My local Ford dealership cheesed me off

David LaPell

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About 3 weeks back I took my 2002 Merc Grand Marquis into the local Ford dealership to get an alignment (none of the garages up here have an alignment rack so its either them or drive 20 miles). So I take it there, and I am not expecting greatness as it has 183,000 miles on it. Well, I go there hand the keys to the tech and go outside, they had a nice older Mustang across the street so I go over to look at it. I see the tech go out and take my car from the side of the building to the rack, about 40 feet at the most. I go back inside after 15 minutes and they tell me there's a boat load of stuff wrong with the car. Lower control arms, idler arm bushing, pitman arm and the steering box was froze (found that hard to believe since the car steered ok). I had to ask the girl 5 times what the price was, and she came up with about $2000. I told her not a chance and to see if they used aftermarket stuff. The girl is telling me that there was "only" about $50 each for the lower control arms. So $100 is not a lot to her but to me, big difference. Well, the service tech is telling me my car is about to come apart and it needs to get done right away. I take it to another garage and he gives me a whole different outlook. Control arms yes and the steering box isn't froze but its a bit rusty. Two guys looked at the pitman arm, no play at all and the idler arm bushing was fine. The difference in price all told, $1006 overall. Not to mention after getting the paperwork back from the dealership, they list a test drive being performed, one wasn't, and they listed an alignment being done, one wasn't. They didn't charge me but still, I watched how far they drove the car, and McDonalds drive through was longer. I penned a nice polite letter to the dealership and I get a call from the Vice President, who tells me that he stands by the tech and then tells me that he hopes he doesn't see my name in the local paper because I got killed driving the car after it needed to be fixed. Then he insults the other mechanics telling me they're idiots and I shouldn't let them work on the car. I politely tell him I'll stick with them, he rants and raves, telling me I'm lucky I didn't get a bill for an alignment, one that never happened. I bring up the test drive, and he told me he believes the tech. Then tells me since there's nothing more he can do he again hopes he doesn't see my name in the paper because my car came apart. I then put a review on Cars.com about it, with only the facts. Yesterday the owner of the garage that did the work calls me, the dealership called him wanting a copy of the invoice of the work he did on my car! The owner tells the dealership to go pound sand, then I called the dealership up and ask why they wanted the info and was told that since I slammed them pretty hard that they wanted to get the invoice and compare things to see how they could do better next time. I asked why didn't they just call me and ask and I was told since it had gotten out of control and since I slammed them for no reason that they decided to get them from the garage. I told the dealer that if I decided to that I and I alone would be bringing them the invoice (they're not getting it). I can't imagine why they would want this, and since they went behind my back to get it if they were going to try something like a lawsuit. The review on Cars.com was honest, I put in all the facts and figures and I have all the paperwork, but for a dealership to go to this extreme over a review? Especially since there is a spot for the dealer to respond, I've never heard of this before. To me, take your lumps and deal with it, but has anyone else ever heard of a dealer doing this?
 
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Dealerships of all brands are under a lot of pressure from the manufacturers to get only good reviews from customers. There is money attached to reviews.

I use one dealer for my service. They aren't cheap, but they've never lied to me and they stand behind their work. Every time I bring either my truck or my wife's car in, we get a follow up call and email asking if we were satisfied. They ask if we will give them a positive review if Toyota sends us a survey.

The Ford dealer you reviewed is probably sensitive because I'll bet that it's not the first time a customer complained. If you search them by name, you might find other similar complaints.

Someone from Ford will likely see your review and not be happy with the dealership. That could affect them when it comes time for incentives from the factory.

You probably know this, but dealerships make far more money on parts and service than they do from selling the cars themselves. In some cases service writers go a bit overboard in order to reach their monthly quota. Most of the time they will merely offer some optional service, but a few here and there outright lie to make more money.

You did a good thing, but you know that already.
 
This is why many car forums have filters to remove "stealership" from people's posts. This bogus "your car is about to expire" BS goes on all the time, and every so often some consumer minded TV station will take in a prepared car and it's off to the races.
 
Counterpoint...HONEST DEALERSHIP.

Very sad to read the OP's account of an apparently dishonest deaership. That's simply wrong. Period. :mad:

I was far more fortunate this week. One of my vehicles hit the 30K 'Service Required' mark. That legend appeared every time I started it; annoying...but cannot be ignored. :eek:

Closest dealer (and where I bought it) is approximately 125 miles away. Made an appointment and went there yesterday. Initial estimate was in the neighborhood of $1300.00 (American.) Yikes!

HOWEVER, I was most pleasantly surprised when I got a call saying my ride was ready about two hours after drop off. All was good...no, great. Oil change (rather complicated) was performed, all filters were too GOOD to replace (!), brakes/tires/blades were deemed good for many more miles, and THE TOTAL CHARGE WAS $163. and change.

I was very pleased.

Point? Not all dealerships are crooked. I was very fortunate.

Be safe.
 
I worked for a number of dealerships (following a manager) in the past and can say that if you REALLY want to cause some hate and discontent at that particular dealership, find out who the FACTORY regional manager is and give him an earful of your story, OP. Something will happen.
 
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I have not used a dealership to service or repair my vehicles in over 20 years. The ones in this area charged 3 times as much as most mechanics and did not do good work. Finding a good mechanic is almost as difficult as finding a good doctor. They do exist, but they are a very rare and endangered species.

I drive Fords and Chevys. The only exception I have seen was not mine, but a friends use of the Toyota dealership. The service there was absolutely first class and was completed when they said it would be completed for the price they quoted.
 
Well I dusted off some tools I haven't touched in a longtime, got both my son's to come over so I can further there education. I instruct and they learn. My 2010 Subaru legacy was in for an oil change. They said it needs front pads no problem. It costs $30 for the pads my son installed them.

Now here's a story. My 97 Subaru imprenza was a few years old and In for service. The dealer told me it needed $750 worth of work. I told them if my new car needs that much work I need another new car or I bought the wrong car. I wanted the trans oil changed, a new timing belt, one cam seal was leaking, I figured since it would be apart change the water pump. Before this I was at a local parts house when a mechanic was buying stuff he seen my car and said if you ever need work done on your Subaru to let him know he's a state certified Subaru mechanic. I supplied the parts and he charged me $85. I gave him $250. I go to him for the things I don't do.
Dealers, all dealers try to cheese you/us.

I was working as a car, jeep, light truck mechanic when these guys at the dealers weren't twinkles in there fathers eyes. I fix my '55 jeep and '99 jeeps.
 
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I haven't used a factory dealer for any service in years. Way too many negative experiences. I have a place that's top-rated by AAA, close by, and will provide a loaner vehicle if I need it. Are they the cheapest? Cheaper than the dealer, yes. Cheapest around, no. Do they warranty all their work & provide good honest service? Yup.

I used to do most of my own work, but when I started getting front-wheel drive cars with all the electronic stuff I decided to leave it to the people with the specialty tools and scanners. The days when I could replace a blown head gasket with two or three hours of work using nothing but two sockets, a screwdriver and a torque wrench are long gone.
 
I got into a dispute with the service manager at a car dealership several years ago and got nowhere with him. I documented the situation in a letter sent it to the owner of the dealership with a copy to the Better Business Bureau which then opened a case.

The dealerships whole attitude changed and they couldn't do enought"to make the situation right".

I think one of the biggest problems with these issues is most people don't want to bother to get their facts together and present them to the right audience.

I am certainly not in that passive category and never plan on being in it. I 'll try to work with any kind of business or dealership but when I get negative treatment the gloves come off.
Jim
 
send a letter to the ford factory to customer services. you will see some action then. positive reviews are worth money to a dealership. one negative will wipe out 10 or more good reviews. speaking from a former ford store service manager viewpoint.
 
I have a local garage run by a man who worked on all of dads
vehicles when he was living and now he does all of the work
on my vehicles as well. I also have had one too many bad dealings
at car dealerships service departments to ever take a vehicle back
to one. The gent running the local repair shop charges fair prices
and i trust him knowing he will only fix things that need fixed.

Chuck
 
About 3 weeks back I took my 2002 Merc Grand Marquis into the local Ford dealership to get an alignment (none of the garages up here have an alignment rack so its either them or drive 20 miles). So I take it there, and I am not expecting greatness as it has 183,000 miles on it. Well, I go there hand the keys to the tech and go outside, they had a nice older Mustang across the street so I go over to look at it. I see the tech go out and take my car from the side of the building to the rack, about 40 feet at the most. I go back inside after 15 minutes and they tell me there's a boat load of stuff wrong with the car. Lower control arms, idler arm bushing, pitman arm and the steering box was froze (found that hard to believe since the car steered ok). I had to ask the girl 5 times what the price was, and she came up with about $2000. I told her not a chance and to see if they used aftermarket stuff. The girl is telling me that there was "only" about $50 each for the lower control arms. So $100 is not a lot to her but to me, big difference. Well, the service tech is telling me my car is about to come apart and it needs to get done right away. I take it to another garage and he gives me a whole different outlook. Control arms yes and the steering box isn't froze but its a bit rusty. Two guys looked at the pitman arm, no play at all and the idler arm bushing was fine. The difference in price all told, $1006 overall. Not to mention after getting the paperwork back from the dealership, they list a test drive being performed, one wasn't, and they listed an alignment being done, one wasn't. They didn't charge me but still, I watched how far they drove the car, and McDonalds drive through was longer. I penned a nice polite letter to the dealership and I get a call from the Vice President, who tells me that he stands by the tech and then tells me that he hopes he doesn't see my name in the local paper because I got killed driving the car after it needed to be fixed. Then he insults the other mechanics telling me they're idiots and I shouldn't let them work on the car. I politely tell him I'll stick with them, he rants and raves, telling me I'm lucky I didn't get a bill for an alignment, one that never happened. I bring up the test drive, and he told me he believes the tech. Then tells me since there's nothing more he can do he again hopes he doesn't see my name in the paper because my car came apart. I then put a review on Cars.com about it, with only the facts. Yesterday the owner of the garage that did the work calls me, the dealership called him wanting a copy of the invoice of the work he did on my car! The owner tells the dealership to go pound sand, then I called the dealership up and ask why they wanted the info and was told that since I slammed them pretty hard that they wanted to get the invoice and compare things to see how they could do better next time. I asked why didn't they just call me and ask and I was told since it had gotten out of control and since I slammed them for no reason that they decided to get them from the garage. I told the dealer that if I decided to that I and I alone would be bringing them the invoice (they're not getting it). I can't imagine why they would want this, and since they went behind my back to get it if they were going to try something like a lawsuit. The review on Cars.com was honest, I put in all the facts and figures and I have all the paperwork, but for a dealership to go to this extreme over a review? Especially since there is a spot for the dealer to respond, I've never heard of this before. To me, take your lumps and deal with it, but has anyone else ever heard of a dealer doing this?

My take on this. Profit Center. I have a honest mechanic. We have become friends.
 
Very sad to read the OP's account of an apparently dishonest deaership. That's simply wrong. Period. :mad:

I was far more fortunate this week. One of my vehicles hit the 30K 'Service Required' mark. That legend appeared every time I started it; annoying...but cannot be ignored. :eek:

Closest dealer (and where I bought it) is approximately 125 miles away. Made an appointment and went there yesterday. Initial estimate was in the neighborhood of $1300.00 (American.) Yikes!

HOWEVER, I was most pleasantly surprised when I got a call saying my ride was ready about two hours after drop off. All was good...no, great. Oil change (rather complicated) was performed, all filters were too GOOD to replace (!), brakes/tires/blades were deemed good for many more miles, and THE TOTAL CHARGE WAS $163. and change.

I was very pleased.

Point? Not all dealerships are crooked. I was very fortunate.

Be safe.

Am I reading this right? You made a 250-mile round trip for a $163 2-hour oil change and you're happy?
 
Car Dealers......Need I say more......Obviously the pressure is on the service manager to turn X amount of bucks one way or another...A tip....Always check your gas cap for a tight seal before allowing the service people to drop your gas tank to install a emission control device that they told you was bad.....You know that mystery light that comes on usually right after a dealer check up.. Right after my service agreement times out I took my car in for service. Got it back and immediately that idiot light came on..Dealer checked it out..Sending device on the emission control ...fuel tank they said was bad...Even tho the vehicle was out of warranty it only had 50K on odometer...I said come on guys it just went out of warranty..They were polite but stuff happens....I made an appointment to return and spend about 250. and drove toward home..Stopped to get gas, filled up and made sure I tightened the gas cap......Light went out and stayed out...Needless to say I missed that appointment and now go to a good independent mechanic, if fact he used to work for the dealership in question...He told me more emission control devices are replaced that don't have anything wrong with them ....He mentioned quota's I got his drift......
 
That's my area of expertise. I worked my way up from mechanic, master mechanic, service advisor to service manager.

The described situation makes me want to puke. I had a similar experience with our local Ford dealership (we had a Fusion once and as long as I have warranty I won't touch the vehicle) and it went from rude to stupid. I sent a letter as well to the GM and never received an answer. Guess they don't need the work.

In your case it seems like they just wanted to sell you on stuff and then got upset b/c you went somewhere else.

This is one reason why I dislike the commission based payment plan.

Here's the thing, the manufacturer supplies you with EVERYTHING you need to know, from the porter to GM/Owner. IF people would just do their job, there would be no issues. Yes, wrong diagnoses happens, BTDT, and paid the price. But screwing customers deserves a punch in the face.

I handled all the complaints and sometimes the customer is making up stuff. That's when your experience kicks in, communication skills, checking the facts (on the computer, not hear say!), check the vehicle, etc. But mostly, the customer is right when he/she complains. That's just my experience.

If I had $5M I'd open a dealership, just to show those monkeys how it's done. At some dealerships (even our local Dodge) I really don't like the attitude. That all puts professional dealerships in a bad light.

When a customer comes through the door, the wallet is already open. Customer is willing to spend his/her hard earned money. Why in the world would you greet him with a !@#$%^& attitude?

Sad but true. Look around and rather drive a longer distance for a better service. It's better in the long run...
 
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Bad dealers who treat customers bad can be dealt with, and need to be. A regional factory rep, whatever they may be called, and the BBB. You didn't ask for this, let them have it.
 
The OPs' post is pretty similar to an experience I once had with our local Ford dealership and the reason that to this day that I won't darken their door. Bad service and dishonest behavior weren't even responded to when I answered their how'd we do survey. If they were the only dealership to buy a vehicle from in the state,I'd ride a bike!
 
Not just dealership repair shops will put it to you also. Dealerships use their own replacement parts that are higher cost for some reason then parts stores with the exact parts I guess overhead has something to do with this. Remember years ago when you use to have a real person put gas in you vehicle and check the oil. A little squirt of oil from them someplace on the engine and they would tell you your vehicle was going to explode or something unless they made immediate repairs, and mostly worked for vacationers back then. Dealership probably go by if it's not new it need replacing. I have been lucky and haven't had any issues when I have taken a vehicle to a dealership. Heck I even bought a couple parts from them cheaper then the parts store, but not many and only one's the parts store would have to special order.

As for bad dealers before Chrysler did their downsize on dealerships we had one with a 4 star rating. After our problem and the letters we wrote to everyone involved from corporate down, they lost their 4 star rating. Was it from us I don't know but like to think it was.
 
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