HELP! Ford not honoring warranty with 311 miles on car

[Burley1]

[Your Full Name]
[Your Street Address]
[City, State, ZIP Code]
[Email Address]
[Phone Number]
Date: [Insert Date]


Service Manager
Colonial Ford
[Dealership Address]
[City, State, ZIP Code]



Subject: Warranty Denial Due to Use of Non-Ford Charger – Violation of Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act


Dear Service Manager,


I am writing to formally dispute your recent decision to deny warranty coverage on my [Year, Make, and Model of vehicle – e.g., 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E], on the grounds that I used a non-Ford branded charging unit.


As you may be aware, under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. § 2301 et seq.), a manufacturer or dealer may not condition a warranty on the consumer’s use of any brand of article or service (such as a charger) unless that article is provided to the consumer free of charge or the manufacturer has secured a waiver from the Federal Trade Commission. In short, you cannot deny warranty coverage solely based on the use of a third-party charger unless you can demonstrate that the charger itself caused the damage in question.


To date, I have received no such evidence that the charger I used was the cause of the issue with the vehicle. The charger in question is fully compliant with industry standards (e.g., SAE J1772 or CCS for EVs), and I have taken every reasonable measure to ensure it is safe and appropriate for use with my vehicle.


Therefore, your blanket refusal to honor the vehicle’s warranty on this basis is not only unjustified but also in direct violation of federal law. I am requesting that you promptly reinstate my warranty coverage and proceed with the necessary repairs or service in accordance with Ford’s new vehicle warranty.


If I do not receive a satisfactory response within 10 business days, I will have no choice but to escalate this matter. This may include filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), contacting the State Attorney General’s Office, and pursuing other available legal remedies.


I trust that Colonial Ford values its customers and respects the legal obligations it has under federal consumer protection laws. I look forward to resolving this matter quickly and professionally.


Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
[VIN of your vehicle]
[Odometer reading]

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[coffeejeff]

I'm at my wits end. Purchased a new rally 3 weeks ago after my Mach e GT was hit by lightning. Car bricked itself 2 weeks ago in my work parking lot. The dealer states that as my brand new professionally wired in ChargePoint home charger is not Ford branded, they will not cover the warrantee. The car had not been on the charger for two days when it stopped itself. I know this is the dealer and not Ford, but I need talking points as they are not listening. I did mention that the Ford app takes you to charging stations that use ChargePoint chargers that are not Ford branded but they stated that if there was a problem after using one of those, the warrantee is voided. Help! By the way, the car was AWESOME for the 311 miles it worked

i believe you. My Ford dealer near me, folsom lake ford in California, Ia horrible and I get similar treatment. The dealerships get away with it because Ford factory reps are terrible and are cozy with them instead of protecting the brand. I know I will never buy a Ford again. Which is a shame since I love our Mach e Just thankful I a currently trouble free. Good luck.

 

[superdave80]

Well actually that's some pretty shitty CS. They don't have computer systems to lookup items at this "big chain home improvement store"?

This was loooong ago (25+ years) at a summer job I worked for less than two months. I had zero training, so even if there was a computer lookup system, I had no way to access it. Needless to say, this chain went out of business long ago (Home Base).

 

[jay1122]

The dealer probably simply not want your warranty repair business and threw you some lame excuses. If charging does not work anymore, it it likely the on board charger that needs to be replaced. I would just find a new dealer.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Piping up to confirm that the team is actively working on @shelbycobra's vehicle, and it is covered as a warranty repair.

 

[shelbycobra]

Piping up to confirm that the team is actively working on @shelbycobra's vehicle, and it is covered as a warranty repair.

Thanks Brian for whatever you have done and for jumping on this immediately. They did change there tune although they state they will only cover the repairs "this time" and my charger (ChargePoint) will need to be on the Ford "Charger Approval List" whatever or wherever that is located.

 

[tls]

Thanks Brian for whatever you have done and for jumping on this immediately. They did change there tune although they state they will only cover the repairs "this time" and my charger (ChargePoint) will need to be on the Ford "Charger Approval List" whatever or wherever that is located.

So, @Ford Motor Company, is there actually a "Ford Charger Approval List"? The world wonders.

Don't franchise agreements generally have clauses about deceptive behavior, brand disparagement, etc?

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

So, @Ford Motor Company, is there actually a "Ford Charger Approval List"? The world wonders.

Don't franchise agreements generally have clauses about deceptive behavior, brand disparagement, etc?

Automobile dealership agreements are very tightly controlled by 50 different sets of laws in the country. It's far harder for a manufacturer to drop a dealer than you might expect. In the more than 20 years I've been here, only a single dealer (GM/Chevrolet) has lost its dealership, and that was due to financial misconduct 21 years ago. Then there are questions as to who to replace the now missing dealership with. When GM dropped that particular Hawaii dealership, they were faced with the unenviable choice of abandoning the market or granting the dealership to a large company with a less-than-stellar customer service track record. The choices on the mainland could boil down to no dealership or a large company, further consolidating dealerships and eliminating consumer choice.

Manufacturers do have options in dealing with intransigent dealers, such as allocation cuts. Those can take time to have the desired effect though.

 

[Mach1E]

Thanks Brian for whatever you have done and for jumping on this immediately. They did change there tune although they state they will only cover the repairs "this time" and my charger (ChargePoint) will need to be on the Ford "Charger Approval List" whatever or wherever that is located.

This is what we like to call “doubling down on BS.”

Rather than admitting wrongdoing, they add a modifier making it sound like they are allowing some special exception “just this one time.”

The real question though is…… what happened and what was fixed? Did a faulty charger actually break your car or are the two things unrelated?

If the charger actually broke the car, then the dealer is right, warranty language specifically excludes those claims and you did get special consideration. But if not…. Double BS.

 

[tls]

How, exactly, would an EVSE (which is not a charger) "break the car"? The AC charger is onboard. The EVSE is just a contactor and a ground fault interruptor.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Late to the party here, but my dealership told me exactly the same thing a year and a half ago. But they went a step further and said they could not test it themselves since they only had a 24A charger available. My particular issue was L2 charging would fail at anything above 32A - so conveniently they could not reproduce it.

Fast forward to this year and lo and behold they had a brand new 40A L2 available. So I had them test it, it of course failed, and they finally agreed to fix it.

But I waited almost a year....never give up.

 

[Mach1E]

But the EVSE is not a replacement part used to repair or maintain the car.

Reading the actual Ford EV Battery Electric Vehicle Warranty on page 21 under "What is not Covered" it states, "use of incompatible charging devices or methods". It doesn't say "use of non-Ford branded charging devices ".

The OP said, "The dealer states that as my brand-new professionally wired in ChargePoint home charger is not Ford branded...". If the ChargePoint EVSE meets the SAE specs for EVSE, which it does, and the OP has the paperwork from the installation by a certified electrician and (assuming) the installation was inspected by his county authority, the dealership has no basis for their claim the MME warranty was voided.

We are talking about two separate sections of the warranty language.

In addition to what you posted (incompatible charging devices), it states that “damage caused by……non-ford branded parts.”

In this case it’s a question of what caused the damage.

Why would a warranty cover damage “caused by” an aftermarket charger?

Again, the question is what “caused” the damage.

If you have a faulty Tesla branded level 2 home charger that shorts out and fries your car for example, why should that be a Ford warranty claim?

It would be an insurance claim or a claim against Tesla and their faulty charger.

We still haven’t heard from the OP what actually was broken/fixed and what caused it.

 

[tls]

If you have a faulty Tesla branded level 2 home charger that shorts out and fries your car for example, why should that be a Ford warranty claim?

It would be an insurance claim or a claim against Tesla and their faulty charger.

I am still waiting for anyone to propose a way an EVSE (again: they are not "chargers") could damage a vehicle. Would you mind explaining how this might happen?

Hint: there's nothing to "short out" that could damage the vehicle connected to the EVSE. If you produce a dead short at the EVSE using a wire nut, the only thing that will happen is that the breaker will blow. The EVSE cannot, for example, produce increased voltage.

Ford has a clear warranty obligation here. It's not the dealer's obligation (to the customer; the dealer does presumably have obligations to Ford); it's not the customer's job to preemptively produce proof that every wild hypothesis of how the vehicle might have been damaged did not, in fact, occur; it's Ford's job to honor their warranty obligations and get the car fixed. I don't understand why some people in this discussion seem so averse to admitting that that they're making up bizarre scenarios that pretty much can't happen, then observing that, gosh, if they did, it might be the customer's fault.

 

[Mach1E]

I am still waiting for anyone to propose a way an EVSE (again: they are not "chargers") could damage a vehicle. Would you mind explaining how this might happen?

Hint: there's nothing to "short out" that could damage the vehicle connected to the EVSE. If you produce a dead short at the EVSE using a wire nut, the only thing that will happen is that the breaker will blow. The EVSE cannot, for example, produce increased voltage.

Ford has a clear warranty obligation here. It's not the dealer's obligation (to the customer; the dealer does presumably have obligations to Ford); it's not the customer's job to preemptively produce proof that every wild hypothesis of how the vehicle might have been damaged did not, in fact, occur; it's Ford's job to honor their warranty obligations and get the car fixed. I don't understand why some people in this discussion seem so averse to admitting that that they're making up bizarre scenarios that pretty much can't happen, then observing that, gosh, if they did, it might be the customer's fault.

No clue how it could happen, but the OP hasn’t told us what actually broke yet or why the dealer thought it was the EVSE (what everyone, even Ford refers to as their home charger). https://chargers.ford.com/

 

[tls]

This seems like suggesting that because if a Sherman tank fell out of the sky onto the car, Ford wouldn't be responsible for the structural damage, OP should prove to us all that no armored vehicles descended at terminal velocity from the heavens.

When charging on AC, the only actual charger involved is the one Ford themselves built into the car. This is not the same as Level 3 DC charging, where the charger is an external unit that absolutely can wreak utter havoc if it malfunctions. There are (besides myself) quite a few engineers and electricians in this forum - plenty of people qualified to contradict my statement that an EVSE pretty much can't damage a vehicle. Why should your speculation be privileged over the actual facts?

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