Northside Ford - Service Center

Received a recall notice on our F150 & set up an appointment. Two days prior they called as asked if we would like to change it to an home appointment. Heck Yea! They arrived on time and did the appointment. Two days prior they called as asked if we would like to change it to an home appointment. Heck Yea! They arrived on time and did the job in less than 20 min. Excellent service, can’t get any better More

Service: I've always found the Quick Lane at Northside to operate well. I have no problem with them. They've done excellent work for me. You don't need an appointment. Unfortunately, I cannot say that abo operate well. I have no problem with them. They've done excellent work for me. You don't need an appointment. Unfortunately, I cannot say that about the regular service. Because the CMax has had few problems, I haven't dealt with them often. 1. Years ago, I made an appointment online. When I arrived, I was told making an appointment online didn't mean anything, and it was whoever arrived first. I left. 2. I made no appointment when my backup camera started behaving erratically last year. I expected to leave the car overnight (I live within walking distance of the dealership). The technician snapped at me that I would have to leave the car with them for TWO MONTHS before anyone could look at it. I declined. 3. Latest visit. I had a wheel well shield replaced by a nearby independent mechanic. The mechanic had charged nothing for looking to see whether the wheel well shield was damaged, and he had also identified a leaking gasket at the timing chain. He declined to replace the gasket because of the complexity of a hybrid and suggested I go to the dealer, which was Northside across the highway from him. I appreciated this independent mechanic's honesty and reasonable price. He has a very high rating on Yelp, and I will return to him for those things he does work on. Because of the fiasco with the backup camera, I checked the dealership's website for appointments for replacing the gasket. From the look of the website, it appeared that they were now taking appointments seriously. I made an appointment for the soonest date I could get on their calendar for the problem I indicated. It was the next week. I already knew how many standard hours to fix the leaking gasket (about 6 hours), and I knew the cost of the gasket $30. Nonetheless, I knew the labor would be expensive. Moreover, I figured even if I had to leave it overnight, my wife and I could get buy without a car for two days. I showed up early for my 7:00 AM appointment. I saw a technician quickly. They took my mileage and wrote up the order. The first surprise arose. I had to agree to a $250 charge for them to look at the timing gear box and diagnose the problem. This was not an estimate to repair the problem. They would not give me that information even though I had indicated that perhaps the timing chain should be replaced while they had the timing gear box open. The diagnosis wasn't refundable, but would be rolled into the price if they did the work. Reluctantly, I agreed. Northside called and sent messages to confirm my appointment. Only after I agreed to $250 diagnostic charge, did they tell me I would have to leave the car for 4 days before they even looked at it. Who knows how long after the diagnosis I would have to leave the car for the actual repair. I declined. On my way out, I heard another customer complain to his service writer that he had made an appointment six weeks before, and now they wanted him to leave the truck for nine days before they would even look at it. "WHAT"S THE POINT OF AN APPOINTMENT?" he asked. I told him "Same for me. I'm out." I won't be returning to Northside Ford. I'm a long time Ford buyer, and this experience in trying to get repairs has soured me on Fords. More