Debbie (Houston area customer service manager) did right by me and I wanted say thank you.

The saga started when I took the truck to Champion Ford Gulf Freeway to have the wheel hop issue resolved at 11,8XX miles. They replaced the front shocks, steering dampener and did a front end alignment due to TSB 11-06-14.

The wheel hop was corrected until two weeks ago it came roaring back at about 23,XXX miles, much worse hop than before. Took it back to Champion and after a day and a half they requested assistance from the Ford Hotline. But, their description of the problem was wrong (I.E. they stressed that the steering feels really loose) and they stated that "ALL STEERING AND SUSPENSION COMPONENTS GOOD". The Ford hotline assistance technician responded with a "canned" answer that oscillations over bumps may be a characteristic of the vehicle and went on to provide a full page of testing that needed to be done.

After many conversations with the service writer I found out that they did not test drive the truck and they checked the shocks by looking for a leak and pushing down on the front end, even though the assistance request stated that they needed to remove the lower shock mount from the radius arm, then compress and extend the shock. Finally talked to the Service Manager, then the General Manager and was not satisfied that they intended to fix the problem. I picked up the truck.

I called the Ford Customer Relationship number and they provided a case number and forwarded the case to Debbie. She called and I told her that I was going to take it to Cook Ford in Texas City, but the next morning I decided that I was going to have the Bilstein 5100's installed because I was pretty sure that the shocks were the problem based on my prior experience. I talked to John at Cook Ford (service writer) and he agree that if I put on upgraded shocks and they did not fix the problem, he would see if he could find out what was wrong with it. The Bilsteins would not void the warranty. The final consideration was that even if Cook Ford did install new Rancho's, I would be right back at the shop in 11,000 miles.

I drove 400 miles and did not have an incident of wheel hop (even traveling on the same roads that would make it happen before the shock swap) and called Debbie to let her know. She apologized about the way this was handled by Champion Ford and gave me the 72/200,000 mile diesel ESP.

Learnings -
1) although I have bought 3 vehicles from Champion Ford (over $90K) since 2005 they had no customer loyalty.
2) I feel bad about sending a friend to Champion last Month to purchase a new 6.7 Lariat.
3) Found out that Ford had the wrong address in my file, which probably explains why I have never received any of the customer satisfaction surveys.
4) The Bilstein 5100's give the truck much better handling characteristics and a more solid feel. Instead of it "floating" all over the road and me trying to keep it herded down the center of the lane, the responsiveness is much improved. The ride is not as "soft", but not bad at all.
5) Not all Ford Customer Service issues turn out to be bad experiences.

 

This great to hear. It is nice when Ford Customer Service works with the customer to either resolve or compensate you for issues with their truck. We have heard too many stories on this site where customer service is part of the problem instead of the solution. The 72/200K ESP warranty is quite a gift to get from them!