My vehicle is at Capital Ford Lincoln of Rocky Mount and - Incredibly disappointed
My vehicle is at Capital Ford Lincoln of Rocky Mount and has been there for 3 weeks to have the water pump and turbo lines replaced. This is a warranty repair. The first week was due to the warranty company having to send someone out to verify everything. Monday of the following week, Nathan (service writer) calls me and tells me the parts are in and they'll get to it soon and I should have it back by that Friday. During this conversation, he also tells me that one of the diagnostics was not covered because the warranty company refused to approve one of the repairs. There's also a $35 difference per hour in what the service contract pays for labor and Capital's labor rate. He adds everything up and tells me a figure just above $700.
Now, Monday will be 3 full weeks that it has been there. Yesterday, he calls me saying vehicle is finished and I owe $3500. 🤯😲 He proceeds to tell me that the warranty company wasn't paying for seals and that the total hours equal out to 15.5 hours. He puts it on the warranty company, saying they don't want to pay more than 6hrs for the turbo lines and they asked for 13.
I get off the phone with him and call the warranty company. They are floored and have no idea what's going on. The warranty representative tells me that Capital only asked for 6hrs of payment for the turbo lines. He continues to tell me that the jump from 6 to 13hrs doesn't sound right to him, because they all use the same database for labor rates.
I call Nathan back after the warranty guys have contacted him. He says everything is covered except coolant and a filter of some kind. I asked what the cost is. He tells me around $2900. At this point I'm getting irritated. My vehicle has been in their shop for almost 3wks and all of a sudden I'm being asked to pay for all but $3k and the warranty company is telling me that Capital never asked for 13hrs. So, I'm sure he could tell that I'm not happy through the tone in my voice. After we hang up, I call the warranty company back to extend rental coverage until this issue is resolved. The warranty company tells me that they tried to call Nathan back, but he had to leave work for the day due to an emergency, all of a sudden (whether this is true or not I don't know). So, a message was left for the service manager to call the warranty company back. To my knowledge, that never happened.
I was never contacted about the difference in hours that the warranty allotted and the hours that Capital was going to charge, regardless (if there was an actual difference). I never authorized this. If I was told a price of that magnitude, at any point, I would have declined service and took my vehicle elsewhere. I wasn't happy about the original $700, but I understood business and the limitations of the warranty. So, I was willing to tolerate that.
From what I understand of the law, you're not able to charge more than 10% above the quoted price of a repair without the owner's authorization. I never signed a single thing with a price on it. The only time that I was at Capital in this whole 3 weeks, was the beginning Monday. Before an estimate had ever been put together.
At this point, Capital Ford Lincoln of Rocky Mount, NC is holding my vehicle ransom. I've never dealt with this out of a dealership before and I expected a more professional ...a more ethical experience.
I am requesting that Capital Ford Lincoln of Rocky Mount, NC honor the original quoted price, from when the estimate was completed. I would like for this to be a simple mistake and it be corrected than to have to go through the legal system.
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