Southgate Ford Inc. - Service Center

First about me, I am 35 years old, I have owned a total of 6 vehicles in my life, 2 of which I bought new. I owned 5 fords, 4 of which were mustangs. My first car was a 87 mustang when I was 16. I bought m of 6 vehicles in my life, 2 of which I bought new. I owned 5 fords, 4 of which were mustangs. My first car was a 87 mustang when I was 16. I bought my first new vehicle in 99, it was a 2000 Nissan Xterra. I absolutely loved it. This was my only non Ford vehicle and only foreign vehicle ever. The only reason I got rid of it is cause it had 155k miles on it and was starting to die and me and my wife were separating and I really felt I needed a dependable vehicle and the fed announced on a Thursday that at 5pm the next Monday cash for clunkers was going to officially end. So I decided to act fast so I could get the $4500 for my Xterra. I called Gorno Ford and talked to them about a Escape they had, and I was on my way to pretty much buy it when I stopped by Southgate Ford just to glance for a second since I was driving by. I talked to the salesman Chip there for a minute and he pretty much hooked me and stole me away from going to Gorno to pick up the one they were holding for me, I never left Southgate ford after that except to go get my registration information and anything needed to close the deal. I looked at a few Escapes out in the lot but decided to buy the showroom model cause it had a sunroof and none on the lot did. I Was a little sad that I had to give up my Xterra cause I really loved it, but I knew I needed something dependable and also did feel good that I was “going American” during a time when it was really needed. Since I bought my 2010 Ford Escape I have come to really like it alot. I have done everything right with it. Any time it needed a oil change I made sure to take it back to Southgate Ford before it hit 0% on the gauge to have it done, when it had a recall I took it back to Southgate Ford, anything that has or would be needed I have made them the place to go for it. Any time it asks if I want to run a vehicle diagnostics I do and send it in. I had decided that I didn’t want to deal with any “mom and pop shops” with this vehicle, I wanted to make sure to always take it to Southgate Ford so that I made sure that everything was done 100% right. Before it hit 12k miles I made sure to purchase a ESP plan to make sure I had everything covered even after the regular warranty runs out. Pretty much I have done everything right with this new vehicle I have bought and made sure that if anything goes wrong I have it taken care of, or so I thought. This brings me to my problem. First 2 issues that I feel seem to be dismissed that I have mentioned each time I bring it in. My rear view mirror will auto dim at completely odd times. It will be overcast out with no sun and it will be completely dim and I will not be able to see. Another time it dimmed at night and I could barely see lights from other cars in it so it was completely useless at that point. I mentioned it 3 times now and nobody has looked at it or suggested a solution to it. I asked if there was a way to turn the auto dim off and they said not without disabling the sync and then dismissed it. I feel there is something wrong there and maybe the mirror is just defective and I need a new one. It does it at completely random times so its hard to ever point out. The next issue is from when I brought it in for the timing recall that I had done. After they did the recall, I have noticed randomly that sometimes it shifts kinda hard and I have lost MPG on the gauge. I had called and asked and told them about it when I brought it in and all that was done was they drove it and said nothing seems wrong. Before I had the recall done, I was hitting around 22-24 mpg for my average work week, mostly highway miles, after I had it done it seems like I am hitting 17 -20 mpg at most. At the same time I had the recall done I had the oil changed so I knew I couldn’t be losing mpg cause I needed to change the oil. This didn’t happen over time at all, it happened right after I picked it up from having the recall done, so I felt that maybe there might have been something not done completely right. There are times where if I am driving in the city my average mpg will hit as low as 15 or 16 mpg, where before I had the recall done I don’t ever remember it going below 20 mpg. Then one time when I filled up the tank as I pulled away from the station the miles to empty said that I was 65 miles to empty, this was weird since I just filled it up. Before I filled it up I had 20 miles to empty and after I have 65? As I drove it over the next 2 days it sometimes stayed around 65 miles to empty and sometimes it went up, but never fully corrected itself till I put gas in it again. The MPG for that tank never went over 20 mpg. I feel there might be something wrong with the computer or something after I had the recall done since that is when everything started going wrong, but it seems like it was completely ignored. The last issue not only concerns something wrong with the vehicle but also the way I have been treated as a customer. When it started to get cold out in 2010 and I first turned on my rear defrost I noticed that I was missing one line from it, but kinda dismissed it cause it was only one line and I thought maybe it would come back on or something. This was around October of 2010. Within the next 3 months I went from one line not working to 2 on 2 off 2 on 2 off and 1 on, at this point I knew I had to take it in and I was going to need a oil change soon so I would have them look at it then. At the beginning of 2011 I went from that pattern to just the 2 middle ones working then nothing working within about 2 weeks. On Monday January 17th I dropped it off to have the oil change done and told them about the timing recall that was done and about how the rear defrost had been dying for the past few months and just recently died completely. The service person who helped me was Jamie at Southgate Ford. She told me about some “digital imaging” that they have just started doing and would have to send the information to Ford about the rear defrost. I really wasn’t sure what that meant so I left my Escape there over night and waited till the next day for a answer. The next day she called me up and let me know that someone drove it and didn’t find anything wrong with the trans or timing, but the trans people are kinda backed up so they couldn’t look at it. She also told me that Ford refused the warranty on the rear defrost. I couldn’t understand why it was refused since I was only at 20k miles and a year and a half old and I have a “bumper to bumper” warranty on it to 36k mile or 3 years, on top of that I have the ESP plan that I Paid almost $1000 for. She told me it was cause to the digital imaging that was done, they decided that it was damage done to the rear defrost. I had no idea how I could have damaged it. Jamie gave me a number to call for the Ford customer relations department. I called them and they told me that the service manager at Southgate Ford had put in that the rear defrost was damaged and that is what they have to go on since they do not have to vehicle to look at and they have to go with what he says and they can not fix it. They told me that if the customer service manager put in that it might have been something that is under warranty that they would cover it but he just has to change the order. I am now even more confused cause when I left Southgate Ford Jamie had told me that everyone there believed it should be fixed and didn’t know why ford would not fix the problem. I called her back up and told her that I would like to speak to whoever put it in and understand why they would not support the customer in a issue. I went back to Southgate ford the next day and Jamie got the service manager for me to talk to. He walked right out with a scowl on his face immediately opened my back window and started telling me I guess what he believed that I had done to it, which I still do not understand and why would he immediately start telling the customer that he is wrong without even considering that maybe he should support me a little. I told him what the Ford customer relations department had told me and he started pushing his finger on a set of papers showing me what ford had sent back and telling me once again how I am wrong. At this point I had a complete sick feeling in my stomach, not only was ford not standing by a simple rear defrost, but I was being treated like I was trying to run some kinda scam by the service manager. I told him that I have done everything right, I left a foreign vehicle in the largest crisis is recent times for the auto industry and went American, I have brought my Escape back to the dealership each and every time to have my oil changes done so that everything is logged, I brought it back the the dealership that I bought it from for these and the recall, I have given them all my business. I told him I even paid almost $1000 for a extended service plan and still he didn’t care about anything I was saying. He asked what I wanted him to do and I told him I wanted him to do what Ford told me he can do and call them up and say that it should be covered under warranty. They said he told them that it was damaged and it shouldn’t be covered, he then tried to call my bluff I guess or something and said he wanted me to tell him what Ford was reading this from. I told him I do not know, I called the number that Jamie provided me the day before and I was on the phone with someone who told me this info, they told me that the service manager has a number directly to ford to make the warranty claim and say its covered and they would cover it. He then pretty much called me a liar and said they didn’t say this, now why would I lie about this, so I picked up my phone and was about to call them back up when he started pushing his finger at the set of papers again telling me again what ford said and why I am wrong. I told him that I did not need to see any papers, I have a new 2010 Escape with a 3 year 36000 mile bumper to bumper warranty with a extended service plan on it and Ford will not cover a simple rear defrost and if they will not cover a rear defrost then it really makes me feel like they will find a way to not cover anything that goes wrong with it ever. He then got mad at me and started yelling at me asking me what I want him to do. I again told him that I wanted him to call Ford up and tell them it should be covered under warranty since he was the one who told them it isn’t. He then said that he never said it should not be covered under warranty to them and it was Ford who made that decision. So I said if he never said that then why will you not call them up and support the customer who has given you their business since buying the vehicle from you? He then pointed at the back window and said that he wouldn’t cause he can see that I damaged the rear defrost and there is nothing more that he will do for me. I then told him that if he never said that it shouldn’t be covered under warranty how can he tell me that I damaged it? He then said he never said that, so I pointed out that he just said those words to me 10 seconds earlier, how can he say he didn’t when he just said that I damaged it and he will not do anything for me. I asked him how can he treat a customer the way he is treating them, like they are trying to run some kinda scam on him? Why wouldn’t he at least sympathize with me and understand where I am coming from and at least tell me options on what I can do. He told me why should he sympathize with me when he can see that I damaged the rear defrost and he will not do anything to fix it. I told him I couldn’t believe the way he is treating me, how do you treat a customer this way that bought the vehicle from you and has given you all the business since buying it from you? I was doing everything right and nobody seems to care at all. He then continued to tell me how I was wrong, pointing at the papers in his hand and showing me the window. I still do not know how I could have done this at all. I told him that his was the showroom model, not a model that was in the lot, it might not have been something done in the factory but someone could have done something to it while it was sitting in the showroom that took a cold Michigan winter and hot summer before it started to go wrong and as I told him it didn’t just die, it died slowly over months. He told me there is no way to prove that anything was done by Ford or the dealership so he will not fix it, so I told him that there is no way to prove it was done by me so then it should fall onto the 3 years 36000 mile bumper to bumper warranty or the $1000 extended service warranty that I have bought. He said that will not happen. He said that maybe someone else who drove the vehicle might have done it. I told him that I am the only one who drives it, and he looked down at my finger and saw my wedding ring and asked me my wife never drives it? I told him that it was really none of his business but I am separated, I still wear my wedding ring cause I am not divorced, just separated. The whole reason that I bought the vehicle was to have something dependable cause we were getting separated. She moved out right after I bought it and lives on her own, so to answer your question, no my wife does not drive the vehicle. This is about 10-15 minutes into everything and I am visibly shaken and upset by the whole thing, why the dealership I bought the vehicle from wouldn’t care about helping the customer out and would treat them this way. I said there has to be something someone will do, where do I go from here? He told me nobody will fix it, I broke it and he will not help me. I said then get me the owner, get me anyone who will help me above you cause obviously you will only tell me how I am wrong and do not care about anything I have to say. He then told me that he can set me up a appointment with the regional customer service manager to talk to. I then asked why we just had to go through 15 minutes worth of back and forth like we did when there was a next step he could have done? Wouldn’t the correct thing to do would be to sympathize with the customer and support them a little and then set up the appointment with the regional and let them make the next call? Not fight with the customer for 15 minutes and tell him that he is wrong in every way you possibly can and completely insult him before telling him about this step? So I told him to please set me up the appointment with the regional. He then whipped out a card from his pocket and told me to contact them myself he isn’t going to do it. I told him that he just told me that he would set the appointment up so why wouldn’t he? He said I can do it myself. I told him that I will not leave till I get that appointment set up. He then turned to Jamie and told her to have me fill out the paperwork for the regional and walked away. I didn’t look at the card he gave me till I left, but as I looked at it later it wasn’t information to contact someone from regional, it was just his personal card with his name on it, Bob Lovett. So if I would have left I would have had no information to contact the regional person myself like he told me to do. What kind of manager does this?? So next Jamie took me to her desk to fill out the paperwork and I was visually distraught, I was so upset I was holding back tears. Everyone in the office was looking at me wondering what was going on. I told them I have never been treated the way I just was by the manager in my whole life. This is how disgusted I was. I couldn’t believe that Ford, the shining star of the big 3, the one that didn’t need government bailout money, the one that did everything right to make it through the turmoil that has happened recently is seriously treating a customer who “went American” the way they are. As I sat at Jamie’s desk I noticed that the service manager was at the end of the room staring me down like he wanted to attack me or something. I looked at Jamie and asked what he wanted to do? Was he going to call security or the police on a distraught customer that he has almost put into tears by the way he treated them? I said go ahead call whoever you need to call, I have done nothing wrong other than be a customer that needs warranty work done and be treated like I am some hoodlum. As I filled the paperwork out for the regional, the service manager pops up next to me and throw some papers on top of the paperwork I am filling out and starts screaming at me about how these are the guidelines set forth by ford we have to follow. I looked up at him even more disgusted than I was before. I asked him to please take his papers away from me and let me fill out the regional paperwork and leave and for him to please stop telling me that I am wrong. He then yells at me again and tells me to read them. I slide them off the papers I am filling out and tell him I do not need to be told how I am wrong by the person that should be telling me my next step in the process of fixing the problem I am having and supporting me since I am the customer. He then picks them up and storms away. I tell him that all he is doing is rubbing salt and lemon in a opened wound. He then turns around and screams at me and says what did you just say?! Like he was offended by what I said. I then turned to him and said again, sir, you are rubbing salt and lemon in a opened wound! Please stop telling me how I am wrong and let me fill out these papers. I finished filling the papers out and told Jamie I would like to speak to the regional person when they come in cause I believe that the service manager is just going to tell them not to fix my rear defrost and they will support him. She said that she has no control over that, it comes down to the manager to contact me when they come in. I told her that I do not believe he will contact me and he will just tell them not to cover it and that will be all that is done. She then said if there is a way to contact me that she will but it all comes down to the managers decision. At this point I leave the service area and am leaving the dealership, when I decided to stop and go into the new sales area and talk to Chip the person who sold me the vehicle. I started to explain everything to him and he first went out to see what was wrong and then he went to talk to the service department. When he came back the first thing he did was try to calm me down a little cause he saw I was very upset by what I had just went through. He then told me how things go and what the next options are. He was very understanding about everything and was explaining everything that now needed to be done in detail and making sure I understood everything. He sympathized with me and even told me a personal story just to calm me down a little more. He was doing what the customer service manager should have done, he was taking the customers side and explaining each step and making sure I understood what to do next and what will be done. He told me that he will do what he can to try to contact me when the regional guy comes in but nobody knows when he comes in and since he is in new sales and not service he might not know when they come in, but he will do his best to try to contact me so I can talk to them. I told him that I really wanted to talk to the regional since I do not believe the service manager will support me and he will tell the regional to not cover it and the regional will just go with it since that is what the service manager is saying. This now bring me to today, Saturday January 29th. I received my closed work order in the mail today with a copy of the customer review request stapled to it. As I thought would happen, the service manager did not call me when the regional came in, I was never contacted by anyone from Southgate Ford about anything after I left, I was just sent the closed work order. I filled out my part that says this section to be completed by the customer. The bottom part that says this part to be completed by the service zone manager says, the issue was reviewed by ford motors warranty department. This was determined to be caused from outside source, unfortunately not considered defect, not covered under warranty. And the middle part that says this section to be completed by the service manager is crossed out with a big black X. This is the part that says, service manager recommendation (must be completed prior to zone manager consideration). This is left blank. Just like I thought would happen, the service manager didn’t do anything about the situation. He crossed out his part and didn’t write anything at all. Not only did he not contact me, but he wouldn’t even write anything on the review request that it says MUST be completed prior to zone manager consideration. I knew this would happen when I was leaving. I knew if I was not able to talk to the regional person that the service manager would make sure that it would not be fixed. And the part the service manager was suppose to fill out, but didn’t, specifically says service manager RECOMMENDATION. He could have just supported the customer that has given them business since purchasing the vehicle from them and said that he recommends fixing the defrost, but instead he not only left it blank, but crossed it out with a big black X. This whole experience has left a horrible taste in my mouth with Ford. How do I trust a car company that can not stand by a rear defrost? What happens if my engine goes bad? I can now no longer go back to my local Ford dealer for any service, since I feel that I will not have them on my side for anything. I feel like if something else goes wrong that the service manager will now be holding a grudge and will go out of his way to make sure that anything that goes wrong is not fixed. It was now even 2 weeks ago that I had all this done, with a works oil change. The 2 times that I have put gas in since then I have gotten 20.l and 19.2 average miles per gallon, with mostly highway driving with my average work week. This does not include much local city driving since it has been really cold out, I really have not gone out much other than to go to work. So the computer/timing issue or whatever it is, is still going wrong. My rearview mirror dimmed at 6pm yesterday on my way to work and I could barely see anything, while it was cloudy and about to snow out, and on my way home I couldn’t see anything out of my back window cause Ford will not stand by a rear defrost. I understand that it might not be a factory defect, but this was the showroom model that everyone opened the doors and someone might have done something that could have damaged the rear defrost while it was in there and it took a Michigan winter and summer before it started to die the 2nd winter I was driving it. I even talked to someone who works on a line and he told me this: “Those lines have problems all the time. If someone forgets to do the quality check or a worker scrapes the grid during assembly, it goes on the car as defective and won't defrost properly. Seen it several times.” Let me say that I am not trying to pull a fast one on Ford. I am just trying to get the new vehicle I purchased fixed and have it running like the new vehicle that it is. And if Ford can not even stand by a rear defrost, I am thinking I might have to look for a different vehicle cause I am worried about if anything else might go wrong, Ford might find a reason not to stand by the next thing even with the extended service plan I paid for. Now this brings me to Monday January 31st. At 9:13am Chip from Southgate Ford calls me up. He tells me that there is nothing they will do. Over the last 2 weeks it seems like he has turned against me too, cause he now is treating me like I am some person trying to pull a fast one. He is no longer talking nice like he did all along. He tells me that the zone review came back and they said they will not warranty it and he will not fix it. Now 2 weeks ago, when I was in and talked to him, he said if the zone review doesn’t do anything, that he would personally make me an appointment with the general manager of Southgate Ford and see if there is anything that can be done, now he is saying that he will not do anything. I told him that the service manager left his part on the zone review for empty and put a big black X on it, where he should have given his recommendation like it says on it. He said that they gave the paperwork to the zone manager to review and what I wrote on it was all that was told. I had 4 lines to write on while being so distraught I was holding back tears, how much was I really going to be able to write on it? He said he didn’t talk to the zone manager, the service manager didn’t even talk to them, it was someone else who talked to them. So pretty much they turned over the paperwork and let that person decide. He told me that it being a showroom model has nothing to do with anything and there was no way anything could have possibly have happened in the showroom, so nobody let the zone manager know anything about this. He told me that he is not going to do anything and that Southgate Ford will not fix the problem and if I do not like that, then I can take it to another dealership and have them deal with it. I told him that I really couldn’t understand why the dealership I bought the vehicle from wouldn’t stand by the customer, since if its covered under warranty they do not pay for it, Ford does. I told him that when I called Ford customer relations they said that all that needed to be done was the service manager at Southgate Ford needed to call them back up and say that it should be covered and it will be. He told me that is false and there is nothing else they will do for me, and I should take it to another dealership. I asked if there is anyone else that I can talk to there that will help me and he told me that Southgate Ford will not fix it and nobody will do anything to change that. So now the last person who had my back at all in Ford, doesn’t anymore. Chip was the only person who sympathized with me and was helping, and that is all gone. His suggestion is to take it to another dealership and let them deal with it. So I called Ford customer relations back up to see if there is anything I am able to do. He looked up the file and reviewed everything. He said that all that needs to be done is the service manager at Southgate Ford would have to send through a appeal of the digital imaging and say that it should be covered under warranty and Ford would cover it. I asked if anything has been sent through by Southgate Ford since the initial paperwork was and he told me that nothing has. So nobody sent a appeal, nobody at all would support me in this warranty claim, even when I have a $1000 extended service plan on top of the original warranty still being valid. The customer relations person I talked to documented everything that I told him about the situation and told me that since it seems that Southgate Ford will not work with me that maybe I should take it to the next closest Ford dealer and explain everything that has happened and if they put through the appeal it will be covered. But, why should I take it somewhere else? I bought the vehicle at Southgate Ford, I have taken it there for all oil changes, the recall work done last year and everything. I shouldn’t have to take it somewhere else. Southgate Ford should support me in this. More

1st. I was taking my 'new' truck home and I lost 2 hub caps. The dealer said that I was not on the lot they were not responsible -$60 out of my pocket. 2nd. I took the truck back because my interior lig caps. The dealer said that I was not on the lot they were not responsible -$60 out of my pocket. 2nd. I took the truck back because my interior lights would not turn off. 3 wks later I noticed that my rear interior light did not work. I removed the plastic cover and found that both tabs that hold the lamp in place was broken off. dealer said that they were not responsible. 3rd. I "HAVE" a intermittent squel in the front of the truck when moving. Mechanic took it for a test drive -did not hear squel- so nothing else was done. 4th. am taking the truck to another dealer. will not return. More

Have had several problems with their service department. My vehicles have NEVER been fixed properly on the first visit. The customer service reps lack knowledge of their products. I have had things fixed pr My vehicles have NEVER been fixed properly on the first visit. The customer service reps lack knowledge of their products. I have had things fixed properly only after talking to the mechanics who are actually making the repairs. The last time I had my vehicle in, I had to take it back twice. Once because they didn't fix the problem right the first time. Second when they finally fixed the problem they damaged the dash board. I couple of years ago when I took my 3 month old vehicle in to have a small dent removed, I picked it up only to find a LARGE scratch in the hood. I also had to take a vehicle back 5 times before they finally discovered a bad swaybar bushing. When I called Ford Headquarters they only showed my vehicle going in twice!! That was because Southgate Ford was re-opening the same repair order numbers. (I've been told this helps them get good reviews when Ford audits them, I've also been told this is a violation of Ford policy)I've been too lazy to go to another dealer because Southgate Ford is so close to my house, but this is it, I will NEVER go back. More