Wow Von - I would have immediately pulled out my phone and asked him to repeat that while I turned on the video camera. The MM act is a matter of law and the service manager is clearly thumbing his nose at it. The legal process for making an initial case is really quite simple and every single small claims judge would rule in your favor after seeing a dealer make such a statement. I'm completely serious here. When you run into someone like that in a position of authority, they have an obligation to treat you fairly. I would chase that on matter of principle as that person has likely mistreated many, many other people. It would take a half hour and a $29 case filing fee at the local courthouse to get satisfaction.

In reality, if you showed that video to the dealership owner, that would probably settle the matter right away.

 

...careful about the law suit stuff...makes the moderators nervous

 

I have seen the moderators comment about lawsuits and I am not sure what drives this concern. We are talking about laws, not free speech. And as such it is a legal recourse each of us have as consumers. No one is advocating a class action suit. Just making a fellow FTEr aware that this country has laws in place to protect consumers...

What is happening between Von-Overkill and this dealer is a clear disregard for the law.

 

That conversation needs to be brought to the attention of the ownership of that dealer. That Service Manager is out of control and is in need of a reality/ego check. Maybe he got burned by a Mustang or 6.0 modder in the past, but that's no excuse for treating you, and probably other customers, in that way.

 

the avoidance of law suit discussions is quite prevalent on the forums I frequent...at Rvnet, a mention of a lawsuit will result in immediate closing of the thread...saw it happen this morning

Regards

 

Interesting. Is it a fear of being dragged into these lawsuits that the forum owners fear? Or does it have something to do with the hands that feed them?

 

it's their forum and their rules...their reasons do not matter nor are they discussed. I am a pilot and visit a very popular home built site every day. There is no discussion of lawyers or lawsuits allowed there at all.

To the OP...sorry for the small hijack...back to your issue...

 

I thought the purpose of these sites was to help each other. Go to BBB. I won my arbitration with my dealer and fomoco....do it.

 

Big-O did not get a chance to call BFG, but they did fill out a form. Maybe they'll be less busy tomorrow.
As far as the dealership, the owner is siding with the service manager. They see people who alter vehicles as troublemakers. It requires more knowledge and more common sense to figure out what went wrong on a modded vehicle, and it requires more time and better techs. Less pressure when it's by the book.
But there are two diesel mechanics at this dealership that I respect, however they got their marching orders from the top.
I called another dealer today, where I bought my truck, to discuss some of my concerns. And while they had no problem with my aftermarket floor mats, they did say that any changes to intake/ehxaust would void their participation in warranty repairs. This same dealership had no problems working on my modded '06 (tuned, exhaust, intake, deletes). Hmmm

On my 7.3L truck, the dealer suggested and even installed my tunes/mods!
Something has changed over the last 5 years.

 

You should know better than to mod anything on these new trucks seeing it's almost assured you'll be visiting the dealer for warranty issues.

You never know when you'll run into a dealer who has now flagged your vehicle.
I hope you are able to get this truck fixed and keep it fixed but after all the issues Ford is having with the new 6.7 that was pretty ballsy in the first place.

 

What has changed is all the problems with 6.0's. Guys modding them and then blowing head gaskets and engines. Then expecting Ford to pick up the tab. Ford decided to make a blanket decision to void everything once a mod is done.

I think this is a chicken ***** way of handling a problem. But they know they hold the cards and make the rules. I think the dealers are just doing the old CYA.

 

Nothing to report yet. Still working on it.
Ice warning symbol now on most of the time. It is an amazing coincidence that that, and dozens of CEL codes came up within a mile of the last flash/TSB.
Meanwhile my non-stock airfilter had given no trouble for 7 months.
Dealer still blames all codes on air filter. Will keep you posted.

 

I almost sent some PMs instead of posting, but I figure this is something that others are wondering about as well.

I see what you're saying, and I personally agree with you. But as I understand it, the reasoning behind the rule has to do with the fact that this is a truck forum and not a legal one. Legal advice can normally only come from a lawyer, which is something that the vast majority of us are not. I recently took a law class, and understand enough to know that legal liability can be sought against an entity for a variety of reasons, and the owners of the site want nothing to do with legal proceedings of any kind.

I remember a few posts by Ken Payne, the founder of FTE who no longer owns it, insisting that people take their legal questions elsewhere. This policy hasn't changed here on FTE, and I believe it's the standard on forums everywhere.

I don't make the rules...after all, I'm just a volunteer!

If anyone has any further questions please send me a PM; no need to further hijack this thread.

Thanks!

 

Can you please list the problems?

I only know of a bad batch of NOx sensors. The rest has been isolated to software, which has not much to do with hardware (engineering of actual parts).

I know a couple of folks like to say "you're gonna get flamed if you say anything bad about the 6.7" but I honestly don't get the actual failure part. I only remember the 1 sensor being an actual part that needs to be addressed on a specific run of truck build dates.

Vloney seems to know his profession and he appears to be attributing this event to a poor job of doing a software flash. All this other stuff about warranty and dealer over reaction is really not the point, except the OP's dealer is just washing their hands of it.

 

I promised everyone an update on this, so here's what I have so far.
I finally called Ford and explained my dealer experince in detail.
Ford is having an actual engineer call me next Thursday to discuss the original problem which was a lack of throttle response.
But so far, the representative I talked with basically stated that Ford dealerships can decide not to work on someone's truck because it is a free country, and they are independent businesses with an affiliation with Ford.
However, I was told my experience was very unusual and unique, and that they are supposed to work on all Fords (and can do so on any vehicle they feel qualified for), especially Fords under warranty. I was also told that "aftermarket" parts were NOT an issue with Ford, unless a problem arises that is directly related to the non-Ford part.
It should not disqualify anyone from service under warranty.
I also learned that the dealer did not void my warranty as I was led to believe. It was likely just a scare tactic to get me to dump the modifications, and buy the Ford parts department versions of the same parts.
Of course the biggest issue with my dealer was not the aftermarket speakers, or non-Ford bedmat, or Weathertech floormats, but the non-Ford air filter. In their opinion, it prevented them from topping off my differential fluid, looking at my CEL trouble codes, or attempting to warranty two defective BFG tires, not to mention even diagnose the original lackluster performance problem, which seemed unusual based on everyone else's opinions that owned a similar truck.
Ford suggested I try another dealer, and they would even call ahead for me to make sure they are willing to work on/test my F450.
So far, I am very pleased with Ford's efforts regarding my rather small issues. Just not happy with that dealer...
Will update if I get that call from a ford engineer next week.