Can anyone tell me what their experiences with their local ford dealers service department is like?
I am dissatisfied with my service department, and I do not wish to take my vehicle their for repairs/servicing.
I am sure I am asking the same questions as most other people here are thinking, so this may be of benefit to others.
What should one do, if they are unhappy with their service dept? How to find a dealer that has a good service dept (I Think laminge made some points about this a little while ago)
Will another dealer get the ****s if they have to do warranty work on a vehicle sold at another dealership?
Will they contact the selling dealer to arrange warranty stuff? (Of course this will be a problem for me!)
Maybe I should not worry about the scheduled servicing and just take my car to an independant?
So long as the car has been serviced by a qualified busness they have to cover any warrenty,it's B.S that they won't.
Independants do a beter job and cheaper in my opinion..
Warranty is covered Australia wide and you don't even have to go to a Ford dealer as long as the other person is a qualified mechanic you can contact Consumer affairs for more accurate info.
When I took my ED for warranty work it seemed the dealer had difficulty in understanding that they should be fixing the problem.
The clunk in front suspension and the driver seat was loose... two things is all they had to fix but to this day they are still there.
Oh but they insisted they fixed those problems.:fmad:
I haven't been to bad off with the blokes at my local Ford.They have only had it for the one service (30K), and everything was done to the letter. Nothing additional done without prior authorisation from me, and the whole service was spelt out in a detailed invoice.
....BUT, only last week I get it taken out there by my wife to pin point a rattle under the car as well as a possible sticking hand brake.(I work in Melbourne everyday so I cannot take it in myself :( ). Now this time I get a phone call at work and the service manager asks what needs to be done, even though I spelt it out when I booked it in the previous Saturday. That's no worries, I tell him the probs, and tell him if they need to take it around the block a few times to have a listen so be it. Get home that night only to discover that they havent done anything at all.
Now, what pisses me off is anyone can hear the problems so either they didn't listen or they just thought bugger it, it's nothing important....it's important to me! I'm sure you're all the same.
Russell. :WH:
I'm still having troubles with a certain dealer. I had the XR towed there because the belt had come off and jammed. They were quick with the tow truck and then diagnosed a broken pulley.
they called me later and told me it was ready..
20m inutes later they called me again to inform me that they had pranged it into another car on the lot. A week later it was ready and when i went to pick it up, i asked them to have the paperwork ready and a description of the damage done for insurance(just in case). When i got there... no paperwork at all]
Asked for it.. we don't have it..
Sent a letter and a fax.. no reply..
more faxes and letters have been sent.. no reply...
I still have no idea what they did or what they fixed ??
__________________
Chaps...
Fal con (fàl’k on, fõl-, fõ’kon) n.
characterized by their long wings and their method of hunting, which is to rise above and swoop down on their prey.
I guess I must be in the lucky minority. I've never had a problem with my local dealer (John McGrath - Phillip) Everything is done as asked for plus the odd extra as well. I'll keep going back to these guys for sure..
I've had about half a dozen new cars of various makes, including Ford, over the years and have never taken them to a dealer after the first service (which is usually necessary to fix up a few minor problems) except for warranty items identified later by me or another mechanic. As others have said, as long as a qualified mechanic does service, AND completes service book for evidence of compliance, you shouldn't have any problems with warranty.
The problem I've always had is finding a decent mechanic. My idea of a decent mechanic is one who does work that I or someone else don't have to fix up later on and who doesn't create any new problems in fixing up the existing ones.
Dealers are usually a lot more expensive than independent mechanics running their own businesses, but people like Ultra Tune and Shell Care aren't necessarily any cheaper or better, and they can tell you some crap too. Ultra Tune told me when my XF was about 70,000 km that those model cams were soft and if I didn't replace it promptly the pushrods would collapse and stuff the engine, which sounded like bull to me. The car has over 280,000km on it now with the same cam and no problems.
People who've worked in the trade might know, but I've had the impression that dealerships use a lot of unskilled or semi-skilled trades assistants to do the actual work, where independent mechanics usually do their own, so you've got a better skill level.
The problem with modern cars is whether the independent has the same quality of diagnostic equipment and specilaist knowledge of the cars.
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