As I told you guys; I just got tagged for $450.00 (They gave me a $30.00 break) for the repair of a water leak that was playing havos with my electric system... I looked at the bill and I got charged $390 freaking dollars worth of LABOR.

The part was $20 emmer-effing dollars, the rest was tax and some other charge.

So; I turned my Expedition in for repair- it's still under warranty. I know they aren't losing money- but I felt like this was my way of getting some measure of revenge by having them spend "labor" fixing this:


Items for repair on the Expedition:





1.) Rear window behind driver will not go down.
2.) Rear vent windows don’t operate.
3.) Passenger side door panel appears to have been improperly installed from factory (near headliner- see gap).
4.) Right rear upper panel molding appears to be improperly installed.
5.) Light gone out on driver’s door- driver window switch (Can’t see it at night)
6.) While driving- for no reason whatsoever- the engine just shut off. Vehicle coasted to a stop. Placed car in “Park” and it restarted. It hasn’t done that since- please check to see what may have been cause of that- and/or if that problem still remains.
7.) Hear clicking sound at idle (especially noticeable standing outside the vehicle) and when accelerating while AC is running. This just started 2 weeks ago. Silent before that…
8.) Shroud around both fog/driving lights has melted off and are free in the housing. The lights still work, so this appears to be a manufacturing defect either in the plastic, or the lamp is overheating....

 

Sure thats a good idea? Might come back worse...

Adrianspeeder

 

I'll just keep sending her back.....

These are minor annoyances (Annoyances I've never had with any of my other Fords- sans the water leak-washer Gremlins- but that took 4 years to develop). Case in point- everything that I'm having repaired- I've lived with for over a year (Except the fact that it shut off for no reason; and the AC clicking sound...)

But, when you charge a guy for 3.5 hours of labor- because that's what the handy-dandy "repair book" says it should take- when it actually only took 30 minutes- is BS. So, now that I have a super-reliable back-up car (Honda) I'll warranty-repair their butts to death for the next 18 months....

42 months if I did get the Ford-warranty.

 

They are just going to tell you that the "trim issues" were there from the Assembly Plant and that they can do "nothing" about it........

 

No, it's not BS, that's how technicians and dealers make money. And for the record, I agree that you got reamed and overcharged. But be advised, that handy-dandy "repair book" works both ways...a job that'd take, say, two hours to do (in reality) but only pays 0.7 per the book, for instance. It really gets ugly when you start looking through Ford's SLTS guide for labor times for warranty repairs.

And don't think that dealers don't know when customers are trying to be jackasses. I'll bet you dollars to donuts, good donuts too, that most, if not all your complaints will come back "NPF."

Yes, they (the technician servicing your vehicle; the dealership is as well, but the technician is the immediate victim) are losing money, because a guy has to look through your list of complaints, take the time to call OASIS and check for TSBs and SSMs so he can get a contact number, showing Ford that he at least tried to see if your complaints were valid, so he can get paid his little 0.2 or 0.3.

Maybe he'll try to do the right thing and take the time to run through the list, verify the concerns, diagnose and repair the valid concerns, and receive significantly less pay than what those repairs are really worth. If you got stuff that needs fixing, well, great, that's an issue that the technicians are trying to take up with Ford. Ain't nothing you can do there.

Maybe he'll say, "Hey, I remember that guy from last week, he's probably pissed off about the work we did to his truck..." and start writing down CND (cannot duplicate) and NPF (no problem found).

And what's to say the poor tech that'll get your Expedition under warranty is the same guy that reamed you a new one for your F150?

Got a gripe, take it up with the service manager. $400 is outrageous for diagnosing a water leak and replacing the cowl, I agree. But you'll get nowhere by doing what you're doing. Been there, done that, got the T-shirts. Got valid complaints? Okay, great, let's get 'em fixed. But don't use "revenge" as a motive, because believe me, they'll know. We're not as stupid as you think at the stealership level.

Crap like that makes me wonder sometimes why I even try to help people.

 

Think of a job that pays .03 - you will spend that time just walking out into the lot, finding the car, and pulling it in the bay.

Thats why I got out of the auto repair business after doing it for almost twenty years....I didn't see these kind of situations improving at all.

 

They won't NPF me... I showed the Svc MGR every fault, except the engine anamolly. That may comeback CND, and I agree because it only happened once, and that was in March/April.

SOB's may try that on my AC clicking...

I'll keep going back.

 

That can really **** me off too.
The VW dealer charged my mum about $18 just for replacing the battery.
When I said something about it and wanted them to get that off the bill, they replied that she was even lucky.
Some VW batteries have a cover and that they should have charged her even more.
According to their book it takes a certain time to replace a battery, I think about 15 freaking minutes and with labor about $72 an hour, that was about right.
Not to mention, that the new battery was bought from them also.

The Polo is in for an anual inspection but I won't let her go to these SOB's ever again.

 

Actually I agree with what cia-agent is doing however not for revenge but for quality reasons.

While I will agree the technicians generally get the short end of the stick that is not my concern as it should not be. The concern I would have is paying in the neighborhood of $30k plus for most these vehicles and then having these stupid quality issues that just don’t seem to get resolved.

If we all took things back for every problem that creeps up then maybe Ford and other “businesses” would get their act together and produce $30k vehicles that are “really” worth $30k from the get go…

When ever I take something in for work I hook the technicians up and will spot them a $20 or two depending on the issue. Got to keep my technician in good sprits to insure my truck is treated right. I should not have to worry about that but since I am not the typical customer that doesn’t give a crap about how my vehicle is treated and on the edge of super ***** I have to insure the technician knows that as many technicians could give a crap about the vehicles they touch.

Now, if there are technicians out there who truly feel they are continuously getting screwed oh well so sad that is their pitiful problem for not reaching maturity and learning they are in “total” control of their destiny. To sit in any place and whine about this and that is for a child to do, not a mature adult as mature adults will get up, leave, and move on to change their situation…

 

At some stealerships they have hourly technicians to do this kind of work. this way the flat rate guys can do real work.