The Multiverse of Customer Madness

[juggler]

Just here to vent - This is just my experience… but based on other threads it unfortunately seems to be a shared experience among other Mach E Owners - buyers beware.

It seems that Ford is woefully unprepared to service/support the Mach E. The customer service I’ve received has been terrible. Ford needs to get their act together if they are going to succeed at selling technology that requires tech support, software, debugging, etc… I will say that my contact at the dealership has been nice and accommodating - but it’s very clear that they appear to almost be as in the dark as the customer when it comes to getting help from Ford corporate to troubleshoot beyond saying ‘the software is up-to-date.’

At least three times where I’ve set specific times to speak with a customer service person I’ve been ghosted - no call no show at the agreed upon time.

Phone calls through phone trees where one is passed from person to person without anyone being able to assist (record of 7 times in a single call to customer support). I feel like I could have received better tech support for my Mach E by calling my local Apple store than Ford was able to provide for their own product.

Numerous emails where it’s clear the person I’m talking with appears to have no ability to empathize with the problem I’m experiencing with the vehicle and falling on what might be scripted responses.

I’ve been told to set up a time to bring my car to the dealership - brought my car in and it sat there for a day while nothing happened and the dealership waited on assistance from Ford corporate - a meeting all of us (Ford corporate, myself, and the dealer) were involved in setting up that the customer (me) had to help facilitate… and nothing happened. Email back from Ford corporate to pick up my car and they can’t do anything. Wasted vacation time for no reason because I trusted that Ford was going to take care of me.

It’s a finger pointing game between the dealership telling me to bug Ford corporate and the customer service reps telling me to bug the dealership. The customer shouldn’t be in the middle trying to figure things out like this.

Now Ford has all but said I’m SOL because I don’t own the Ford Connect charger for an issue that literally has nothing to do with the vehicle charger and that feels like the biggest brush off I’ve received to date. They tell me it’s their guideline to not help if I don’t have a Ford connect charger… which is news to me… it’s irrelevant because it’s an issue I’m experiencing in the car and in the FordPass app.

Anyway… carry on… yes I’ve @Fordmotorco whatever and that does nothing but put me back into a customer service loop that appears to restart the madness to nowhere.

I don’t care about the impact to my resale value or the Ford stock my family owns and almost want to go to the press and warn others. I don’t want others to experience this and Ford shouldn’t sell a product they are not yet appearing equipped to support. It’s a shame because my grandpa worked for Ford back in the day and they treated us well…

Ultimately this problem will likely cause my car battery to degrade more quickly than it should and that works in the favor of Ford but not the consumer which feels like class action lawsuit fodder.

If anyone has any tips for cutting through the red tape to people who can actually assist that would be swell.

Good luck with your cars… we appear to be on our own.

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[Gimme_my_MME]

What is the issue that you're having?

 

[juggler]

The car randomly ignores the set charge limit (in app or vehicle) going to 100% - not a unique thread on the forum. Probably a gps related deal… dealership and Ford corporate unable/unwilling to troubleshoot any further

What is the issue that you're having?

 

[alexgorod]

The car randomly ignores the set charge limit (in app or vehicle) going to 100% - not a unique thread on the forum. Probably a gps related deal… dealership and Ford corporate unable/unwilling to troubleshoot any further

That's truly horrible

 

[Logal727]

The car randomly ignores the set charge limit (in app or vehicle) going to 100% - not a unique thread on the forum. Probably a gps related deal… dealership and Ford corporate unable/unwilling to troubleshoot any further

How much troubleshooting have you done just on the forum? We’re sadly all more knowledgeable than ford support or the dealerships.

 

[juggler]

I’ve asked around, searched, and posted in other threads to try to troubleshoot. Always have appreciated the help of those on the forum! Even posted an informal poll to see if others experience this issue and about half of the respondents indicated that they had this trouble.

I’ve tried deleting/resetting charge limits, programming them in the vehicle and also in the app.

I heard about setting another home location for where the car sometimes thinks your car is parked… (weird gps stuff?) but my charge logs still show my home address when the behavior happens so I’m not sure where else to pick a ‘home’ address.

if there are other possible fixes I’m all ears.

How much troubleshooting have you done just on the forum? We’re sadly all more knowledgeable than ford support or the dealerships.

 

[Logal727]

I’ve asked around, searched, and posted in other threads to try to troubleshoot. Always have appreciated the help of those on the forum! Even posted an informal poll to see if others experience this issue and about half of the respondents indicated that they had this trouble.

I’ve tried deleting/resetting charge limits, programming them in the vehicle and also in the app.

I heard about setting another home location for where the car sometimes thinks your car is parked… (weird gps stuff?) but my charge logs still show my home address when the behavior happens so I’m not sure where else to pick a ‘home’ address.

if there are other possible fixes I’m all ears.

Which EVSE are you using?

 

[Polar]

Which EVSE are you using?

Well not the Ford connected charger ?

 

[Dustus]

I've had a similar issue with activating my Plug and Charge. I went through the activate trial on the website and right after that it vanished from my connected services. I've called twice to Ford, been bounced around to multiple departments each call and after at least an hour each call told they have to elevate my case to tech support and I will get a call back within a week. Its been two weeks and I haven't received any sort of call back and Plug and Charge doesn't appear anywhere on my account. Support seems confused every time I call and don't seem to know their own systems. Often I'm told their system isn't working and they just read some script to me about how to setup Plug and Charge which I've been through but now doesn't even appear. It is frustrating. I will probably just end up buying the $4 per month subscription to EA and forgetting the Plug and Charge until they clean up the bugs.

 

[Regularmache]

We had similar issues with unarmed third party charger that works fine with our neighbors Leaf. We have gone to only the portable charger that came in our Mach E. It hasn't been an issue with this charger.

I'm a Lenovo Yoga X1 computer guy, my spouse is all in on apple. We can't use each others charger and think nothing of it.

I'm surprised BEV manufactures allow so many different chargers to be used with their vehicles. It has to be maddening for you I get that, I just can't imagine the complexity 3rd party EVSEs pose to auto manufacturers when trouble shooting.

We have a deep bench here in the forum, I would think someone will be able to give you what works for them.

 

[Logal727]

We had similar issues with unarmed third party charger that works fine with our neighbors Leaf. We have gone to only the portable charger that came in our Mach E. It hasn't been an issue with this charger.

I'm a Lenovo Yoga X1 computer guy, my spouse is all in on apple. We can't use each others charger and think nothing of it.

I'm surprised BEV manufactures allow so many different chargers to be used with their vehicles. It has to be maddening for you I get that, I just can't imagine the complexity 3rd party EVSEs pose to auto manufacturers when trouble shooting.

We have a deep bench here in the forum, I would think someone will be able to give you what works for them.

That’s why there’s a standard and all but one company that starts with T follows it..

 

[BigMach-E]

Two things to try:

As others suggested, use the Ford Mobile Charger, just to see if that works. You don't have to stick with it, but just to see.

Go to Preferred Charge Times, go to previous locations, set all of them to max of 80 percent. Save it.

Also, is your Ford Pass up to date?

 

[juggler]

I’m using a chargepoint flex. Does it matter which charger you’re using in this instance? I’ve read up on the forum that even people with Ford connect occasionally experience this fluke. I figured that the car/software are the gatekeeper for shutting off at my charge cap and thus the likely failure point. Side question - Are you aware of a car charger that can actually communicate with the vehicle to shut off when it reaches a certain charge level? If I’m not mistaken the Ford charger does essentially what any other charger does.

Which EVSE are you using?

 

[RickMachE]

There is zero reason that the charger would be the issue. It's the car, asking the charger for juice.

To cover my utility company telling Ford that power is in excess (an incentive program I'm in) and changing my charging hours, my JuiceBox charger will not provide any power during peak hours. The car can ask and ask, and grovel, and still - no power.

 

[Logal727]

I’m using a chargepoint flex. Does it matter which charger you’re using in this instance? I’ve read up on the forum that even people with Ford connect occasionally experience this fluke. I figured that the car/software are the gatekeeper for shutting off at my charge cap and thus the likely failure point. Side question - Are you aware of a car charger that can actually communicate with the vehicle to shut off when it reaches a certain charge level? If I’m not mistaken the Ford charger does essentially what any other charger does.

I thought any smart EVSE can stop charge when it’s at a certain percentage. The ChargePoint flex doesn’t?

There is no requirement to use a Ford charger since Ford uses the CCS standard, but Ford isn’t obligated to provide support for a third party charger, which is likely why they are passing the buck on the issue. Is this issue repeatable with any other EVSE?

I’ve seen people have issues when a smart charger is on a schedule and then the car will get confused on when it needs to start and stop charging.

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