Greenway Ford service drove my car over 200 miles!

[Stryfe8822]

I just picked up my car from getting it serviced I check the odometer before I leave and it had an additional 200 miles on it! Let me tell you all the whole story...

I dropped the car off yesterday evening at aproximately 6:15p.m. to have the oil changed and the tires rotated. I checked the odometer it read about 5700 miles. I get a call this morning at aproximately 9:00 a.m. saying my car is ready. I don't arrive until 2:30p.m. because I do not have a ride and had to wait to get one. When they bring my car around I immediately check the odometer, it read 5952 miles! I check the service log book that the dealership signed when they serviced the car, it was signed at 5715 miles. Yes an employee at the dealership signed the service log with the mileage 5715. I went in to talk to the manager he than directs me to his manager. I explain what happens to the second manager the first manager comes back with a piece of paper saying when it was serviced it had over 5900 miles on it. I said I checked it last night and right hear I have a signature saying that it was serviced at 5715 miles. Someone put over 200 miles on my car. Both managers say it had over 5900 miles when it was serviced. I see that the conversation is going nowhere so I leave, totally unsatisfied. Is there anything that can be done about this? Or am I just going to have to live with the fact that someone drove my car during the 19 hours that they had it?

 

[Steel Horse]

It seems like they aren't going to work with you on this one. I can see driving it a few miles if they did major service but 200?!? That's a 3 1/2 road trip! I guess all you can do is hope the person who drove it didn't take it on a tire burning joy ride.

 

[stanmckinney]

You can tell other people, as you have here, about it and not use that dealer again.
How could the dealer make it right, though? Once the miles are on there, they are on there.

 

[Stryfe8822]

I don't know what they could have done but doing something is better than doing nothing wouldn't you agree?

 

[nymustang]

ford service sucks big time read my reply to the guy with the new stang with all the problems

 

[Stryfe8822]

can u please put up a link to that forum

 

[imfamousjim]

bring it back for more service with a video camera hidden in it... then email all the results to autoblog... you see that story about the toyota dealer a few weeks back?
VIDEO: Toyota dealer employees caught snooping through customer vehicle, watching **** — Autoblog

 

[cusp]

File a Claim in Small Claims and....

I just picked up my car from getting it serviced I check the odometer before I leave and it had an additional 200 miles on it! Let me tell you all the whole story...

I dropped the car off yesterday evening at aproximately 6:15p.m. to have the oil changed and the tires rotated. I checked the odometer it read about 5700 miles. I get a call this morning at aproximately 9:00 a.m. saying my car is ready. I don't arrive until 2:30p.m. because I do not have a ride and had to wait to get one. When they bring my car around I immediately check the odometer, it read 5952 miles! I check the service log book that the dealership signed when they serviced the car, it was signed at 5715 miles. Yes an employee at the dealership signed the service log with the mileage 5715. I went in to talk to the manager he than directs me to his manager. I explain what happens to the second manager the first manager comes back with a piece of paper saying when it was serviced it had over 5900 miles on it. I said I checked it last night and right hear I have a signature saying that it was serviced at 5715 miles. Someone put over 200 miles on my car. Both managers say it had over 5900 miles when it was serviced. I see that the conversation is going nowhere so I leave, totally unsatisfied. Is there anything that can be done about this? Or am I just going to have to live with the fact that someone drove my car during the 19 hours that they had it?

You need to report them to your states consumer affairs office. Also report them to Ford Motor Company. They have an office for complaints against their dealers. File a small claims suit against them. Charging them some reasonable X amount per mile. Your signed service document should get you far with the judge.
I had a service complaint with a Ford Dealer taking a very long time to solve a warranty issue. I called Ford head quarters. The next day that dealers service manager was calling me each day with a progress report. Saying how sorry they were for the delay in my repair. I must have hit a nerve cause from that phone call on, they went from "thats the way it is"... to kissing my ass.

 

[Mike97gt]

WOW they drove it 200 miles and all they did was a oil change and a rotate!

Somebody took it home overnight or drove it all day? Either way that is totally unacceptable..

I have taken customer cars home overnight and drove that far WITH the permission of the customer if there is a intermittent problem I am trying to resolve but we always call prior to doing that. for a oil change and a rotate the car did not even need to be road tested.


BTW not all ford serivce sucks, but some dealers and a lot of techs do.

 

[Zora]

I know what I would do.... But I'm going to keep my mouth shut on this one.

 

[Mike97gt]

You need to report them to your states consumer affairs office. Also report them to Ford Motor Company. They have an office for complaints against their dealers. File a small claims suit against them. Charging them some reasonable X amount per mile. Your signed service document should get you far with the judge.
I had a service complaint with a Ford Dealer taking a very long time to solve a warranty issue. I called Ford head quarters. The next day that dealers service manager was calling me each day with a progress report. Saying how sorry they were for the delay in my repair. I must have hit a nerve cause from that phone call on, they went from "thats the way it is"... to kissing my ass.

Yeah If this was me in this situation I would call Ford on it and I would try to get in touch with the dealer owner or general manager.

 

[oh9mustang]

You may have been mistaken in your reading. I would think it would be easy to mistake 59 for 57.
Next time make sure you and the service writer agree on the milage and have him and you initial. Be glade it wasn't the weekend and it came back with 6700 . Don't loose any sleep over it

 

[Stryfe8822]

I have contacted the better business bureau requesting that I be reimbursed for the miles that where put on my. The same as if renting a car for 2 days and putting 237 miles on it. My next step is contacting ford itself and explain my problem.

 

[DarkFireGT]

Even if both you and the service tech misread the odometer (odd coincidence to begin with), they still put more miles on it than necessary. And of course, their written records are what they must go by.

There are several things I would do.

First, get in contact with the owner or general manager. If they are not aware of the situation, explain it to them. Advise them that if there is no rectification of some type, you will be contacting Ford, the BBB, and your local newspapers and news stations. That usually gets their attention.

Second, come up with a fair amount of reimbursement for the mileage they put on your car. If they rent cars, find out what they charge per mile, and charge them this.

Third, if they charged you for the work they did, request a refund. If it was free work, request your next 3 oil changes for free, or a $50 credit in the parts department.

Fourth, if they don't make good on this, go through with everything you told the owner or general manager you would do.

At a time like this, bad publicity is the last thing they need or want. They will most likely apologize and reimburse you once they realize you are not rolling over.

 

[Stryfe8822]

Thanks DarkFireGT I appreciate the advise. I have already contacted the BBB as well as Ford about the problem. I did talk to two managers about the problem but they seemed more interested in sweeping it under the rug. I do not know how high up they are but I did get their names in case it comes up later. I just want something done about this. Typically I go to a local car shop that I frequent to do my routine services on my past vehicles but this is my first new car and I wanted ford to do it so if something major was to happen to my car they wouldn't be able to get out of the warranty because a ford dealership has done all the work. I have heard a lot of horror stories about people who have taken their vehicle to non ford service shops and when something major happens to their vehicle and the warranty is supposed to cover it Ford says "well a ford representative did not work on your vehicle so how do we know that those other service shops did not do something that lead to your current problem." Now Ford does not have to cover the cost the owner does. If you get what I am saying.

 

[oh9mustang]

Stryfe8822
"I have heard a lot of horror stories about people who have taken their vehicle to non ford service shops and when something major happens to their vehicle and the warranty is supposed to cover it Ford says "well a ford representative did not work on your vehicle so how do we know that those other service shops did not do something that lead to your current problem." Now Ford does not have to cover the cost the owner does"

I'm not sure why anyone would think that Ford would cover something under warranty after a non ford shop worked on it?
If your local speed shop installed 4.10s in your car and the rear end went out, it's not covered by warranty, even though it only has 5000 miles on it.

If your local shop changed your oil and your engine blew because the shop left the filter loose, it's not covered under warranty.

Seems simple

Ford nor the BBB is going to side with you on your miles.

I'd like to here back what happened with your talks with GM BBB. What actually happened.

 

[Stryfe8822]

I am not talking about putting aftermarket products on your vehicle or some type of negligence and your something breaking on your car and ford not covering it. I am talking about people who have gone to their local car shop to get routine maintenace, tire rotations, fluid changes, etc. Than when they have a major issue with their car and it is still under factory ford refuses to fix it because they never worked on the car. Even though the car would have still had it mechanical failure if it had the routine maintenance at one of the ford shops. I never said anything close to doing aftermarket work, like adding 4.10 gears, or engine blowing because someone left the filter loose.

 

[DarkFireGT]

Don't listen to him. Something has to happen. Their own logs show over 200 miles being put on the car.

 

[stangdude2000]

The government mileage reimbursement is around $.58 per mile. That's a pretty darn good estimate of the added wear and tear.

Don't let this drop. If the dealership's higher ups or owner keep ignoring you, do what Darkfire mentioned. Complain to anyone and everyone that will listen. Send letters to your local news/media outlets, local message boards, anything - and always send a copy of the note/email to the dealership. Keep pushing the issue until you finally get a response.


It is also illegal for a dealership to turn down warranty service because you took your car elsewhere for an oil change.

 

[oh9mustang]

Stryfe8822
routine maintenace, tire rotations, fluid changes

The only "aftermarket" thing I said was gears. That was just an example.
But ok lets take gears. If the person that put in the gears is not ASE certifyed and the gears were 1/10,000 out and you blew the rear end, the whole thing would not be covered. Now if you had documentation that the person was ASE and documentation the the gears were installed at ford specs, then the gears would not be covered but the rest of the rear end would.

Ford doesn't know that this work was done by a reputable shop or just someone like DarkFireGT.
The Service writer and the service manager both said the car had 5900 when it came in. were is the fight?

If you took you car to a jiffy lube and they put 5W30 oil in it and something went wrong with the engine that Ford could show was oil related , Ford wouldn't cover it, and it's not illegal. Now if Jiffy lube put in 5W20 and it was documented then the warranty is good.

I don't know what routine maintenance is so I wont comment,
Tire rotations. what if your shop left the lugs loose and damaged the axel. Ford wouldn't cover that, but if your shop had the correct torque on the lugs and the axle went out, then it's covered.
Ford has the right to question any work done by anyone other than ford and to check the work for workmanship. If the workmanship is bad, and that could be the cause of the problem, Warranty would be no good for that problem.

Just taking your car to a local shop doesn't void your warranty, but you better have documentation that the work was just as good as Ford with parts or fluid that Ford recommend or it sure could. What I mean is, If they rotate your tires you want to document they torqued the lugs to Ford specs.
You have your oil and filter changed , you want to document that the oil was the SAE type and weight for your car, and the filter was as good or better than what ford would use as far as filtration goes.
You and some others may think this don't matter, just wait.