Ford - How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix

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Sun 24 Jan 2010 20:03
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - adam f
Evening,

My car (2001 Ford Focus 1.6 Zetec) has a very annoying problem where it is "stumbling" at idle. I had a local mobile mechanic come and have a look and plug in his computer - but the ECU was registering no codes. He thought it might be the Idle Control Valve so put a new one on and it didn't fix it - so he put the old one back on.

So last Monday i took the car to local Ford main dealer. I explained the symptoms and they kept the car in for 2 days. I got a phone call sayig that everything is fixed. I picked the car up on wednesday but nothing has changed - the car is still exactley the same. I rang them back and Friday and they said to drop the car off that day - which I did - but they didn't get a chance to look at it so ill drop it back tomorrow morning.

Anyway. when i dropped the car off on Friday - The smarmy service guy started rambling on that it will obviously need more investigation and was implying I would be charged.

I have already paid them £264 for a repair that hasn't actually fixed anything and i dont want to pay them anymore really. How do I approach this when the car is "finally" fixed.

(FYI the £264 was for 2 hours "investigation" + parts - crankcase vent pipe and air induction pipe)
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Sun 24 Jan 2010 20:15
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - Rattle
They charged you £260 for this! My dads car had a very similar problem, cost me £3 to fix and took me half an hour to diagnose with little mechanical knowledge.

I would demand a refund and find a more honest dealer :).

I make a living by repairing computers, I cannot go round charging £260 for something that dosn't solve the problem they would put me in prison for fraud.

The diagnoses fee should be waived too because they haven't even done that right.

Edited by Rattle on 24/01/2010 at 20:16

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Sun 24 Jan 2010 20:19
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - bell boy
diagnosis can never be free
but
they should have told you it wasnt fixed rather than bill you and send you on your way
to me thats theft
its probably something simple like a leak in the exhaust manifold,if more garages did basic tests rather than relying on electronic gizmos then maybe a lot of jobs could be fixed easier quicker and cheaper
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Sun 24 Jan 2010 20:39
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - adam f
I noticed it wasn't fixed 10 mins after driving away from the dealership (the problem only happens when the car is at normal temp)
I doubt they even road tested the car after.
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Sun 24 Jan 2010 20:45
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - Old Navy
You should have taken it straight back and demanded a refund, it worked for me.
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Sun 24 Jan 2010 20:53
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - Rattle
Of course you have to charge to diagnose, but it should be the correct one. £260 is a staggering about of money to fix a split plastic pipe.
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Sun 24 Jan 2010 21:00
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - adam f
Well its £90 per hour and then i think it was £50 for parts - all plus VAT.

I will never use them again but seeing as i have aleady paid out some money i want the problem sorted.

They did a report of the car (check tyre wear brakes etc...) and rang me to tell me that the oil was very low - i questioned this because the weekend before i serviced the car and put in approx 4 1/2 litres of oil in - he went sheepish and never mentioned it again.

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Mon 25 Jan 2010 13:12
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - adam f
Well I have dropped the car back at Ford today so I will let you guys know the outcome.
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Thu 28 Jan 2010 11:32
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - adam f
Update:

Ford had the car fro a furthur 3 days and have finaly fixed the problem. They did a software update on the ECU.

I wasn't charged anymore Money.
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Thu 28 Jan 2010 11:43
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - dieselfitter
Unfortunately, BB is right that you have to expect to pay the cost of labour to investigate and diagnose, and this can quickly add up to a big bill. But I think I might be after them for a refund on the cost of the parts that were replaced inappropriately at the first visit..
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Thu 28 Jan 2010 12:55
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - adam f
Well they said that the crank case vent pipe was collapsing when the car was at normal temp so i am not to bothered about the cost of that part (around £30 i think)

I am happy with they final outcome and can live with the price they already charged as the car spent nearly a total of 5 days in there and i can imagine they tech did spend more than a couple of hours diagnoses on the car.
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Fri 29 Jan 2010 18:06
How to approach Dealer after repair that wasnt fix - bell boy
sounds like main dealer flannel to me as im pretty sure you cant flash a 01 focus ecu
the worrying real deal here is that the dealer cant put a man on a 10 year old bread and butter car that they sell loads of and fix the fault due to knowledge stored from previous cars doing the same
basically its a case of they dont want the job anyway as a quick service and a tyre kick will pull in the same bread and nobodies the wiser
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