Good news service story

[Falchoon]

There is a lot of negative stories been posted here where people take their cars in for service or warranty and the dealer does a poor job or brushes people off. I thought I would share my recent 'good news' story.

About six weeks ago I noticed my left hand low beam wasn't working. Bugger, I thought. Good excuse to upgrade to more powerful or brighter globes. So after asking some questions on here I got some reccomendations of brands and prices and went down to local care parts shop and purchased some Narva 30+ H4 globes. Got home and manged to replace the blown globe, bit of a task, had to remove the airbox but managed to complete it without too many dramas. I looked at the right hand one and decided it was too hard because the battery was in the way. The car was due for a service anyway so I thought I would get the dealer to fit the globe while they were at it.

Took the car in for service, asked them to replace the right hand globe, they said it was covered by warranty. As I had already bought the globes and replaced the left hand side already I said I would be happy enough if they just fitted the globe I supplied and didn't chrge me labour. No worries they said, pick the car up at 4pm.

That was OK, got the car back and everything was ship shape. Didn't think anymore about it. Until a couple of days ago when the I noticed the right hand low beam wasn't working. Double bugger. Went down to see the friendly Ford Spare Parts guy (MS700) and asked if he knew of any tips or techniques on replacing the globe. He agreed it was a biatch of a job and said you really need to pull the battery out but to be carefull as there is a clip holding the battery box in that is easily broken if your rough with it.

I wasn't keen to do this so Italked to one of the mechanics there and he said he would do it as a backyardy in exchange for a few cold ones. He showed me how it was done on another BA that was in the workshop, it took him less than 5 mins with no tools and leaving the battery where it was.

Hmmmm, I thought, if he can do it then I should be able to as well. So I got home and mucked around for a while, swore a bit and finally extracted the blown bulb. It was the standard OSRAM/Ford one! Dirty dogs had eiother not fitted a new bulb at all last service or just replaced it with an standard one from the spare parts bin. So I rang the dealer and had a bit of a whinge to them about it and suggested that they should replace free of charge seing as how they stuffed up. Bring it in Friday and we'll have a look was the reply. Not really the answer I was looking for but wI couldn't do much else at that stage.

To cut a long story short, I took the car in there and the service manager had a quick look and said they would replace both the bulbs with the same Narva 30+ globes for free as a goodwill gestre. I was rapped, only really expecting the blown one to be replaced by another OSRAM/Ford one.

When I went to pick the car up the service manager guy said he wanted to talk to me first before he was going to let me drive away. Alarm bells started ringing in my head. The service manager pointed towards the front of my car and said there had been a slight bingle and some one had run into it and damaged the number plate. No worries I said that was already like that, dont worry about it! The service guy and the mechanic were so relieved to hear that, they were expecting me to ! Also he said with the globes they couldn't get Narva 30+ so they used Narva 50+ instead! You beauty, more power (insert Tim the Toolman grunt here).

[Mondie]

Good story Hoon. l have had mostly very favourable dealings with service departments with the exception of the local mob here who are so bloody hopeless its almost funny. Amost.

There is an important difference between the cause of a lot of the bad news stories that you read on the forums. Some of them are a result of useless dealers but the responsibility for many of the serious issues such as my shunt rest at the feet of Ford. Strapp and New Oak Ford have both been completley proffesional at all times but their hands are tied. If they were to work on my car, Ford would reject the claim. So even though both dealerships have told me that the car is acceptable to Ford but not to them, there is nothing further they can do.

Yours was a good example of how a dealer should act when they dont have the Ford warranty gauntlet swinging over their heads!

[ktford]

God bless the Lord

& Bryan Byrt Ford

Scotty CCC

[Buf-Phoon]

Having had a few component failures in regional areas , I have nothing but praise for the can do attitude of the dealers I have had to rely on to get me and the T ready to continue our journey .

The service depts in the city pale in comparison........care factor zero

[Guest dingah]

Hmm would you still go back there next time noting that it was they not you that stuffed up the globe replacement in the first place? Sure they seem to do a good job of salvagng their reputuation but only after you complained.

[aaronmihe]

Everyone has an off day dingah At least Falc gave them the chance to make it right, which they did and if they keep things going right all will be good!

A.

[Guest dingah]

Treu enough

[ktford]

Everyone has an off day dingah

That true dingah,

got asked to fit a bike rack to the back of a girlfriend's S pack Commo on Friday night. Came back feeling clever & fitted it to the tow bar only to realise that the bikes would be dragging along the ground. Idiot put it on upside down didn't I

scotty CCC

[Guest dingah]

Good one! The important thing then was to quickly check around you to ensure that no one had seen this cunning plan in action before you reversed it like nothing had ever happened.

Dingah :doh2:

[genebaby]

Good to hear that Ross. Yes they can stuff up but it's good when they can make it right and make you happy the next time. I think I may need to go to check out Gregory's. They were great when they fitted my lower grill and Helix spacer in one go.