Buried in Bureaucracy and Rebuffed

Note: This is a follow-up piece to my "In a Fix with Ford" article. See that if you need some additional background.

Where does one begin a tale of woe? For that, my friends, is what we have here. Six weeks ago, I wrote my original article with high hopes that I could prevail upon Ford to do the right thing, and fix the known design problems with my early production 2006 Ford Fusion. Little did I know that I had about as much chance of success as Don Quixote in tilting at windmills.

An Apology to the Messenger

First, I want to express my appreciation to Marq Boggs, Service Manager at Don Hinds Ford, in Fishers, IN. He had the great misfortune of being bearer of the bad news that Ford had no intention of fixing my car's problems. In my initial article, it may have seemed that I was "killing the messenger" by placing a big part of the blame on his dealership. That was not my intent, and if it was taken that way, I humbly apologize.

In fact, Marq has been of great assistance: first, in confirming that my car does indeed suffer from every one of the issues described in my first article; second, in taking it upon himself to address one of the problems by flashing my car's computer with up-to-date firmware; and finally, in chasing through some of the bureaucracy at Ford in an effort to find someone willing to address my problems.

Unfortunately, he was not successful.

Pointing Fingers, Hot Potatoes, and Monkeys in the Middle

The implication here is, that Ford has refused to repair my car. Interestingly, Ford customer service's own reply to me (I'll call it the "kiss-off" letter - others might choose a more colorful term) seems to imply that the dealership was the one with the final say in the matter:

Dear Woodrow Windischman,
We have looked into this matter and our records indicate that a decision has been made by your servicing dealership.  In addition, they suggested that you take your vehicle to the selling dealership and see if they would provide additional assistance.  Please be advised that the CRC can not overturn this decision.  However, to ensure our records are complete we have documented your feedback.
We would like you to know that we understand your concern and that we appreciate the time that you have taken to write us about this issue. 

(Emphasis added)

I talked to Marq again to see what was going on. It seems that each dealer is allocated a certain amount of "customer loyalty" money by Ford. This is supposed to be used to provide exceptional services to the dealer's customers. The official bottom-line position of Ford was that they weren't going to pay to fix my car, but if the dealer wanted to, they could provide the repairs out of these loyalty funds. Here's the rub - I didn't buy my car from Don Hinds, and I'm not really local (for now, I'm just in Indy on a contract), meaning future purchase prospects are limited as well. So, there really isn't a good reason for them to use a big chunk of these (rather scarce) resources on my car. I can understand this, and there are no ill-feelings from me on this account.

What about my "selling dealership" (Rice Ford, in Warsaw, IN - where I actually bought my car)? Well, I spoke to Bud Shanks, the service manager, and there was good news and bad news. The good news is, he and Mr. Rice agree that Ford should be responsible for fixing my car. The bad news is, they agree that Ford should be responsible for fixing my car. Therefore they don't feel it is appropriate to tap their loyalty funds for my repairs either. There is another complication - as I mentioned, I'm on a contract that has me over 100 miles away from the dealership during normal shop hours. In order for me to take my car there for service, I would need to take at least a day away from work, thus negating a big part of any benefit from having the repair covered.

How to Make a Billion Dollars

A company is more than its most recent marketing campaigns. I was proud of the fact that Ford didn't accept bail-out money from the government last year. I remember their "Quality is Job 1" campaign. I remember when they used to offer lifetime warranties on repair service. Notwithstanding the (truly minor) problems at issue here, I've been very happy with the service my Fusion has given me.

It is ironic that just a few days after I got their final kiss-off, Ford announced that they had made about $1,000,000,000 (that's one billion dollars) in profit during the quarter of my discontent. This during one of the worst economic downturns in recent memory. (No, how ever much the media likes to portray it that way, it isn't even close to the "real" depression of the 30's, or even the "stagflation" times of the late 70's. Doesn't anyone remember the double-digit mortgage interest rates?)

According to my experiences, and based on conversations with the dealers, a big part of this profit has been made by cutting back on the service and support provided to its customers and dealer base. Yet this "reputation" for quality and service is one of the reasons Ford was able to make sales while others were foundering.

The Big Picture

Everyone involved here agrees that it should be Ford's responsibility to fix my car. Everyone, that is, except Ford themselves.

Of course, whether paid for by Ford or not, I need to get my car fixed. This whole adventure started when I had to pay an ESP extended warranty deductible for a repair on my shifter, who's design was changed due to the very problem I suffered from. That case was made even more frustrating by the fact that the deductible was almost the entire cost of the repair. That ESP is still in place, and some of the issues I'm having are covered under that plan. Of course, I'll have to pay another deductible. In the end, given the cost of the ESP to begin with, I'll end up having paid the entire cost of the repairs, and then some.

If you've followed my blog for the last few months, you know that my life has been filled with highs and lows lately. In the grand scheme of things, is getting a few non-life threatening car repairs paid for all that important? Not really.

But that still doesn't make the way Ford has been treating its dealers and customers "right".