Palm Coast and the saga of the van

We spent pretty much the entire first day trying to get the satellite radio/GPS fixed.  While it was working when we left Staten Island (back story: it didn’t work when we picked it up and had been back to the dealer at least three times over the past six months) it quit suddenly when we left Virginia. The first Ram dealer we called said to come in and they would fix it.  Unfortunately, after driving 30 miles in intermittent rain with Tom and Anne following, he took one look at the van and said he was sorry but they didn’t service that model. He was really nice and called another dealer, much closer to where we are staying and spoke to the receptionist who conferred with the service manager and we were once again told they could fix it if we came right down.  So we did. But they, too, took one look at the van and said they could not service that model.  Apparently Ram Promaster has only so many authorized service centers and the real deal in north eastern Florida is in Daytona, another 20 miles away.  We tried to reach them by phone but could not get through so returned to the condo, tired, hungry and very frustrated.

The next morning we called Daytona and explained our plight once again, very specifically describing the vehicle and the problem, multiple times to multiple people. They assured us they could fix it and gave us an appointment for later in the day. At 12:30 we drove down apprehensively with lowered expectations and a Plan B, which was to forget the whole thing until we got back home in May.  As we drove into the lot we were excited to see a line of Ram Promaster 3500s; they obviously sold the van and would have to service it. Maybe this was going to work after all!

Stephen, our assigned service rep, told us that if we needed a new radio unit it might take as much as a week to get it there. No problem. We would figure out how to make it work.  We waited for a few hours, watching the van in the service bay, not seeing any signs of activity.  Finally, Stephan showed up and told us they had located the part failure and ordered a replacement for installation the next day.  Cautiously optimistic we called Tom and Anne for a ride and left the camper there overnight. Que sera, sera.