Unbelievable Dealership Service Experience
Jerry's Leesburg Ford in Leesburg, VA. My service advisor, who has been great, is Tim.
First, my apologies for writing a book here, but I think it’s important to share my recent dealership experience.
I purchased my 2011 Ford Explorer XLT in February with 24,000. Since owning my Ex, I’ve noticed a few issues here and there, but the one I just couldn’t live with was the transmission bump when driving at slower speeds. The bump, or should I say BANG, was as if someone had just rear ended me. In fact, the first thing I’d do is look to see who just hit me!
Along with the transmission issue, I also had the tin roof noise when it rained, the infamous buzzing noise coming from the passenger side A-pillar and the front brake squeals when stopping at slower speeds. All of these issues I found to be TBS’s on this site.
As I’m quickly approaching the end of my 36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty (I have 35,550 miles as I type this) I also noticed that my driver side door armrest had a 2” tear in the molding seam. With the advice from blwnsmoke, along with the other issues I’ve noticed over the past seven months, I decided it was time to take my Ex into the dealership to have all of the issues tended to... hopefully under warranty.
For many reasons, I decided to not take my vehicle back to the dealership from which I purchased my Explorer. That’s another story into itself. I decided to take my Ex to Jerry’s Leesburg Ford in Leesburg, VA. Even though the dealership was quite a bit out of my way, I decided to give them a try. After reading all of the dealership horror stories here on the forums, my expectations were very low.
I dropped my vehicle off on the Friday before Labor Day weekend. They had it for a day and told me to come get it because they needed to get approval for the driver side armrest and they also needed to order the parts for all of the TSB issues. So far so good, but my expectations were still low in that Ford wouldn’t approve the armrest and Ford would find a reason to make me pay for something on some sort of technicality. I picked-up my Ex that Friday afternoon, and while getting my keys, my service advisor, Tim, told me that Ford had approved the door panel. Whew… one down, four items to go! My expectations were met!
I received a call a week later indicating that all of the parts were in and they scheduled my service for this past Wednesday. Tim advised he’d call me later in the afternoon as to when I could come pick-up my Explorer. Sure enough, Tim called at 3:30. He advised that the transmission issue was going to take more time than had been anticipated and that they’d need my Ex for another day. Just before I could get out my sigh, as my wheels were turning as to what I was going to do for work the next day, Tim asked if I needed a rental car for Thursday. I said yes as I couldn’t take another day off from work. In a matter of minutes he had arranged a rental car with Enterprise and told me I could pick-up at my convenience. To my amazement, they paid 100% for the rental car. My expectations were exceeded!
I received a call from Tim at 4:00 on Thursday afternoon indicating that my Ex was ready for pick-up. Being that work a good distance from the dealership, and with our wonderful D.C. traffic, I wasn’t sure if I would have enough time to drop off the rental car and make it to the dealership before they closed. I expressed my concerns to Tim and he responded “Don’t worry about it. Come straight here and we’ll arrange Enterprise to come here and pick-up the car.” Once again, my expectations were exceeded!
I went to the service desk and Tim pointed me straight to the payment desk lady. I thought to myself, “Here we go… something has got to go wrong here! How much is this going to cost me?” The very nice lady handed me my paperwork and keys and said there was no charge as everything was covered under warranty. She then pulled out the Enterprise book and logged my rental car mileage and took my keys.
I received my car and off I went to test out the newly fixed items. First off, I checked the driver side armrest… perfect… good as new! I then checked the brakes… no brake squealing as I stopped before pulling onto the highway. I pulled out onto the highway and the transmission was smoother than I have ever felt. The sped up to 70 MPH’s to check the A-pillar, and no buzzing. Like clockwork, it started to rain and no tin noise coming from the roof. Finding everything has been fixed, once again, my expectations were exceeded.
To further blow my mind, when I pulled my Ex into the garage and had a look at my front brakes, I was shocked to find brand new rotors, calibers and pads… new EVERYTHING... I couldn’t believe my eyes!
Really? Could it be that easy and be this good of an experience? Yup, it was! Jerry’s Leesburg Ford certainly met and exceeded my expectations during the entire transaction. With my expectations being low as a result of reading the horror stories on here, and in a time when good customer service is hard to find these days, I must say that it’s great to see a dealership, and Ford, who is really trying to offer great customer service!
Again, my apologies for writing a book here, but I felt it important to write about a positive experience with my Ford Explorer and a Ford dealership!
TSB’s performed:
TSB 12-2-7 – Tin roof noise
TSB 12-9-3 – Buzzing noise from passenger side A-pillar
TSB 11-10-29 – Squealing noise from front brakes at slower speeds
TSB 11-12-1 – Harsh bump from transmission at slower speeds