Complaint Review: Block Diesel Repair Inc. - 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.  

Translation: 

Avoid them and find someone else. They are a ball of pickpockets, they are there to steal, and sting your eyes. They are there to F*ck you. The owner is the son of the devil.

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.

Supporting documents are available but it depends upon who you are.