In the shop since tuesday - My dealer sucks

[jhblaze1]

It sucks to have to deal with a bad dealer. The dealership I buy from was started by an Air Force vet and is now run by his family. The employees are great. I will give you a few examples: When I am in quick lane getting serviced, I watch the mechanics.......they are always reaching for their torque wrench's when they rotate tires. I use the oil I provide them......tech came out to verify with me that I wanted 15-40 in my truck and not 5-40.........It is almost impossible to get a service appointment, they are 2 0r 3 weeks out. But when you come in, your vehicle gets serviced! They do an incredible job and if its a covered part they always do it for free. Alot of dealerships will claim the parts aren't covered (like at 4 years under the 5 year powertrain warranty) and try and screw you. My sales person saw my truck at detail last week and all of a sudden at 630 pm I get a text from Jennie, asking me if thats my beautiful Velocity Blue Tremor gettin washed......thats customer service. Lafayette Ford in Fayetteville NC might not be the cheapest place to buy a vehicle.....but I will buy my next (8th) vehicle from them since 2014 cause they always make it happen for me.....and that is more important than saving a few hundred bucks on a complicated machine like a TREMOR!

yeah I'd much prefer to be told I can't get an appointment for 2 weeks then to have them say sure bring it in and then the don't even look at it for days. WTF is the point of that? I mean sure if whatever is broken renders it undriveable but if it's not critical I'd prefer to just keep my vehicle until you're ready to actually work on my truck.

 

[Loshad]

Plus some bozo could ding it there.

 

[jhblaze1]

Plus some bozo could ding it there.

this too and I'm concerned about that

they do a walk around to look for damage and then have you sign it. but she never wrote "NONE" on it it, rather she just left all the fields blank.

Now that I'm thinking about it, they could mangle something and then just write it in on the basically blank sheet I signed. I should have wrote "NONE" in myself across the whole sheet.

If it comes back scratched or dented and they add notation on that sheet above my sig, turn on the news bc you'll see me as the top story in SoCal lol.

 

[Marley]

Spend 93K and treated disrespectfully......that's how you build clientele.
They think you should feel fortunate that they sold you a truck. Wow

 

[jhblaze1]

Spend 93K and treated disrespectfully......that's how you build clientele.
They think you should feel fortunate that they sold you a truck. Wow

exactly

I wrote the GM a scathing email basically saying everything here in my OP and ended it by saying,

"Frankly, I kind of don't even want you working on my truck at this point, but will leave it there for this issue in the interest of time and to avoid further inconvenience of having to start over, but I will absolutely never step foot in your dealership again for service or to buy another vehicle, which is too bad because my wife's lease is up next year and she kind of likes the explorers. After-sale service is important and your staff can't even be bothered to pretend to give a damn.

I just figured you should know. I don't really care if you take corrective measures or not because frankly I'll never be back to see them, but for the sake of any future customers I hope your team can at least start pretending to care."

Naturally the GM is on vacation or something as I got an auto reply saying he's out of the office until 2/8. I'll be interest to see what kind of response, if any, I get.

 

[jhblaze1]

Their ears must have been ringing bc she just called with an update:

1) They still haven't isolated the front end squeak.
2) 4x4 one way valve failed internally so they ordered one. It won't be in til monday.


So at least the hub issue should be fixed by monday. Hopefully between tmw and monday they can get the squeak figured out. I told her I need the truck back by tuesday no matter what as it's going in for ceramic coating on wednesday and they'll have it for 4 to 5 days.

They better figure out this fucking squeak before then.

 

[jhblaze1]

So the GM is back from vacation today and called profusely apologizing all over himself. He said he was really upset to see my email and immediately went and spoke with both the service director and general sales manager and told them to get it together.

He says my truck's 4wd issue will be fixed today and he knows I need my truck back by tomorrow so I can do the ceramic coating but asked if they can keep the truck til tmw night to keep working on the squeak issue. He seems confident they'll find it but it's hard to narrow down exactly where it is coming from. I suggested maybe just re lubing/greasing all the front suspension components, joints, sway bar, track bar etc to see if they get lucky.

Anyway glad to hear the primary issue is being resolved. I appreciated his call and apology but words are just words. I'll be interested to see if they offer me anything when I do go pick it up. If not, and if they can't get the squeak fixed by then, I'm taking it somewhere else after the ceramic coating.

The service girl told me something about a "one way valve" being the issue, but the GM called it something else like vacuum actuator or something being "stuck open". Regardless of what exact part failed, I knew it was just something minor. Annoying though.

Can't wait to get my truck back. Too bad as soon as I get it back it's going in for 4-5 days at the ceramic shop.

 

[Iron Man]

So the GM is back from vacation today and called profusely apologizing all over himself. He said he was really upset to see my email and immediately went and spoke with both the service director and general sales manager and told them to get it together.

He says my truck's 4wd issue will be fixed today and he knows I need my truck back by tomorrow so I can do the ceramic coating but asked if they can keep the truck til tmw night to keep working on the squeak issue. He seems confident they'll find it but it's hard to narrow down exactly where it is coming from. I suggested maybe just re lubing/greasing all the front suspension components, joints, sway bar, track bar etc to see if they get lucky.

Anyway glad to hear the primary issue is being resolved. I appreciated his call and apology but words are just words. I'll be interested to see if they offer me anything when I do go pick it up. If not, and if they can't get the squeak fixed by then, I'm taking it somewhere else after the ceramic coating.

The service girl told me something about a "one way valve" being the issue, but the GM called it something else like vacuum actuator or something being "stuck open". Regardless of what exact part failed, I knew it was just something minor. Annoying though.

Can't wait to get my truck back. Too bad as soon as I get it back it's going in for 4-5 days at the ceramic shop.

There’s a confidential Ford Buyers review. Remember we all need to find good dealerships and look at these reviews. Be honest when filling it out. They just might hear it from FORD Corporate and may just change got the better. If you can help just one person out with your review then that would be worth the grief you went through. Life is what we make of it and who we share it with. Share your experiences with someone who’s looking forward to a honest review. Just my humble opinion.
Really sorry to hear what you went through. Hopefully this will be a distant memory and many great adventurous memories of you and your son to be made. Live your life to it’s fullest my man. Keep making those delicious looking ribs. I may just look you up one day and ask you to throw some up on the grill so I can taste them. YUUUMMMMMMM??????????

 

[PapaRaptor]

Sorry about your bad experience, seems the Covid is an excuse a lot these days and the parts supply chain sucks.

I have a bd camera on back order since early December. Not a big deal but its out there.

My other concern is the $80K plus truck sitting at the dealership. There are customers and others driving around! I would be afraid someone may run into it.
I had a car hit at a dealership in the parking lot one time. Someone backed into the headlight. Dealership did nothing, was the last time I got any cars or service from them. trust me I have bought a lot of cars since ( trucks too).


hope you get it resolved ASAP

 

[jhblaze1]

Sorry about your bad experience, seems the Covid is an excuse a lot these days and the parts supply chain sucks.

I have a bd camera on back order since early December. Not a big deal but its out there.

My other concern is the $80K plus truck sitting at the dealership. There are customers and others driving around! I would be afraid someone may run into it.
I had a car hit at a dealership in the parking lot one time. Someone backed into the headlight. Dealership did nothing, was the last time I got any cars or service from them. trust me I have bought a lot of cars since ( trucks too).


hope you get it resolved ASAP

Yeah my truck's been there almost a week now. That's a lot of time to be sitting around some giant lot where it could get dinged up. That's what insurance is for though I guess. But I'll blow a rage gasket if I go to pick it up and find any damage!

 

[Loshad]

Bummer, Blazer. Sounds like it will turn out right.
The reason I'm buying my Tremor from my local dealer is their service dept has been very good to me for years.

Why will the ceramic take so long? I thought that was one day?

 

[kmtweb]

Just read the the original post. It really sucks that customer service is non-existent in the auto industry.

 

[Jay D]

So as you know from my other thread, my hubs are not auto locking. I also have a squeak in the front end over moderate bumps...most noticeable over speed humps.


I was going to just wait til my first oil change to mention the squeak as I'm sure it's just a lube issue somewhere but then I discovered the hubs not locking issue so made an appt. After sales service at my dealership is non existent. I emailed my sales guy after hours last Friday, figuring he'd see it on Sat morning and get back to me. 1pm saturday still no call or email response. I had initially gone to him first since we have a relationship and thought it would be quicker than just calling the service dept. Anyway with no response I call Service directly. No answer, just VM....ok so I leave a VM and never get a call back. Meantime, I call my sales guy and he answers first ring. I'm like "hey so did you get my email"....He says "oh yeah I saw it but haven't had a chance to look into it yet, it's month end so it's crazy busy here".

This infuriated me. though I kept it to myself. Customer service 101 is you don't tell your customers/clients that you can't help them bc you're busy. Customers really don't give a fuck how busy you are. The ask was that you take less than 5 mins to go make me a service appt. That's it. What I DO care about is the $93,000 truck you sold me that had a broken 4wd component from the day I drove it off your lot.

So anyway, I play nice to maintain relationship. He tells me he'll walk my email over to service "right now" and call me back within the hour. I never got a call back. So on Monday I called service again and spoke to a human and made an appt for Wednesday at 8:15. I was told "if you're running late, make sure you call us and let us know". First of all this sort of implies they actually have plans to stick to appointment times and so my truck would be on a lift pretty quickly. I tell him, well I work so maybe it's better if I drop it off Tuesday evening so it's already there for you guys on wednesday morning. So I go drop it off tuesday night.

The service girl refuses me a loaner. Tells me the policy is that they don't do loaners until they can get into the truck and figure out what's going on and if it's warrantable. So again, I play nice and let it go. I'm working from home and can get by without a vehicle. Still, when someone buys a $93K truck from you and it's broken from the start you should be bending over backwards to throw me into a loaner and make me happy. Secondly, look at your computer dumb dumb. What is the sale's date? It's fucking warrantable. I don't say any of this and let it go. So I hand in my keys and say "so you'll call me tomorrow with an update"....she says "Maybe it depends on how long it takes them to get in there and figure it out, they get really busy back there". Again I let it go to be nice, but really the word "busy" should not exist in the vocabulary of a client facing rep. I have an appointment so I do not fucking care how busy you are. All I'm asking for is a text message or quick call to say "you're trucks on a lift but we haven't found it yet" or "we figured it out but need to order parts" or "it's fixed, come get it". Not rocket science.

So I never get any update on Wednesday and within 2 hours of them closing on Thursday I call to check in. The girl I dropped it off with answers. I give her my name and say "just looking for a status update on my truck, the f350 platinum tremor I dropped off with you on tuesday". I hear her typing away and then she starts with "you dropped it off here? at this dealership? when?" Again I say " um tuesday with you, personally". She says "hmmmmm let me see.....what kind of truck is it?"......"um a black F350 Platinum Tremor".....she says "and did you leave it with me?".....Again I'm like "yes with you, personally. we've met".

So she puts me on hold for about 10 mins and comes back "This is strange I don't see it hold on"......then she comes back "ah I've found it", "so what could I help you with?".......me, "um a status update, have you found the issue or fixed my truck yet? even looked at it yet? anyone there aware of its existence?". She then puts me on hold again for 5 mins because she needs to go talk to her "dispatcher" to get an update. Comes back and tells me they replicated the squeak but don't know what the issue is yet, and haven't gotten to the hubs yet .....WAIT FOR IT....."because it's just so busy here we haven't been able to free up a lift yet but hopefully soon".

So this is when I stopped being nice. Basically said something like "no that's not acceptable. I had an appointment for yesterday morning and I really don't care how busy you are. I'd get fired for saying that to one of my clients. I didn't expect it to necessarily be fixed by today but that you haven't even looked at it is absolutely unacceptable. It's a week and a half old $93K truck that you sold to me in broken condition. I frankly don't give a shit if other people were there before me, a truck that you sold in broken condition should jump to the front of the line. I'm not waiting for someone's certified pre owned focus to get the oil changed, call them and tell them you're too busy to work on their car and get to work on the one you sold to someone not in working order. Prioritize"

So the service manager called apologizing all over himself and saying they're making it a top priority but that no customer is more important that another. I explain that while I understand that, you need to prioritize to some extent. when someone comes back within 2 weeks of a sale, it's frankly more important than an oil change on a 2 year old car. Emergency rooms are first come first served when conditions are equal but they triage for severity. Maybe you should adopt some sort of triage policy bc frankly yes my issue is higher priority than someone's fucking oil change.

I know some people will say I'm being a Karen or entitled but I disagree. I've never had a job where I can just tell people "tough shit we're busy". After sales service matters. I had a pretty good sales experience there but it's crystal clear that once you sign they absolutely do not give half a shit about providing any sort of customer service. I'd have more respect for them if they just said "we've got your money, fuck you". I may be in the market next year for an SUV for my wife when her lease is up and the new explorers look solid. Do they think a customer would ever return after being treated this way? no fucking way will they ever get another sale from me.

I completely agree with most of what you said, but A.) if I’m waiting on my oil change, it should be their priority (in my eyes) I understand you made an appointment, but if they told you “sorry a 110k limited F450 came in so we bumped your little 93k platinum down on the list” that wouldn’t be acceptable. Right? B.) the sale is final they have absolutely nothing to lose (besides future business) they’ll be fine....C.) if you think 93K is something big to these corporations, you’re sadly mistaken. So I understand them not holding their appointment, but you’re no more important than a customer that bought a 20k focus 2 yrs ago. That’s just facts Brother. I hope everything works out for you, I truly do. Do me a favor and quit considering your importance/worth by the price you paid for your vehicle, that’s not big boy thinking ... ?

 

[jhblaze1]

I completely agree with most of what you said, but A.) if I’m waiting on my oil change, it should be their priority (in my eyes) I understand you made an appointment, but if they told you “sorry a 110k limited F450 came in so we bumped your little 93k platinum down on the list” that wouldn’t be acceptable. Right? B.) the sale is final they have absolutely nothing to lose (besides future business) they’ll be fine....C.) if you think 93K is something big to these corporations, you’re sadly mistaken. So I understand them not holding their appointment, but you’re no more important than a customer that bought a 20k focus 2 yrs ago. That’s just facts Brother. I hope everything works out for you, I truly do. Do me a favor and quit considering your importance/worth by the price you paid for your vehicle, that’s not big boy thinking ... ?

My point about the cost of my truck, though probably not articulated well, is that the truck was delivered to me with a component broken.....it's more a combination of the newness combined with the cost (and the fact that it was delivered that way) that makes me believe it should immediately just jump to the front of the line. Brand new vehicles, especially ones approaching S Class sticker prices, shouldn't be delivered broken. I can tell you with certainty, from experience, that MB dealers don't treat their customers like this.

I wouldn't feel so entitled if it broke 6 months or a year down the line, but when it's delivered broken, IMO it needs to become priority #1. You're the only person who seems to disagree with that.

B) yeah you're right. Pretty shitty way to do business though. They'll be fine but they'll never get another penny from me. I can probably cost them a few sales with yelp and google reviews too. Won't break their bank but sooner or later when you treat enough customers like shit and they're vocal and outspoken about it, it starts to matter.

C) again it's more about the fact that they delivered a broken truck. I'd feel the same way if they sold me an F150 XL with 4wd not working from the start. So yeah agree to disagree ... I do think my issue is more important than a 2 year car getting routine service done. No, it doesn't make me more important because I have the means to spend that kind of money and I wasn't suggesting it did.... It took me a lifetime of working shitty jobs, paying my dues, living in shitty apartments and long hours at work after everyone else went home before my career broke out and I haven't forgotten where I came from. I'm not a snob and don't like the implication you're making. but again you're literally the only person who's come back with comments like this so seems more to be an issue with the lens you view life thru than mine.

 

[jhblaze1]

Bummer, Blazer. Sounds like it will turn out right.
The reason I'm buying my Tremor from my local dealer is their service dept has been very good to me for years.

Why will the ceramic take so long? I thought that was one day?

they estimated 4-5 days which seems like a lot but they said it depends on the condition of the paint and the amount of paint correction needed. Then it's getting 5 coats so needs time to apply, drying time, and then curing time. I'm hoping it will end up being a lot quicker than 4-5 days.