more on the transfer case noise

[motil73]

I have a couple other threads telling the ongoing saga of our '97 Explorer with the "noise on deceleration" in the 4405 transfer case.....it's gotten out of hand and some funny business appears to be going on. I want to write a formal complaint to Ford regarding a service department that charged us $1459.52 on botched repairs a year ago, where should I send it to?

I have a couple of addresses but want to know if these are the right places.
Customer Relations Manager in Detroit
Customer Relationship Center in Dearborn

We've ordered a remanufactured transfer case from Transfer Case Express (should arrive today) and are sending the core back to them with instructions to document condition of the internals and their conclusion as to why it failed.

That, along with the following reasons:

1) charges totaling $2135.54 in parts, labor and rental car fees despite their failure in repairing the transfer case
2) their evaluation stating they "did not find a problem with the transfer case" while the service manager of another Ford service department concluded otherwise the day after,
3) the conflict in repair procedures between the two service departments (the second one does NOT repair them due to it being "beyond their capability"),
4) the questionable comments....."needs tires, they are worn pretty bad".....of the service technician regarding tire condition (the fronts are actually a month old and are within 1/8" circumference of the rears, and
5) date discrepancies between the customer copy and archive copy of what should be a single repair order (the custome copy does not reflect the actual R.O. date)

are going to be the basis for legal action against the original service department, not Ford.

 

[saewoody]

Send the complaint everywhere you think might be applicable. Don't expect a speedy response. I work with a guy who drives a Taurus. I think it is a 2002, but I definitely know it is less than five years old. He had a strut actually break in half while he was driving to work over this past winter. Caused his tire to blow out and he just barely missed driving into a telephone pole. I told him that there was no reason for that strut to break and he should contact Ford because of the fact that it is a major safety issue and shouldn't be happening on such a relatively new car and that Ford should pay for all the associated expenses. He had his brother who is a lawyer, write and send letter. It was about two months before he heard anything. He was contacted by the regional (New England) rep. I think that is who he said it was. All the rep said was that they were looking into it and he would get back to him. That was a couple of months ago.

You may also want to consider finding some sort of regional dealer manager. Most of these large companies are broken into geographic regions, with somebody "in charge" of that region. I don't kow if that is how Ford operates, but it is worth looking into.

Good Luck. Also, if you know a lawyer, I would have him or her send the letter on their letterhead. It might get a little more attention.

 

[Tbars4]

get ahold of a local news agency...they usually have investigative reporters for this...they will probably contact the states attorney or state secretary who does laws and business licensing...good luck