Forgive the length of my post
Two years ago my wife decided she wanted to buy a new car, something she?d never done before. She wanted a convertible and settled on the Ford StreetKa. We went and negotiated a good deal and she paid outright for it. Subsequently every encounter with the dealership, including the collection, has been marred by an incident of some sort, Friday was no exception.
Two weeks ago I phoned and booked her car in for a service. The guy I spoke to booked a ?value? service and engine flush, I explained the engine flush should be optional and I didn?t want it. He apologised and agreed. Now how many people wouldn?t know it?s optional and just go with it??? Anyway????..
Friday we drop the car off and get told ?that it?ll be £215 when we collect? .
EXCUSE ME !!!!!!
Their justification was that the ?value? service is only meant for cars over 3 years old and that by having that on our car it will invalidate the remainder of the warranty. It was at this point my wife realised what was coming and went quiet as I expressed my dissatisfaction in plain English. Only the full service would keep the warranty valid. We agreed to it as we want to sell it later this year and would like to say there is still the balance of the warranty. If I was a betting man I?d wager the service was done by the same technician, in the same bay and using the same parts and that Ford are making an extra £116 because people don?t want to lose their ?peace of mind?. How a main dealer can do a service and it invalidate the warranty is quite frankly ridiculous.
I am thinking of writing to their customer service department to demand an explanation:
a) Is it worth it?
b) Is there anything know that may bolster my argument?
Unfortunately this dealer has tainted the ownership of a car that she really enjoys.
To give them some credit they did take £30 off the bill but I'm still not happy.
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Usual advice - call for a quotation, confirm the quotation, when you drop the car off reconfirm the quotation and what will be done then you don't get any surprises.
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I did all of that which is when the issue arose. I'm more concerned how a main dealer can do a service and it supposedly invalidate the warranty???
Or are they saying that on a 'value' service they don't use Ford / Ford approved parts? Would be wrong for a main dealer to do that surely?
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Its amazing how many variations of an oil change exist just like mobile phone charges.
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what service was it according to the service book (miles or time) and see what items are required in that
then compare against the "value service" offer description from the dealer.
IF they are the same you have a case, If they are not - the garage has probably done you a favour tho they should have pointed this out when booking it in. You seem to indicate the value service is £99? I bet there are many many caveats and exclusions in that offer
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It was the second year service, 25k miles classed as a 'major', the cars done 14k but I'd always get it serviced in line with the schedule. The value service is £99 yes. They changed oil + filter, air filter and another filter, can't remember but maybe pollen???
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Here we go
Pop in for a £99 Ford Value Service and we'll give you a £25 giftcard from a choice of stores
Choice is good. Great in fact. Jelly or ice cream. Football or cricket. Westerns or weepies.
So we thought we?d let you make some decisions. Come along before 31st January 2009 for a £99 Ford Value Service or a £129 Ford Value Service and MOT and we?ll give you a £25 giftcard for a choice stores on the right. All you need is a Ford vehicle over 3 years old.
Terms and conditions
Promotion only applies to Ford retail vehicles over 3 years old and cannot be taken in conjunction with any other offer.
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I know all that and, for the third time of asking....................
How can a main dealer can do a service and it invalidate the warranty???
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because a value service is NOT a major (in the service book) service.
(the real reason is of course they should never have offered you the value service as they cant do it under those terms (3 years), and found out after they got the car in so are using the warranty thing as a blind - in short they cocked up)
But if you knew about the three years thing anyway why did you take it?
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How can a main dealer can do a service and it invalidate the warranty???
Simple - if the monkey in the service reception can't add up to 3, and tries to book your Mrs' motor in for a budget-priced service that is intended for >3yo, out of warranty vehicles - and hence won't include some of the bits that are done for the 25k service which is what Uncle 'Enry says you have to have, in order to keep up the warranty.
£215 seems OK- it was £300-odd for the same one on my old Mondeo TDCi.
Edit: AE beat me to it...
Edited by paulb {P} on 26/08/2008 at 17:10
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AE, I didn't know about the vlaue service / 3 year rule at the point I phoned up and booked it, I just asked to book her car in for it's two year service and that's when he first called it a value service and quoted £99, so you are right, they cocked up.
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Had the same thing with our Honda Jazz the other day. Called to book a service, all it needs this time is the basic 12,500/1yr service which is a glorified oil change. "£186."
I started weeping and he knocked 10% off, then said; "we can service your car for £99 but if we do that we can't stamp the service book".
The only thing he could say that made some slight sense was the £99 service wouldn't use fully synth oil (of which the Jazz engine holds about 100ml).
Eventually agreed on £160 and free courtesy car. Still a lot of money for a stamp in the book.
Edited by Bill Payer on 26/08/2008 at 17:30
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Had my partners Sharan serviced a few months back - its still in warranty so have stuck with main dealer to date. Called a couple of the local ones and were all nearly 300 - called the dealer who supplied it who quoted 225 - I accepted. Quizzed the service manager as to why he was cheaper and he told me it was because they were losing too much business - retail customers doing 10K a year were only having the 1st long life service and never being seen again, so they were revising their pricing to retain customers.
Back to the op - if you specified that the car was having its 2 year service, and gave the reg number then I would send a letter to the dealer principle. Sounds like you were clear in what you wanted and they made a mistake / misslead you.
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Simpler (more cynical, but more likely) explaination:
Punter rings and asks for price of service.
Dealer says £99, hoping to tempt punter in the door with low price.
Punter checks price against Indy garage, decides to bring car to glass palace to maintain warranty.
As car is booked in, dealer says 'terribly sorry, that'll be £215 if you want to keep your warranty'
Punter says 'crumbs, that's a bit dear', but leaves the car in and pays up anyway.
Dealer pockets £215 worth of business he'd have lost otherwise.
Sharp practice? Yes, but it worked! You accepted to have the car serviced for £116 more than you were expecting.
Incidentally, IIRC under EU competition rules, it doesn't matter who carries out the service so long as i) they're a VAT registered garage, ii) they use original parts and iii) they do the work as specified in the car's service schedule.
i) and ii) present no problems for a Ford garage working on a Ford car. I strongly suspect you'll find at least one job from the major service schedule is left out of the value service to ensure iii) comes into play.
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£215.00 ! Makes BMW ownership seem almost cheap !
Outrageous practice, as long as a car is serviced in accordance with a maker's schedule and using OE parts they cannot invalidate the Warranty even if you get it serviced elsewhere. Sharp and probably unlawful practice (Euro Law). I'd threaten him with Trading Standards!
Skoda actually pointed out I was welcome to service elsewhere as long as their parts were used to maintain the warranty - I like Skoda very, very good dealer experiences so-far.
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> as long as a car is serviced in accordance with a maker's schedule
ah nobut yesbut nobut yesbut
It wouldnt have been using the cheap value service.
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You can service it yourself as long as you do it inline with the Ford schedule and use parts approved by Ford(don't have to be OE).
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The warrantee issue with a £99 service probably isn't what they've done, more likely what they haven't done.
ISTR a brake fluid change at 2 years old on daughter's KA.
The ABS brake bits are expensive compared with the cost of that job.
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The second and third year is a DEALER backed warranty, NOT a Ford factory backed warranty. So for the first service you can do it yourself, but not after. This may have changed in the last couple of years but was certainly the case when I own my Mondeo.
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The second and third year is a DEALER backed warranty NOT a Ford factory backed warranty.
As a general point, that's more or less what the owner of our village garage told me - most cars now have 2yr manufacturer warranty (I think that's an EU thing) but the 3rd year is dealer backed which the manufacturers don't have to offer (Porsches only have 2yrs warranty).
To qualify for the 3rd year dealer backed warranty, the car generally has to be dealer serviced.
Edited by Bill Payer on 26/08/2008 at 22:57
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I / we have had a number of Fords serviced by an indy while they were less than three years old and in one case from new. Never had the opportunity to test the intactness of the warranties as a result. None of them has ever had anything go wrong.
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 26/08/2008 at 20:45
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Not wishing to appear thick, but how does the 3rd year dealer backed warranty work, are the cost of any repairs charged to the supplying dealer ? I had some warranty work carried out on a Renault, not at the supplying dealer, just before it was 3 years old and was not even asked to sign anything !
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I'm still reeling from the cost - I've been ferreting in my archives (AKA untidy pile of car papers) and found that was near enough the cost of a Inspection 1 service on my 5 series.......
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