Navi Man you are correct and thats the point I'm trying to make. There isn't a person out there who hasn't been ripped off or taken advantage of by some sort of business, its just not right to judge the entire profession whatever it maybe by the wrong doings of one individual or company

 

I wish everybody felt that way. I had my Union card pulled by Local Shepherds 888. Seems they thought I was giving the profession a bad name, so they said.
Now I can only get independent work and that is far and between. I've been reduced to herding three cats for an old lady down the street.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to herd cats?
The damn things go wherever they want to.
One over the fence, another up a tree.
My dog just gives me that 'what now boss?' look.

 

Do you have any idea how hard it is to herd cats?

How are you with Parakeets and Ferrets? I'm always willing to send business a fellow board members way.

 

I'm not fer sure what exactly a keet is but, I can herd two of anything.

 

Navi Man,

Your post prompted me to look up a national dealer association. All that I found was NADA. So I am on the fence on this one. Maybe Dealers should be bunched together. Then maybe that would force the good ones to kick out the bad ones. NADA has a code of ethics but no complaint system. Is there a complaint system in place now to sanction the dealer? Maybe someone should start a rating system to evaluate the dealers.

JMC

 

One of my buddies who is the finance manager for the dealer I bought my rig from made it a point to ask me to fill out the survey and send it in.

He said corporate really looks at them and acts on them.

Course I haven't seen one since I bought my truck so I guess this doesn't apply to service after the sale.

 

After I bought my truck I got a phone call from an independent survey company asking me to rate the dealer's sales and finance staff. I then received a form to fill out from Ford asking me almost the same questions.

Everytime I have used the service department with my vehicles, no matter how small the repair I receive the same type of phone call. My 99 Exp only went in twice for adjustments, my 2001 F150 went in only to have the fuel filter replaced and the 2002 F150 had to have a power window adjusted. The 2003 F150 had to have the battery replaced. Only minor problems and always ready on time and the work was done properly.

My wife and I really have to learn to keep vehicles longer, dont we?

 

Surveys are a big deal to Fomoco. They can really put a hurt on dealers with constant poor surveys. For those of you that have never seen one they ask a variety of questions regarding your purchase or your trip to the service dept. There are 5 possible answers to most of the questions from a to e, a being the best and e the worst. Ford gives us a score based on the responses and they only count the surveys scored has "a" b's,c's,d's and e's are all counted against the dealer. Every tech, service advisor and Service Manager recently were given checks from Ford for at least $1000.00 each has a recognition of quality work based on survey responses. So dealers and Ford are pretty serious about the surveys

A service should be mailed to the owner once a year for all warranty repairs. The year starts with the day you purchase a vehicle. So if you bought a truck on July 15th and had a warranty repair on October 1st you should get a survey but you won't get another one untill a warranty repair is made after July 15th the following year.

Some dealers pay independant companies to survey their customers before the Ford survey hits in an effort to try to correct problems before the Ford survey hits. Also the non warranty repairs are not surveyed by Ford so the independant survey gives the dealer an opportunity to survey all their customers. Our dealer spends thousands of dollars on independant survey companys in an effort to please its customers. Unfortunatly even with everything my dealer does we can't please everyone.

 

Texcowboy, Hows the weather up in Fort Worth? I've got to come up to Arlington for a Mx race at Mosier Valley this weekend. The forcast shows a good weekend hopefully it wont rain to much today and tommorrow.

 

MX,

It is 46 degrees and raining now, and we are supposed to have the same for tomorrow, but the forecast is cloudy with a high for Satuday of 61 degrees. Just be ready for a lot of mud!

 

Thanks Tex, Mosier Valley handles water pretty good it should be dry enough for the race on Sunday, hopefully it won't be to muddy for practice Saturday. Its a good thing I've got a water tank and pressure water in my race trailer.

 

I'm a service advisor for a high volume Lincoln/Mercury dealer,since I got married I had to quit screwing customers.......

Seriously, not ALL dealers are scumbags, I know alot who are and know how alot of people leave with more than a bad taste in their mouths.... I get at least 20 calls a week of some FLM owner asking me if my service is better than that %&$&&#$&^&#$ up the street, I always reply come and see for yourselve.

Yes we do get "graded" off of surveys for customer satisfaction,if the CSI is above a certain percent I get a bonus, if its under a certain percent I get docked.

Some dealers are great and some just suck.

 

Well, I just got back from the independant brake shop. All four were done. My total bill came to $204.68. I got pads and shoes on all 4, new inner / outer bearings and seals, new hardware (springs and clips) on the rear. The shoes and pads are Wagner, lifetime warranty. The guy worked about an hour and a half, my parts were $132.00, labor and tax was the remainder. Will I go back? You bet your A$$. That is customer satisfaction. A good job at a reasonable price. The guy invited me back twice to show me a friggin coolant leak and a broken bushing on a sway bar. Something he has no financial interest in because they only do brakes. It was nice to call it to my attention. I will recommend this company to anyone.

Now we shall see wht other Ford dealer has good service, sence I now have to go back the second time this week for a coolant leak. If this new dealer calls me and tells me that I need brake work, someone is going to hear some s^^t!!

 

A very dangerous bird. They have been known to kill on command

 

After scrolling through all the posts concerning Ford Dealerships, I have decided to put in my 2 Cents worth if y'all don't mind.

I just recently purchased my 4th vehicle, a 2003 King Ranch SuperCrew, from North Central Ford in Richardson, Texas. In 18 years of doing business with them I have never felt cheated.

I have always dealt with Debbie or Ken in the Fleet office, they let you know right up front what they pay for the vehicle and what their profit is on it. and I have never felt like I was Screwed when I left with my new vehicle. this last time was actually a fun experience.

Last year we noticed the paint on my wife's 94 Crown Victoria was going bad. She e-mailed Ford and they told her to take it to the dealership and they would have the area rep look at the paint. Ford and North Central Ford agreed to repaint just the areas that were bad, which is more than I thought they would do, and the car looks good as new. A friends 96 Mercuty Marquise was doing the same thing and tne L-M dealer told him to get lost.

I think it's a crapshoot on whether or not you get a good dealership to work with, once you do just stay with them