Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Ford Service Sucks - Yet Again!

Man I swear I just need to open up my own shop!!!

Took my car to the local Ford Dealer (Ray Adams Ford in Belton) for a seemingly simple procedure.

Mount & balance 4 tires (New BFG KDW 225/50's) and a 4-wheel alignment. Pretty much bread & butter work.

2 full days later (yes I typed that correctly) I get my car back with the original tires "back" on it and it need of 4 new rims, 1 jack point cover, & a few small other things!

They called yesterday around 4pm (I dropped it off before 9am) and said they were having trouble getting the beads to pop out. Go into detail on how they took the tires on and off the rims like 8-10 times each. Drove the car around on seriously overinflated tires, etc, etc... (I immediately called them on that!)
They ended the call by saying they were sending them out to a specialty shop in the morning and would give me a cal when the did.

Today rolls around and by 1pm in the afternoon I still don't have my call back and give them a call. They said they couldn't get them to seat and were trying to put the old tires back on. Also the fact they never sent the tires out. They say my car will be ready in 30 minutes.

I go to the dealership at 5pm (after wife gets home) and my car is still in the shop. I go over and look at it before I go up to the front desk and notice all 4 rims and thoroughly trashed, 1 jack cover is broken through the middle, 2 of the old tires cut across the sidewalls, etc, etc, etc...

I immediately get the service writer to come look at it (the only cool guy that works there I think - the other 4 guys I talked to were downright rude & ignorant)

End of story is I am getting 4 new rims, jack point cover, the small problems fixed, but am out my car for at least 1 week waiting for the rims. At least it's sitting in my garage now instead of theirs!!!

I have yet to have a good experience at any Ford dealership in at least 10-12 attempts!
Out of those dozen or so a good 8 have been utterly pitiful!!
4 have even ended in someone getting fired or me needing replacement parts at their cost!!!

So who wants to help me float a loan. I'll start a nice shop for all of us and everyone here get's a fair price.
I so sick and tired of having to have other people touch my car! ARGH!!!!

oh man tell me about it! Ford dealerships are the worst but really it seems like nobody cares anymore. I took my SVT to a local body shop to get 3 small dents taken out of the drivers side rear quarter panel. I didn't think I was asking too much. Sure, that quarter panel needed to be repainted but I didn't think it would be that big of a deal to get it to match. I go pick my car up Thursday of last week and as soon as I drive up I can tell the paint is definitely darker on that quarter panel as well as the drivers side rear door and my trunk! Not to mention the door that didn't match felt like sandpaper! Don't know what happened there.

Anyways, my car is in the shop getting a total re-spray (on their dime) right now and should be out tomorrow. It took alot of bitching but that is what it'd take to get the car back like it was.

Sorry for your loss man, I am seriously scared of Ford dealerships. There is not one time I have had my car there and they have not messed something up. And they never seem to be able to explain how those 5-10 miles got on my car after I brought it in to be worked on.

-neal

YEAH
I wait a week for a new dash install ,I was told only one day[recall]

Picked it up and guess what

It looked like HELL, wrinkled ,bulging


Now it has popped up like the old one in one MONTH

To make matters worse the "LIGHT was on

Ended up with a new Torque Converter and F----Up DASH

and out $750


Thats it for me,I glued the dash down with silicone [not good yet-I will keep trying]The car will rot into the ground before it goes back

I really can't complain about the service I've gotten at the local Manhattan, Kansas Ford dealer. They know me by name when I come in and I don't have any complaints about their service.

Another problem for a lot of us is that we need a courtesy van ride to work, and that forces us to patronize the dealers. The local independent mechanics won't take me to work or pick me up, so there's no way I can use them. And no, I don't have any co-workers who live close to where I live.

I also haven't had bad luck with the Topeka Ford/LM dealers, although they have more of a big city attitude. I think maybe small town dealers (regardless of brand) probably try harder to please their customers. My worst experience has been with a Mercedes/BMW dealer, they were downright arrogant.

I hear you, it's just hard to find good help. Two months after I bought my car (13,000 miles in Aug 2001) I took it to a local shop to have my gforce's swapped out for winter tires and I get the car back with the rims scratched all up. It looks like they had too much fun with the air gun, and my family's been going to this place for about 10 years. My Ford Dealer (Sessler Ford in Libertyville, IL) has been pretty good, though, but after the dash recall, I'm getting a rattle from the direction of the defroster grill for about 5 minutes after startup when it's cold out. Plus, when I bought the car the previous owner had the Canadian daytimes hooked up, but it caused one of the highbeams to not work. They had it for 2 days and finally their solution was to disable the drl's, which was ok, but I was upset that they couldn't solve the problem otherwise. They have been pretty curteous and call quickly, and I get a rental when I have it there thanks to my extended warranty (although enterprise sticks you with the "insurance fee").

Is there any way to show Ford the complaints floating around CEG? And if someone did see it would it change anything?

Originally posted by mcciavarella:

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Is there any way to show Ford the complaints floating around CEG? And if someone did see it would it change anything?

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There is a "Customer Service" number to call regarding such complaints. I have called them 3 times in the last month regarding the crappy stealership that has my car.

The problem is that they are on the dealers side and not yours. They listen to what you say intently waiting for you to say sometime to acknowledge you did sometime wrong or incriminate yourself. They then enter all of this information into a computer so when you call again the next representative can pull you on their screen and pick up where the last one left off.

They will listen to you but they never, ever offer any sort of response. They just listen and "make a note on your account." They just want you to get frustrated and leave them alone.

Sad but true.

why in the world would you go to the dealer for tires & alignment? Most of them farm this work out to a tire shop. Even if you bought the tires online or used, most tire shops will mount/balance & align them for you. Unfortunately, I think you need to accept some responsibility for a bad decision. BTW, I have had great service from my dealer, Willowbrook Ford. Great customer service, and when a problem comes up that they can't resolve by end of day, they provide a loaner.

I am a mechanic, but unfortunately this doesn't matter when it comes to Ford recalls. I wanted them to just give me the harness so I could put it in, but they HAD to do it. So after getting the wire harness recall serviced at my local Ford dealer, I go pick it up, and then about 6 or so hours later, the power steering hose blows!!!!!! I look at it, and they did not attach a holddown bracket for the hose, and it was RUBBING on the serpentine belt. So with no power steering I drive it back to FORD dealer IN A FURY! Then to top it all off, the service manager tryed to say it was coincidence!!!!! At this point I was looking for my boxing gloves, and after wipping out my ASE Certification card from my wallet, and threatening to call Ford service regional rep. I'm telling him how can it be coincidence that for the past six years every new belt I've put on worked for years!! After about an hour of runnin around in circles, I FINALLY got some cooperation from them. I told them I wanted METICULOUS repair, and that I wanted them to put on a NEW serp belt (since the old one was oil soaked), and the reluctantly agreed. NEVER again will I deal with that place. Hopefully, there are no more recalls that need to be serviced on my Tour, as I may have to just fix them myself from now on. Ford Service sucks

Will you be my mechanic?