Ford review: doesnt honor warranty 6

I am writing this letter knowing full well that I will simply get a robotic response from one of the minions at Ford corporate. I know this because that is what I have been going through for the last couple of months. All that you seem to know how to say is NO. My hope however, posting this on a public forum is to warn as many people as possible to be wary of doing business with your company.

In July 2004 I purchased an ’04 Focus. I have taken extremely good care of the vehicle and it has very low mileage for its age. I use it mostly to get to my doctor’s appointments as I am disabled. Currently, the mileage is 17, 933. When the 3 year/36, 000 mile manufacturer warranty expired in ’07 I purchased the Ford Extended Warranty plan at my local dealership, Team Ford in Las Vegas.

I never had any problems with the vehicle and never needed anything more than oil changes and regular maintenance.

On May 5th 2011 I had the vehicle smogged. The recorded mileage at that time was 17, 874. Approximately 1 week later I was getting in my vehicle to go to a doctor appointment and the vehicle would not start. I had went a total of 59 miles since the date of the recorded mileage at the smog center.

At this time I called Team Ford in Las Vegas to ask them if my extended service plan was still valid. Since I had purchased it 4 years prior and have gone through a move since then etc. I was unable to locate the original paperwork that had the dates listed on it. I spoke to someone in the service department and gave them my VIN number. They told me that the vehicle did not have an ESP.

I spent the next couple of weeks searching through paperwork trying to find the receipt from ’08 when I bought the warranty. I had no luck. I decided to call Team Ford back just to be sure. This time I spoke to a female who also told me that the car had no ESP coverage.

Unable to find the paperwork to prove coverage and being in a tough financial spot, there was nothing that I could do. At the time I wasn’t 100% certain that the ESP coverage would have still been in place because it had been so long ago that I had made the purchase. I was unable to take the vehicle in for repairs at that time as I was unable to afford it. The car sat in my driveway for 2 months.

In July I had a little bit of extra money saved and on the 14th I had the vehicle towed to another car dealership. My mom works at a Dodge dealership and because of this I could get a discount on repairs. Being as the car wouldn’t start and I knew it wasn’t a battery problem I assumed that the problem would be with something such as the starter. I expected the repair to cost under $1000. You could imagine my surprise when I found out that the engine had went bad and needed to be replaced! It would cost $4000 to do this even with a discount.

I was pretty disgusted to hear that a car with under 18, 000 miles on it would have an engine go bad. I wrote you a letter explaining to you how dissatisfied I was with this and of course got a simple automated response which basically said that I was out of luck because the warranty was expired.

Of course I could not afford a $4000 repair when I was expecting it to cost under $1000 so my vehicle sat at the Dodge dealership until I could save enough money to have the repair done. On Sept.1st I finally told them to go ahead and order the engine.

On September 2nd, literally the day after I told them to order the part, I checked my mail and found a letter from Ford ESP stating that “Your extended warranty is ABOUT to expire on 6/28/11”. TWO months after the warranty had expired I was receiving this notice! I was livid! First off, that proved that I had the warranty back in May when the car first broke down and I had called to inquire about it. Second, when I called the ESP number on the letter they said that since more than 30 days had passed from the time that my warranty expired that I could no longer renew it.

At this time I called Ford customer service to explain the series of events. After being put on hold for several minutes the person that I was talking to came back with the exact same wordage as I’d heard in the prior emails telling me that there is nothing that you can do now that the warranty is expired. I questioned him as to why I received the notice of expiration over 2 months late and was told that he doesn’t know what the marketing department is doing.

I asked to speak to a manager. I was transferred to someone named Kevin Tesmacher. He seemed pleasant enough and it seemed as though he understood where I was coming from. He stopped me in mid conversation to verify the mileage. You see, it seems that Ford’s computer system said that I had 117, 000 miles on it instead of 17, 000 miles on it. After hearing that from him I now believe that this is why I was told repeatedly that I no longer had warranty coverage as that warranty was only good up to 60, 000 miles. He asked me to fax him a copy of the smog certificate from May which shows that since May 5th the car has only been driven 59 miles. I feel that this is sufficient proof to show that the vehicle broke down before June 28th when the warranty expired. He told me that he would talk to “upper management” about this and get back to me.

Well, I finally got a hold of Kevin today and got the same line and script as I got from everyone else. Basically, the warranty is expired and there is nothing that can be done. Oh, did I mention that I used to work for Ford and I am familiar with the scripts that are used over the phone? I am also familiar with the “pass the buck” training as I went through it for weeks. It was obvious that this type of training is still in practice. I was taught never to take ownership for anything – always say “they” “them” “he” or “she” never talk in the first person and say “I” which is exactly what Kevin did. He said that “they” told him that nothing could be done and that “they” couldn’t help. Not sure who “they” are at the point, but can I just say that “they” suck?

Ford has failed on so many levels here. First a vehicle engine shouldn’t die at under 18, 000 miles, second I bought a warranty from Ford in good faith and Ford would not honor it during the time that it was valid, third if I had not been sent the warranty letter TWO months late I would have renewed the warranty, had proof of coverage, and I wouldn’t be sitting here typing this to you today. I do take responsibility for losing the original paperwork for my warranty; however I feel that it was an error in your computer system, stating that my car had 117, 000 miles instead of 17, 000 miles that created the biggest problem here. I would have been happy if Ford had even offered to meet me 1/3 of the way but not one ounce of responsibility has been taken by Ford. Ultimately I feel that Ford should replace the engine since it did in fact break before the warranty expired however, at this point I would have taken ANY gesture of goodwill- for starters you could have refunded the $1500 that I paid for the warranty since I never used it and when I needed to, you would not honor it- I would have accepted the opportunity to renew the warranty since I received the notice 2 months late and then have the vehicle fixed that way- there were many ways that Ford could have at least tried to make this right but they fail to take any responsibility at all. I am actually ashamed to say that I worked for Ford. I am sorry to anyone who I sold a Ford to. I will find any and every avenue to share my story with and make complaints to. I want people to know that Ford is not honest and doesn’t care at all about their customers. I am also going to look into what the proper agency would be to file a complaint for the fact that you would not honor the warranty that I paid for as I believe this constitutes fraud and misrepresentation. Maybe I will get nowhere, maybe I will be wasting my time, but if I can sway even one person away from getting a Ford at this point I will feel satisfied. Thank you for absolutely nothing!

I would like Ford to pay for my engine replacement or at the very least refund the cost of the warranty that they would not let me use.