My run in with an ower of a ford dealer

[Mike]

Well, How should I start this off.... My truck is in for service.... something wrong with the tranny..... under war. so they give me a loaner car.... they have had my truck for a week at this point and I had a death in the family... now im on my way to the funeral and the damn loaner car breaks down... now im flipping out... everyone is waiting for me so they can goto the burial.. so I call the dealer and they send some old guy to come pick me up and drive me where I gota go... after the day is over I call up to find out when im gona get another car... I have family here from all over and I cant be with out one... so the rental dept tells me they have no other cars... im SOL... so they transfer me to the owner... and he is not in his office so I leave him a msg telling her I need a car and its unacceptable that I will be with out one... well 10 min goes by and he calls me back and starts yelling at me... yes yelling at me... the owner of a ford dealership.. yelling at me... telling me I have some set of balls telling him its unacceptable that I will be with out a car... and I tell him not to yell at me... don't disrespect me like that... and he hangs up on me... at this point im fuming... im ready to go kick the **** out of him... so I call the lease mgr (the one I got my truck from) and to cut this long story short he gets me my truck back.. now at this point they have had my truck for over a week... and they say its fixed.... but its not... same prob... they did nothing in a week... anyway.. I call ford corp. and tell them what happened to me with this guy.. and they tell me there is nothing they can do.. all ford dealers are independtley owned and they cant do anything.... wow great help.... so now I have a truck im stuck with for the next 2 years.... that does not work right and I need fixed.... they say I can bring it back in but they wont give me another loaner car.. cause they Don't have to.. so i dont know what to do now... I'm paying 400 a month for a truck that is ****.. it dont work right... and if i bring it in.. i will be paying 400 a month to not have a truck.. anyone have any ideas for me? i need some help =\ ford is no help.. the dealer is no help... and i dont know what to do... help please!! =[

Mike

 

[Mike]

Also..


If any of you wanted to know... the dealer is

Newins Bayshore Ford.. In Bayshore NY
the owners name is Chris...

 

[rpenner54]

Sounds like the lease is not working out for you. Go to another dealer (Find one you trust and like) tell them what is happening and they should be able to help null your lease out and get rid of the truck. You don't own that vehicle Ford does! Therefore if its under warrenty and it is not getting fixed then you don't need to pay for it. If it can't work for you then you can't work for it. Find a paralegal to help you out to make sure you do it all legaly. Thats just silly that you have to pay for something that does not function.

 

[Mike]

thats just the thing... I did trust this dealer.... my family has been buying cars and trucks from them for over 20 years.... I my self am only 20 and i have 2 new ford trucks.... my father has one... and both my sisters have ford cars..... and its like ford does not want to help me... i dont get it... i really hate to say it.. but i think ford lost a customer for life... =\

 

[rustytr]

Exactly what ryan said...

 

[stallwle]

do you have or know of any comsumer activist in your area? Here in Ga Clark Howard is the guy to go too for such problems. Most places don;'t like the bad press so to avoid having thier Company named on the air they find a way to get you satisfied.

Clark Howard

good luck
Lee

 

[TPLYNCH]

Mike, try Channel 7's Seven on Your Side or Esa Aarons on Channel 4. One look at a news camera, especially with your story, and the dealer will probably cave!

My condolences on your loss.

 

[Mike]

one more wuestion for u guys.... how can i get out of a lease? the lease mgr tells me i cant sell the truck.. if i do i will still be held responsable for the truck... will they buy it back? will they let me break it? let me know.. i need ideas and help =\

 

[stallwle]

here's my experience with leasing a vehicle, this was with Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp Not FordCredit but the same general rules apply

option1:
You can Break / early termination of a lease; but you are responsible for the total or some very large percentage of the remaining payments ie. if you have 10 payemts of $500 remaining on your lease, U have to pay $5,000.00 to termiante the lease. so you end up paying for the rest of the lease payments and turn in the vehicle.

option2:
trade in the vehicle
in this case you roll over the remaining payments on your lease into the purchase price of your new car
ie. you still owe the above mentined $5,000.00 so this gets tacked on to the sales price of the new car you purchase (similar to negative equity on a trade) and the leased vehicle goes back to the leasing company

option3:
tough it out:
U are ONLY responsible for the origonal lease payments and NOTHING more. The residule is NOT your resposonsibility. Unless you want too keep the car..


hope this helps..

Lee

 

[Lemondrop]

Do what I did when Greenway ford in Orlando did . Go in and blow off your mouth at the top of your lungs . Watch as the customers start walking out . Just be ready to leave when they tell you so they dont have the cops take you away
Other option is to call a TV news station like others said . I hate how Ford does that "They are independent so we cant do anything" . Amazes me , my Cat dealer I work at , if Caterpillar calls us because of a customer complaint , they ream us up and down and tell us to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy or else .

 

[rpenner54]

Sounds like signs and TV is in order. Make up some signs about what happened along with some flyers walk around outside of their property always moving in front of vehicles coming in and out and hand out flyers telling what happened. If that doesn't get their attention the news will. Or try the BBB.

 

[itzbinnice]

Mikke

Sorry to hear your bad experience with Newins, I live about 3 miles from them but only brought the car there once for service for recall work. I can't believe the owner spoke to you in that manner. Why don't you bring it to Patriot Ford in Copaigue on Sunrise Highway.
I don't know about their service department but their parts department always treated me well and was very courteous. You can also bring it to Babylon Ford. If it's under warranty I would imagine any Ford dealer can service it, I don't know about leases, I've never leased one. If you really need a vehicle for a week why not just rent a cheap one, in the long run that will be your most economical decision.
Go to one of the other Ford dealers, keep a level head and explain your experience with Newins.
My neighbor who is a Mercedes mechanic knows one of the mechanics at Newins. I will ask my neighbor to ask that mechanic his opinion of the owner.

 

[Dolphan]

GM Dealers Independant also

My work is the former Hughes Aircraft (GMH) owned by GM for about 10 years. We get a GM employee discount. A guy at work decided to buy a Corvette with the 5% discount plus the recent 0.0% finance and save alot of money. No dealer will let him use the program discount on a Corvette, even though they advertise in our company magazine showing a corvette picture with the discount program. He called GM but they said dealers are independantly owned and the option is upto them. There is no accountability, I have experienced this with Ramada Inn also - as long as a company does not alienate a large enough portion of their customer base no problem.
Hopefully this message board will help steer people clear of bad dealers

 

[Xplor]

Mikke, sorry to hear a lost in your family. I feel for ya. As for the jerk, I would write a letter to him and give college schedule on psychology 101 and principles of marketing. But do check with BBB to see if there are a lot of complaints. Good luck.

 

[RTStork]

I keep hearing all of these horror stories with the Ford dealerships and if my Explorer starts giving me a lot of trouble, I'm getting rid of it and I'll go get a Grand Prix GTP or a new Maxima. Sounds like Ford's service, sucks! I'm sorry you are having this much trouble.

 

[01EB5.0]

i just say if you find a dealer you can trust, you'll be happy. ANy ford vehicle with under 36,000 miles and that is less then 3 years old can have warentee work done at any dealership. I would just write a letter to the owner explaining how your family has done a lot of business through his dealership and you vow never to return and you will tell everyone you know to also never set foot on his property. Then follow through..never return and just find a more friendly dealership to work with. I know they are out there....the dealership I normaly go to is very fast and is curteous most of the time. The only time they wer enot was when I was 16 and went in and I was pretty sure i knew what the clunking problem was so I told the service writer I had read about the problem on the message board and would like him to check into that part. He said "I don;t care what some guys say on a website, and i have never heard of that part ever going bad. those people don;t know what they are talking about"
Anyway there were several other dealers around my area also and they have all been pretty good, except for one that took a week to fix my truck when th eother dealers take 1-2 days at most.

 

[MyExp]

Mike,

Im not sure of the laws where you live but look in the phone book under government agencies and look for the following:

Better Business Bureau
Bureau of Automotive Repair
Your local DA's office to complain

I had WalMart change the oil in my car once. $750.00 in damages. The insurance company kept giving me the run around, until I finally called the guy and threatened to call the above mentioned bureaus, check was in my hand in two days.

Call these places and file complaints, it may get their attention.

Brian

 

[01EB5.0]

Wal-mart does oil?!

 

[ok89]

How the hell do they do 750 dollars damage from a simple oil change? Did they forget to put the plug back in?

 

[LOGJOCKY]

I also had a similar probem when I bough my Chev Tracker. Prob 1 I bought it from a Ford dealer. Prob 2 is it had oil leaking from the valve cover. I pointed it out to the salesman and I said I would buy it ONLY if they fixed the leak. He agreed. I take it home and test it out off-road. Im cruisin along and smoke starts to come out my hood.WTF. Ill give you 2 guesses on what it was, and the 1st dont count. I call him on the phone and he says to bring it back and he will get me a loaner. I get there and he tells me he dosent have a car for me. he says its because hes new and he dosent know how it works there yet. The funny thing is he used to work at the same dealer Im at right now. Now im pissed royally. He walks me out and says he will let me know when he has a car for me. Neither him or I ever knew a 4cyl Tracker could pull a 15ft burnout. Now this dealer is about half hour away so this is using alot of gas. I call my mom seeing Im only 18 and she works for another company that the dealer owns. She calls the owner who had previously never known and explains our trouble. The salesman calls me and says he will come pick up my truck and drop off a loaner. OK. I wait at our meeting point and he shows up 1 hour late. He take the Tracker and leaves me a new Focus se. He calls me back in 3 days and says its done. once again he is late coming to pick it up. I get my Tracker back and it still leaks from the exact same spot. AHHHHHHHHH. I call him back AGAIN and he tries to say he dosent know whats goin on. once again it goes back for repair. After 2 days he sends some kid to drive it back to me at work. I just get back from my parts run as he pulls up. I get the keys and that is that, Now I go outside to check it out. Theres an F'IN puddle under it. I take a look. They put a new gasket on and the overtightened it so the gasket broke. Now it leakes so bad I cant drive it without making big clouds of smoke. I call him 1 last time and told him to go F himself and he can have it back. I drop it off, get my money back, and that is that. After that I decided I will buy my moms Xplorer and till this day I havent had a problem with my X. I also trusted this dealer. Even being a Ford dealer its not that hard to change a Chevy gasket. I know I cant help you on the whole lease return thing but My ranger was in my dads name when I had it and i just stopped makin payments on it. That solved my problem, and I got some revenge at the same time. I dont recommend this though if you and your dad are close. I dont talk to mine so it dont matter. he ows me money too. BTW a Ford Focus really goes fast and corners really good.