Reply From Ford's Customer Relations

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Further to the saga of the aircon on my newly-purchased used Galaxy being repaired, I wrote again to Ford's Customer Relations Manager. Both my letters were addressed to the Director of Customer Service, Bob Lockington, in Glasgow.

Both were passed to one of his minions to deal with as he is apparently "not able to reply personally to all customer correspondence addressed to him..."

So do Ford care or not? Usually the only reason people like me find out such a person's name and write is because we are dissatisfied with the treatment wer have received.

The minion states that "it is therefore with regret that we note the criticicm levelled at the Ford Customer Relationship Centre". Ah well, if they won't do anything to speed up poor parts deliveries to their dealers, or assist a disgruntled customer, what do they expect? - in fact what are they doing at all?

The letter finishes with 2 standard paragraphs of blurb about assurance that concerns are maintained on the records, if you require further assistance etc etc - huh, further assistance when they didn't provide any the first time round!

 

Anyone else got any experience of Ford's Customer Relationship Centre (good or bad)?

[HJT]

The only experience of the Ford Customer Relation Centre was when I bought my Ka from a car supermarket, the manuals were in German. So I phoned the centre and explained the situation and the next morning, on the doorstep, was a complete set of manuals and service books in english. So I've not had any cause for complaint about them but my problem was very easily solved.

 

Howard

[Guest Kevin]

I must say that I have found the Ford Customer Service centre to be pretty good, at least over the problems we had with our new Ford Galaxy, the two new Cougars was another matter.......

 

Basically the new Galaxy Zetec 2000 model PDi we purchased in September 2000 had a number of problems. The most serious and the reason we rejected the car, was the inability to fold the rear two seats over properly due to the increase in the thickness of the foam in the seats on the new 2000 model. The same problem affected the MK2 Sharan as well.

 

In January 2001 Ford refunded the entire purchase price of the Galaxy, even though it had over 4,000 miles on it by then.

 

If you are in dispute over your car with Ford, it is worth getting or threatening legal action to really get their attention. Then if you have a genuine case, they should do something about it.

Always take the Legal protection Insurance if offered with home insurance. I used this to get my result with Ford.

 

Am I unlucky with Ford's?

 

1. New Ford Cougar 24v X automatic delivered March 2000. Gearbox self destructs in October 2000 with just over 6,000 miles on the clock. Car's wings all scratched by dealer during repair and interior carpets left soaking wet and eventually go mouldy.No joy from Ford Customer Service. Car p/exed March 2001

 

2. Galaxy problems including repeated total electrical failures, windsreen wipers pack up, assorted rattles, headlight range and intensity poor new bulbs fitted etc

 

3. New Ford Cougar 24v X manual delivered March 2001.Gearbox fails driving away from the dealership with 12 miles on the clock.Further discount offered by Ford Customer Service to take the car after I rejected it on the spot. Complete engine failure at 8026 miles the day after its annual service in March 2002!

 

I now have a Citroen C5 diesel estate bought new in March 2003.Current mileage as of 8/7/03 is 9,800 miles!! ( I commute to France) Absolutely nothing has gone wrong with this car.

Edited July 9, 2003 by Kevin

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Oh dear, I think you've been plain unlucky.

I used to work somewhere where the guy who worked for me swore by old Cortinas - he'd had loads and never had much problem (whis was as recently as 3 years ago); he's still working on fitting a Granada 2.8 V6 to a Cortina mk 4 body.

On the one occasion when he treated himself to a then-modern car, a VW Scirroco that was just a few months old, it gave him nothing but expensive trouble so he sold it and went back to older Cortinas!

What I cannot understand is why, if car manufacturers produce so few lemons, when one comes to light, they don't just replace it to save all the bad publicity, both on TV/radio, and word of mouth by the disgruntled owner.