I've had to make the tough decision to leave my Ford dealer for any and all services. For the last 10 years they have been spot on for anything and every thing. They've given me price breaks on service most likely when another dealer wouldn't. And for all that, I'm grateful.

However, in the past 12 months or so they really messed up big. My last two oil changes have been botched and I've had to retighten the filter and double check their work. Then they did the same thing to my daughter's Fusion leaving a puddle of oil inside the under liner. No apologies or nothing, just "oops".

At my last service 2 weeks ago, my service writer got pissed at me because his partner offered to write my truck up as I was waiting. Perhaps they get commission for simple oil changes. We had words in front of his customers and after all this, when i received the customer service call, the young lady didn't seem to care.

Come to find out, they recently had a pretty massive personnel change that may be attributing to these issues. I've lost confidence.

I've made the mistake of giving a dealer blind loyalty in the past. Never again. The dealer closer to my house did a nice job on the plugs and boots this past May. If I buy a Ford on this next purchase, I'll go to them instead.

 

That's no good. It's hard finding good service folks. I fear for the future but the reality is they work more for the manufacturer and warranty companies than for what you and I consider the real customers. I think it will just get worse, but I hope your experience at the other shop stays strong!

 

This seems to be a problem across many dealerships.

On my 2011, I had the wonderful brake booster failure, before Ford issued any bulletins on it. I told the service writer this was likely the problem and if they could check it. When I picked it up, of course they could find nothing was wrong with it. I told my salesman before I left, if it happened again he was getting a call. Without fail, two days later it was his problem to get fixed. Told them I would not take the truck back until they could diagnose and fix the issue of no brakes at startup. Couple days later, truck did it to them, check the booster and found it faulty. Imagine that!

I bought my 2015 from them at the objection of my best half. As I have documented on here it took me 3+ weeks for them to do anything about a scratch on the tailgate that we noticed during delivery. And what they did was give me a spray-in bedliner because they could not "fix" the scratch. During this whole process, the salesman admitted to me the service departments lose business for him on a regular basis.

So I have been taking the 2015 to the local dealer for regular service, oil change tire rotation. Had it in a couple weeks ago for service and to fix the hard downshift and cooled seats. Due to work, I had to pick up the truck after hours. First thing I notice when I start it up, Check Engine light is on and the clock is wrong! My first thought, they didn't get it completely reset from the transmission reprogram, no big deal. Of course this is a Friday and this particular service department is not open on Saturdays. I discovered over the weekend the remote start didn't work either. Call them up Monday and they try to blame the remote start on dead batteries in the keyfob. WHAT?!?!?! Explain that it is a 2015 and it cannot be dead batteries. They say they can look at it Friday. I tell them "try again." Well how does Wednesday look? That's better, but not great. Take it that Wednesday knowing it is a computer problem and drop it off. Get to work and they bring it to me less than an hour later and tell me everything is fixed, there must have been a glitch when they did the reprogram.

They had to order the parts for the seats. Got them last week, took the truck to them this morning. After not hearing anything all day, call them up, is my truck done????? Well we got the parts and after tearing into the seats discovered not everything was in the box. What??????? They got the parts from another dealer, but it is taking them longer than expected (and allowed by the bulletin) to fix the seats. We will see what happens tomorrow if they get it done and if anything else is wrong with it.

Good luck with your new dealer Tim. Hopefully I can find a competent dealer somewhere close.

 

I feel so bad because my dealer has been simply awesome till now. I'm not a patient man and when you play with my trust, you lose.

I'm actually trying to convince my better half that a Subaru should be in our future. Her daddy and I are both Ford guys so she bleeds blue. Ford doesn't build a Subbie and I want one.

 

Really too bad. the dealer will lose more than just you.

 

I get free oil changes with my truck. I've taken it in 3 times and 3 times they have left a good sized mess from changing the oil filter.

After each service I get an email survey which I fill out accordingly and receive a phone call apology later.

So far nothing has changed though.

Josh

 

Tim, this is disappointing to hear about your dealer. Their loss is another dealership's gain.

When I was stationed in your area, I used to take my truck to Barton Ford in Suffolk for service. They always did good work and treated me well.

 

My horrible Ford dealership experience is why I don't have a Ford product now (got out of the Fiesta a few months ago), and why my wife is refusing to look at a Ford for her next car here in the next few months. As I've told people before, it doesn't matter if your car is best in class, if the first time you need service makes you want to drive it through the service bay windows. The Ford dealer here refused to work with me to solve the transmission issue, didn't get a single clutch replacement even though the shudder was there and acknowledged. Ford also broke the sill plate and seat during a service and tried to pin it on me that I broke the items. I went to a competing Jeep dealership with a Ford dealership in another town. Got a jeep and they took the Fiesta to their Ford dealer and sold it there. When the jeep lease is up, I'll look at that Ford dealership (just not sure I want to be 45 minutes+ from a servicing dealer).

 

My local dealership is a bunch of con artists. I had to bring my SD back after a service once so they could take a picture of the truck to add to the service report. I'm assuming they'd been caught falsifying reports, but the service guy wouldn't give a good reason. I kept using them on my Explorer and they were happy to "fix" anything I complained about. But some problems kept coming back, so they were more interested in getting the warranty work than actually solving the underlying issue.

Not sure where I'm going to take my truck for service...the other local dealerships are not very convienent.

 

Update:

The dealership got the seats finished this morning and brought my truck to me at work. Went to put the service ticket in my folder and notice white dust all over the passenger seat and headrest and multiple oil fingerprints/smudges all over the leather and stitches on both seats.

I have never got the Ford surveys from this dealership like I have at previous ones, so I got on the website and sent both the general and service managers a message about my thoughts on their service. If I don't hear back from them, I will definitely be giving my own review of their business online and possibly calling and telling them.

Either way, I too am orphaned now and will be looking for a new place to take my truck. If it were not still under warranty, I would be doing the general service work myself.

What happened to people caring about the work they perform?????

 

Sorry to hear about this, but I have to admit that dealerships do change. They change hands, they change ownership, they change attitude.

Our challenge is to recognize when the change is for the good, or otherwise. If a dealership is doing you a good turn, recognize it, and tell them so.

When they do you a bad turn, recognize it, and tell them so.

The challenge is to give them another chance after the latter, and maybe two if you've been with them for a while. After that, it's fish or cut bait.

 

No argument. (and this reminds me I need to give my kudos to Peragon for their recent customer service but that's for another thread)

The dealer I dealt with the brake booster...I bought a 2015 Lariat F-150 from them after the incident. I have also sent family to the dealer and we have bought at least 8 vehicles from them. Of those 8, 3-4 have had problems with the service department, including myself twice.


The recent dealer...Other than being close, I have no association to them and this is two different incidents in the last month. Neither problem was a major deal, but I think anyone in customer service needs to pay attention to details like these to maintain their clientele.

 

We have a 1975 Dodge van that my wife bought new back in 1975. It is her "baby". We had been taking it to the same Dodge dealer for years.

One time back in 1993 or thereabouts, we had to have the alternator replaced. No big deal; the truck is almost 20 years old at this point.

But they muffed the job. They cross-threaded the bolt holding the adjustment bracket to the head. It didn't hold adjustment, and we took it back. They half-assed the repair, and it was slipping again, and it was obvious that they had stripped the threads in the head.

So we took it to a local shop (not a dealer). They pulled the bolt, re-drilled and tapped new threads into the head. We were good to go. However, we never took our van back to that dealer.

BTW - That dealership no longer exists.

 

As complicated as these vehicles are thes days, I can understand how the occasional mistake is made. But handing back a vehicle covered in grime and dust from their repair is completely unacceptable.

 

These problems are everywhere in the service industry. I get high anxiety when I have to take my truck to the dealer for service. More often than not they make a mess out of things. That's why I always change the oil myself. I only take it in for warranty issues.

It seems that the "do more with less"way of business doesn't work well, except for the bean counters. Appointments have to made further out and then you find the job poorly done. The dealers (and many other businesses) have cut back on the number of employees and the number of hours they work. The best employees go to work elsewhere and the ones who are marginal stay behind. New employees are hired at a lower wage.

The Ford dealer closest to me got bought up by a huge dealer conglomerate. Inventory is up. The sales people all wear bad suits now and the service is awful. The bays are full of piled up junk and are dirty. The back lot looks like a junk yard.