It's worth telling the tale of the new cars that my wife and I leased as an example of the "finest" service that America's car companies offer.
Let me start at the beginning. As last year ended, both my wife and I had leases on small 2016 cross over vehicles made by Ford Motor Company. We liked the cars, so since the leases were ending, we each signed new leases for 2019 vehicles. I got the same model and my wife got the next bigger one. As we discussed the lease terms, the dealer told us that since we already had Ford products, if we signed a new lease through Ford, there would be $600 credit given to us for use against any damage or excess wear on the cars we were turning in. My car had no problems, but there was some damage on my wife's car, so the $600 made a difference.
My new car came first. In December of last year, I got my new vehicle and turned in my old one. There was no damage on my car. About two weeks later, I got an inspection report telling me that there was $200 damage. I looked at the pictures. There was damage, but it hadn't been on the car when I turned it in. Of course, it didn't matter because I was getting up to $600 take off any charges for excess damage or wear. About a week later, I got a bill from Ford Motor Credit for -- you guessed it -- $200 for excess damage.
I called the number on the bill that said I could use if I had any questions. I had to take three minutes to go through the usual computer menus. Yes, I wanted English. Yes, I was a customer of Ford Motor Credit. No, I didn't know the extension of the person to whom I wanted to speak. Yes, the call was about a lease. Finally, after being told that the call could be recorded for quality control purposes, I was connected to a service rep. She took my account number. She verified my name, address and phone number. Then she told me that I had called the wrong number. She couldn't help me since my lease had ended. She gave me the number for the people who dealt with completed leases. I told her that I had just called the number that Ford had provided on the lease, and she apologized for the mix-up.
At that point, I hung up and called the new number I had just received. That was the start of the computer menu all over again. Yes, I wanted to speak English. Yes I was a customer of Ford Motor Credit. And so on and on it went until I finally passed the point of being told the call could be recorded and a new service rep answered the phone. I explained the problem; she looked at the account and told me that she did not understand why I hadn't received the $600 credit. She assured me that she was crediting the account, apologized for the confusion and, after a mere 25 minutes on the phone, I was finished.
Two months later, my wife's new car arrived at the dealer. She had ordered hers rather than taking one from stock (like I did) so there was a delay. About two weeks later, we got an inspection report in the mail telling us that there was about $1100 of damage on her car. Then two days later, we got a bill from Ford Motor Credit for -- you guessed it -- $1100. There was no $600 credit. Once again, I called Ford. We started again with the computer menu. English -- check. Existing customer -- check and on and on. Then I got a woman who said she could help me. I told her about the missing credit for $600 and she asked if she could put me on hold for a moment. I said fine. 14 minutes later she came back on the line. She told me that she could apply the credit but only if I would immediately pay the rest of the balance on that bill. No problem, I said. Can I give you my credit card? She said fine, but when we went to try to use the card, the system was not working. She said she would try again. Miraculously, the system worked. I paid the bill and after only about a half hour on the phone, this crisis was over.
Three days later, my old car lease resurface in a letter from Ford. The company told me that even though my lease had ended months earlier, they had never received notice that the plates on my old car had been cancelled. The reason, of course, is that the plates had not been cancelled; rather, they had been transferred to my new car. It had all been handled by the dealer, just as had been done 8 times previously. Ford Motor Credit told me in the letter, however, that if the plates had been transferred, I could just fax them a copy of the registration. They also helpfully gave me a number to call if I had any questions.
I went to my car and got the registration. I wrote a cover letter to Ford so that they would know why the registration was coming to them. Then I put the documents in the fax and dialed the number that Ford had specified. No fax machine answered. In fact, there was no answer. I tried four or five times in order to make sure that the machine at Ford was not busy. Then I called the number Ford had designated to answer questions or solve problems. That began the usual process again. I went through English, current customer, and all the other bits of nonsense the computer absolutely had to know. Finally, I was connected to a please woman who asked if she could help me. She verified my account with various questions. Then she told me I had called the wrong number. She couldn't help me, but she could give me the number for the people who could help. Deja vu.
I called the next number. English............ Finally, I got Anthony. He heard my tale of woe and offered condolences. He kept putting me on hold to make certain that he had all the correct information. He gave me a new fax number to use. He also gave me his contact info so that I could just call him back if there was any problem. I thanked him.
At that point, I tried to fax the documents to Ford on the new number. Once again, the effort failed. There was no answer on the fax line. I tried five times. Then I called Anthony back. A computer voice told me that the service rep I was seeking was unavailable, but that if I wanted to leave a message, I could press 1. I pressed 1 and was connected to a different service rep. The computer didn't even tell me that the call might be recorded, but I guess I already knew that.
I explained my problem to my new service rep and asked if Anthony was available. He told me that Anthony seemed to be away from his desk. This new guy told me that he was locked out of my account because Anthony still had it opened. There was nothing he could do. I asked if he could relay a message to Anthony to call me back. He said that he would do so and that I could expect a call back within ten minutes. I was really getting annoyed, so I asked one more question. I asked for the name of the head of Ford Motor Credit and for his or her email address or phone number. The service rep told me he couldn't give me the phone number because he didn't have it. I said what about the name? He told me that he didn't know it. Now that was clearly not true. How could a guy not know the name of the head of his company? I said that he should just ask Anthony to call me and I hung up.
It is now three hours later. No one has called. I even called Anthony and managed to leave a voice mail for him to call. That was about 90 minutes ago. Still, there is no call.
One of the big advantages of modern America is supposed to be all that quick access to information that computers give us. In this case, all that the computers have done is to waste hour after hour of my time. For its part, Ford Motor Credit has managed to "forget" to apply a promised credit to my account TWICE, and to send out erroneous letters that provide non-working fax numbers and incorrect telephone numbers to customers. It's a disgrace.
By the way, just so it's clear, the letter from Ford about the plates said that if Ford didn't promptly get the information requested, it would cancel the license plates in question. Ford started with a threat. Then it presented a stone wall that prevents me from complying.
Why would any sane person want to deal with this mess, and yet all of us do it, day after day.
Let me start at the beginning. As last year ended, both my wife and I had leases on small 2016 cross over vehicles made by Ford Motor Company. We liked the cars, so since the leases were ending, we each signed new leases for 2019 vehicles. I got the same model and my wife got the next bigger one. As we discussed the lease terms, the dealer told us that since we already had Ford products, if we signed a new lease through Ford, there would be $600 credit given to us for use against any damage or excess wear on the cars we were turning in. My car had no problems, but there was some damage on my wife's car, so the $600 made a difference.
My new car came first. In December of last year, I got my new vehicle and turned in my old one. There was no damage on my car. About two weeks later, I got an inspection report telling me that there was $200 damage. I looked at the pictures. There was damage, but it hadn't been on the car when I turned it in. Of course, it didn't matter because I was getting up to $600 take off any charges for excess damage or wear. About a week later, I got a bill from Ford Motor Credit for -- you guessed it -- $200 for excess damage.
I called the number on the bill that said I could use if I had any questions. I had to take three minutes to go through the usual computer menus. Yes, I wanted English. Yes, I was a customer of Ford Motor Credit. No, I didn't know the extension of the person to whom I wanted to speak. Yes, the call was about a lease. Finally, after being told that the call could be recorded for quality control purposes, I was connected to a service rep. She took my account number. She verified my name, address and phone number. Then she told me that I had called the wrong number. She couldn't help me since my lease had ended. She gave me the number for the people who dealt with completed leases. I told her that I had just called the number that Ford had provided on the lease, and she apologized for the mix-up.
At that point, I hung up and called the new number I had just received. That was the start of the computer menu all over again. Yes, I wanted to speak English. Yes I was a customer of Ford Motor Credit. And so on and on it went until I finally passed the point of being told the call could be recorded and a new service rep answered the phone. I explained the problem; she looked at the account and told me that she did not understand why I hadn't received the $600 credit. She assured me that she was crediting the account, apologized for the confusion and, after a mere 25 minutes on the phone, I was finished.
Two months later, my wife's new car arrived at the dealer. She had ordered hers rather than taking one from stock (like I did) so there was a delay. About two weeks later, we got an inspection report in the mail telling us that there was about $1100 of damage on her car. Then two days later, we got a bill from Ford Motor Credit for -- you guessed it -- $1100. There was no $600 credit. Once again, I called Ford. We started again with the computer menu. English -- check. Existing customer -- check and on and on. Then I got a woman who said she could help me. I told her about the missing credit for $600 and she asked if she could put me on hold for a moment. I said fine. 14 minutes later she came back on the line. She told me that she could apply the credit but only if I would immediately pay the rest of the balance on that bill. No problem, I said. Can I give you my credit card? She said fine, but when we went to try to use the card, the system was not working. She said she would try again. Miraculously, the system worked. I paid the bill and after only about a half hour on the phone, this crisis was over.
Three days later, my old car lease resurface in a letter from Ford. The company told me that even though my lease had ended months earlier, they had never received notice that the plates on my old car had been cancelled. The reason, of course, is that the plates had not been cancelled; rather, they had been transferred to my new car. It had all been handled by the dealer, just as had been done 8 times previously. Ford Motor Credit told me in the letter, however, that if the plates had been transferred, I could just fax them a copy of the registration. They also helpfully gave me a number to call if I had any questions.
I went to my car and got the registration. I wrote a cover letter to Ford so that they would know why the registration was coming to them. Then I put the documents in the fax and dialed the number that Ford had specified. No fax machine answered. In fact, there was no answer. I tried four or five times in order to make sure that the machine at Ford was not busy. Then I called the number Ford had designated to answer questions or solve problems. That began the usual process again. I went through English, current customer, and all the other bits of nonsense the computer absolutely had to know. Finally, I was connected to a please woman who asked if she could help me. She verified my account with various questions. Then she told me I had called the wrong number. She couldn't help me, but she could give me the number for the people who could help. Deja vu.
I called the next number. English............ Finally, I got Anthony. He heard my tale of woe and offered condolences. He kept putting me on hold to make certain that he had all the correct information. He gave me a new fax number to use. He also gave me his contact info so that I could just call him back if there was any problem. I thanked him.
At that point, I tried to fax the documents to Ford on the new number. Once again, the effort failed. There was no answer on the fax line. I tried five times. Then I called Anthony back. A computer voice told me that the service rep I was seeking was unavailable, but that if I wanted to leave a message, I could press 1. I pressed 1 and was connected to a different service rep. The computer didn't even tell me that the call might be recorded, but I guess I already knew that.
I explained my problem to my new service rep and asked if Anthony was available. He told me that Anthony seemed to be away from his desk. This new guy told me that he was locked out of my account because Anthony still had it opened. There was nothing he could do. I asked if he could relay a message to Anthony to call me back. He said that he would do so and that I could expect a call back within ten minutes. I was really getting annoyed, so I asked one more question. I asked for the name of the head of Ford Motor Credit and for his or her email address or phone number. The service rep told me he couldn't give me the phone number because he didn't have it. I said what about the name? He told me that he didn't know it. Now that was clearly not true. How could a guy not know the name of the head of his company? I said that he should just ask Anthony to call me and I hung up.
It is now three hours later. No one has called. I even called Anthony and managed to leave a voice mail for him to call. That was about 90 minutes ago. Still, there is no call.
One of the big advantages of modern America is supposed to be all that quick access to information that computers give us. In this case, all that the computers have done is to waste hour after hour of my time. For its part, Ford Motor Credit has managed to "forget" to apply a promised credit to my account TWICE, and to send out erroneous letters that provide non-working fax numbers and incorrect telephone numbers to customers. It's a disgrace.
By the way, just so it's clear, the letter from Ford about the plates said that if Ford didn't promptly get the information requested, it would cancel the license plates in question. Ford started with a threat. Then it presented a stone wall that prevents me from complying.
Why would any sane person want to deal with this mess, and yet all of us do it, day after day.
2 comments:
Dear Jeff,
I had a somewhat similar experience with Ford. My 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis,
the most expensive Mercury at this dealer, was in retrospect a lemon, made in Canada. The ignition would frequently cut out as I slowed at stop signals. The dealer oould (would) not diagnose this. I called Ford customer service twice in Detroit. Both times they deflected my inquiry and tried to get me to buy new Fords. I then started going to an independent mechanic, who told me he though the ignition cut out was due to a faulty cam switch; but was too expensive to repair, ie taking the engine apart. The car finally totalled itelf at 80,000 miles due to a collapsed brake system.I then bought a used 2006 Nissan Sentra with 90,000 miles, the best made car I have owned, and made in Mexico. I came across your site many years ago while researching AMNF. Your site is the best in this country for US politics and government. Thank you! (From New Haven County)
Daniella,
Thanks for the kind words.
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