Ford Motor Company ripoff Dearborn Michigan

January 6, 2006

Ford Motor Company
Customer Relationship Center
P.O. Box 6248
Dearborn, MI 48126

This letter is to complain of the multitude of service issues I have encountered with two different Mercury dealerships over the past week. On Thursday, December 29, 2005 I was on my way home from a holiday trip in Arkansas. About thirty miles south of Springfield, Illinois my check transmission light went on in my 2003 Mercury Mountaineer and the Overdrive turned itself off. I immediately panicked, as it was myself on the highway alone with my 11 years old son in an area I did not know at all.

I immediately called Clinton Lincoln Ford Mercury, located in Clinton, Iowa, as they were the ones that had just checked my vehicle and asked Mike, the Service Technician what to do. I told him that they had just looked at the vehicle the week before and they said it was fine. Mike Kramer said he didn't know what to do. I then asked him to please help me locate a dealer in Springfield. He then said he didn't have that information and he couldn't help me and he was sorry then hung up. All Mike had to do was ask someone in the facility to go on the Internet. Mike was not interested in helping me. Please note that I had brought the truck in before and I told Mike that something was wrong with the transmission. Mike told me that one of his guys had driven the truck and found nothing wrong with it. Mike then proceeded to tell me that they could not look at the transmission because if they did Ford would get upset with them because they would have to clean the transmission and because the truck was under warranty they would not be able to charge me for the cleaning in an effort to look into the transmission to see what the problem was. After this visit I sent a distraught email to the dealership and got no response.

Based upon the fact that Mike and his technicians stated that nothing was wrong with the vehicle, I trusted their judgment and figured that the jerky shifting was the norm for the vehicle. I did not mention it again. I trusted that dealership.

At this point I then called a friend and asked her to look on the Internet and she found the Green Family Stores dealership in Springfield, IL. I made it to that dealership and I was in tears. The Service Tech, Matt, informed me that they thought that my torque converter in the transmission was tearing up, and that the pieces were tearing off and hitting the transmission and destroying it. He recommended that I trade the vehicle as soon as possible and stressed that I drive with the overdrive off. He also stated that this is a problem that has been noticed within these vehicles and when I asked he stated that he did not know why Mercury would not do the honorable thing and employ a recall.

After hearing this, I cried then asked to speak with a salesperson. A very nice gentleman came over and started trying to work with me. I know that due to the high mileage I was in negative equity. During this process, the General Sales Manager, Kurt Lowery, came over to commend me on my son's excellent behavior. He then began to work on my behalf. He started trying to work the numbers for a Mazda M3, which I told him that I did not like. Then he brought around a 2005 Chevy Impala. This I liked. But, unfortunately I was so upside down in the Mountaineer it just didn't work. Kurt then informed me that he was going to address the fact that I had told the Clinton dealership that something was wrong with the transmission and they had ignored me. He then began to boast of his pull within Ford. He stated that he was going to call Hector somebody who was an Area Manager or something. Then he stated that he could take this to someone named Jerry Carter who was even higher up within Ford. He just went on and on about his pull within Ford. He went as far as to say that he may be able to get my torque converter fixed for free, a new transmission, or even through Hector get Ford to forgive my loan and give me a new vehicle with a new loan. Kurt had called this Hector individual, however Hector apparently was on vacation.

He then requested if I could find a hotel in Springfield and spend the night so that his dealership could take care of me the next day, which would have been Friday, December 30, 2005. Due to my tight cash flow and fatigue we decided that I could go on home. Now, I will say that Kurt did indicate that he could guarantee nothing, but then would convincingly state that he was sure that something would be done and continued to boast of his own greatness within Ford adamantly. When I stated that the incompetence of the Clinton dealership caused this, he immediately informed me that I had a poor choice of words, it was not incompetence, it was laziness.

It was also during this conversation that Theron called in from Courtesy Mercury in Moline, IL. I told Kurt that Theron is the person that sold me the truck. He stated that Theron told him that if I needed any assistance to let him know if he could be of service. Realize that when I purchased the vehicle at Theron's dealership, I sent another letter detailing how his finance manager, John, had lied to increase my interest rate and Ford came back and decreased the interest rate due to John's malfeasance. While talking with Theron, Kurt explained to him the situation and asked if he knew anyone at the Clinton dealership as they had shown blatant disregard for the issues that I had stated that were going on with the transmission.

Finally, we left Green Mercury dealership in Springfield and headed on home to Iowa. Kurt told me to call him at the dealership when I made it home, which at that time, I thought was out of genuine concern. I told him that I would make it home around ten o'clock that night. I called his cell phone and the dealership line and got no answer and no voicemail to even leave a message. So much for that concern. I called Kurt the next morning and he told me that he would call me back towards the end of the day. It was during this conversation that I gave Kurt my cell phone number to ensure that when he called he could get me. I got no call. I called Kurt on Saturday, he had heard nothing from Hector and stated that he would call me when he heard. I called Kurt on Monday, January 2, 2006. He stated that he had spoken to Hector and Hector promised him a call back by the end of the day and subsequently Kurt was going to call me back by the end of the day. The last time I called Kurt on Tuesday evening, he told me that he was super busy and would get someone else to call me back, [he is] just super busy right now. I have heard nothing else from Kurt Lowery.

I then proceeded to call Clinton Ford Lincoln Mercury, as they needed to take some ownership for this mess as I had told them that there was a problem with the vehicle. I ended up speaking to the General Sales Manager, Dan Griner. I explained the situation that I had other dealerships in Illinois that were in agreement that Clinton Ford Lincoln Mercury could have prevented this issue. I told him that I did not know why I was blown off by the Clinton dealership with the transmission issues; perhaps it was because of gender, race whatever. Dan immediately starts ranting and raving because I used the word race. He started trying to tell me how he doesn't behave like that. I told him he cannot speak for everyone in his facility. He then went on boasting about how they had moved him up here to turn this dealership around and then proceeded to tell me how it is being a minority. I told him to not disrespect me by trying to tell me how it is being something he cannot possibly ever understand. He then went on to make this astounding comment, WE like to use that card (by this I assume he meant the race card), don't we? I then proceeded to ask him whom did he mean by the term we? He then proceeded to adamantly avoid answering that question. Please note that this very conversation would indicate to any minority that Dan has a problem with multi-culturalism if he feels that We use this as an excuse I stated at this point that it was my goal to just get my truck fixed. Dan then stated that he needed to do some research and then would get back to me.

Dan did call back the next day. He tried to utilize the dates of my complaint as his way out of ownership for this fiasco. I told him that regardless of what the dates stated, I trusted his dealership in regards to the status of my truck. He also kept utilizing the fact that he wasn't there during the beginning of this situation as a vehicle to dispense blame as well. He told me that he was talking to his Area Manager or whatever and that he would be calling me back the next day as well with potential resolution. He stated that he thought that Ford would pay for some of the repairs, but not all of it. I have yet to hear from Dan.

In this day and time when Ford has one of the worst warranty's in the industry and the foreign cars boast of the much better workmanship and seemingly have it, treating customers like this should not be an issue as well. Know that on this day, when this truck is paid down, I will never ever purchase a Ford again. Ever. Your sales people and technicians lie. Your company obviously perpetuates a lack of integrity and seemingly promotes this. If you even feel the need to follow up on this, I can be contacted via email at dovegrayson@yahoo.com as right now I will not trust another thing from Ford unless it is in writing.

A distraught customer,

Pamela
Clinton, Iowa
U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Ford and Ford Dealers