Ford service

[firewired]

Firstly, this is my first Ford. I had to buy the FFE from 100 miles away being they didn't carry the FFE in San Antonio yet. I think the dealer has "just" become EV certified and had a Level 2 charger installed.

I experienced the "stop safely now" yellow wrench warning, and for me it was pretty harrowing in that it occurred at a busy intersections, and the car would not drive, couldn't get it out of drive and couldn't get the car into park to turn off. Only after several minutes of trying the on/off button did I get the car to reboot, during the intervening time I really thought I might get rear ended. I called Ford customer service and they told me to bring it to this dealer as it was EV certified.

Two days ago in the morning I dropped my FFE off at the dealership. I told them exactly what had happened, and explained that I had talked to Ford's EV division and filed a case. The service rep said they would see if the car had thrown any codes and if there were none they would call Ford. I checked on Myfordmobile on my phone at the end of the day and it hadn't been moved. This morning I called to see if they were going to keep it for the weekend and the rep said he would find out. I checked the Myfordmobile app after that and found the car registered one 1 mile trip and 30 minutes later another 1 mile trip. The rep let me know that my car was ready to go, no warnings had came up. I then mentioned that while they had my car I thought that even though it was a '13 model it didn't seem to have the newest sync software with the leaf icon, and could they possibly check to see if there was an update. I gave him the version number that was listed on another thread on this board. The rep checked and came back and said, nope I had the newest version.

Well I just got to the dealership, and showed the rep and mechanic a picture of the updated sync screen. The mechanic said he had never seen that before, and could hook the car to the computer and see if there was an update. That's the whole point of this lengthy post. I had a malfunction that could easily have lead to an accident, which others have similarly experienced. They did a cursory 30 minute check which I would guess would entail checking to see if there were any codes thrown, and that there were currently no warnings. I am very disappointed in the lack of concern with what could be a safety issue in a low volume car. I hope that others that have had this issue have a dealer that is concerned enough to go the extra step.

[jpc1818]

I had a similar experience at an intersection. I had mine towed to the local dealership where i purchased the FFE. They would not let me pick up the car until they could figure it out. It turned out that my battery charging module needed reprograming and there was a new software update.

Car has been perfect since......

[JTCalif]

Ford service rep. told me they COULD NOT WORK ON MY CAR because I had not bought it there.

Has anyone else gotten that line from a Ford dealership / service dept.??

(This from a Ford dealership that is qualified to sell / service these, they said. I didn't buy my 2012 there because they didn't have one when I wanted to buy, and they were quoting well over MSRP, then.)
I had asked for an estimate (etc.) for doing my first 10,000 mile service, and for doing the fix for the small non-functioning lights in front, as in Recall Notice 13C04.
He did not answer any of my specific questions. I am not at all pleased.
The place I bought the car from is too far from here for me to drive on (1) 100% charge!
(Got here in a trade ... long story.)

(Info. added after initial post: that rep. wrote to me "Unfortunately we have our appointments reserved for people who have bought their cars here. As per the owner of the dealership I am not able to make an appointment at this time. You may want to call a larger dealer or your selling
dealer." So, maybe they simply don't have capacity to handle more work now.)

[danholl]

This is a bogus claim

I'm sure Ford does not condone this + it makes no economic sense. I have the same situation. I bought the car from a dealer the other side of town because they were the only ones certified. My nearby dealer is now certified and is perfectly happy to service the car.

I would talk to the owner and if you get no satisfaction, talk to FORD

[unplugged]

Ford service rep. told me they COULD NOT WORK ON MY CAR because I had not bought it there.

A Ford dealership is required to work on any Ford under warranty. Ask the dealer to put this in writing so that you can address the issue directly with Ford. Also, call the Ford customer service number at 1-800-392-3673 and explain to them the rejection you received by the dealership. Ask Ford whether they want to come and pick up the FFE now, or whether the dealer is going to properly service your car. Those two options are the only options.

Also, please provide the name of the servicing dealer (who refused service) and the selling dealer.

[davideos]

I believe I heard that dealers make more money on their service department than on new car sales. Whether true or not, I'm sure a significant part of their business is service. Second, dealers love warranty service because they don't have to worry about the customer's budget...ford is paying the bill. My guess would be that there is something they are not telling you...likely that they don't do well servicing the EVs...they probably don't like to keep cars overnight...nor multiple days.

I had the charge ring on my FFE go bad and it took them 3 days to do the Sync update and change the LED ring. If it were any other car, they'd have finished that day. The contributing issues where that they didn't have enough experience with the upgrade and that they didn't stock the LED ring.

With the limited number of FFEs all over the country, your Ford dealer isn't going to be seeing them that often. Although not desired, I think that is the reality of being an early adopter. What I would like to find out is what Dealer does the most service in Southern California. Where ever that is, I think that's where I'd prefer to take my car. I bough mine from Theodor Robbins in Costa Mesa. I'm really happy with them, but I don't think they see many FFEs.

Just my opinion.

[EVA]

I'm curious - what is a 10,000 mile service on the FFE? What exactly was the dealer going to do at 10,000 miles?

[jmueller065]

I had the charge ring on my FFE go bad and it took them 3 days to do the Sync update and change the LED ring. If it were any other car, they'd have finished that day. The contributing issues where that they didn't have enough experience with the upgrade and that they didn't stock the LED ring.

Still not a very good dealer. In that case our dealer would have let us take the car home and gave us a call when the part is in. They have done this type of thing for every service issue on our ICE cars when a part needed to be ordered.

I'm curious - what is a 10,000 mile service on the FFE? What exactly was the dealer going to do at 10,000 miles?

According to the owners manual:
Rotate Tires, inspect: brakes, cabin air filter, cooling system, steering linkage, wheels/suspension

Thought I saw somewhere that someone took theirs in for the 10k service and it cost them less than $10 LOL.

[EVA]

Thank you Jmueller, can always count on you for a learned response.

[dmann000]

I can definitely confirm my 10,000 mile service cost me $24! I don't recall all that was done, but the cost was just tire rotation.