George Anderson
Member
Hello all.
First a big thanks for all the help and advice I've gotten here in the last year and a half or so that I owned our 2003 red xlt 4x4 sport trac. I did sell it last week :>( but something had to go. I've been unemployed for almost a year and the $$$s were dwindling. I got a pretty good price for the trac and we never had any problems with it except fot the intermittent tail light problem that my daughter reported.
I posted a question about that problem last week or two and you all were your usual helpful selves. In fact, by the time I was through getting info on here, I knew far more about the trac than the SA or even the Service manager at my (former) dealer. I say former cause I can't and won't show my face in there any more. Oh I can't show my face in there cause I went off on the whole service dept for the rotten treatment I've gotten and for not knowing Jack Sh_t about the cars they're servicing. They think I'm a nutcase at this point. If I am, they DROVE me there! :>)
Some of you will recall the tail lamp questions and that my service manager, backed by the tech, told me the problem was with my aftermarket DRL and autolamp modules. I was finally able to teach this SM about the trac and had him look in the owners manual to see that the 2003 trac DID have autolamps as an option and mine came with them. They were going to 'fix' my intermittent tailamps by removing the DRL and autolamp modules and put the wiring back to "factory". I was able to stop that before they began operating.
I had also asked that they fix the paint peeling from the radio fascia, being a factory defect as described in a tsb. I had thought they had done it as they never called back on it and they knew I had a deadline to meet (they had the trac for more than 2 full days.) But all they did was the 30000 mile service for $420.00. They did NOT even bother to look inside the steering column to check for bent wires or wires pulling out of the connector as is common in the taillamp problem. This is what I brought the thing in for. SM said if I could show him something in writing that connected that to the taillamp problem he'd be "happy" to oblige. Otherwise he'd rather spend more time arguing with me than it would have taken to pull the fascia off the steering wheel. Since the SSM mentions only the brake lamps, he would not check it for tail lamps.
I was already a little ticked when I went in to pick up the trac. Then I saw the service report which first said I needed front brakes - but they hadn't told me that over the phone which would have been nice since I had a deadline. and 2) they'd be happy to fix the defective paint for $137.80. THat just flipped me over to the dark side. I've put up with so much crap from this service dept since I purchased the first of 3 vehicles I've bought from them 5 years ago that it finally boiled over.
$137.80 to fix a defective paint spot the size of a penny. 28000 miles on the trac. They couldn't just do an AWA for a good customer? I've spent over $100,000 on vehicles with these people and they nickel-dime me every time I drive into the service area. The rest of the time, they just F-U big time. Here's a short list of the crap they've done over the years:
- They were putting in 5 quarts of oil when they serviced my LS, which calls for 6.8 quarts I believe is the accurate number. So my engine was 2 quarts low for the first 10000 miles or so until I finally realized what they were doing and called them on it. Then a tech wrote "6.8 quarts" in magic marker on the underside of my hood. Easier than checking the manual I guess.
- Another time, I brought my LS in for service. Simple PM visit. Picked it up the next day and it had probably 2 or 3 $THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of body damage to the passenger side, like someone had run into it with a big hand truck or something. Just a mess. THey said "It was like that when you brought it i
First a big thanks for all the help and advice I've gotten here in the last year and a half or so that I owned our 2003 red xlt 4x4 sport trac. I did sell it last week :>( but something had to go. I've been unemployed for almost a year and the $$$s were dwindling. I got a pretty good price for the trac and we never had any problems with it except fot the intermittent tail light problem that my daughter reported.
I posted a question about that problem last week or two and you all were your usual helpful selves. In fact, by the time I was through getting info on here, I knew far more about the trac than the SA or even the Service manager at my (former) dealer. I say former cause I can't and won't show my face in there any more. Oh I can't show my face in there cause I went off on the whole service dept for the rotten treatment I've gotten and for not knowing Jack Sh_t about the cars they're servicing. They think I'm a nutcase at this point. If I am, they DROVE me there! :>)
Some of you will recall the tail lamp questions and that my service manager, backed by the tech, told me the problem was with my aftermarket DRL and autolamp modules. I was finally able to teach this SM about the trac and had him look in the owners manual to see that the 2003 trac DID have autolamps as an option and mine came with them. They were going to 'fix' my intermittent tailamps by removing the DRL and autolamp modules and put the wiring back to "factory". I was able to stop that before they began operating.
I had also asked that they fix the paint peeling from the radio fascia, being a factory defect as described in a tsb. I had thought they had done it as they never called back on it and they knew I had a deadline to meet (they had the trac for more than 2 full days.) But all they did was the 30000 mile service for $420.00. They did NOT even bother to look inside the steering column to check for bent wires or wires pulling out of the connector as is common in the taillamp problem. This is what I brought the thing in for. SM said if I could show him something in writing that connected that to the taillamp problem he'd be "happy" to oblige. Otherwise he'd rather spend more time arguing with me than it would have taken to pull the fascia off the steering wheel. Since the SSM mentions only the brake lamps, he would not check it for tail lamps.
I was already a little ticked when I went in to pick up the trac. Then I saw the service report which first said I needed front brakes - but they hadn't told me that over the phone which would have been nice since I had a deadline. and 2) they'd be happy to fix the defective paint for $137.80. THat just flipped me over to the dark side. I've put up with so much crap from this service dept since I purchased the first of 3 vehicles I've bought from them 5 years ago that it finally boiled over.
$137.80 to fix a defective paint spot the size of a penny. 28000 miles on the trac. They couldn't just do an AWA for a good customer? I've spent over $100,000 on vehicles with these people and they nickel-dime me every time I drive into the service area. The rest of the time, they just F-U big time. Here's a short list of the crap they've done over the years:
- They were putting in 5 quarts of oil when they serviced my LS, which calls for 6.8 quarts I believe is the accurate number. So my engine was 2 quarts low for the first 10000 miles or so until I finally realized what they were doing and called them on it. Then a tech wrote "6.8 quarts" in magic marker on the underside of my hood. Easier than checking the manual I guess.
- Another time, I brought my LS in for service. Simple PM visit. Picked it up the next day and it had probably 2 or 3 $THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of body damage to the passenger side, like someone had run into it with a big hand truck or something. Just a mess. THey said "It was like that when you brought it i
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