Suprised how Ford treats customers

[greeman]

I bought my 2015 Explorer Limited on Dec. 24th. It was raining the day I bought it, and we had some snow and generally bad weather here through January and February. About two weeks ago I washed the vehicle real good and applied wax. While applying wax, I noticed what I thought looked like a door ding on the left driver's door just below the door handle in the curve area near the bottom. On closer inspection, it was not a door ding, but an "outie". A very small dent made from the inside (the car has 2,800 miles). I knew that I had not parked anywhere where I could have been hit. Anyway, I took it to my dealer and he said to bring it back back Friday (last Fri. Feb 20th) when his paintless dent remover guy would be there. I did take it back and the paintless dent remover guy said that it was indeed an "outie" right in front of the door brace, and to have been made something would have to have gotten between the brace and the door skin. I know this had to have been there when I bought the car. Anyway the service rep said he would write it up and turn it in for approval. I told him I wanted to go ahead and have it fixed (I can't stand any dings or dents no matter how small) no matter who paid. He said he would let me know later if Ford approved the repair. He called me today and said Ford would not cover, so I had to go by and pay for the repair. It wasn't that much... less than $60 bucks, but the principle of the thing bothers me. Ford chooses to not trust their own service reps and the dent guy???? Give me a break! If it was something I had done I would not mind paying at all, but when it was clearly something they missed getting right at the factory it pi**es me off. I paid as much for this vehicle as my wife's Cadillac, and they (General Motors) never hesitated to do warranty repairs. No complaints so far about anything else on the Explorer. Anyway, just venting and hoping a Ford rep reads this post. If not, I may give them a call to complain at least. By the way the paintless dent remover guy made it look perfect again.

 

[Travisfab]

Sounds like more of a dealer issue than a Ford issue

 

[1997XLTRollover]

Sounds like more of a dealer issue than a Ford issue

^This makes a huge difference.

I've got dealers I would never go back to again and dealers I know I would never hesitate to purchase from again even if I had to drive 2 hours.

 

[Rubberhead]

I drive past a dealer that is 0.8 miles from my house to go to a dealer 22 miles away. There's a reason for driving past one to the other. The one I drive to is Capital Ford in Charlotte (used to be Young Ford). I'll keep the other one to myself but I could tell several stories for the few times I tried to use them.

 

[FordService]

...He called me today and said Ford would not cover, so I had to go by and pay for the repair. It wasn't that much... less than $60 bucks, but the principle of the thing bothers me...

Welcome to the forum, greeman, and congrats on your Explorer! If you'd like, I can document your feedback about this experience. Just PM me your full name, best daytime phone number, dealership info, and any specifics you'd like me to include. I'll enter it into our system.

Crystal

 

[greeman]

Thanks Crystal

PM Sent.

 

[Halwg]

If I was Ford, I wouldn't have paid for it either. Body damage is not covered under the warranty, and to come back 3 months later and try to claim factory damage? Give me a break.

 

[Mdg4486]

If I was Ford, I wouldn't have paid for it either. Body damage is not covered under the warranty, and to come back 3 months later and try to claim factory damage? Give me a break.

I use to work in a body shop as a estimator for several years and believe me when I say that the way he described the dent, there is no way he could have possibly done that himself. Sounds to me like a manufacturer defect.

However, if I was in this case I would have refused to pay for it and told the dealer that if Ford wouldn't cover the cost they should. I guarantee you that they paid that dent guy less than what you paid to have it fixed. A lot of times we would work with our pdr guy and say help us out on this one and he would take care of it just because of the sheer volume that we would give him on a normal basis. The dealer most likely would have the same advantage. Just my two cents.

 

[Sgt1411]

I'm as picky as you when it comes to the care of my vehicle but hang on a sec.

#1 Its your job upon delivery to inspect the vehicle, bad weather or not, thats the time to ID the ding as a factory defect.You can request showroom delivery or a covered area with good lighting.

#2 Regardless of what the dealer says you can also escalate the issue through Ford and their management, this is more of a dealership issue as they should have covered it independent of warranty approval. Don't use them again if thats the case.

#3 Did you say GM never hesitates to fix repairs under warranty? ummmmm maybe you missed the recent info about GM engineers being charged criminally for lying about not fixing an ignition cylinder? Also last week ABC NEWS did a story on US GM dealers selling certified GM vehicles without doing the critical safety recall repairs that were required. I would suggest Ford has a little better track record in this area and GM is borderline unethical in their handling of safety recalls & warranty repairs.

 

[RandyH2]

Your experience reinforces the "need" to look at the Great Ford Dealerships post stickied: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=379200

It's a shame, really. My local dealership has a lot of nice, competent employees who I believe do good work. The problem is the Service Manager(?) has the used-car salesman approach to dealing with customers. "Nah, I don't hear anything unusual." "They all have that vibration." etc. When a tech drives it, he acknowledges everything...

 

[FordService]

PM Sent.

Got it and responded, greeman. Thanks for reaching out!

Crystal

 

[gatzdon]

I'm as picky as you when it comes to the care of my vehicle but hang on a sec.

#1 Its your job upon delivery to inspect the vehicle, bad weather or not, thats the time to ID the ding as a factory defect.You can request showroom delivery or a covered area with good lighting.

.............

Going to have to disagree with you on that one.

Any manufacturer producing a quality product will have processes in place to ensure the quality delivered to the customer.

Ford designed the manufacturing and quality control process.
Ford specified the shipping method including packaging designed to prevent shipping damage.
Ford designed the dealer inspection process to detect factory defects and shipping damage.

While a smart consumer may look over the vehicle, they are not trained to detect factory defects, that's why the most common response here will be to take your vehicle to the dealership to have them look at it.

My guess is that what happened here is that the dealership missed the dent during their initial inspection, and because OP didn't catch it until 3 months later, the dealership missed their window to have Ford pay for damage that's expected to be caught upon that initial inspection (primarily shipping damage, but really any factory defect).

If it's truly a factory defect, it's covered under Ford's warranty and claim denial is most likely due to the technician's wording along with lack of pictures to back up the claim.

 

[Sgt1411]

Going to have to disagree with you on that one.

Any manufacturer producing a quality product will have processes in place to ensure the quality delivered to the customer.

Ford designed the manufacturing and quality control process.
Ford specified the shipping method including packaging designed to prevent shipping damage.
Ford designed the dealer inspection process to detect factory defects and shipping damage.

While a smart consumer may look over the vehicle, they are not trained to detect factory defects, that's why the most common response here will be to take your vehicle to the dealership to have them look at it.

My guess is that what happened here is that the dealership missed the dent during their initial inspection, and because OP didn't catch it until 3 months later, the dealership missed their window to have Ford pay for damage that's expected to be caught upon that initial inspection (primarily shipping damage, but really any factory defect).

If it's truly a factory defect, it's covered under Ford's warranty and claim denial is most likely due to the technician's wording along with lack of pictures to back up the claim.

All excellent points that I agree with, I still believe its good due diligence to inspect it upon delivery especially if you're someone (like me) who will ask that even a minor imperfection be repaired.

 

[sheltonfilms]

Going to have to disagree with you on that one.

Any manufacturer producing a quality product will have processes in place to ensure the quality delivered to the customer.

Ford designed the manufacturing and quality control process.
Ford specified the shipping method including packaging designed to prevent shipping damage.
Ford designed the dealer inspection process to detect factory defects and shipping damage.

While a smart consumer may look over the vehicle, they are not trained to detect factory defects, that's why the most common response here will be to take your vehicle to the dealership to have them look at it.

My guess is that what happened here is that the dealership missed the dent during their initial inspection, and because OP didn't catch it until 3 months later, the dealership missed their window to have Ford pay for damage that's expected to be caught upon that initial inspection (primarily shipping damage, but really any factory defect).

If it's truly a factory defect, it's covered under Ford's warranty and claim denial is most likely due to the technician's wording along with lack of pictures to back up the claim.

Great points. I can definitely attest to the normal consumer not being trained to detect defects. I'm a quality engineer (electronics) for a German company (lets just say it starts with an M). My eyes are totally different after being trained in defect detection.

As for visual inspection, a 100% inspection is only 80% effective. Not to sound like an Anchorman quote. If you inspect 100 parts, 20 of them will not be inspected properly leading to issues being released into the field. When I say visual inspection I mean human eyes. Computer vision systems are virtually 100% effective if programmed correctly.

Cosmetic issues are usually only detected by human eyes in the car manufacturing process. 100% of the car can be scanned over, but 20% of the area is essentially overlooked.

If you asked a Ford engineer if it was possible for this defect to leave his plant, and he said no, he hasn't been in the automotive industry long.

Plants reduce cosmetic issues by having anti-mutilation policies. No jewelry, exposed belt buckles, watches, zippers, or anything metal can be exposed. Also, the racks that hole the parts, the lift assist devices, and the hand tools that attach parts all have mutilation protection on them.

Even with all these it can still happen.

 

[tmg19103]

There are dealer issues and Ford issues. My dealer is great. I have a Ford issue and am not pleased with their not getting back to me after they said they would.

 

[greeman]

Thanks for all your comments. Customers like myself who complain over small things, don't normally continue to follow up and execute things to a higher level. They do tend to shop around next time........... and when they do happen to find a product backed up with excellent customer service they tend to stick with them. My thoughts anyway.

 

[tmg19103]

Thanks for all your comments. Customers like myself who complain over small things, don't normally continue to follow up and execute things to a higher level. They do tend to shop around next time........... and when they do happen to find a product backed up with excellent customer service they tend to stick with them. My thoughts anyway.

When you take things to a higher level with Ford corporate and get ignored with promises not kept, it's pretty much guaranteed you will shop around next time in my case.