QUESTION: My 8-month old Ford Explorer Sport has a 3-in. thick stack of dealer tickets for supposed related repairs. My car is in the shop again and since the car broke down on the side of the road I called the franchise who has serviced it since I bought it from (2 weeks prior to this was in the dealer's shop) and waited over 5 hours before a gentleman at the shop to which I walked called the dealer, was patched through to the service writer and then handed me the phone since he had not returned my calls as of yet. I had left messages at 10am, 11:30am, 1 pm, and continued to call to no avail. The service writer who I thought was there to help me was rude and told me to take responsibility and start to diagnosing problems myself and call the ESC Warranty Company myself. (Among other remarks which I have documented).
Frustrated, I called the warranty company who then said they only speak to service managers. The Ford dealership service manager had not returned my call (I left her 2 messages throughout the day). So after sitting at a repair shop for 5 hours, that I walked I found that this Ford Dealership was submitting paperwork to the warranty company for "fixing" things, which are not reflected in my paperwork anywhere. I have every piece of paper ever given to me regarding my vehicle. The service writer told me that he found no problem and that they didn't check the EC valve (?) because that isn't the source of the problem. But, why was the warranty company given paperwork saying they did fix it?
I need HELP! I know there is something NOT right here. I believe the dealership is committing unethical acts at my expense, and probably because I am a woman. So I hope you can help?
ANSWER: I won't mince words. You need to hire an attorney because you're getting the run-around. Perhaps the District Attorney can help you, but I doubt they will have the time unless they already have lots of complaints.
You need to have a legal professional read your contracts, both the with the dealership and the warrantee company. However if the vehicle is only 8 months old there is no reason for a warrantee company to be involved as the vehicle is completely covered by its new car warrantee from the manufacturer, Ford.
We do have information on how to reach a Regional Service Manager, employed by the automaker, in our FAQ section and also in our New and Used Car Buying Guides. You need to being talking to Ford Customer Service.
Also be aware that you can take your vehicle to any Ford dealership for repair work to be done under the new car warrantee. If the dealership is misbehaving, go to a different Ford dealership and show them the problem.
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