What does your process for getting service look like?

[Airforcetxn]

At Gene Messer Ford in Amarillo, TX, if you request service on your vehicle, they give you a date to drop the truck off, but they are very clear that the truck will not be worked on that that time. They explain how backlogged they are, but that you have to leave your truck with them to even get on the schedule. So I have to drop my truck off on Monday to maybe get looked at on Thursday. Is this standard practice? Or are you able to drop your truck off at the time it's ready to be looked at?

Sponsored

 

[The Weatherman]

It is NOT for me. My dealer is Don Franklin Ford in Columbia,KY and they are good at giving me an appointment, usually within a week of my call. Further more, if it’s a long service issue (more than 4 hrs) they will schedule it so I have a loaner. Shorter and I just hang out between service and the showroom.

 

[carys98]

I make an appointment and my dealer sends someone to my house in the morning to pick it up and then someone drops it off later that afternoon. They’ve only kept it overnight when they had to replace the carpet and after a failed SW update.

 

[RickLightning]

Many dealers operate this way. I have a small dealership. They have me come the day they're ready, but they know I will come as soon as they say.

 

[mattskr]

I make an appointment and my dealer sends someone to my house in the morning to pick it up and then someone drops it off later that afternoon. They’ve only kept it overnight when they had to replace the carpet and after a failed SW update.

what? How did a failed update destroy the carpet?

 

[carys98]

what? How did a failed update destroy the carpet?

Two different visits. I think I’ve had it in 6 times with 4 visits (CSPs and recall) completed same day, 1 taking 2 days (carpet), and 1 taking a week (the SW, which should have been the easiest).

 

[TNVolFan]

It is NOT for me. My dealer is Don Franklin Ford in Columbia,KY and they are good at giving me an appointment, usually within a week of my call. Further more, if it’s a long service issue (more than 4 hrs) they will schedule it so I have a loaner. Shorter and I just hang out between service and the showroom.

Also a Don Franklin customer in Somerset, KY. They are wonderful about getting me in with an appointment and being timely in their work. Can you take it to another dealer?

 

[Piquette]

I email my Concord, NH Ford Service Representative, he responds with a date and time to bring it in (I’m retired so I can bring it in first thing in the morning). The longest wait has been 3 hours (the Ford servers for updating the programing of the new rear light bar were acting up after a long weekend), then I drive the Lightning home. Sometimes I have to wait several weeks for the appointment, but it hasn’t been problem. They always work with me to get it in.

 

[The Weatherman]

Also a Don Franklin customer in Somerset, KY. They are wonderful about getting me in with an appointment and being timely in their work. Can you take it to another dealer?

There is another Ford dealer in Glasgow, about the same distance from me, but I would have to be extremely desperate to even try.

I would be more likely to come to Somerset first.

PS. I think Somerset and Columbia share the same EV Tech (Cody). Seems to be pretty up on what’s what.

 

[Heliian]

I have never dealt with any shop anywhere that says just drop it and we'll get to it eventually.

Whenever I've had a vehicle scheduled for service, again, at any shop anywhere I've been, it gets looked at that day or the next at latest if it's really busy.

Your dealer is unorganized and understaffed, I would never use them or agree anywhere else to that level of mess.

This all circles back to the lack of skilled techs. They lack the techs because they don't pay, don't waste your money at those places.

 

[jefrank]

Randy Wise Ford in Ortonville, MI schedules a day then they come pick up the vehicle in the morning and return it in the afternoon. If it's something that requires parts we've usually already talked and they wait until they're in before scheduling the work date.

 

[davehu]

I make an appointment and my dealer sends someone to my house in the morning to pick it up and then someone drops it off later that afternoon. They’ve only kept it overnight when they had to replace the carpet and after a failed SW update.

my dealer, Risor Ford in Hot Springs AR, has the same service, called Pickup and Delivery. Appears that it's an optional service offered by some dealers. I love it!

 

[invertedspear]

At Gene Messer Ford in Amarillo, TX, if you request service on your vehicle, they give you a date to drop the truck off, but they are very clear that the truck will not be worked on that that time. They explain how backlogged they are, but that you have to leave your truck with them to even get on the schedule. So I have to drop my truck off on Monday to maybe get looked at on Thursday. Is this standard practice? Or are you able to drop your truck off at the time it's ready to be looked at?

At least two of the dealers in the Phoenix area do this (Bell Ford and Camelback Ford). So I leave them a terrible review on google, then they respond with a customer relations person's phone number, and when I deal with that person I'm suddenly able to get my truck looked at the same day and get a loaner car.

Their claim is they have to have the truck on their lot to have a repair order, and they have to have a repair order to have it on their schedule. Reality is they do it this way to ensure their techs are never idle, and they're willing to expend every bit of customer goodwill to get there.

 

[Airforcetxn]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I called another dealership (Tri-State Ford) here in Amarillo and their policy seemed much more reasonable.

 

[shutterbug]

At least two of the dealers in the Phoenix area do this (Bell Ford and Camelback Ford). So I leave them a terrible review on google, then they respond with a customer relations person's phone number, and when I deal with that person I'm suddenly able to get my truck looked at the same day and get a loaner car.

Their claim is they have to have the truck on their lot to have a repair order, and they have to have a repair order to have it on their schedule. Reality is they do it this way to ensure their techs are never idle, and they're willing to expend every bit of customer goodwill to get there.

Camelback really is awful. I now go to Chapman.

Sponsored