I have a 2016 Ford Edge and was notified last September by mail that a recall was in process, but Ford did not have the parts. Being in a pandemic this didn't bother me because Ford said there was no immediate danger and the service department at a regular maintenance appointment looked at it and said I was OK. Earlier this year I received a notice from Ford that parts were now available and I should book an appointment with the selling or closest dealer. When I contacted my dealer they said parts were not available because Ford didn't send them enough. I assumed they were working with Ford to obtain more parts so I didn't complain. I just got another letter from Ford to remind me this recall needed to be done and that parts were available in Canada for the recall. I called the service department at my dealer and was told they only had parts for one side of my car and the other side was on back order. I have no idea why the parts would be different based on the side of the car so I called Ford Canada. The customer rep confirmed parts were available and the easiest way to get everything resolved was to book an oil change and then have the work done while the car was in. I have a previous issue with Ford and the dealer over the rear light bar, which filled with water. Although that problem was noted early on with my Edge, it never reached the level that Ford deemed required to do the work under warranty. About 4-6 months after warranty expiration (but much less than the mileage limit of 100K kilometers) the light bar completely filled with water shorting out amongst other things my backup lights. The estimate to replace the light bar (it cannot be fixed, only replaced) was $2000. for the part with labour additional. Ford denied responsibility because of warranty expiration. I told Ford and the Service Manager at the dealer than I would not spend any more money with Ford or this dealer. In addition, I since learned that the light bar problem has been accommodated in parts of the US by a CSP, but obviously Canadian customers have been left out in the wet and cold.
So I told the customer rep at Ford that booking a maintenance appointment for something unrelated to the recall was not an option and reconfirmed that I wanted no interactions with either Ford or the dealer going forward. The rep told me I needed to call the Service Manager to escalate. This was the same Service Manager I dealt with on the other issue. However, I did call this Service Manager who was antagonistic to say the least from the start. Apparently the service rep I had called initially had checked the parts availability because I told him of the Ford letter and in fact found out he could and did order the missing parts. He had also booked a service appointment to do the work on Dec 21st which was fine with me. This was not fine with the Service Manager who said I was a danger to his staff and then cancelled my appointment and told me I was barred from the dealership and should go elsewhere for the recall work, since I did not want to 'work with his people'. I am sure there are no reports about me and abuse of the staff at the dealer, especially since I tend to like the actual tech's and admin doing the service work. My only issue is with Ford and dealer management, but I guess telling them I would not buy another Ford and would go elsewhere for my service work is abusive. I have been a Ford customer for over 40 years (quite happily and uncomplaining) and have never been treated this way by a Ford dealer, so making this decision was not easy. So Ford will not allow escalation of the issue and I am left to finding some other shop that is acceptable to Ford and will do the work even though it is not the selling or closest dealer, and this would require considerably more distance and time because this dealer is the only one in town.
I expected a lot more from Ford and this dealer and have been left with the impression that neither group is even interested in resolving this issue equitably. Perhaps I'm just thinking of the days when Ford proclaimed about the customer being Job 1, but that concern with the customer seems to have completely vanished.
I called back Ford Canada and was told Ford could not make the dealer perform. They suggested another dealer considerably further away. They would not assist me in contacting any other dealers and my best option would be to contact the owner/general manager and escalate the issue. When I asked to speak to this Ford reps manager I was told bluntly this issue was could not be escalate and he would not put a manager on the line and would not provide me with any other contact information.
I called the dealership and asked to speak with the GM (if you're counting I've now been pinged back and forth 5 times already) and was told he wasn't available, and the receptionist had no idea of who the owner was or how to reach him. I did talk to the General Sales Manager (the only one at the dealership who seemed to have any sense of customer relationship and was helpful) who told me there was no GM (I guess that's why he wasn't available) but did give me the email address of the owner. I am now waiting for a response from the owner.
