Owner, Kerry L. Block scams out-of-service truck drivers at the Wiscon... read more Owner, Kerry L. Block scams out-of-service truck drivers at the Wisconsin I-90N weigh scale between Beloit & Janesville, WI For Spanish speaking drivers: Evítalos y busca a alguien más. Son una bola de rateros, están ahí para robar, y picarte los ojos. Estan ahi para chingarte. El dueño es hijo del diablo. Block Diesel Repair's owner Kerry and his mobile truck & trailer repair crew are like vultures waiting for scraps as soon as the state officials place a commercial truck or trailer OOS/out-of-service. They prey upon helpless or desperate truck drivers needing repair assistance to get the OOS fault(s) fixed, so they can get back on the road and make the pick or delivery on time. Kerry specializes in scamming unsuspecting and trusting international foreign drivers who speak &/or read little to no English. He has them sign a document or open work order to begin repairs. No carbon copy of this doc is left with the driver, nor included with the receipt upon the final payment. We suspect it doesn't explain what work will be done, what is the hourly rate & what is the estimated cost of repair, and the total time to make the repair. Even though Kerry was fully aware & had stated the driver knew no or very little English, he did not bother to translate into writing, in the driver's foreign language, what the driver was signing. An honest person would have sought to speak to the truck driver's truck company rep or owner before proceeding. Approximately 45 minutes or more before Kerry had the driver sign a doc for repair, our office had emailed 2 pictures to Zack, of the sections where our dry van trailer was cracked near its cross-members. The request, via email, was to look at the pics & tell us if the welding repair could be done on-site. No response came back after several follow-up calls to Craig. Craig stated he had just gotten there & had not clocked in yet. On a second call to Craig, he said the same thing. Upon the third call to Craig, he still stated he had not clocked in and hadn't checked the email, and that there were 10 work orders ahead of us. Upon learning about the 10 ahead of us, I canceled the request to review the pics & stated we'd look elsewhere for a mobile welder. After canceling the request, we received an email that a BD truck was headed to the weigh scale. The only thing we did was provide info about our truck and trailer number, plus the make & model of the units. Still, no authorization to make any repairs was given to any member of Block Diesel from our home terminal crew. Within a short period, a call comes in from the Janesville, WI TA tech who had been dispatched to make the repairs to 2 other brake related OOS violations on the trailer. The tech stated that the mechanics from Block Diesel had dismantled the brake-related work he was supposed to do. The TA work order had been set up and authorized by our home terminal at least 30 minutes before the email pics were sent to Zack. We paid TA for the road call, even though Block Diesel still was not authorized to do any of the work they had started. The plan was to have Block discount the price of the TA road call for having started the job without approval from our office. They refused to negotiate. Kerry said he could not make the decision to adjust the price. It would have to be the owner. Yet, in a telephone conversation, Kerry denied several times he was the owner. He stated there were 2 owners but he would not give their names, nor state how to contact them or when they would be available to talk and reach a reasonable, negotiated, just settlement. Since Kerry, the supposed rep, was not authorized to negotiate the fee, he ordered the trailer towed away & held it hostage at their facility until the following day. That night we learned Block Diesel's only acceptable form of payment was either via a com-check, a T-check, or cash. They would only accept a credit card payment if the driver presented the card. Nothing via telephone or using a signed credit card authorization form. The next day when payment was made using cash and a debit card at their office, they still would not release the trailer for approximately another hour and a half. We forwarded proof the bank had debited the card but to no avail. Block involved their third party credit agency and had them ensure all was in order. People who answered phones on behalf of Block Diesel. Kerry L. Block, the owner who denied he was the owner; Craig who took a long time to clock in, and Dan. I will say Zack and Tim acted decently during phone conversations with them. Do not be fooled by the 5-star rating on their company website. Visit the BBB/Better Business Bureau site; read other low star ratings when the search listing comes up; and read the negative reviews within the Google rating to get a true picture of this business's scheme tactics. What should have been an overall repair bill of about $500 turned out to be just under $2300.00. They also billed 8.5 hours to weld when it only took less than 2 hours. An unrelated welder had quoted me $200 but was unavailable to do the work until the next day. ___ This is for mechanicadvisor: their email address is - repair.blockdiesel@gmail.com
I purchased a LS 4040 Tractor from Mike’s Repair Service. The tractor ... read more I purchased a LS 4040 Tractor from Mike’s Repair Service. The tractor was brand new and fully covered under the warranty. After a few months of owning it, I noticed a small hydraulic leak on the right side loader ram hydraulic cylinder. The leak was coming from the welded joint. I also noticed hydraulic oil leaking from the right side rear differential. This was due to a lack of sealant at the manufacture I contacted Matt from Mike’s repair and told him about the problems. He stated that is was warranty items, and that it can be fixed. We discussed the cost of him coming from his store to my home to pick up the tractor as expensive. He then recommended that I try to find a friend or welder locally to fix the hydraulic leak on the ram. When I asked about getting a new ram, as it is a new tractor, he stated that LS will not replace the ram unless they try to fix it first. I told him I understood, but thought that was wrong. I tried to find a local farmer or company to weld the ram, but no one would touch it. They cited that it was under warranty and did not want to be held accountable if something went wrong. I called Matt back and explained this to him. He stated that he had a buddy that was a welder in Green Bay, WI, and he would contact him to have him come fix it. This is now nearly 6 weeks since I reported the leak. After waiting for nearly 2 weeks, I called Matt about his friend the welder. Matt stated that his friend had passed away a year ago, and that is why he had never returned his calls. At this point, I told Matt that I really need to get this fixed, and what was our next step. He explained that he would get with his drivers and see if anyone would be making trips up north that he could se t up a ride. Two weeks later, I had not heard from Matt so I called him back. I asked him if I could take it to Service Motors to have it fixed. Service Motors is a highly respected tractor dealer and maintenance shop. He stated that I could. The only things Matt told me, was that he would not reimburse me for any mileage I was charged by them to come and get the tractor, as that is not covered under warrantee work. I agreed and understood. I contacted Service Motors and spoke with Scott, the repair manager. They came and picked up my tractor. Scott called me and said they could fix it all, but the ram they would send out to a professional welder, as this was a high pressure cylinder. At that time I called Matt at Mikes Repair and relayed the information to him. I also gave him Scott’s number to Service Motors twice, to which he stated he would call. Service Motors called me to inform me that he never reached out). Once the repairs were fixed, I paid $1521.94 for all of the repairs and travel. I then submitted the remainder of the bill, $1334.94 to Matt and Mikes Service to be covered under the warrantee as agreed. Matt stated not a problem, and that it should take 2-3 business days to get the money back. One week later I called, since I had not heard from Matt. Matt stated that LS Tractors only agreed to cover about $300 of the repair citing that I was over charged. Matt and I got into a verbal altercation, with him stating “I never told you to take it to Service Motors, I told you I would have rather done the work here” This is a lie. After more arguing he stated that he knows I am upset, but do not call LS and report this to them, as they will not cover even the $300, if they found out that he did not do the repair work. This lead to a even longer argument. Matt then told me to hold on, and that he would call a “buddy” at LS and try to get more money. I then spoke with the president of LS as well as the sales distributors, who all stated that they have problems with Matt fixing peoples tractors under warrantee and that they would tell him to pay, but could not make him. On September 17th, I spoke with Matt and he stated that he would pay an additional $200 out of his pocket, in addition to the $330 from LS, but no more. Today he confirmed that I would need to do what I need to do, as he was not going to honor the work completed. Service Motors stated that there is no way anyone could have completed the work in the time frame that LS stated it had to be done, there is a 5 hour difference in time. Mikes Repair owes me $1334.94 for approved warrantee work on my tractor.
Beware: what they tell you on the phone is not the rate you will get. ... read more Beware: what they tell you on the phone is not the rate you will get. They quoted me about 1-2 hours of work, that turned into $551. Besides that, they sent a person who has never done this work before, so we effectively paid for their training. If you have no other choice, be prepared to pay an arm and a leg. If you have any other choice at all, go with someone else who would be honest and will not be charging you for training their people. Horrible place to do business with!
