htwag

My wife bought a used 2008 Mercury Milan from her favorite Ford dealer. With 19K, it is still under factory warranty. She notices, a week after buying it, that the upper weatherstripping on both right-side doors was loose. She takes it to the local Mercury dealer (because it's a Mercury) to have the weather stripping fixed. The dealer (service manager) fixed the rear strip on the spot but then told her that the front strip needed to be replaced AND it was not a warranty item. She looked at him and said "I guess we need to get the regional guy involved." and then the service manager asked her for the regional guy's name....bacause he didn't know. She got pissed and said to him "You won't fix it under warranty?" "No" "Why not?" "It's not covered - you did this."
That pissed off her even more. She went inside and spoke to the GM (actually the sales manager- the GM was on vacation)..who told her that Ford Motor Company has eliminated all the regional managers that handle customer complaints and expect dealers to do it. Then he tells her that the dealership can't prove to Ford that it was a factory error.

She goes to Ford dealer 6 miles way who tells her "Yes, It's covered by the warranty. We will fix it."

Has anyone, especially TMS members who work for a Ford/Lincoln-Mercury dealers, heard anything about terminating all customer complaint folks within FoMoCo?

I thought it was interesting - especially the remark about asking the guys name.

05GT-O.C.D.

... and we wonder why the "Big 3" are in financial trouble. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The 'F the customer' attitude in dealers is a cancer that is killing the companies.

Edit: Tell your wife to ask the 'good' dealer for the name of their regional rep so that she can write a letter of how great of service she received from them. They'll probably tell you the truth at that point.

TampaBear67

Lincoln Mercury Dealers have Horrible Customer Service in My Opinion. I don't remember all thje details but my Mom was asked not to bring her 90 Mark VII LSC SE back to a local Lincoln dealer by the service manager, after having used their service dept. for years with her previous 87 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, because She was "Too Picky" because they couldn't find the cause of a problem she had brought it in for, after the service advisor had acknowledged that there was an ongoing problem with the car.

A couple of years later, another service dept/ body shop released her 90 Mark VII LSC to her after having it for almost 8 months for a repair from an accident, with a broken axle and said it was fine.

The Ford dealer she used after those issues has never had a problem or issue since she started using them.

houtex

Ford places will generally try very hard to get things done under warranty. Problem is that anything they do, the Ford auditers will all of a sudden change the rules, making it harder to do the same job from last week. They'll either shave off a bunch of hours (less pay) or they'll outright say "no, that wasn't covered, you owe us for that" and take it *right out of the dealer's profit*.

I have worked at a few Ford and Lincoln/Mercury dealers, and the same things were told... They keep changing the rules, and almost arbitrarily (due to not being involved at the time) just say "Nope, not warranty. That was a customer issue, not ours."

Now why the Ford guys try so much harder than Lincoln Mercury? Probably because there's a whole lot more Ford product, and therefore more Ford money for warranty work, so it's worth the attempts, whereas the possibility of Ford saying "No, that's not warranty" on, in this case, a potential Customer damaged part, and the LM's guys are probably a bit more gun shy about it. In other words, the Ford guys might have a 30% loss of warranty work, but 70% approval overall, so it may be worth it to try. The LM guys might have it worse, say 50% either way, so they're going to be a lot less likely on an iffy fix.

Whether you did or not is not material, it's *possible*, therefore it may as well have happened like they say, *you* damaged it. They've probably been burned before.

Corporate vs. Dealers money is very much a fun thing to listen about... it's really quite silly, but that stuff happens all the time.

And please note... I'm not saying it's exactly like this, but what I've heard from the Service Managers, dispatchers, shop foremans, lead techs, and GMs... it's pretty close.

red pony

I know after working for GM dealerships for 30+ years that warranty issues and what the factory allows as a warranty repair , differs from 1 devision to the next . Buick devision was a pain in the butt to get anything on the body-related items replaced under warranty, whereas Chevrolet division was much easier to please a customer on a warranty claim. But the Big Three better pay attention! Our hard earned (and hard saved) money spent on a new car with the big money they are asking, better not say no at all to ANYTHING the consumer asks for! Too bad it comes out of the corperation's hip pocket--they asked too much for the vehicle already! Time to design it so it won't be a warranty problem later in the SAME model year-- not 1 or 2 years later! The single most factor by far to drive up the cost of a new car is the preceeding year's warranty claims against it! That means we are paying for it already! Just another reason they better quit saying no to warranty requests ! And companies like KIA, HYUNDAI and others with their 10 years-100,000 mile warranty-- what a joke !! By the definition of a warranty, they are taking the American consumer to the cleaners! That is at best a service agreement! If you read the fine print , you are being robbed! Now what BMW offers-THAT'S a warranty! BUT you're still paying for it!

97svtgoin05gt

This all really boils down to the people. I worked in the service industry (non-automotive) for years and a good, well trained service person (technician or supervisor) can send a customer up the road WITHOUT doing anything or fixing the problem and still have a happy customer. The word "no" immediately engages a humans defense mechanisms to activate. Once that reaction is engaged, you're almost assured an unhappy customer. If these knuckleheads were trained like Lexus and BMW people, you could probably do 50% less warranty work and still have happy customers. The brash, untrained attitudes on MANY of Ford dealers service departments can be linked to a large portion of the negative attitude the vast majority of the country has toward Ford's vehicles. Lets face it, every vehicle make breaks down, EVERY ONE. It is the quality of the people handling those issues that either makes or breaks the customer experience. I for one can very handily say that Ford service personnel from the advisors on up through the management at dealerships is often WAY more concerned about their pocketbooks than they are the customer. And the statement (or anything remotely resembling) "Ford just won't cover it" is a weak copout and you may as well scream DON'T BUY A FORD in the person's face if you're going to use that line.

If I owned a Ford dealership, I'd have certifiable monkeys (well, practically) selling, and the most well trained, well paid and customer savy people in the service department. That service desk will make or break your business and in my opinion its broken many a Ford customer in the past and it seems that lovely standard continues to this day.

red pony

There's a lot to be said about a sales staff that is of good repute! Locally, our Ford dealer had a sales dept. that had a habit of getting people upset. I payed little mind to the stories I heard untill it was time I wanted my '08 GT/CS. I go in, with prior acurate knowledge that there was a 1,000 dollar rebate in my region available to everyone. Without telling the salesman I knew this , I told him exactly what I wanted, knowing in the back of my mind what the bottom line was because I was already shopping around. Their "out the door" figure was nearly 2,000 bucks more than anyone else! So I said, " Is that with the 1,000 dollar rebate?" He said " There's no rebate available on the Mustang!" I asked him to check again and he came back , looked me straight in the eyes an said " Nope! No rebate!" I knew then why people complained about them! That grand was going in his hip pocket, the lying sack of s#!t ! Moral of the story, You need HONEST people who care about the customer and treat them right! Needless to say, I went 40 miles out of my way ot another Ford store , got the car I wanted for a grand cheaper than anyone else and their service was great! If my local dealer goes out of business,I won't miss them!!

Hollywood_North GT

All of which amount to nothing more than excuses when a pissed-off customer is evaluating whether or not they'll ever buy another Ford product again. And I think the results have spoken for themselves over the past decade or more.

In a competitive global marketplace, where you're behind the 8 ball compared to your foreign rivals, customer service is KING, and doesn't take that much effort. It's an easy way to retain consumer loyalty, even if and when problems do crop up.

Detroit really forgot the basics for far too many years.

red pony

Just build a good product that requires the least maintainance and parts that don't cost an arm and a leg, and engineer it so the common Joe can fix it himself if he wants to, and you have a car people will stand in line for!

Hollywood_North GT

Most common Joes don't have the mechanical skills nor the modern diagnostics tools necessary to perform repairs on modern engines.

red pony

You're right! Which is why they need to make things more bullit-proof. The common Joe shouldn't have to diagnose and repair an engine if it was engineered and built right in the first place! That goes for everything else in a car! We know deep down this is true because we look around us and we see more foreign cars than domestic cars on our roads now more than ever. The reason is they are more reliable and last longer is they are engineered and built better.

Hollywood_North GT

Well, I think these are mutually exclusive topics. 95% of consumers can't perform routine repairs on ANY engine...no matter how mechanically simple or electronically complex it is. And either one can be built to be bullet proof.


Up till just recently, that was true. But again, that doesn't mean most 'average Joe' consumers can diagnose or repair them themselves.

Or did I completely miss your point?

red pony

I guess the best way to say it is we need to somehow simplify cars again...somehow. We have gone from opening the hood and see an engine , a few wires and the ground under the car to opening the hood and saying " what's that part do?" And if we feel confused, just think how a mechanic that sees this in a new model feels! " well theres another new tool I have to buy!" It has just gotten out of hand. The average Joe can't work on them because it's a jungle under the hood and for that reason, he doesn't want to touch it!

GT5088

I believe your story, but it makes no logical sense...the Mercury dealership should have fixed it...

Hollywood_North GT

Well, I don't think that is ever going to happen. It's like saying, "Let's scrap iPhones and go back to nothing buy hard-wired, rotary dial land lines." The genie is out of the bottle and technology marches on.

Believe me, I have a great appreciation for the precision mechanical engineering of three decades ago (my avatar is a testament to that)...but the world advances, and so must we.

htwag

Wow! Lots of good comments. Update: The Ford folks fixed the car - no questions asked. Meanwhile, the Lincoln/Mercury place ordered the correct front door seal but the wrong rear door seal. I'm so tempted to drive by there and tell them, "Got it fixed" ...... but I won't. Bridges burned bloack traffic in both directions.

Hollywood_North GT

Doesn't much matter if it's a bridge to nowhere.