Is this standard operating procedure for Ford Dealer?

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Apr 17, 2004
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Texas Hill Country
I know that everybody on here rants and raves if anyone says anything bad about a dealer, but this is a particular situation and its a question to the group.

A little background, when I moved to San Antonio, I would take my Sonata to the Red Mccombs Hyundai dealer for recalls and oil changes and never had one problem with the dealer. They were very good and did a fair job at a fair price. Anything I couldn't take care of myself, went to my indy mechanic.

So I traded the Sonata in for a Ford Escape using Carvana. At the pick up of the Ford, the Carvana employee noted a tear in the leather Shifter boot around the shift lever, and said "I put in a ticket with the warranty company, they will call you to get it taken care of zero deductible.".

I said no problem. Just for the record, I did not buy warranty coverage from Carvana, they gave me a 90 day 5000 mile warranty included in the price of the car.

So the warranty is with a company called Silverrock. They sent me an automated email the next day suggesting that I take it to a body shop two hours from my house for repair. I called them and said nope not happening, I want to take it to the Red Mccombs Ford Dealer in San Antonio. Silverrock said no problem take it there.

Trip 1 to the Dealer: I call and say I'll bring it by on Friday around lunch to get an estimate to replace the shift boot. They say no problem come by at 11:30. I arrive at 11:30, service writer says I can't give you an estimate, a tech needs to look at the car not me. I say its a leather shift boot. He says no, you need to bring it in first thing Monday morning at 7am and leave it for half a day to get an estimate. I say fine, and my wife gives me a ride to the dealer Monday morning.

Trip 2 to the Dealer: I drop the car off, ask the service writer if he has every worked with Silverrock warranty company? He says yeah we have no problem, I will call you with what they say. Dealer calls me on lunch, says warranty company denied work, tells me to call them and ask why.

I call Silver rock, they say they are denying coverage because its cosmetic issue and the warranty covers mechanical issues only. I call dealer and I say I'll come pick it up, let me call my car dealer and get the warranty thing straightened out. I take an Uber to the dealer after work. Service writer says I can't take the car unless I pay $69.95 diagnostic fee, and that he is doing me a favor it should be $129.99. $69.95 to look at a shift boot? Yes, and I pay that and take the car. By the way, the quote that ford wrote up was $680 for a new shifter and console piece, service writer says they don't sell the trim or leather separate. I find this suspect, I looked up the parts on the ford website and the trim piece with leather boot attached is $100 from ford. I didn't tell them that though.

Trip 3 to the dealer. I called Carvana in the morning, told them the situation, a rep called me back and said they will over ride the warranty company and take care of it. Ford dealer calls me Friday afternoon says the warranty approved the work. He says I need to bring the car to them before he will order the part, and that I need to leave the car at the dealer until the work is completed. He sets the appointment for Monday, and I ask three questions.

1.) How long will it take to get the part ordered, and why do I need to leave my car there if the part is not ready? (He says, I don't know, its our policy).
2.) Since this is nearly a $700 job, and you don't know how long it will take, will the dealer provide me a loaner car? (He says, let me check with manager, don't know)
3.) Can I get my $69.95 refunded that I paid for you to look at a rip in a shift boot? (Uh, my manager will need to approve, don't know)

Trip 4 to the dealer. There is a female service advisor, the original guy was off today. I explain the whole story again. She spends five minutes on the computer and says we don't need to keep the car, I have ordered the part it will be here in one week. I will call you when its here and we can put it in. I ask her about the $69.95 and she says I will have better luck getting the warranty company to reimburse me for that. She also said we don't have loaner cars, and wouldn't have authorized one anyways, that would have needed to go through a car rental company.

Trip 5 will be in a week or so after the part comes in.

This is the dumbest chain of events I have ever seen, I just had to laugh on my way out. Once this ordeal is finished, I probably won't walk back in that dealer.
 
Justin that is exactly how the F dealer here treated me the last time I had my junk work dually in there. My last words to the service manager can't be repeated in here. Never ever will I darken their door step ever again.
 
This would cause me to go postal. Seriously....now I know why I buy used, out of warranty cars and fix them myself. I wouldn't of gotten past trip #3 and threw in the towel....I'd be done. Who has time to miss so much work?
 
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I would never go to the dealer for this even if it was free. Is this the part?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-2018-FORD-ESCAPE-GEAR-AUTO-SHIFT-KNOB-SHIFTER-BOOT-BEZEL-TRIM-SURROUND/202811225239?fits=Year%3A2016%7CModel%3AEscape%7CMake%3AFord&hash=item2f387db497:g:R-4AAOSwHwlduev1

Replace it in your driveway in 5 mins.
 
Seriously, you must have the patience of a saint. If it were me I'm sure I would have lost it more than once. You handled that trying situation admirably. Cheers.
 
Did you approve the diagnostic fee when you dropped the car off? If not, go to the dealership manager. Either way, since the warranty company eventually approved the repair they should be responsible for all charges and you should be refunded the $70 by the dealer. The dealer will bill the warranty company. If they do not refund it, call the ford customer service e line and file a complaint against the dealer, that usually gets their attention.

As for the other things, yes that is typical Ford dealer stuff. Though it sounds like your service advisors are unusually bad. Poor service policies are one of the reasons we recently bought a Highlander instead of an Explorer. And I will be looking at Ram and Tundra for my next truck. We had a 2014 Edge and the extended Premium Care ford warranty (their best one), and we needed to risk $600 for diagnostic if it wasnt the faulty part they thought (warranty only pays diagnostic if a faulty part, but it is a 4 hour job to get to the suspected bad part). We traded it on the Highlander a week later. I take my F150 in for warranty (dash replacement and hood realign) work and a recall of a recall on Thurs. At least this dealer has their own loaners.
 
I have to say Ford problems and issues seem to be all over BITOG the past few days. Why buy Ford when there are so many issues - from manufacturer to dealership? No dealership has ever wasted my time like that. The "diagnostic fee" issue also seems SOP for Ford. I've never paid one and never had to authorize one for Acura, Honda, Toyota, Mazda or Lexus for cars within the warranty period.
 
Yes the ebay part is the exact part I need. I would have not made a warranty claim if the dealer didn't set it up for me the first time, I just wanted to get it done, and I figured it would be an hour service appointment.

I did not authorize the $69.95 fee explicitly, but I did sign a document when I released the car, I'm sure its written there in small print.
 
The Ford dealers in Louisville are equally hopeless; one of my friends couldn't pick up his car at Oxmoor(ons) Ford after a warranty visit because they couldn't find who had the keys. I once emailed the parts department at Bill Collins Ford asking if they had a particular transmission oil in stock, I received a reply that they had 8 quarts on hand. I made a special trip to the dealer and the guy at the parts counter said that they were out of that oil. I mentioned the email and he tells me, "Ya shouda called, those email guys are always wrong."
I think the Ford stores in my area have a strict policy of not hiring service staff with opposable thumbs.

Then there was Andy Mohr Ford in Indianapolis that advertised a Ford CPO Mustang GT; my wife and I made the two hour drive to look at it and the sales guy told me that it was $1500 extra for the CPO warranty. Then they played hide the trade. Needless to say, even though I came from a "Ford Family," I'll likely never own another one.
 
Justin, good job staying composed. That was ridiculous, I totally agree. I pride myself on staying composed, too. I can tell you the Ford dealer I use is good. Its Friendly Ford in Crosby TX (east of Houston). Maybe try another Ford dealer next time, I think you can find a good one.
 
Originally Posted by roadrunner1
The whole issue should have been taken care of with the company that sold the car to the OP.


Yep, that's what I would've done. Left the car with Carvana, but i'm not sure how they function since they are a vehicle vending machine.

And your experience is sounds typical when there are multiple hands involved. No one wants to pay. And no one wants to do the work.
 
Originally Posted by roadrunner1
The whole issue should have been taken care of with the company that sold the car to the OP.


This ^^^

Finally, after a page and a half of generalized Ford hate, a reasonable response.

Why exactly should a random new car dealership selling the same brand of car that you bought as a used car over the internet instead of from them or even any other brick and mortar dealership, bend over backwards to move you to the front of the line ahead of their paying customers who've actually bought vehicles from them?

To expect that a 3rd party warranty company wields some kind of clout with a brand specific dealership equivalent to the factory warranty on the brand(s) sold at the dealership is an error. When you walk into a brand or multi brand dealership having bought from a company that they regard as basically the enemy of their business model (brick and mortar vs. internet/online), I don't think you can expect to get the benefit of the doubt when something is questioned.

Also, the 3rd party warranty office said to take it to their choice of repair facility and you took it somewhere else instead, so to me that gives the 3rd party warranty company the out they took when they told you they would not re-imburse the $69 fee that in their eyes only happened because you refused their preferred repair shop.

Finally, I wouldn't give you a loaner car either. Loaner cars are generally a courtesy service and the dealership can offer them to whomever they choose, typically customers who bought there or at least bought from a regular dealership of the manufacturer, if not there. Maybe even customers with whom there's an established rapport, i.e. someone who brings their vehicle in for regular maintenance routinely. I'm the service mgr and someone comes in with a used car they bought online, I don't know them from Adam, I'm not offering them a loaner even if they brought some 3rd party warranty company's coverage plan with them-- I'm not bound by that unless the dealership has a contract with that particular warranty company to provide loaners to holders of the 3rd party warranty.

I know dealership bashing is fun and I've done my share of it on here, but I can see some justification for the dealership's behavior in this case.
 
Originally Posted by sopususer
I grew up in a Ford family but haven't owned a FoMoCo product for over thirteen years. I know all mfgs have issues, but with stories like this, I'm in no hurry to consider one again.


Twenty one years for me; I still wouldn't rule out a Bullitt or GT350, but no other new vehicle in the Ford/Lincoln stable interests me in the slightest.
 
The main problem occured right at the start. You should have rejected the Escape at delivery and told them to bring it back when it was fixed. Problem solved, lesson learned.
 
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