OK,

I have been hearing a lot of "chatter" from my front suspension over the past few days so I decided to bring it into the dealership and have them take a look at it. I thought it might have been the front struts making noise, on account of the fact that I was running some Eibachs on the stock struts and maybe it was loose or something.

It was determined, by the dealership, that the front drivers side upper sway bar linkage bolt was loose and needed to be tightened to 85lb-ft and that would solve all the problems. I said OK, go ahead and tighten it, they said they couldn't because it was not covered under warranty. Naturally I thought this was crazy and asked why. They told me that all "adjustments" are covered only under the first 12/12,000 (my car is 10 months old and has 13,000 miles) I said, OK, well you have my car up on the lift (and not-for-nothin) I did shell out 30K to your guys, why don't you go ahead and do the right thing and tighten it. They declined, and told me it was going to cost $139. I asked to see it myself (because I thought I was getting hosed) and that they were trying to milk me. The mechanic said he would have to disassemble the strut and, what he made seem, like the whole front end. I walked in the shop, saw for myself that it was loose, asked for the torque spec, and then a torque wrench, tightened that bad boy up in about 30 seconds and left....never to return.

This to me is to root of Fords problems....the DEALERS. What could have been a 10 min...no 10 second repair turned into an unhappy situation. The mechanic could have easily done this....

Took the car up on the lift

Saw the bolt was loose

Checked my milage

Done a good CONSCIOUS effort to take care of a customer...

Come out and say "The bolt was loose, it wasn't covered under warranty but I took care of it anyways, just keep in mind that it's not covered."

Mechanic gets a gold star for the day and a customer is left happy...

 

The Ford dealers around here have been known to give out that kind of BS to some customers.
It still amazes me that they just don't understand how important customer service is.
Courtesy of your "New England Ford Dealer"

 

It is things like that that add up to a dealership going out of business. We've had a Ford dealer close around here within the past couple of years. Several, in fact. Blue Valley Ford, then Extreme Ford, both went bye-bye. I think a couple on the Missouri side of KC have gone away, as well. Customer service and keeping customers happy are more vital now than ever before. The dealerships who understand this and practice customer satisfaction will survive. The ones who don't will simply shrivel up and blow away.