Ford Used To Have Excellent Customer Service – NOT ANY MORE!!

After twenty (20) years of owning many Ford Trucks & Vans, we now will never buy a Ford product based on their Customer Service. Our 2001 Ford Explorer had a defective passenger seat that does not lock in place & slides forward, which if not fixed could have caused serious injuries to someone.


The Explorer had approximately 40,000 miles on it, and Ford refused to pay $348.73 to fix a very dangerous factory defect. The two Customer Service Representatives stated that it does not matter if Factory defects occur after 36,000 – “They Are Not Responsible.”

We had a similar problem with Chevy Suburban, BUT Chevy Does Take Care of Their Customers!

Think before you buy a Ford!! From now on we will purchase Chevy vehicles based on our negative experience with Ford.

 

I agree, my dad went through hell to get the cruise control fixed on his '99 mountaneer... Back when my truck was under warrenty they fixed it if it was broke, whether it was their problem or not, because we have so many fords (grandad has 2, dad has 3 personal and numerous company, I bought the '93 new and the '92 1 ton used)

Now I'm starting to enjoy going to dodge to get MOPARTs than ford, and thats bad. Seems ford just wants to give you the run around now days.

 

My dealer is friendly and bent over backwards to make me happy as well as my grandmother, grandfather, 2 aunts and an uncle.

They discounted my truck when I bought it, threw in a bedliner, even offered to send it off to be detailed.

When I did have a problem, (the automatic hubs), they told me the best place to order Warn manuals from, (Advance) and even kept it on the lift over 3 days while I waited for the hubs to come in. Even then they charged me only $93 for that. So I am happy with Ford Service. My grand father and uncle both have 97-98 F-150 trucks and they had the problem with the defective door jam switches. The dealer had just got the new improved ones in and replaced them free of charge.

So, I believe it is the dealer that makes the difference.

On the other hand, the local Chevy dealer is a crook. They delayed looking at my father's 90 Silverado over a week, because it was old and wouldn't bring that much $$ in. He now takes it to a private mechanic who knows how to treat his customers. Before I had got my F-250, I had looked at a '94 Silverado 2500, and it had a lot of miles and was not in that good of shape (dents and rust), and they were asking $7500 for it that was entirely too much.

 

I agree that the good Ford dealers are working very hard to please and keep their customers. But, I don't think they are getting much support from Ford. I have owned Ford trucks for over 30 years and in the past, if the truck was fully maintained at a Ford dealer and if a major problem occured beyond the warranty - Ford was generous and would help with the cost. Between the dealer discounting the labor and Ford helping out some too - a major expense was usually cut in half if not fully covered.

Now people are getting denied just a few thousand miles out of a not very long warranty for major issues that are nothing more than factory defects. Personally, I think this sort of customer dealings is the main reason Ford is losing in sales. They are making their customers mad and mad customers check out the competition when they might have just kept going back to that good Ford dealer forever.

 

I'll just say this. I have bought NOTHING but Chevrolets since I was 16. I started having a major ping problem in the motor of my '97 Camaro while it was still under warranty and despite almost a dozen trips to the dealer, conversations with several DSMs and GM "cusotomer service", once the warranty was up, they said "that noise is normal", now go away. They didn't care that I had been a loyal Customer for over 22 years, and put up with their shoddy products.I told them both verbaly and in writing I'd never buy a vehile from them again. They said in no uncertain terms they didn't care.
So.......Here I am now with my brand new 2003 F150 FX4 (yeah I still have the Camaro). I wrote a letter to the President of GM Canada, and sent a copy to the CAW Union local 222 (where they build the GM pick up trucks), GM Visa, and my local Chevrolet dealer letting them know what GM did and how I felt about it, and that I would not be using their services again. Oh yes, I also included a picture of my new truck.
I got a call back from the "President's Office" appologising, but they still couldn't gaurantee they were going to fix my car. I told them not to worry about it, they could take their time, as the new Mustang won't be out until '05 anyway. (They did say that they liked my new truck though).
Any way, I really like my new Ford. It's the FIRST new vehicle I ever bought that actually had no defects from day one. The dealer is also AWESOME (Glen Oak Ford) and has literally bent over backwards to ensure I am satisfied.

That's my 2 cents, having lived on the other side.

Mike
Langford BC

 

Manufactor has nothing to do with customor service its all in the hands of the dealer. when we bought my moms 2003 exploder sport the dealer bent over backwards to make us happy, even gave us a bigger discount and all. when we noticed 3 little spots in the hood (im **** bout noticing little blemishes, etc...) they offered to repaint the hood and even gave us a rental for the week. they even added pint stripes for nothing. if im ever to buy a new vehicle i will definatly go back there.

PS: my truck was bought from the same dealer as out exploder when it was new, i bought it used and they still call me for scheudled matience for my truck after 10 years and second owner!.


another thing, when we bought our 98 taurus new the dealer was nice but they seemed more into the sales part only. later down the road they seemed to care less bout us and more about servicing and just making $$. kinda arogant and were pretty rude so we switched dealers.

 

What part of "Technical discussion and comparision ONLY. Emotional threads, flame wars and trolls will not be tolerated" in the Vs forum description wasn't clear?