Dealerships Not Working on EV’s They Didn’t Sell?

[Lavaorange]

Sad how forums seem to attract so much negativity and assumption of the worst kinds. In this case I believe the OP ran into a maxed out service centre with skilled staff shortage but ultimately I just can't really know. Before everyone jumps on the dealer as being nefarious and poor team/brand player.... consider they also have to make a profit or why bother taking all the risk. I can't imagine warranty work provides stellar compensation from the manufacturer so if shop space/time is limited they have to choose. That's one consequence of the globalized world we live in. With Ford talking about selling direct to consumer down the road, dealers must be nervous about their own futures.

Now comes the rant

As a retail store owner we sometimes get requests for warranty service on brands we carry but the customer purchased the item elsewhere. In our case, we bear the full burden of costs associated with shipping warranty items in for repair to the service centre and staff resources to admin them. In many cases they actually have no warranty (amazon) or some grey market warranty requiring they ship their item back to Japan or Europe which makes them grumpy. We also often have people come to our small family store to check out products (because we choose to have a large selection in stock), try them on and take photos of them wearing it. Then they leave and never come back. We know many of them come in just to see it live and buy it online to save a few bucks. That is their choice and we choose not to compete/price match with certain online shops that don't provide the same after care service such as amazon or international sellers. We pay high commercial rent, pay our small team a living wage and have other overhead most shoppers don't think about such as the cost of 2 break-ins just last year. All most people think about is how they can save a few dollars for themselves. While I understand our personal budgets are important, especially in this age of inflation and higher interest rates, we forget that small business is the back bone of most communities. Local jobs support other local jobs in other businesses. When we spend our money outside our community we can't expect our neighbour to save us always. He may have lost his job and has bigger issues than a broken down pick up truck 99.9% of the world can only dream of owning. When Walmart's open up in rural centres, the mom and pop shops start to close in the surrounding communities. Amazon is now the killer of communities. Bottom line. most of us live in the some of the wealthiest nations in the world and do have way more than most in the world. If we chose to spend a couple extra dollars if it meant making sure our community will still be healthy for the next generation we should do it. That's a good investment. Thanks for listening and I hope you will consider it next time you need a new tool or toaster before just clicking online and buying to save a few dollars or for the convenience. Support local when possible.

Sponsored

 

[TaxmanHog]

Thanks for listening and I hope you will consider it next time you need a new tool or toaster before just clicking online and buying to save a few dollars or for the convenience. Support local when possible.

 

[brownhousechris]

Curious how many folks are running into what I just did and the “why” behind it.

I am away from home for work for an extended period of time and my wife has been driving my truck. Got the powertrain malfunction errors a couple times but she was able to reset it, until she couldn’t. So I got an email from Ford’s recall team and my wife confirming the truck wouldn’t go into drive or reverse.

All of this led to calling Ford’s recall team who helped schedule service to fix it all. When they connected me with the local dealership on a conference call, the local place stated that as of 2024 they will not work on any EV’s they didn’t sell themselves. It ended up the nearest dealership that would over an hour away.

Is anyone else getting this experience? Any idea the “why” behind it?

Though my wife has liked the truck, she did mention that maybe we should look at something else if we have to go an hour to somewhere else for any sort of issue.

Just ran into this issue today. I called our local dealer, where I did not buy the truck, for the BCM CSP. They told me they won't work on it since they did not sell it, and they specifically told me they were reducing their EV portfolio and avoiding certification. Fine, I guess, but it seems pretty shortsighted to me, and I won't be taking my other cars there anymore either.

 

[RickLightning]

Sad how forums seem to attract so much negativity and assumption of the worst kinds. In this case I believe the OP ran into a maxed out service centre with skilled staff shortage but ultimately I just can't really know. Before everyone jumps on the dealer as being nefarious and poor team/brand player.... consider they also have to make a profit or why bother taking all the risk. I can't imagine warranty work provides stellar compensation from the manufacturer so if shop space/time is limited they have to choose. That's one consequence of the globalized world we live in. With Ford talking about selling direct to consumer down the road, dealers must be nervous about their own futures.

Now comes the rant

As a retail store owner we sometimes get requests for warranty service on brands we carry but the customer purchased the item elsewhere. In our case, we bear the full burden of costs associated with shipping warranty items in for repair to the service centre and staff resources to admin them. In many cases they actually have no warranty (amazon) or some grey market warranty requiring they ship their item back to Japan or Europe which makes them grumpy. We also often have people come to our small family store to check out products (because we choose to have a large selection in stock), try them on and take photos of them wearing it. Then they leave and never come back. We know many of them come in just to see it live and buy it online to save a few bucks. That is their choice and we choose not to compete/price match with certain online shops that don't provide the same after care service such as amazon or international sellers. We pay high commercial rent, pay our small team a living wage and have other overhead most shoppers don't think about such as the cost of 2 break-ins just last year. All most people think about is how they can save a few dollars for themselves. While I understand our personal budgets are important, especially in this age of inflation and higher interest rates, we forget that small business is the back bone of most communities. Local jobs support other local jobs in other businesses. When we spend our money outside our community we can't expect our neighbour to save us always. He may have lost his job and has bigger issues than a broken down pick up truck 99.9% of the world can only dream of owning. When Walmart's open up in rural centres, the mom and pop shops start to close in the surrounding communities. Amazon is now the killer of communities. Bottom line. most of us live in the some of the wealthiest nations in the world and do have way more than most in the world. If we chose to spend a couple extra dollars if it meant making sure our community will still be healthy for the next generation we should do it. That's a good investment. Thanks for listening and I hope you will consider it next time you need a new tool or toaster before just clicking online and buying to save a few dollars or for the convenience. Support local when possible.

Your points are valid, but in many cases people don't buy vehicles local due to AVAILABILITY.

When the Lightning first came out, many of us were on the reservation list. Neither Ford nor dealers explained that it wasn't first come, first served, that ZEV states got priority, and that dealers got allocation. I got on the list 11.5 hours in, and was number 73 on my dealer's list.

Then, when they got allocation, dealers reprioritized as they saw fit...

I was given the opportunity to order roughly 18 months after getting on the list, after 3 price increases. I passed. Then, I went search for mannequins, and found some, all out of state. My dealership only had an XLT mannequin, and they don't want to sell it.

I bought THREE vehicles from them since 2018, spending in excess of $150,000. They CHOOSE to not service the vehicle because of their queue, but it's the inadequacy of their hiring process to get qualified EV techs on staff that's the issue. I have probably a dozen Ford dealerships within 30 miles, and this is the only dealership with this stance. So be it, bye bye.

Amazon has in fact killed off many businesses. When I was working, I advised clients to not sell on the platform, because Amazon took product descriptions and photography, and then sold cheap lookalikes themselves. And they studied the data to learn the business, then entered it themselves. Some listened, some didn't.

I give some business to local stores. Sometimes the markup they want is too much. Just bought a new microwave, and the local appliance store was 33% more than everyone else. Sorry, no.

I always go to local breweries though, avoiding ones bought out by the big guys. And we seldom eat at chain restaurants.

 

[Henry Ford]

If there's such a service backup, why does every dealership close as 6:00 and not do service on weekends? I've heard the service center is the profit maker for dealerships but I've never seen a dealership that does much beyond service the way it was done when my grandfather was running a shop in the '50s.*

* In terms of hours not actually helping people. At my grandfather's funeral and my uncle's 30 years later the pews were full and I heard story after story of how they helped keep people's vehicles on the road in a small rural town whether the bill was going to be paid in full or not. There are probably still places like this...they probably won't work on your Lightning either.

 

[shutterbug]

Sad how forums seem to attract so much negativity and assumption of the worst kinds. In this case I believe the OP ran into a maxed out service centre with skilled staff shortage but ultimately I just can't really know. Before everyone jumps on the dealer as being nefarious and poor team/brand player.... consider they also have to make a profit or why bother taking all the risk. I can't imagine warranty work provides stellar compensation from the manufacturer so if shop space/time is limited they have to choose. That's one consequence of the globalized world we live in. With Ford talking about selling direct to consumer down the road, dealers must be nervous about their own futures.

Now comes the rant

As a retail store owner we sometimes get requests for warranty service on brands we carry but the customer purchased the item elsewhere. In our case, we bear the full burden of costs associated with shipping warranty items in for repair to the service centre and staff resources to admin them. In many cases they actually have no warranty (amazon) or some grey market warranty requiring they ship their item back to Japan or Europe which makes them grumpy. We also often have people come to our small family store to check out products (because we choose to have a large selection in stock), try them on and take photos of them wearing it. Then they leave and never come back. We know many of them come in just to see it live and buy it online to save a few bucks. That is their choice and we choose not to compete/price match with certain online shops that don't provide the same after care service such as amazon or international sellers. We pay high commercial rent, pay our small team a living wage and have other overhead most shoppers don't think about such as the cost of 2 break-ins just last year. All most people think about is how they can save a few dollars for themselves. While I understand our personal budgets are important, especially in this age of inflation and higher interest rates, we forget that small business is the back bone of most communities. Local jobs support other local jobs in other businesses. When we spend our money outside our community we can't expect our neighbour to save us always. He may have lost his job and has bigger issues than a broken down pick up truck 99.9% of the world can only dream of owning. When Walmart's open up in rural centres, the mom and pop shops start to close in the surrounding communities. Amazon is now the killer of communities. Bottom line. most of us live in the some of the wealthiest nations in the world and do have way more than most in the world. If we chose to spend a couple extra dollars if it meant making sure our community will still be healthy for the next generation we should do it. That's a good investment. Thanks for listening and I hope you will consider it next time you need a new tool or toaster before just clicking online and buying to save a few dollars or for the convenience. Support local when possible.

The Lightning are not gray market items. They weren't bought on Amazon or directly imported from some other country. Most dealers make more money on service (yes including warranty work) than new vehicle sales. Some people buy the vehicle locally and then move. What exactly are you suggesting they do? The bottom line is that some dealers are myopic and thing that pissing off potential future customers isn't going to cost them in the future.

 

[RickLightning]

If there's such a service backup, why does every dealership close as 6:00 and not do service on weekends? I've heard the service center is the profit maker for dealerships but I've never seen a dealership that does much beyond service the way it was done when my grandfather was running a shop in the '50s.*

Because the mechanics don't want to work those kind of hours, and they can't get enough mechanics to work more shifts.

I read of one person saying their dealership did service at nights (i.e. mechanics working, no customers), but that's probably 1 out of 1,000.

 

[Monkey]

Just ran into this issue today. I called our local dealer, where I did not buy the truck, for the BCM CSP. They told me they won't work on it since they did not sell it, and they specifically told me they were reducing their EV portfolio and avoiding certification. Fine, I guess, but it seems pretty shortsighted to me, and I won't be taking my other cars there anymore either.

One of my local Ford dealerships who I’ve done quite a lot of business with quit doing warranty work on vehicles not bought from them. This all started with all the supply and staff shortages spawned by covid. I’ve heard a few others around town are pulling the same crap. These dealerships don’t want to take on any more warranty work than they have to since they can only bill Ford for what amounts to pretty low rates. They’re trying to maximize their billable service hours for higher-rate, out of pocket customers. And most service departments are booked a couple weeks out.

And it’s not just Ford doing this. A friend of mine has a GMC Sierra in the shop right now with transmission issues. His normal dealership wouldn’t service it since he bought it out of state. Now at a different dealership and they’re trying to repair it piece by piece and do as little as possible to try addressing the issue. We’re both 99% sure it needs a full transmission replacement. Of course they didn‘t have any loaner vehicles so he ended up in a rental RAM 1500. Truck has been in the shop over 2 weeks now, they finally looked at it last Friday and ordered a few parts. He’s arguing with the dealership about paying for the rental, GM has been absolutely zero help in all this even though they’re ultimately responsible for warranty coverage.

Dealerships are independently owned/operated, but they’re still a franchise and have to honor certain obligations of the brand. Dealerships not performing warranty service reflects poorly on the brand as a whole. It seems over the past several years, it’s become increasingly more obvious that Ford, GM, etc.. are all trying to push dealerships further away and at times leaving customers stranded with few or no options. All the more reason the traditional dealership model needs to die.

 

[Monkey]

Because the mechanics don't want to work those kind of hours, and they can't get enough mechanics to work more shifts.

The dealership I’m currently servicing with has their service department open on saturdays. But they’re still desperately trying to hire more service techs/ mechanics and service appointments are being booked 3 to 5 weeks out. It’s like scheduling a doctors appointment. They’ll work you in sooner if they can, depending on the severity of the issue…. Otherwise take a number. Most of them do all the routine maintenance, tires, minor stuff through a separate department.

I read of one person saying their dealership did service at nights (i.e. mechanics working, no customers), but that's probably 1 out of 1,000.

This used to be a lot more common 20+ years ago. The pay was a lot better to start with….

Sponsored