Last Thursday I call up my dealer's service center to make an appointment for this past Saturday morning. A young, naive girl answers the phone. She has a hell of a time trying to find my information, which is puzzling because I not only bought three vehicles from this dealership, but I go there for service most of the time. After 5 minutes, she finally retreives my name, truck info, address, phone number, etc.

Good, I think to myself, this should be a no-brainer from this point on.

She says my name and asks if that's me.
I say "yes."

She then asks "this is for the 2005 F-250 6.0L diesel, correct?"
I say "yes."

I then tell her I need to make an appointment for a 15,000 mile service.

"Okay, no problem sir, I have you down for 9:00am, go see Mr. so-and-so at the blue team entrance, they'll take care of you."

I think okay, sounds like I'm all set.



So, I show up on Saturday morning, pull in at the blue team entrance and go inside and ask for Mr. so-and-so. Well, he doesn't work weekends - interesting.

So I talk to this other guy, and give him my name and appointment info, he finds it, and then says it'll be $115.00.

I'm thinking this sounds way too cheap for a diesel 15K (oil change, air filter, both fuel filters, tire rotation, etc.), so I ask to see the description sheet for this $115.00 15K service. Just like I suspected, it's for an F-150 with a gasser.

So, I tell him this is for an F-250 DIESEL.......He recoils in confusion, and then tells me "Oh....well that's totally different, sir."

Well, no Sh-- Shirlock...!

Here comes the best part:
After conferring with his associates and the mechanics, they come to the conclusion that they can't perform my service because they don't have any diesel mechanics working on Saturdays, and they're afraid that they might screw up my truck!!!

At least they were honest on that part.

I'm glad I made an appointment.

 

Makes you feel really confident about the people that might be working on your truck.

I had rounds with FORD over an explorer not being serviced by the dealer....then I found out that my dealer doesnt do diesels.....they send them about 20 miles north of town to a private shop. Thankfully his shop is about as big as what ford has at the dealership.

Good luck with getting yours serviced the proper way.

 

Actually, they do have a couple of really good diesel guys there whom I've spoken with before, they just don't work weekends apparantly....I just wish the communication would have been a little better.

 

Aren't you supposed to be boating on Saturday instead of getting your truck serviced? How is ya there, Nick?

 

This was way back in the nineties, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. I had purchased a brand new '88 Cougar and after a couple of years of driving it, I received a recall notice to replace my catalytic converter. The recall notice said this could be a "waiter" type of fix, saying it shouldn't take more than an hour. A week before I needed it fixed I called for and reserved an appointment. A day before the appointment I called to verify and all was well. I drove my car to the dealer and dropped it off at 8:00 in the morning and was told that all parts were in and they would start immediately. This was important because I worked the night shift and needed my sleep during the day. By 11:00 the service manager hadn't said anything to me, so I went to him and was informed that they didn't have the converter and had to go to another dealer to find one. By 3:30 I was imformed that they had started to put the exhaust back together. During this time nobody ever informed me of the progress of the vehicle and no refreshments of any kind were ever offered. By quitting time (for them) I got my car back and I promply went to complain to the owner. There never was an apology, just that "it shouldn't have taken this long". He did tell me several times that I needed to fill out a survey about how and what I liked about the repair. Geesh.
Now I realized that things like this happen, but at least he could have told me that ahead of time and let me bring it back and have them keep it so I could have gotten some sleep that day. One incident like that can erase 100 positive experiences.

 

Yes, you're right.
I should have, because the rest of the weekend was miserable - all rain.

Here comes Hurricane Alberto.

 

I took a '96 F-250 5.8L to my local dealer about 5 years ago to ask them about regearing it from 3.73 to 4.10 to better handle pulling my boat. They told me I'd have to buy a whole new rear differential because it's a bigger gear. I asked how that's possible they're all 10.25" ring gears. He told me that what his mechanics told him. Needless to say, I don't get serviced there because I'm afraid they don't know what they're talking about.