07 Stang

The dealership I go to is where I purchased the stang from. They are known in the area for their expertise especially with Mustangs. There is also a Mustang Club that meets there too. The street name outside the place is appropriately Mustang Lane.

Art161

I am PI$$ED. I made an appointment with my dealership last Thursday to have the air bag recall work done today (Monday). I arrived, and the service adviser wrote up the order. I waited in the customer service lounge. Over an hour later, the adviser came in and said they couldn't do the work today. There was some other dude there, who I didn't know and didn't want to speak to. I wanted the service director. I spoke with him and he blamed Ford for a lot. He said there was some number (not the VIN) the dealer had to check and after that they had to order the part. WHAT? They never said it could be a two day job, either when I made the appointment or when I drove in.

I called Ford Customer Assistance and they basically called BS on the service director. They said they could tell from the VIN that my car needed the recall work done, and they didn't say anything about needing a number other than the VIN. The matter has now been escalated to the Ford regional customer service person.

What a way to run a service department. Did I say I am PI$$ED?

cruisin5268d

You know, people make mistakes. Getting pissed won't help the situation. It sounds like they may have forgotten to order the part and are trying to cover now. If that's the case they should have just come out and said so. Still, life is too short to get pissed over something so small.

Art161

Life is too short to let people walk all over you.

Let me give you some background. Perhaps you will understand why my fuse finally got lit.

Last summer was the first time I ever had my oil changed other than at a Ford dealership. I have been using this dealership for maybe five years. When I first went there, they were great. At some point, the downward slide started. I got into an argument after the last oil change they did. They charged me for 7 quarts of oil; my car only takes 6. The service adviser was not all that nice. I told him there was an error on the invoice; I had been charged for an extra quart of oil. He insisted 7 was correct. I said 6. He said 7. I said 6. Finally, he looked it up, and it was 6. On the way out, he said that if I got a customer satisfaction survey and I couldn't rate the service as "completely satisfied" I should not respond to the survey. Sleazy.

One time before, I was in the customer lounge, watching my car in the lot where they park cars after the work is completed. After about ten minutes I went to the cashier's window and asked if I could have my car. They were still processing paperwork. After another ten minutes, I tried again. Still processing paperwork. Finally, after about 30 minutes of watching my car in the lot, I was able to get it. I complained about this delay in the customer satisfaction survey. The service director apologized, and said they had some new people and he would get things straightened out. On a subsequent visit I was sitting in the lounge and another customer went to the cashier wondering why his truck had been sitting in the lot with the blinkers on for the past 30 minutes. So this service director has a slick mouth, but doesn't do what he should.

They also started taking way too long to do routine work, such as oil changes and tire rotations. I always had an appointment, and was always on time.

They also used to throw in a complimentary 17 point multi-point inspection with an oil change, at no additional charge. Then they stopped inspecting things. The last time I had an oil change at the dealer, I deliberately left the windshield washer reservoir a bit low. They didn't even bother to top it off. The time before, they said my air filter was dirty. At the last oil change they did, there was no mention of a dirty air filter. Obviously, they weren't inspecting things the way they used to.

Getting back to the air bag fiasco, if they made a mistake in not ordering the part and admitted it, that's one thing. They accepted some of the responsibility, but put some of it onto Ford. I really couldn't understand all this stuff about how they had to get some number so they could order the part. Maybe I'll get some further information when I hear from the Ford regional rep. And what were they doing with my car while I sat in the customer lounge for over an hour? Did it take them that long to find this mysterious number? They said they didn't do any work on the car.

If the dealer made a mistake, that's a different thing than if the service director lied to me to cover his rear end. If I can't trust the dealer service department to be honest, then I need to go elsewhere. I can't make a fully informed judgment until I talk to the Ford rep. But right now, I am still PI$$ED. I drove 40-50 miles, paid a bridge toll, and spent over an hour in the customer lounge. For what? I really am curious as to what that mysterious number is. The Ford customer reps I spoke to so far had no idea. They said my VIN was subject to the recall and that should be that.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts; I always appreciate your perspective.

inspecto

Art I feel your pain. Our time is important, too precious to waste with idiots.

Derf00

Art, sounds like you need to find a new service center and stop dickering with dicks.

There are three in my area (within about 20 mile radius). One is a bunch of a-holes that sound like they're run by the same people that took over yours (Earnhardt Ford - sucks), another dealer was pretty good but over the years started to have issues with workmanship. I won't name them because they are my backup in case my current dealer loses its way.

So, I get what you're saying. It's time to move on and find new dealer service center.

Art161

I absolutely would like to find a better Ford dealership, but this one seems to have the best ratings around. There are three dealerships closer to where I live, but I selected this one based on its Yelp ratings. In the beginning, it was really good, but it has slipped into the muck.

I have already taken steps to have routine maintenance done at another shop. This past summer was the first time since I have owned the car that I had the oil changed other than at a Ford dealership. In and out in an hour. No issues. It's not a quickie place. It's a shop owned by two brothers who are the top wrenches, plus they have one young employee to do simple jobs and learn from the owners. They cater to performance cars. So now I'm using Royal Purple oil!

I spoke on the phone with a customer relations woman from Ford earlier today. She had no idea about the mystery part number the dealership needed to order the new part. She said she dealt in service, not parts. I asked her to call the service director at the dealership, which she said she would do. So I'll see what shakes out from that.

Derf00

Good luck with the outcome. I'm wondering if the part number is a reference to a firmware revision for the PCM (something like Ford Firmware v xx.xxx with a Service # of xxx.xxx.xx.) It wouldn't be a number for a physical part, but a call out to the firmware revision they are supposed to use on the PCM. If one exists, it would be in their Oasis system and tied to the TSB or Recall number. They would not find it in their their parts lookup system.

I Found the ford part numbers for the airbag modules in question that are being recalled/reprogrammed:

http://i-obd2.com/fordair.html Maybe that's it?

Personally, Yelp is not as useful and unbiased as it used to be. I've posted things on there before and had them be rejected because they don't meet their screening process. This has been for both positive and negative posts about companies that were written in a factual and unbiased tone.

Over the years companies have been accused of paying people to write positive reviews about themselves on Yelp and some of the services I've received by companies with positive reviews on yelp have made me become a believer that it is going on.

If the service company you're dealing with now fits the bill and is doing a good job, keep using them.

Art161

Thanks, Derf00. I looked at the link, but I still don't understand. Do you think that indicates different 2007 Mustang GTs require different replacement parts for the recall? Or that some of the recalled cars really don't need anything replaced, which is what the dealer service director told me.

I'd like to hear from more forum members who have had the recall completed, went in and were told nothing needed to be done, or know for sure what is involved.

As to Yelp, it can be difficult to tell a "legitimate" comment from a "salted" one. Yes, I've heard that certain businesses ask friends to write favorable comments about the place. I kind of average out the comments. It's rare that a company will have all good comments or all bad comments. Two years ago, though, when I was thinking about switching Medicare drug providers, I found that of over twenty comments about one of the providers I was considering, each comment gave them one star. Some said they wished they could give no star. I didn't switch!

I've had some of my comments appear in the main section, and some appear in the section where you have to click on the request line to see the comments that are hidden. And I've had comments switch between the two sections. Yelp uses a computer to decide which comments to put where, and the parameters change. Lately, it seems as though more of the comments appear in the main section. There are comments that don't appear at all, because they don't meet Yelp standards. Probably most of those are for obscene language. Whatever.

Art161

FRIGGIN' UNBELIEVABLE.

I received a telephone call from the service director at the dealership. I asked him what they were doing while I was waiting for over an hour in the customer lounge. He said they were inspecting the air bag. I said he told me no work had been done on the car. He asked me to hold while he checked. Then he said what they did was to ascertain the build date of the car and the plant at which it had been assembled. The build date appears on my past invoices, and all '07 Mustangs were built at Flat Rock. What an ahole.