HVBJB Issue -Am I being unreasonable?

[HSVMWCS]

This almost mirrors my experience. I had a very good experience with the CR team who go the part expedited and a car payment reimbursed for what turned out to be 17 day process. I was patient and clam with the CR team and they helped everything along and checked in every 3-4 days to ensure it was happening (by both phone calls and emails).

My neighbor bought a Tesla 3 in 2019, whose powertrain failed during the first week. Tesla sent technicians and a loaner car immediately from Nashville to Huntsville. I teased them that having a car dealership about 100 miles away would always be problematic, so I decided to purchase a Mach-E.

Sadly, my MME has been problematic since Day 1, but my local Ford dealership provided sub-par services. Ford's customer relationship team suggested going to another dealership instead. I drove ~30 miles, dropped off my car, but was told the next day that their technician was not certified to perform the windshield/moonroof recall.

Even worse, my MME entered "turtle mode" in mid-August. My local dealership provided sub-par service quality and refused to provide a loaner car AGAIN. I had to call Ford's customer relationship again. Ford will send field engineers to my local dealership to oversee the repair.

At the end of the day, the shorter distance between my MME and Ford dealership meant nothing at all. It is all about the service quality and a corporate's dedication to taking good care of its products and customers. Tesla can, how about Ford??

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[newmme]

i have said this many times, it is not how close a dealer is...but how close a GOOD dealer is. If you read on here, there are tons of bad dealers with limited EV techs, missing EV equipment, etc. It is a great soundbite to tell people "there are dealers around every corner", but in reality, that does not always equal good dealer service. My coworker has a 2019 Tesla Model 3 and the 12volt battery died, and Tesla mobile service came to our workplace and replaced the same day! Ford needs mobile service like that in addition to dealers.

 

[daverp]

Transferring cars to another dealer is pretty common. I've never heard of a dealer driving a car an hour each way for that purpose before, it should of been on a transport in my opinion.

Not having the equipment to do the repair is an issue Ford's CEO is trying to address. Tesla controls the process 100%. Ford has independent dealer and service network. The specialty equipment needed to work on EVs are not cheap and some dealers are wanting to spend the money. Ford has given dealers a choice become a Ford Model E dealer or stay a Blue Oval dealer and stop selling EV's. The news stories on that talked a lot about installing chargers but another part of that is training and equipping the service department to service the cars.

 

[heisnuts]

Transferring cars to another dealer is pretty common. I've never heard of a dealer driving a car an hour each way for that purpose before, it should of been on a transport in my opinion.

Not having the equipment to do the repair is an issue Ford's CEO is trying to address. Tesla controls the process 100%. Ford has independent dealer and service network. The specialty equipment needed to work on EVs are not cheap and some dealers are wanting to spend the money. Ford has given dealers a choice become a Ford Model E dealer or stay a Blue Oval dealer and stop selling EV's. The news stories on that talked a lot about installing chargers but another part of that is training and equipping the service department to service the cars.

I also believe some of the other requirements is that they must post the price of the car they are charging on their website, they must offer home delivery of the car if the customer requests it and they must offer service pickup and delivery of the car from the customer's home/office if they want to be part of the Model E certification.

 

[RosarioM]

I thought Ford should replace all HVBJB too. That is until I ran the rough calculation myself. The work is about 7 billable hours, the part is $750 from what I read somewhere in the forum. I would give each car a bill of $1500. MME total sold with the old HVBJB probably is in 80-90K. If we use $1500x80,000=$120,000,000. Hmm 120M, Yeah I won't do it if I am ford. It takes a lot of business to make back that 120M.

Honestly, if it happens to me. As long as I get a loaner or rental I will be fine.

I'm now at $2,000 out of pocket for a rental. I THINK I will get that money back from Ford Care, but it's not great that I have to dish that out first.

 

[Chuck]

So, if a dealer drives your car to a glass shop to do the recall work would that be unprofessional? Let's say the glass shop is an hour away. They'd be driving it there because they didn't have the skill or tools necessary to do the work. Would you have expected them to have it towed there and back?

 

[RosarioM]

So, if a dealer drives your car to a glass shop to do the recall work would that be unprofessional? Let's say the glass shop is an hour away. They'd be driving it there because they didn't have the skill or tools necessary to do the work. Would you have expected them to have it towed there and back?

If the car is in a state where it could fail at any moment, yes I don’t expect it to be driven. In your example, what if the windshield was so cracked that you couldn’t see through it, do you expect your car to be driven?

 

[heisnuts]

I don't know, with all of the horror stories of towing, maybe driving it over was the safer choice?

 

[RosarioM]

I don't know, with all of the horror stories of towing, maybe driving it over was the safer choice?

I think my biggest problem is that they told me it was going to be towed and then drove it. If they told me they had to drive it I would have been fine with it, but the biggest issue for me is that they are so completely clueless about EVs, they didn't know that the car could have had the "stop safely now" message. For all they know, they could have done more damage to the car driving it. I doubt very much they checked with Ford first. I'm sure Ford would have told them to tow it instead of drive it.

Either way, you don't tell a customer you will tow their car and then put someone in it to drive it to another state to get the service you should have done. If they had told me three weeks ago that they didn't have the equipment to service my car and that it needed to go an hour away, I would have brought it to another dealership 20 minutes away. They didn't do that because that dealership is owned by another company.

So they put what's best for them over what's best for their customers. That's what's wrong with Dealerships and why Ford and all other car companies have to get rid of this archaic system.

 

[RickMachE]

But after this I finally had it. What’s worse is that I had the car in for the 10k mile check a week before the problem and they said everything was fine. How did they even check the car if they don’t have a loft for EVs?

The lift they were missing is the battery lift that lowers the battery from the car that is raised up on the car lift. Prior to the HVBJB failing, they have no indication that it is failing.

 

[RickMachE]

What I think Ford can improve on is the availability of parts. Each dealer should have 1-2 in stock. I don't believe these parts are that difficult to produce. I am tired of the COVID supply issue excuses. I bet it is more with supplier contract agreement and internal bureaucracy . Or trying to incorporate that lean inventory management strategy to reduce cost.

Another improvement can be having some sort of dealer priority fix agreement. Like give some incentives for completing warranty work within one week of drop off. People with HVBJB issues jump to the front of the line to repair. People with non critical issues should be pushed further back.

If parts are in the dealer's inventory and the repair work gets queued immediately. The fix should be done in as little as 2 days. I am sure there will be very few disgruntled owners.

I believe there are 3 unique HVBJBs.

And, if your Mach-E jumps mine because my failure isn't the HVBJB, that's BS.

My dealer has one battery lift, and 3 EV techs.

 

[RosarioM]

The lift they were missing is the battery lift that lowers the battery from the car that is raised up on the car lift. Prior to the HVBJB failing, they have no indication that it is failing.

Should a dealership be "EV Certified" if they don't have a lift that can drop the battery? Can you even do any work on an EV without dropping the battery? I understand checks like brakes and fluids, but if you have to actually repair something, can you do it without that lift? I'm not being sarcastic, it's a genuine question.

 

[RickMachE]

Should a dealership be "EV Certified" if they don't have a lift that can drop the battery? Can you even do any work on an EV without dropping the battery? I understand checks like brakes and fluids, but if you have to actually repair something, can you do it without that lift? I'm not being sarcastic, it's a genuine question.

No idea what work requires dropping the battery.

And, no, they should not be EV Certified.

 

[Bikespace]

Sweating how they moved your car? Eh. Who cares? But you had been too reasonable up to that point. If the dealer can't fix your car, they should have been up front about that. 3 weeks is totally unreasonable to find this out, especially when you are paying for your own alternate transportation.

It is unreasonable for dealers unequipped to work on EVs to act like this. 2024 can't come soon enough to weed out the ICE-only dealers.

 

[heisnuts]

I think my biggest problem is that they told me it was going to be towed and then drove it. If they told me they had to drive it I would have been fine with it, but the biggest issue for me is that they are so completely clueless about EVs, they didn't know that the car could have had the "stop safely now" message. For all they know, they could have done more damage to the car driving it. I doubt very much they checked with Ford first. I'm sure Ford would have told them to tow it instead of drive it.

Either way, you don't tell a customer you will tow their car and then put someone in it to drive it to another state to get the service you should have done. If they had told me three weeks ago that they didn't have the equipment to service my car and that it needed to go an hour away, I would have brought it to another dealership 20 minutes away. They didn't do that because that dealership is owned by another company.

So they put what's best for them over what's best for their customers. That's what's wrong with Dealerships and why Ford and all other car companies have to get rid of this archaic system.

I completely agree with all of you points. The dealership experience definitely needs some work, especially when you are selling $50K+ vehicles.

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