Sorry - long rant. I'm not one to get angry and raise my voice with someone, but I definitely did today.
I bought a new F-150 in September. I've had 4-5 times where the air conditioner fans cut out after driving for a while. With this being intermittent, it could be impossible to troubleshoot, and I can appreciate that from a service technician perspective. That being said - it cut off one day when driving home. I was able to catch the dealer right at closing time and get a service advisor to confirm that it happened, but I couldn't leave it with them. He told me with it being intermittent, it was unlikely they'd see it on diagnostics and they'd probably just start with a hard reset to see if that kicked it. He suggested I start with that if I couldn't leave it with them.
So I reset it at home. A month goes by and it did it again. This time, I was able to figured out the low side refrigerant line was frozen over. I did a little research and found a Technical Service Bulletin on my model for a software update that was exactly what I was dealing with. It only required a software update. A hour of labor, but most of the time was just letting it dry before using it, so probably 10 minutes of a tech's time.
I scheduled an appointment. Took the day off. Printed the TSB. Air conditioner is running fine, of course. Tell the service advisor what's going on, show the picture on the frozen line, show the TSB. He tells me in order to have it covered by warranty, they'll have to have it diagnosed and the techs will need to see it. And it would be three days before they could get it back to a diagnostic technician.
At this point, I could tell I was getting frustrated. Several questions: What good is an appointment if you can't do the work for three days? I can't afford to leave it here for 3 days. And if you can't get it to repeat, I'm going to continue fighting this issue, right? Oh, and by the way, this software update surely takes less time than a diagnostic, right? Do you get paid for diagnostics that don't show anything? Etc.
Realizing that I'm starting to draw some attention, I tell him that I want him to know that I know he isn't at fault and I know he is just following the process, but I am NOT OK with the process and that I expect a better path to resolution for a brand new vehicle. I am not going to leave a vehicle for three days with a published solution, only to have them not fix it because everything is currently functional.
Of course, they escalate to the service manager. It takes some time before I can meet with the service manager, and he was able to get me in, and even promised to have it back by the end of the day. I made sure to let him know that the advisor was just doing his job and I was not mad at him - just the process.
I tried to be respectful. I didn't cuss this service advisor out. I didn't outright yell at him, but I did lose my cool. I don't like the feeling of being mad at someone, and I really don't like the thought of being disrespectful to someone just doing their job. But personally, I think the warranty process is BS and intended to slow-roll people. And I certainly don't think it's brand specific, though Ford sure seems proud of their service flow chart. In the end, these guys did take care of me, but how hard is it to get 10 minutes of software work scheduled?!
Rant over. Make fun of me, dog on your own dealer, share your own horror stories, let me know the inside scoop on how to deal with this next time, etc. Whatever floats your boat.
I bought a new F-150 in September. I've had 4-5 times where the air conditioner fans cut out after driving for a while. With this being intermittent, it could be impossible to troubleshoot, and I can appreciate that from a service technician perspective. That being said - it cut off one day when driving home. I was able to catch the dealer right at closing time and get a service advisor to confirm that it happened, but I couldn't leave it with them. He told me with it being intermittent, it was unlikely they'd see it on diagnostics and they'd probably just start with a hard reset to see if that kicked it. He suggested I start with that if I couldn't leave it with them.
So I reset it at home. A month goes by and it did it again. This time, I was able to figured out the low side refrigerant line was frozen over. I did a little research and found a Technical Service Bulletin on my model for a software update that was exactly what I was dealing with. It only required a software update. A hour of labor, but most of the time was just letting it dry before using it, so probably 10 minutes of a tech's time.
I scheduled an appointment. Took the day off. Printed the TSB. Air conditioner is running fine, of course. Tell the service advisor what's going on, show the picture on the frozen line, show the TSB. He tells me in order to have it covered by warranty, they'll have to have it diagnosed and the techs will need to see it. And it would be three days before they could get it back to a diagnostic technician.
At this point, I could tell I was getting frustrated. Several questions: What good is an appointment if you can't do the work for three days? I can't afford to leave it here for 3 days. And if you can't get it to repeat, I'm going to continue fighting this issue, right? Oh, and by the way, this software update surely takes less time than a diagnostic, right? Do you get paid for diagnostics that don't show anything? Etc.
Realizing that I'm starting to draw some attention, I tell him that I want him to know that I know he isn't at fault and I know he is just following the process, but I am NOT OK with the process and that I expect a better path to resolution for a brand new vehicle. I am not going to leave a vehicle for three days with a published solution, only to have them not fix it because everything is currently functional.
Of course, they escalate to the service manager. It takes some time before I can meet with the service manager, and he was able to get me in, and even promised to have it back by the end of the day. I made sure to let him know that the advisor was just doing his job and I was not mad at him - just the process.
I tried to be respectful. I didn't cuss this service advisor out. I didn't outright yell at him, but I did lose my cool. I don't like the feeling of being mad at someone, and I really don't like the thought of being disrespectful to someone just doing their job. But personally, I think the warranty process is BS and intended to slow-roll people. And I certainly don't think it's brand specific, though Ford sure seems proud of their service flow chart. In the end, these guys did take care of me, but how hard is it to get 10 minutes of software work scheduled?!
Rant over. Make fun of me, dog on your own dealer, share your own horror stories, let me know the inside scoop on how to deal with this next time, etc. Whatever floats your boat.