Ford Service

[embulim]

Here is a wonderful story about Ford. I have a 2000 Lightning, which has been the best vehicle I have ever owned. Back in June of this year my truck went in to have the seal in the rear window fixed. I dropped it off first thing that morning hoping to give the dealership ample time to fix it. Well 5:00pm roles around and I have not heard anything from the dealership so I give them a call. The receptionist is not sure what the status of my vehicle is and the service manager has gone home for the day. I ask to have him call me first thing the next morning and let me know the status. 12:00pm roles around and no phone call from Auffenberg Ford of Belleville. I call and the receptionist who says the service manger is busy but he will give me a call back. I say fine and around roles 5:00pm and no phone call. I call the dealership and oh my truck is ready. Thanks for letting me know. Still no explanation as to why it took two days and why no one informed me. I picked up my truck and thought nothing of it. A few weeks later here comes the Ford Service Survey in the mail. As anyone can imagine I was not going to say anything nice in the survey. I was completely honest. A few weeks later the Ford service manager gives me a call. Asks me to come by and see him. I come in and he gives me the big speal about how I should have contacted him first so that he could have resolved the problem. He also explained to me how they were in line for some sort of Ford Quality Award and that I may have cost them the award. I ask is there anything that I can do to help fix this because even though I was truthful I still felt bad. Bob Grzegorek the service manager said he would let me know. I think nothing about it and go on my merry way with my wonderful SVT Lightning. Last week the truck starts just shutting itself down while I am driving for no reason. I take it to the dealership and get it back with no problems. One week later it is doing it again so I call the dealership and they tell me to bring it back and Bob will go for a ride with me. As soon as we pull out of the parking lot the truck cuts out. Bob tells me to just pull it back into the dealership. I park and he says I am going to be honest with you. None of my mechanics want to work on your truck. They do not like you. Also my receptionist says that you verbally abused her? At this time I am thinking what the hell is going on??? I said I didn’t know what he was talking about I have been nothing but polite to everyone. The only thing I can come up with is that everyone is mad because of the bad survey. Bob goes on saying that my truck is modified and that he could have my warranty canceled if he wanted. Right about this time is when I told Bob to get the F@!$ out of my truck. First thing when I arrived home I started calling Ford and then the dealership manager. Of course no one really seemed too interested in what I had to say. I just wanted to get all this off my chest and I figure what better place to air it out. Thanks.

Don

[Silver_2000]

Sad story

-- You know that the readers here are 90% in Texas ..??

[embulim]

Yes I know that all you guy are in Texas. I just wanted to send out the word about Ford. I may be wrong but I am pretty sure that the have to prove that the modifications are what is causing my problems before they can void my warranty.

[Silver_2000]

Sounds like the survey ****ed them off.. Or to translate ... Thier own ****ty customer service ****ed them off...

Go to another dealer

Good Luck

Doug

[Crawford]

I know those dealership employees are freakin nuts about those surveys. They want everyone of those check boxes checked with the best rating or they are up a creek. Its crazy the pressure they put on their guys to get those reviews 100% positive. It's probably because they want to be Blue Oval Certified or something.

What happened in the above case is inexcusable but only slightly surprising. The only thing that surprises me about it is that the guy had the balls to tell you the truth that everyone hates you. I figured that they would just keep that information to themselves. I would make sure Ford knows, contact your regional representative and let them know then just find a different dealership to work on your truck. Thats about all you can do.

[L8 APEX]

Sounds like small town crap to me, I bet they are the opnly SVT dealer around:rolleyes: Exactly what Doug said, Thier crappy service got them a bad review you only reported it as Ford asks you to. Yes, anything not 100% posistive is a failure to Ford Corp. Let your chapter know about that dealer and see if they get any more reffered business:bs It is in the manual that a failure has to be proven the result of a non-stock part.

[OneRedTXBolt]

Crawford, you're in the right direction about those surveys.

To most Ford dealerships, you live and die by the percentage of good surveys you get back. That's sales and service. Ford pays out more $$ to dealerships with higher customer satisfaction surveys. Believe it or not, that can make a several million dollar profit difference depending on the volume of the dealership. Also, the customer satifaction surveys are tightly woven into the Blue Oval certification, which is also a huge deal. Again, it goes back to the $$.

The sad thing is, as in most cases, is that the afformentioned money is not made by the guys in the trenches, that ultimately affect how well or how bad the survey is answered. They may offer a small bonus per survey, but overall, the system is not setup very well, IMHO.

Myself, I have pride in any job I do, and honestly always strive for 100% customer satisfaction, survey or no survey. Sadly, the turnover is so high for a dealership, good customer service is difficult to get, because lots of people just don't care.

My only advice would be that if you are unhappy with sales or service you've received, and you do get a survey (and, of course, you want to go back to that dealership) go ahead and call the sales manager or service manager. Most of them do want to make you happy, so that the survey goes well. Manager's $$ is also tied to customer satifaction...

Good luck!