I am enclosing my previous letter to Ford Motor (sent via email) so the whole story is included. Yet again I am expressing my dismay and anger at Ford Motor in general and Mike Davidson Ford in specific.in fact, I am forwarding said letter to the Florida Better Business Bureau and logging an official complaint with them.
*FIRST LETTER*
To Whom it May Concern,
I have owned a Ford Focus for the last 3 years. May 31st I bought my Ford Focus New at Mike Davidson Ford, 9650 Atlantic Boulevar, Jacksonville Florida. I was attracted to the cool styling, sleek interior and great drive as well as the attractive financing package at the time.
I can honestly say that this purchase was one of the worst (if not outright worse) purchase I have ever made. My first problem occurred about a year after I bought the car. After work, I walked over to my car and my key would not fit in the ignition. I had the car towed to Mike Davidson Ford and they told me the ignition lock had broken. It was annoying but it got repaired relatively quickly and, the car still being under warrantee, I only had to pay the rental car for the day. So I put it all behind me. Then, soon after my original warrantee ran out (surprise, surprise) my gas pump broke. Thank god for extended warrantees (although it still cost me $500.00 deductible rental fees). My front tire blew out not just once but twice. The second time causing considerable body damage to the vehicle (even though it did not hit anything). But the last straw happened on November 25th when I got in my car in the Publix parking lot at 9h30 PM and, yet again, my key would not fit in the ignition. Now it is not normal for the ignition lock to break ONCE on a 2 year car, much less TWICE. At this point the problem is probably a manufacturing error or maybe an installation error, but either way it comes down to either subpar manufacturing by Ford or Shoddy service by a Ford associate (Mike Davidson Ford). I had my car towed last night and I am annoyed but not as annoyed/mad/bewildered as when, in the morning, I am told Mike Davidson Ford would not guarantee the work they had done about a year ago. And I would have to pay $330.00 after tax - (more than one monthly payment on a car I was not so sure I wanted anymore) $55.00 for the towing about $40.00 for the rental car. When I asked why the work had not been guaranteed, Mike, their service guy, answered me that the part only had one year (12,000 miles) warrantee and that I had 28,000 miles on it. Since I do not ride on my ignition and I am relatively certain that I know how to put a key in a hole, I fail to see why the mileage is relevant. And funny how this happened about the same time the time warrantee expires. Like I said, this is NOT normal for an ignition lock to break TWICE in 2 years and this is NOT a case of operator error and the fact that Mike Davidson Ford can ask $300.00 (well if you include the towing and tax, about $400.00) to fix something that was ORIGINALLY defective in the car THEY had sold me or on a part THEY had installed poorly is only two hair removed from outright thievery and about three feet past bad faith. An ignition lock should last more than one year regardless of the warrantee and, IMHO, this $300.00 is an example of bad business practices. And now we are in April when my ignition lock breaks AGAIN!!! This time instead of not letting me put in my key, it does not grab the key and you can remove the key WHILE DRIVING. And once again I am going to have to take time off work to drop off my car at Mike Ford Davidson and get them to repair for a THIRD time in a 2 year span, a part that generally never needs repair.
I hope someone at Ford reads this letter and see how their company is being represented or at least misrepresented as the case may be. I am thinking of sending a copy of this letter to all consumer reports agencies and News outlets to hopefully spare other consumers what I had to go through with the focus.
* update *
Yesterday, May 20th, I dropped off my car a little before 7h00 at Mike Ford Davidson. The car doors to the service department were not even open yet. I had spoken to Mike Smith before and had told him that I would come in to have the car lock fixed and, while the car was in the shop, to have him take care of a few recalls. At 7h00, I dropped the car, I was told Mike Smith would be in at 10h00 and to call him back then. I called back at 10h00 but was told to call back in an hour. At 10h30 I was told that hed be in the office in yet another an hour. I called a little after lunch and was told he would not be in the office today. This irked me a little bit but I just asked who I could speak to about my car. Carly (at the dealership) told me she could help me out. I asked her if everything was fine and if the car was going to be ready by 5h00 PM. She assured me it would. At 4pm I phoned the dealership (I had gotten a message to call them back). Carly told me everything was pretty much finished but that they found that my battery was defective and asked me whether or not I wanted to have a new one installed. I asked for a price and she threw a few numbers at me. I asked her to give me an after tax, all inclusive, price and she quoted me $112.00. I told her to go ahead then. I asked whether the car would still be ready by 5h00 and she assured me it would be and I specifically enquired about the ignition lock. She first said it is ready and fine but when she checked someone told her that they did not do it because it was 815 miles past the warrantee. At this point I am FURIOUS. I had been calling since 10am; I had brought the car SPECIFICALLY for the ignition lock and they had my phone number. Now it is 4PM and they are NOW telling me there was a problem. Notwithstanding the fact that the last time I had that lock repaired was at Mike Davidson Ford on November 25th, not even six months ago and that this would make a total of three times I had it repaired. I explained this, with as much calm as I could muster to Carly. She made a few phone calls while putting me on hold and then told me that the locksmith they subcontract agreed, since it was so close to the warrantee, agreed to do the repairs for free but that, at 4h15 there was no way it could be done today as he was on the other side of town. Yet again I am pretty unnerved in that I did not understand why it had not been brought to my attention earlier so the problem could have been fixed. I live alone and I coach after work (I leave work at 5h30 and dont finish coaching until around 9h00). It is VERY hard for me to find time to bring my car to the shop. I had picked this week to get it repaired because the gym where I coach will be close for a week. It is a big hassle to get someone to pick me up in the morning and drop me off in the afternoon, especially considering that I really shouldnt have had to since Mike Davidson Ford had PLENTY of time to get the car fixed. To her credit, Carly did apologize for this. After a few more phone calls she got in touch with the locksmith who agreed to possibly meet me at my work and do the work there. (I phoned him on his cell phone and he told me to call him back at 7h30pm. I did but he was unavailable and I have been calling him all morning and am only getting his voicemail.) One of my biggest complaints about the dealership (other than the substandard service) is the attitude I got. When I got to the dealership (around 5h30), I asked whether or not the work that the subcontractor was going to do (free or not) was going to be guaranteed. They assured me it would but I have not been able to talk to the guy yet to make sure but that it would be HIS personal guarantee, not Mike Davidson Ford and they pretty much told me that since it was out of warrantee (by a little over 800 miles) I was lucky to get it for free and that the guy was doing it out of good faith. Those were the words that set me off. I told them that to me good faith would be repairing an item for free when it broke down THE FIRST TIME out of warrantee. When it is the third time I am having a part that should NOT break down IN THE FIRST PLACE since it is not a part subject to wear and tear, and that additionally I had that part repaired and replaced at a cost to me of about $400.00 not even six months ago, I hardly call fixing it for no cost a favor to me, the consumer but rather fixing up ones mistake. After getting the invoice for the battery, I walked over to the cashier and was fixing to pay when I realized that the price the dealership was charging was about $143.00. I asked the cashier to call Carly since she had quoted me a much lower price $112.00. She phoned Carly. The cashier or Carly - first told me that it was the price pretax but then I told her that:
a) Last time I checked sales tax had NOT been raised to 30%
b) I had specifically asked for an after tax quote.
Finally they reduced the bill to $106.00.
I am still trying to get in touch with the locksmith to arrange to have my car serviced. I have left 3 messages and called about 7 times so, understandably, I am getting a little nervous. But more importantly I am very worried about the car. When the same part has broken down three times in less than three years on a three year old car I believe there is cause for concern. I am going to consult a Lemon Law lawyer because it is clearly a manufacturing defect. And like I said, this letter will go out to the Better Business Bureau because this situation is clearly not acceptable.in my mind, if Mike Davidson Ford was honorable they would have righted the situation but so far that has not been the case. I am expecting Ford Motor to be more honorable and do something if not then I will be required to take further actions to correct his situation.
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