of the box unit and this can be proven.
We will be watching this story to see if Morgan is going to stand behind their product or not. Furthermore, with the confirmation that this particular box style has had ongoing problems when sold on many different trucks, we will be conducting a survey to find other truck owners that have experienced these same problems with Morgan Manufacturing and their boxes.
By Sally Sue Miller
Globaltruckermedia