Horrible Service Experience - Camelback Ford

[moocrab]

Hey Everyone,

I finally got my Mustang Mach-E back from Camelback Ford after 24 days for them to fix the 'Front Camera Fault' 'Pre-Collision Assist Unavailable' error message. While the work was covered under warranty, they are not re-imbursing any part of the rental car that I had because apparently they have a policy where the rental car itself must be a Ford branded vehicle. Not only did I not know this nor was I made aware of this requirement, but I also didn't have a choice in this matter. This dealership put me in a cab and delivered me to Enterprise rent a car and I got a crappy Kia Soul.

Is there anything that I can do to be made whole on this? I'm out hundreds of dollars for this rental and that's not counting the gas I purchased. Normally I wouldn't even mention the fuel costs but it stings because I charge my car for free at work. Other than this rental I haven't bought gas in years and currently gas is $5.50 in my neck of the woods.

I tried calling Ford support and the call center confirmed that warranty re-imbursement does in-fact require a Ford branded vehicle to be covered. The only thing the call center could offer was to send negative feedback to the dealership. This feels like a real let down and I question why even have a call center or support line if you can't do anything or offer any solutions.

Second Issue, while I am no longer receiving the front camera error, now my hands-free driving doesn't work. The call center advised that they can see an error on their side and the only option is to take it back to the dealership for programming. I am beyond upset. I have an upcoming 3,000 mile road trip that I absolutely desire to have the hands-free feature working for. I can't do another 24 days without my car.

Sponsored

 

[hartmms]

Have you considered taking it to another dealer? I bought mine from Earnhardt and the sales folks were fantastic. For example, they let me drive the car home to pickup my wife and drive back to the dealer before I bought it, no salesman tag along. I hope their service department is also as good.

I'll find out soon. I need to take mine in to have the adaptive cruise sensor fixed, along with a replacement of the driver door plastic keypad cover that is cracked.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Hey Everyone,

I finally got my Mustang Mach-E back from Camelback Ford after 24 days for them to fix the 'Front Camera Fault' 'Pre-Collision Assist Unavailable' error message. While the work was covered under warranty, they are not re-imbursing any part of the rental car that I had because apparently they have a policy where the rental car itself must be a Ford branded vehicle. Not only did I not know this nor was I made aware of this requirement, but I also didn't have a choice in this matter. This dealership put me in a cab and delivered me to Enterprise rent a car and I got a crappy Kia Soul.

Is there anything that I can do to be made whole on this? I'm out hundreds of dollars for this rental and that's not counting the gas I purchased. Normally I wouldn't even mention the fuel costs but it stings because I charge my car for free at work. Other than this rental I haven't bought gas in years and currently gas is $5.50 in my neck of the woods.

I tried calling Ford support and the call center confirmed that warranty re-imbursement does in-fact require a Ford branded vehicle to be covered. The only thing the call center could offer was to send negative feedback to the dealership. This feels like a real let down and I question why even have a call center or support line if you can't do anything or offer any solutions.

Second Issue, while I am no longer receiving the front camera error, now my hands-free driving doesn't work. The call center advised that they can see an error on their side and the only option is to take it back to the dealership for programming. I am beyond upset. I have an upcoming 3,000 mile road trip that I absolutely desire to have the hands-free feature working for. I can't do another 24 days without my car.

Damn that sucks. I would call the GM of the dealership, explain the situation, and give him/her a chance to make things right. If they don't, tell them you really don't want to need to open a case with the Arizona Consumer Affairs agency (check to see what it's actually called). Similarly you don't want to need to call the local news stations about how Camelback Ford put you in a rental car that they knew wouldn't be reimbursed by Ford and also returned your car to you with new problems.

Likely you'll get their attention this way.

Best of luck!

 

[Mach-Lee]

I agree, the "Ford brand rental only" is really dumb rule they have. Anti-customer because you don't often have a choice what brand of rental car you can get. Kia or nothing is often the situation.

Ford, how about you require all your dealers to maintain a large FCTP loner fleet rather than force customers to find and cover rental costs out of their own pockets?

OP, you might have a case for Lemon Law or buyback since you BlueCruise still doesn't work after 30 days?

 

[Alan]

I just had the exact same experience at Chapman Ford in Scottsdale. Well, not exactly the same...

I took it in on Thursday for the 20K inspection and tire rotation, and to fix the front camera/pre-collision/Blue Cruise cancelled/etc. frequent alerts. They said it might take up to four days (including the weekend).

Then the next day, Friday early afternoon they called and said my car was ready, and I was pissed. First, they very nicely washed the outside, but didn’t clean the inside. Worse yet, I had to return the free Mach-e GT loaner to get my First Edition back. Then I had to use up a few of my Ford points to pay for the $15 tire rotation.

See, not exactly the same, and I was not really pissed at all. Could not have been a better experience. You need a better Dealer!

 

[MarkP213]

I just had the exact same experience at Chapman Ford in Scottsdale. Well, not exactly the same...

I took it in on Thursday for the 20K inspection and tire rotation, and to fix the front camera/pre-collision/Blue Cruise cancelled/etc. frequent alerts. They said it might take up to four days (including the weekend).

Then the next day, Friday early afternoon they called and said my car was ready, and I was pissed. First, they very nicely washed the outside, but didn’t clean the inside. Worse yet, I had to return the free Mach-e GT loaner to get my First Edition back. Then I had to use up a few of my Ford points to pay for the $15 tire rotation.

See, not exactly the same, and I was not really pissed at all. Could not have been a better experience. You need a better Dealer!

I have to say… I was quite confused there for a minute! ? My local dealership is great too.

 

[dj_stang]

Hey Everyone,

I finally got my Mustang Mach-E back from Camelback Ford after 24 days for them to fix the 'Front Camera Fault' 'Pre-Collision Assist Unavailable' error message. While the work was covered under warranty, they are not re-imbursing any part of the rental car that I had because apparently they have a policy where the rental car itself must be a Ford branded vehicle. Not only did I not know this nor was I made aware of this requirement, but I also didn't have a choice in this matter. This dealership put me in a cab and delivered me to Enterprise rent a car and I got a crappy Kia Soul.

Is there anything that I can do to be made whole on this? I'm out hundreds of dollars for this rental and that's not counting the gas I purchased. Normally I wouldn't even mention the fuel costs but it stings because I charge my car for free at work. Other than this rental I haven't bought gas in years and currently gas is $5.50 in my neck of the woods.

I tried calling Ford support and the call center confirmed that warranty re-imbursement does in-fact require a Ford branded vehicle to be covered. The only thing the call center could offer was to send negative feedback to the dealership. This feels like a real let down and I question why even have a call center or support line if you can't do anything or offer any solutions.

Second Issue, while I am no longer receiving the front camera error, now my hands-free driving doesn't work. The call center advised that they can see an error on their side and the only option is to take it back to the dealership for programming. I am beyond upset. I have an upcoming 3,000 mile road trip that I absolutely desire to have the hands-free feature working for. I can't do another 24 days without my car.

That sucks, I can say that they must have recently implemented that requirement back because my rentals have never been Ford-branded. I believe that was a pre-pandemic thing that was lifted, and potentially its back now? Certainly there has to be a transition period and some lee-way if you weren’t informed.

Hey the good news is that @Ford Motor Company doesn’t need to ask for your dealership info ?. All they need is your vin, I’m surprised the BEV team didn’t work with you on this. That’s contrary to my experience with them and is understandably very frustrating.

 

[Mach-Lee]

I believe that was a pre-pandemic thing that was lifted, and potentially its back now? Certainly there has to be a transition period and some lee-way if you weren’t informed.

Correct, that requirement was reinstated in July.

 

[moocrab]

Damn that sucks. I would call the GM of the dealership, explain the situation, and give him/her a chance to make things right. If they don't, tell them you really don't want to need to open a case with the Arizona Consumer Affairs agency (check to see what it's actually called). Similarly you don't want to need to call the local news stations about how Camelback Ford put you in a rental car that they knew wouldn't be reimbursed by Ford and also returned your car to you with new problems.

Likely you'll get their attention this way.

Best of luck!

On Saturday when I posted this this, I felt very much taken advantage of and it seemed like they intentionally harmed me. I filled out a consumer fraud complaint with the Arizona State Attorneys General Office. That office contacted me this morning and advised that they couldn't guarantee any outcome but that they would investigate. Later this afternoon this dealership service manager called me back to advise that he pulled some strings and got approval to cover my rental (10 days presumably) and that I should receive a cheque in the mail. Maybe these timings are coincidental or maybe not, I don't know.

I agree, the "Ford brand rental only" is really dumb rule they have. Anti-customer because you don't often have a choice what brand of rental car you can get. Kia or nothing is often the situation.

Ford, how about you require all your dealers to maintain a large FCTP loner fleet rather than force customers to find and cover rental costs out of their own pockets?

OP, you might have a case for Lemon Law or buyback since you BlueCruise still doesn't work after 30 days?

Exactly. It wasn't my choice because if it were, I would have used Avis instead of Enterprise Rent-A-Car since they are considerably cheaper. To me it seems like this requirement should be deemed burdensome and unenforceable at least in part because Ford doesn't build cheap cars anymore and car rental agencies generally charge a premium for SUVs, trucks, and performance cars. Those premiums are likely to exceed the $45 per day reimbursement rate.

I just had the exact same experience at Chapman Ford in Scottsdale. Well, not exactly the same...

I took it in on Thursday for the 20K inspection and tire rotation, and to fix the front camera/pre-collision/Blue Cruise cancelled/etc. frequent alerts. They said it might take up to four days (including the weekend).

Then the next day, Friday early afternoon they called and said my car was ready, and I was pissed. First, they very nicely washed the outside, but didn’t clean the inside. Worse yet, I had to return the free Mach-e GT loaner to get my First Edition back. Then I had to use up a few of my Ford points to pay for the $15 tire rotation.

See, not exactly the same, and I was not really pissed at all. Could not have been a better experience. You need a better Dealer!

Does your Blue Cruise hands-free driving still work? Mine worked prior to me taking it in and now it doesn't. The dealership said that it is a known issue caused by the newest firmware and that there is not fix provided by Ford as of date.

Car Update

I took my car back to the same dealership today as instructed by the Ford call center. The dealership plugged it in, diagnosed it, did whatever, and the end result is that they are saying that the fix for "Front Camera Fault" and "Pre-Collision Assist Unavailable" messages is to update the IPMA firmware to the newest version which they did. Unfortunately, this version of the firmware apparently causes Blue Cruise hands-free driving to not work and there is no fix. They advised that Ford is aware of this and working on this issue and it should be addressed in a future OTA update.

I don't know what to make of this. I've had my car for over 2 years now and have enjoyed the BC feature for just over a year now. The camera/sensor error was something new and they also replaced the camera. I'm not sure why the new camera required the new firmware but I asked if they could downgrade and they said they couldn't.

I think my trial for BC ends in two months and I would guess that I won't see an OTA update before then. Then what; Do I pay for the feature knowing that it won't work and just sit around and hope that it will work someday?

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Damn. I'm glad that you'll at least get the rental paid for.

But it seriously sucks that the IPMA update broke BlueCruise. When is your roadtrip?

 

[Maquis]

Damn. I'm glad that you'll at least get the rental paid for.

But it seriously sucks that the APIM update broke BlueCruise. When is your roadtrip?

IPMA is not the APIM! Too many initialisms!

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

IPMA is not the APIM! Too many initialisms!

Thanks - fixed! I knew I shoulda double checked!

 

[BigMach-E]

This whole thing is interesting. I am not sure how an update could disable BCHF, with no fix. I took an OTA orphaned Mach-E, and with my first time using FDRS I think ran over 25 module updates over two days.

Being completely new to the process, I didn’t mess up the car like these turkeys at your dealership messed up your car. Hell, at the end of my update spree, I was getting OTAs the very next day. Also, when I had to get a loaner for my previous MME being in the shop for a HVJB, it didn’t matter what kind of car I got as a loaner, I got reimbursed. Get a different dealership.

Finally, I love it when people tell you that they “pulled some strings” or went “above and beyond “, when they are correcting the terrible things they have done that would have been straight up unacceptable business practices 10 years ago, and would be grounds for termination. You should tell that service manager to blow someone else’s mind with that story.

 

[Alan]

Does your Blue Cruise hands-free driving still work? Mine worked prior to me taking it in and now it doesn't. The dealership said that it is a known issue caused by the newest firmware and that there is not fix provided by Ford as of date.

BC is working as before. Camera related faults have not returned.

The car does seem a bit more sluggish than before (damn GT loaner!).

 

[lereed15]

On Saturday when I posted this this, I felt very much taken advantage of and it seemed like they intentionally harmed me. I filled out a consumer fraud complaint with the Arizona State Attorneys General Office. That office contacted me this morning and advised that they couldn't guarantee any outcome but that they would investigate. Later this afternoon this dealership service manager called me back to advise that he pulled some strings and got approval to cover my rental (10 days presumably) and that I should receive a cheque in the mail. Maybe these timings are coincidental or maybe not, I don't know.

I just had the same problem. I was told I would be reimbursed by @Ford Motor Company but now that I am trying to get reimbursement I am told the rental had to be a ford vehicle. Was not told that beforehand and I had no choice in what vehicle I was given. Completely scammy. I guess I will also have to file a similar complaint with my state.

Sponsored