What do you think I should do? '95 truck in the sig.

I have been in a long saga with a local dealership's workmanship.

They installed a front engine gasket trying to solve diasapearing coolant (no external leak) and now I have an external leak that they will not fix.

They installed a oil pan gasket and put in a grey colored gasket sealant in the front and rear and it is leaking more than before. Furthermore, some of the bolts (front and rear) were not tightened.

They delivered the truck with one of the hoses disconnected from the air injection pump and all they did was shove it back on without the hose clamp.

Finally, after their last service, I complained that the truck's idle was shaky and high (above 1100), hesitated on acceleration, and the exhaust smelled rich. My gas mileage even dropped by 4-5 mpg (I was at 14.5 before). It was not like that before it went in for some other service. They will not do anything about this either.

Thier only concessions are that they will tighten the oil pan bolts and have some other shop pressure test the cooling system without commitment to fix/solve either problem.

I have already sent a letter to the Ford Customer Relations Center and a copy of it to the owner of the dealership (there were actually more workmanship items than these, but these are the ones I am trying to make them fix). These concessions came from the dealership's customer relations contact.

Do you think I should take them up on it, go somewhere else, go the BBB, or go the small claims route to try to get everything done?

Sorry for the long post.

 

Billman,
Get the sys checked then move on to a private mechanic.

 

AIM is probably right. If you force them to do something they don't want to do, they may also do something you don't want them to do, which could not show up for a while.

Also, if they are that incompetent or sloppy, you probably are better off it they never touch your truck again.

I know my solution is not for everyone, but such stories as yours are why I do everything myself if at all possible.

 

This is why you never take a truck to dealerships as they are expensive and a rip off. Some smaller garages are too, but base their business on reputation so they are less likely. This is also the reason why I learned how to do repairs myself, much less of a headache. I remember one time my cousin had a leak in the Y-pipe to the exhaust on his Rodeo. Dealer wanted 420 bucks, smaller shop wanted 90 bucks.

 

I'd talk to the BBB, Ford national, the state attorney general, the EPA (causing an oil leak is a federal issue), and a DIFFERENT dealership.

 

Pretty funny Steve83!

Thanks for all your input. Keep it coming!

All this work was done under warranty (less deductible) or else I would try to do things on my own as well (the things I have confidence in). There is nothing more frustrating than getting your truck back in worse condition than you started, unless you ran out of beer while working on your truck!

 

I agree with Steve on the take it to Ford. I had an issue with a local dealer on warranty work on frozen brake caliper. The dealer wanted to charge me for rotors and pads as these are not covered under warranty. I called Ford, Customer Service and complained that the warranted part ruined the rotor and pad and it should be covered. They called the dealer while I was on the phone and verified what I had said. Ford CS told the dealer to fix it at no charge.

My experience with the BBB in they are about as much help as t*ts on a bull. They will take a complaint, sure they will. Do something, not in my experience.

 

MustangGT221 I'm gonna rant a bit here and cut and paste a reply I made to someone else a while back

I'm going to have to argue with you about that one.
Sorry if you've had bad experiences at dealers but you're not going to convince me that most dealers rip off people and are still open.
I'm a tech at a Ford dealer. Sure sometimes we charge more than other places do but have training and special tools to do the job right in a decent amount of time.
We regularly fix vehicles that backyarders, tire stores, independant shops etc have thrown hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of parts and time at and still havent fixed the problem. Would you rather have an inexperienced mechanic spend 6 hours at $50 an hour or a Ford tech spend 2 hours at $75 an hour to fix your problem. Never mind all the parts that the inexperienced guy throws at it.
I'm not going to say that no one but a Ford dealer should fix your vehicle though because I've seen some backyarders and small shop guys that I would trust with anything I owned. I've also seen some that didnt know which end of their screwdriver to hit with their claw hammer.
As for parts prices the genuine Ford parts dont always cost more. If you shop around you'll find that Ford has lowered the prices on a lot of commonly replaced parts to compete with the aftermarket and most of the time the quality is better. We see that lots.
I also wont try to tell you that some shops wont rip people off. Some do. So do some doctors, accountants, carpenters, gorcery stores etc. Ask around and get people's recommendations as to where is a good place to go. Dont lump us all into one category of rip off artists. If you're not sure about a quote you get take it somewhere else and get a second opinion.
Quite often people are their own worst enemies too. Men are especially bad because we figure that seeing that we're male we have to know about all things mechanical when some of us really shouldn't even try.
I once saw a car get towed in. The customer said it wouldn't start....needed a new fuel filter. The tech pushed the car in, replaced the filter and pushed it back out. Why? Because he could see the reason for it not starting was the timing belt had blown up and was sticking out the cover. The customer came in , paid his bill and went to take his car. It wouldn't start. He came in hollaring and screaming that we'd hosed him. After arguing for a few minutes he was told that the reason his car didnt run was the timing belt. He hadn't asked for us to get it running.....he wanted his fuel filter replaced. He turned some nice shades of red and decided maybe we could get it running for him.
I just wish that people would think and do a bit of research before they start making accusations.
Ok that's enough ranting for now

 

ROTFLMAO @ the fuel filter episode.

I should have added something in my above post about the brake problem. The dealer service manager apologized for the mixup. He stated they also are a Dodge dealership and Dodge does charge for the rotor and pads even if the caliper wrecks them. He assumed Ford was the same.

 

Well said, Racerguy. No reason to badmouth dealerships-anybody who works for one would be inclined to take anything they have to the dealer if possible. I've seen this scenario, though. A technician screws up and management won't step up to make it right.
It doesn't sound like you're in too much trouble with your truck now. Take it to another dealership and pay them to fix it right. Then stay away from the first dealership. Like someone else said, ask around to find out where the best place is to take it. A good dealership depends on exceptional technicians, honest service managers, honest service writers, and an owner that doesn't pressure the shop to push quantity over quality.

 

Thanks all of you for your input...

I believe I will take my truck to another dealership to start things again.

Since the first dealership was so reluctant to step up and fix their mistakes, I intend on reporting to the BBB and see what happens from there.

If it costs me a lot to fix their mistakes, I will then take them to court to try and recover the costs.

Take care,

 

I think you make a good point. I suppose that smaller shops arn't always that great. I do know some good smaller shops around here though. I guess everyone has good/bad experiences with places but I myself have not really heard much for good stories from dealerships. Whether it be ford or any other company. I don't really feel that it's up for argument, as it's an opinion topic but with my experience the dealership guys don't always know much more than smaller shops. Sometimes the dealership guys know more than the smaller shops, I guess it could go either way. I think it's just easier to forget them both and do it myself haha. I had trouble getting a LS rebuild kit from ford. I had 4-5 guys trying to actually understand what the part was that I needed. They were trying to tell me that what i was describing to them was the carrier itself and they didn't understand what I was trying to tell them. I was talking about the carrier, but talking about the parts inside the carrier (ie clutches).

 

That sounds like our old parts manager. You'd tell him you needed a pinion seal for the front diff in a whatever kind of truck and he'd ask you if it was a 4x4. I'm glad he retired

 

Here is the response from the dealer to the BBB (It is exactly word for word as typed):

"Mr. Christensen has brought is truck in several times and everytime he not happy with our service that we did do his truck. He also got this truck from a friend and there was a extended service contract on it from the guy he bought it from the contract was never switch over to him. Also he did not want to pay for any deductables or any thing that was not covered under the service contract. So i told that all the work we had done had ford parts installed and they was covered by fords warranty which is 12 months or 12000 miles and i told him he needs to take it to another ford dealer so that if any parts we installed they would be under warranty or if they was not maybe his service contract would cover them and he could pay his deductable.

Being we can not make this customer happy no matter what we do i told him we would never work on his truck again. He also said his oil pan bolts was loose i did tell him that i would tighten them for him. He has never brought the truck in for this.

He has written to Ford Motor Co. & the owner of this company and called our GM AND OUR CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGER and he has been told by all to take it some where else to get it worked on because we refuse to work on his truck.

Thanks"
Named left off on purpose


As you can see, of course I do not want them to work on my truck either, but I do need to get things fixed and get any money back that I have spent fixing their workmanship.

 

Ouch, you'd think if they're going to bother with an official repsonse to the BBB, they'd at least profo read it.

Anyway, what I got out of it, is their saying they tried their best and no matter what they do they can't make you happy (can't fix) so they don't want to deal with it any more. That doesn't sound like any type of a decent fix. And furthermore, they seem upset that you escalated it to a higher level than "Joe" the parts changer you dealt with -- how dare you.

I agree with bringing it to another dealer, but if it were me, I woudl be extremely persistant, calling every day (to anyone who can and will listen -- and even those who won't), writing letters, and doing whatever you can to not only get your money back, but also give them as hard a time as you can. There are even some news stations on TV who will back you or do a story on them as a consumer advocate -- check into that too.