A few months ago I brought my 1995 Mercury Tracer to this dealership for service. I intended to sell or trade the car and wanted them to check out the problems I had been experiencing (labored A/C, engine sputtering, cutoff). After keeping it for two weeks they returned it to me saying they had checked it out from end to end, driven it on and off for several days, and in their opinion "not a thing is wrong with it."
They proceeded to try and sell me almost a thousand dollars worth of different parts "just in case", but repeatedly assured me that they had done all they could and couldn't find a single reason for it to cause me any trouble. Feeling reassured I took the car back and parked it for sale.
Eventually the car sold, but two days later the buyer called to inform me that the engine had blown in the middle of traffic and the car had to be towed. Given that the dealership had assured me the car was in good order and that it had been driven less than two miles in the time I'd had it up for sale I felt the service department owed me some answers.
I was referred to a Greg (ROR REDACTED FULL NAME FOR SECURITY PURPOSES), who proceeded to speak to me very condescendingly. I asked if it would be possible for the buyer to bring the car back to them for service since it was clearly their fault the problem had gone undiagnosed and unfixed. He flatly refused, saying that the dealership no longer had the tools or expertise to service cars made in the mid 1990s.
When I pointed out that I'd never been refused service for an older car before, and ventured that Mercury Tracers probably hadn't changed all that much (he made an eleven year old car sound as ancient as a Model T), he laughed nastily and said "Well, you would know more about that than me, huh?" He said that as of two weeks ago he had implemented a policy saying the dealership would not service any car older than 1997 and he wouldn't let them see my car even if I'd brought it in for an oil change.
Now, here I caught him in a flat out lie. My other car is a 1996 Ford Taurus. Not seven days earlier I called his dealership for an appointment to bring it in to be serviced. I received an estimate and a time frame I could bring it in. NOT ONCE did anyone say "We can't service your car because it's older than 1997."
When I confronted him with this he became very irritated, saying that I can't prove he didn't implement that policy two weeks ago and I could just "go ahead and try it." He also stated that since I refused to pay for their initial guesswork and they didn't charge me just for saying the car had nothing wrong with it that I had no recourse. He said that once the car is driven off the lot he has no responsibility to stand by his department's service. I once again suggested he make arrangements with the buyer to see the car, and he said Valdosta Lincoln Mercury wasn't interested.
This dealership tried to scam me, then this employee lied to me and tried to humiliate me. According to the mechanic the buyer towed the car to there is absolutely NO WAY any competent mechanic could have missed the problems with that engine. It would seem Valdosta Lincoln Mercury refused to take my money for the inital exam because they knew my car would be unsafe to drive. They wanted me to spend a thousand on superfluous parts and when I wouldn't they passed the buck.
Instead of admitting they were too incompetent to fix my car they told me there was nothing wrong with it, and they endangered my life and that of the buyer by assuring me I could take to the road in an unsafe vehicle. Furthermore, they flat out LIED to me by saying they had a "new policy" not to fix my car and they acted very dishonestly by refusing to rectify the situation. I was treated very shabbily and I highly recommend other consumers STAY AWAY from this dealership's service department.
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