HELP! Ford not honoring warranty with 311 miles on car

[JoanS]

I found this after a quick google search:

• The Magnuson-Moss Act: This U.S. federal law protects consumers by prohibiting a manufacturer from requiring that you use only their branded products or services to keep your warranty valid. As long as a third-party part (like a charger) does not directly cause damage, your warranty is safe.

Ford would have to prove that the charger caused the problem. Which, since the car hadn't been on the charger for 2 days would be highly improbable.

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[Bluestang]

Main point being missed is that the charger being used IS Ford branded. It is inside the car. The "charger" being referenced is really a smart switch that turns on the power after the car is plugged in to reduce arcing and to make it safer as you are not plugging in a 240v plug while it is hot.

 

[Mach1E]

That is also ridiculous. When my 2021 had the HVBJB issue I took it to the dealer closest to work, not the dealer from whom I purchased it. Any Ford dealer who has EV certifications should be able to take your Ford car for warranty work. All of those dealers closer to you should get a talking to by Ford as well as the one where your car is now.

Yes any dealer can service your car and they can’t force you to use a specific one.

That said, you “should” get better service at the place you bought it from, but unfortunately that’s not always the case.

And if you run into something outside the normal scope of the warranty, where you bought it from and service it will be taken into consideration. (It’s a good reason to buy from your closest dealer when possible).

I found the above out when I had the power steering go out in my last car 3 weeks after the warranty expired.

The amount of “credit” they gave me for the repair was a formula based on where I bought it, where it was serviced and where the final repair was being done. YMMV

 

[RickMachE]

Car is sitting at the dealer. Don't know the error codes although everything lit up on the dash. It was towed and was a real PIA to get it into neutral. The dealer(Colonial Ford) is 45 minutes away and my transaction paperwork is in the glove box. I was hoping to read where is states that I can only use a Ford branded charger to not void the warrantee on that paperwork

It doesn't state that anywhere...

You can use any brand AC or DC charger you want to.

 

[LLT]

A few dealers near me but they wanted the electric car to go back to the selling dealer

The truth comes out! I don't know why Ford dealers won't work on vehicles not purchased from them. I've had that experience as well. They are a FORD dealer and we are driving FORD vehicles, so I feel like their dealer agreement should obligate them to happily provide great service to all Ford owners. Maybe it's time to bring these issues to FoMoCo.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

On it.

Brian, Ford really ought to come down hard on dealers who provide false information about warranties or flat out refuse to service simply because they are not the selling store.

As much as we try to be nuanced in our view of: “dealer does not equal Ford”, your brand image is still on the line. And that representation could not be worse!!

 

[rreddy3]

At the risk of stating what others have said, or appearing to be piling on, the problem is none of these dealers want to be bothered, for whatever reason, working on the car. The warranty issue is bull, pure red herring tactic, it’s simply not in play as far as EVSE used. And as OP noted, it had been days since he charged. No causation there.

The fact the non selling dealers are all saying, take it to the selling dealer, has an odor to it. That odor being the setting of turf limits or territories where they don’t and shouldn’t properly exist. There could of course be other reasons for their conduct.

As others have noted they did, I also bought my car at “dealer A” and have had service at “dealers B and C” with no problem at all.

I hope Ford can bring some sense to the dealers involved. Other options might include a chat with a local or state level consumer advocate, perhaps with the county or commonwealth attorney’s anti-competitive practices folks…

 

[jgcom]

Regarding the Ford-branded charger issue:

Sometimes people who work at dealers—and people who don't work at dealers—just say stuff that is convenient to them, something known as bullshit. They neither know nor care about whether the thing they say is true. It seems to be more and more common, and someone wrote a formal philosophy book on the topic in 2005. The book is a bit highbrow, but very well written.

 

[RyZt]

Dealers get paid by Ford for doing warranty work. Right? Why does all the dealers in OP’s area refuse to work on OP’s car?

Are they trying to make it difficult for Ford to sell EVs and persuade people not to buy Ford EVs? That doesn’t necessarily give them more Ford ICE customers. Or do they not have the personnel or equipment? Or maybe this isn’t from the dealer management, but the workers there just refuse to deal with cars that they’re not familiar with, to simplify their own work?

 

[Schmedlack]

Hey OP....

I have been using the ChargePoint Home Flex for over 4 years and never had a problem. It also communicates with my utility company and the grid operator saving a nice chunk of money, to boot. I hope you get the immediate service you deserve and Colonial Ford gets additional EV training.

Also..... My '21 has always been serviced at a dealer different than where I bought it. The selling dealer's service department was unable to verify their ability to perform the original '21 software recall. After a week of asking, I went elsewhere.

 

[Space_Pony]

The truth comes out! I don't know why Ford dealers won't work on vehicles not purchased from them. I've had that experience as well. They are a FORD dealer and we are driving FORD vehicles, so I feel like their dealer agreement should obligate them to happily provide great service to all Ford owners. Maybe it's time to bring these issues to FoMoCo.

The dealership I bought my MME from went out of business so I guess I'm SOL?

 

[superdave80]

Sometimes people who work at dealers—and people who don't work at dealers—just say stuff that is convenient to them, something known as bullshit.

I totally did this while working at a big chain home improvement store years ago. Someone called my department and asked if we had a particular item. I had only a vague idea of what it was, and no idea of where it might be. I had two choices:

1. Go walk up and down every isle to see if we MIGHT have this item while the person is on hold for several minutes.

2. Tell them, "Let me go check.", wait about 15 seconds, and then tell them we don't have that item.

Guess which one I picked?

 

[ridgebackpilot]

The truth comes out! I don't know why Ford dealers won't work on vehicles not purchased from them. I've had that experience as well. They are a FORD dealer and we are driving FORD vehicles, so I feel like their dealer agreement should obligate them to happily provide great service to all Ford owners. Maybe it's time to bring these issues to FoMoCo.

Not all Ford dealers are EV certified, nor are all Ford technicians trained to work on EVs.

 

[stoopid]

The dealership I bought my MME from went out of business so I guess I'm SOL?

Part. Out.

 

[LLT]

Not all Ford dealers are EV certified, nor are all Ford technicians trained to work on EVs.

It was not an EV I took in for service that the dealer didn't want to work on. It was simply a Ford vehicle that I had purchased elsewhere while I was living in a different state.

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