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I want everyone who reads Jason B.’s review to consider these facts that I have collected from all individuals that were involved from taking the initial call to offering a solution to get Jason B’s truck repaired and back on the road. First off the call came in at 4:21PM NOT 11AM as stated in the review to our shop North Bay Truck Center, the call was transferred to our dispatcher for our Road Service company who collected the info from the customer Jason B and gave him a 60-90min ETA.
The call was then dispatched to our infield Technician @ 4:26PM who was on a call out of town at that time. Our Technician arrived on scene @ 6:14PM exactly 1hr 53min after the call came in NOT 6 hours later as stated in the review. The call was on Interstate 80 E.B. @ Hunter Hill in Vallejo even after being told the breakdown was in Suisun City by Jason B. This is where the 2014 Pete 386 mentioned was broke down.
Upon arrival my Road Service Technician asked the driver to tell him what was going on, the driver Charles stated that the truck would not start. Tuned over however it would not start. My Technician then plugged in his scan tool (tablet) to read codes there were two fault codes which were relating to engine protection Turbo actuation, Actuator malfunction / failure and VGT fault code 2387. Even with my Technician’s limited experience he has been very successful with finding problems on the side of the road and managing to get the vehicle back on the road.
In this case he did in fact go to a YouTube video to help him find where the actuator was located / mounted to inspect the wiring harness and connector to ensure they were OK and the connection was good. This checked out. The You Tube video he happened to watch featured the same truck with the same symptom as Jason B’s with the fix being the Turbo Actuator.
After spending 1hr&4min FAR FROM the 10 min as mentioned in this review on sight my Technician called the customer Jason B. to say that he thought the Turbo Actuator was bad, Jason B. concurred that it made sense. We did collect for the road call of $425 which consisted of 2+hour’s total time @ the after hour rate, including drive times + mileage + a Laptop Diagnostic Tool Charge of $85.
We know and have seen that a defective Turbo Actuator could cause this type of engine not to start and run. However we were not 100% sure that this would fix the truck so we offered to be sure and perform a higher level of diagnostics that could not be done on the side of the Interstate we would offer to tow the tractor trailer to our shop approx. 11 miles away.
The tow was quoted @ $250 an hour a two hour minimum for a loaded tractor trailer + mileage so the tow was quoted on the high side $525- $575, far from $1,700 as mentioned in this review. The turbo Actuator was quoted to customer at a 35% markup which included having to pick up the part in Sacramento or the bay area. We realized that the markup was on the higher end but it did include the cost to chase the part. As for the 5 hours labor quoted to change the part that included drive time R&R time and programming time. Again our goal was to have the unit towed to our shop where we could perform a more in-depth diagnostics to be sure that all the truck would need is the Turbo Actuator, and it wasn’t an electrical issue.
In Summary:
All of our points of reference regarding time are time stamped in emails and tracked using truck location systems (GPS).
If we were to add up what we in fact quoted customer, the total cost to customer would have been. 5hrs x $125= $625 Labor, Parts $1,680 and a tow of $525.00-$575.00 this brings us to a grand total of $2,830 +/- plus tax. This is $1,370 less than the $4,200 this review states that we quoted. Lastly customer states that “turns out it was a $45.00 coolant temp sensor telling the ECM it was overheating at dead cold…changed the tuning to warning only from shutdown…truck fires right up and runs”. If that was the cause of the engine not starting WHY did your tech install the Turbo Actuator in the first place? Because as was stated the “young kid” we sent out to check the truck only “spent 10min” with your truck and was watching a Youtube Video, “knew jack shit”. Now why would you take his advice to install a $1,100 part?
Coolant temperature sensor defect would not cause the truck to not start and run. If we had installed the part (turbo actuator) and it didn’t fix the truck, we would have made it right, and did the right thing.
We have been in business for over 25 years combined A&T Road Service and North Bay Truck Center. If we had a practice of conducting business as described in this review I don’t believe we could sustain 25+ years of success in business as a Road Service and Commercial Truck Shop.
We do our absolute best to take care of our customers. Our goal is to get your vehicle back on the road as quickly as possible.
My name is Jim Buell the G.M. and I am open to any and all feedback good or bad. However I felt in this case the review / feedback, is far from the actual facts, quotes and activity that took place and felt it was imperative to outline the details as were represented by my company. Please feel free to call me if you have questions. I can be reached at 707-4271386 and if I can’t help you I will have the owner give you a call. Thank You for reading our response, Safe Travels from NBTC & A&T Road Service.

North Bay Truck Center commented on 09/29/2020