Windshield Recall - A really, really disappointing experience.

[AlpaChino]

[TL;DR: I brought the car in for the glass recall in great condition. Left with a bunch of extra scratches on the inside of the windshield, dealer is declining liability. Help @Ford Motor Company]

Like many of you, I received the recall notice in the mail after already knowing that it was coming via updates here on the forum. I patiently waited like a good lad and called in November to schedule the windshield work to be done. The appointment was set for December. I indicated to the dealer (Tom Wood Ford, Indianapolis) that not only would I like the recall work to be done (Windshield + Panoramic roof) but the all too common "rattle at low speed and turning sharply" issue that's been detailed here many times.

I arrived on the day of the appointment to find out that no one had scheduled the recall work with the associated body shop. No one at the dealer thought to contact the body shop, knowing that glass work was to be done. So while I was already at the dealer I elected to have the rattle looked at, and the 21P22 updates applied. The dealer acknowledged the rattle issue but couldn't replicated it reliably, so they said if it continued to happen to revisit. The 21P22 updates were applied just fine. They scheduled the followup appointment for the glasswork for January 11th. I was advised at this time that if I wanted the rental car (as my car would be needed for two days) that it was on me to call a specific person at the dealer and have it arranged otherwise there would be no promises. Not an ideal customer service experience, but whatever.

On January 11th I took Ruby in for new glasses. With the shop representative we went over the car with a fine tooth comb to detail all body issues and other damages both for liability reasons and upsell opportunities. I elected to have a few paint chips addressed, a door ding taken out of the rear passenger door, and the hood polished for $200. No other damages were reported, and it was noted by the rep that I took great care of my car. Damn straight.

Two hours later I was notified that while removing the headliner to address the panoramic roof seals, the sunglass holder peg was broken and the single sunglass holder would need to be ordered, but nothing that would stop the work from being completed. The rep apologized for the inconvenience and told me since it was done during the recall work that likely, Ford would approve covering the cost of the replacement. Yeah, someone's covering it, right? (Ford did.)

The next day I returned the rental (a Volvo XC40 EV by the way) and was shuttled over to the shop. As I'm pulling in, the rep is bringing the car out. It looks great. Original windshield back in place and all. We look over it together and it all looked fine in the daylight, minus the painters tape now holding the broken sunglass recepticle in place.

I get it home and notice within an hour, a grease smudge on the light grey headliner right by the oh-shit bar on the front passenger side. I took a picture. I decided I'd wait until the next day to call it in and ask for that to be addressed. I don't f around with headliners.

That next day, I had some driving to do on the highway at night. As soon as the lights came at me from the other direction I saw what looked to be spiderwebs on the glass, right in front of my vision and slightly to the left, in a semi circular pattern. As soon as I came to a stop, I got out and ran my fingers across the area on the outside, got back in and nothing changed. I ran my fingers across the inside and felt what I believed to be scratches. Here's a few pics I took with a flashlight.

I call the shop rep the next morning (Friday, January 14th) he doesn't answer so I leave a voicemail detailing my findings and asked that it be addressed one way or another. All I know is that these scratches weren't there when I dropped it off, I take very meticulous care of my car, and a day after getting it back I have deep scratches on the INSIDE. I'm pissed. I'm already scheduled to come in on Tuesday after MLK day for the sunglass repair and the smudge to be taken out of the headliner. I decided I'd bring it up again once I'm there at 8am.

On Tuesday I bring it in and immediately show him the scratches. He has me wait in the lobby as the other fixes are being applied and tells me he's going to call his glass guy and find out what happened, and get a process started with Ford, considering this to be damage that occured during the recall. He comes back 40 minutes later and states that the sunglass holder and smudge have been fixed, but his guys are "...swearing that they only use suction cups on the outside to remove the glass and there's no way they even touched the inside during their process. It seems unlikely they caused the scratches." So in the meantime he's submitted a request to Ford to see if we can get the glass replaced under warranty, as these scratches are too deep to address otherwise.

I got a call yesterday informing me that Ford has declined the replacement of the glass as part of the recall work. The liability goes back to the dealer/body shop. But according to the rep, at this time they aren't accepting any liability because per their glass tech "we had no reason to be on the inside of the window, that must have been preexisting." Well I took a video of the interior of the car as well as measurements around the windshield before any work was done, but because these scratches can be hard to see in normal light, they aren't accepting any photos or videos of mine as evidence.

My position is this. I brought a car in that I know had no scratches on the inside of the window, none. It now has scratches immediately after this work was performed. When I brought it in and we examined the car together, neither I nor the body shop rep identified any damages to the windshield. We certainly identified items as small as very minor paint chips the size of a pencil tip, but no damages to the windshield before the work was done.

The body shop has offered to build me a quote on a windshield replacement that would be 100% my cost. Gee, thanks. I called today to argue my position, and no one responded. I'm calling again in the morning.

@Ford Motor Company I'd appreciate your help. Hell, I'd appreciate anyone's help if there's a way to escalate this. Ford, if you're really trying to make great experiences with your new cars, this isn't it. You need us advocating for your car, your dealers, your brand. Make it easy for us to do. Enable great experiences, not bring more burden on us just to receive what's right as your customer.

 

[Neil4Real]

Holy cow, I’m so sorry. I would say it’s time not deal with the man at the bottom of the totem pole and demand to speak to the GM and Service Director, preferably both but the GM as a priority if only 1. Then I would tell the body shop that it is their job to prove their not liable by providing photos showing the scratches weren’t there. They can’t have you sign off it’s perfect then 180 and say they didn’t check properly. I would also tell them to provide all the video proof of your car when they did the work. I bet they have cameras. Lastly, I would ask where they set the glass down when they suction it out. I assume the suction the OUTSIDE so the side without the cups is certainly the inside that has nothing stopping stuff from getting to close.

 

[NoMoShocks]

Could have been the shop monkeys at the dealership who remove all the trim around the glass before the glass guy gets to work. The dealership's own employees. Same ones who broke the sunglass holder clip. There is this YouTube video of windshield resealing a Mach E . The glass guy shows how he uses a string pulling tool to cut the original seal to take out the windshield and he states that the dealer removes all the trim. Another possibility might be if the glass guys used some sort of spatula type tool to cut the seal from the inside? They may have only used suction cups to lift out the glass, but they had to use something to cut the old seal.

 

[jparduhn70]

Seeing this makes me even more reluctant to take mine in for the recall work.

 

[RockwallRick]

Seeing this makes me even more reluctant to take mine in for the recall work.

Me too, thinking about taking ours in for the software update but skip the glass recalls!

 

[Billy]

I have the two window recalls scheduled with my dealer and they have successfully completed a few. They do use a 3rd party window company who is doing the recall work for multiple ford dealerships in central Texas. Hopefully all goes well.

 

[Ponypower50]

No one is touching my windshield or Pano roof. I have had too many bad experiences with warranty work done by Ford.This is a major recall by Ford and they are responsible for all damage done to the cars when repaired. This is just my opinion!

 

[AlpaChino]

Quick update: The shop called me late last week and left me a voicemail and gave me their email address, as we couldn't connect personally due to my work schedule. I laid out a logical case as to why the damage (scratches on the inside of the windshield) had to have happened while the car was in their care, and regardless of who ended up footing the bill between themselves and Ford, it didn't matter to me. The fact remained, I brought it to them in near perfect condition. What damages were on the car were spotted by the shop, and these scratches were not there. When I picked it up they were.

In my email I stated "Ultimately it's up to you and your shop how this situation is resolved. Either the windshield is replaced by your team at your cost, or I'm left with damages that occured in your shop and I'll avoid your vehicles and services in the future."

He followed up this morning to say the windshield has been ordered and this would all be replaced at no cost to me. I'll be notified when the windshield is in.

I'm happy to see this step in the process, but I wish it didn't come down to me fighting for what's fair. But thank you regardless Tom Wood Ford Indianapolis for this effort in making it right.

 

[djjerv91]

[TL;DR: I brought the car in for the glass recall in great condition. Left with a bunch of extra scratches on the inside of the windshield, dealer is declining liability. Help @Ford Motor Company]

Like many of you, I received the recall notice in the mail after already knowing that it was coming via updates here on the forum. I patiently waited like a good lad and called in November to schedule the windshield work to be done. The appointment was set for December. I indicated to the dealer (Tom Wood Ford, Indianapolis) that not only would I like the recall work to be done (Windshield + Panoramic roof) but the all too common "rattle at low speed and turning sharply" issue that's been detailed here many times.

I arrived on the day of the appointment to find out that no one had scheduled the recall work with the associated body shop. No one at the dealer thought to contact the body shop, knowing that glass work was to be done. So while I was already at the dealer I elected to have the rattle looked at, and the 21P22 updates applied. The dealer acknowledged the rattle issue but couldn't replicated it reliably, so they said if it continued to happen to revisit. The 21P22 updates were applied just fine. They scheduled the followup appointment for the glasswork for January 11th. I was advised at this time that if I wanted the rental car (as my car would be needed for two days) that it was on me to call a specific person at the dealer and have it arranged otherwise there would be no promises. Not an ideal customer service experience, but whatever.

On January 11th I took Ruby in for new glasses. With the shop representative we went over the car with a fine tooth comb to detail all body issues and other damages both for liability reasons and upsell opportunities. I elected to have a few paint chips addressed, a door ding taken out of the rear passenger door, and the hood polished for $200. No other damages were reported, and it was noted by the rep that I took great care of my car. Damn straight.

Two hours later I was notified that while removing the headliner to address the panoramic roof seals, the sunglass holder peg was broken and the single sunglass holder would need to be ordered, but nothing that would stop the work from being completed. The rep apologized for the inconvenience and told me since it was done during the recall work that likely, Ford would approve covering the cost of the replacement. Yeah, someone's covering it, right? (Ford did.)

The next day I returned the rental (a Volvo XC40 EV by the way) and was shuttled over to the shop. As I'm pulling in, the rep is bringing the car out. It looks great. Original windshield back in place and all. We look over it together and it all looked fine in the daylight, minus the painters tape now holding the broken sunglass recepticle in place.

I get it home and notice within an hour, a grease smudge on the light grey headliner right by the oh-shit bar on the front passenger side. I took a picture. I decided I'd wait until the next day to call it in and ask for that to be addressed. I don't f around with headliners.

That next day, I had some driving to do on the highway at night. As soon as the lights came at me from the other direction I saw what looked to be spiderwebs on the glass, right in front of my vision and slightly to the left, in a semi circular pattern. As soon as I came to a stop, I got out and ran my fingers across the area on the outside, got back in and nothing changed. I ran my fingers across the inside and felt what I believed to be scratches. Here's a few pics I took with a flashlight.

I call the shop rep the next morning (Friday, January 14th) he doesn't answer so I leave a voicemail detailing my findings and asked that it be addressed one way or another. All I know is that these scratches weren't there when I dropped it off, I take very meticulous care of my car, and a day after getting it back I have deep scratches on the INSIDE. I'm pissed. I'm already scheduled to come in on Tuesday after MLK day for the sunglass repair and the smudge to be taken out of the headliner. I decided I'd bring it up again once I'm there at 8am.

On Tuesday I bring it in and immediately show him the scratches. He has me wait in the lobby as the other fixes are being applied and tells me he's going to call his glass guy and find out what happened, and get a process started with Ford, considering this to be damage that occured during the recall. He comes back 40 minutes later and states that the sunglass holder and smudge have been fixed, but his guys are "...swearing that they only use suction cups on the outside to remove the glass and there's no way they even touched the inside during their process. It seems unlikely they caused the scratches." So in the meantime he's submitted a request to Ford to see if we can get the glass replaced under warranty, as these scratches are too deep to address otherwise.

I got a call yesterday informing me that Ford has declined the replacement of the glass as part of the recall work. The liability goes back to the dealer/body shop. But according to the rep, at this time they aren't accepting any liability because per their glass tech "we had no reason to be on the inside of the window, that must have been preexisting." Well I took a video of the interior of the car as well as measurements around the windshield before any work was done, but because these scratches can be hard to see in normal light, they aren't accepting any photos or videos of mine as evidence.

My position is this. I brought a car in that I know had no scratches on the inside of the window, none. It now has scratches immediately after this work was performed. When I brought it in and we examined the car together, neither I nor the body shop rep identified any damages to the windshield. We certainly identified items as small as very minor paint chips the size of a pencil tip, but no damages to the windshield before the work was done.

The body shop has offered to build me a quote on a windshield replacement that would be 100% my cost. Gee, thanks. I called today to argue my position, and no one responded. I'm calling again in the morning.

@Ford Motor Company I'd appreciate your help. Hell, I'd appreciate anyone's help if there's a way to escalate this. Ford, if you're really trying to make great experiences with your new cars, this isn't it. You need us advocating for your car, your dealers, your brand. Make it easy for us to do. Enable great experiences, not bring more burden on us just to receive what's right as your customer.

The grease smudges on the headliner definitely happened to me too. I had to have my roof replaced because there was a crack when delivered. Whatever process Ford or the glass companies are doing is leaving those smudges without a doubt.

 

[thamhle]

[TL;DR: I brought the car in for the glass recall in great condition. Left with a bunch of extra scratches on the inside of the windshield, dealer is declining liability. Help @Ford Motor Company]

Like many of you, I received the recall notice in the mail after already knowing that it was coming via updates here on the forum. I patiently waited like a good lad and called in November to schedule the windshield work to be done. The appointment was set for December. I indicated to the dealer (Tom Wood Ford, Indianapolis) that not only would I like the recall work to be done (Windshield + Panoramic roof) but the all too common "rattle at low speed and turning sharply" issue that's been detailed here many times.

I arrived on the day of the appointment to find out that no one had scheduled the recall work with the associated body shop. No one at the dealer thought to contact the body shop, knowing that glass work was to be done. So while I was already at the dealer I elected to have the rattle looked at, and the 21P22 updates applied. The dealer acknowledged the rattle issue but couldn't replicated it reliably, so they said if it continued to happen to revisit. The 21P22 updates were applied just fine. They scheduled the followup appointment for the glasswork for January 11th. I was advised at this time that if I wanted the rental car (as my car would be needed for two days) that it was on me to call a specific person at the dealer and have it arranged otherwise there would be no promises. Not an ideal customer service experience, but whatever.

On January 11th I took Ruby in for new glasses. With the shop representative we went over the car with a fine tooth comb to detail all body issues and other damages both for liability reasons and upsell opportunities. I elected to have a few paint chips addressed, a door ding taken out of the rear passenger door, and the hood polished for $200. No other damages were reported, and it was noted by the rep that I took great care of my car. Damn straight.

Two hours later I was notified that while removing the headliner to address the panoramic roof seals, the sunglass holder peg was broken and the single sunglass holder would need to be ordered, but nothing that would stop the work from being completed. The rep apologized for the inconvenience and told me since it was done during the recall work that likely, Ford would approve covering the cost of the replacement. Yeah, someone's covering it, right? (Ford did.)

The next day I returned the rental (a Volvo XC40 EV by the way) and was shuttled over to the shop. As I'm pulling in, the rep is bringing the car out. It looks great. Original windshield back in place and all. We look over it together and it all looked fine in the daylight, minus the painters tape now holding the broken sunglass recepticle in place.

I get it home and notice within an hour, a grease smudge on the light grey headliner right by the oh-shit bar on the front passenger side. I took a picture. I decided I'd wait until the next day to call it in and ask for that to be addressed. I don't f around with headliners.

That next day, I had some driving to do on the highway at night. As soon as the lights came at me from the other direction I saw what looked to be spiderwebs on the glass, right in front of my vision and slightly to the left, in a semi circular pattern. As soon as I came to a stop, I got out and ran my fingers across the area on the outside, got back in and nothing changed. I ran my fingers across the inside and felt what I believed to be scratches. Here's a few pics I took with a flashlight.

I call the shop rep the next morning (Friday, January 14th) he doesn't answer so I leave a voicemail detailing my findings and asked that it be addressed one way or another. All I know is that these scratches weren't there when I dropped it off, I take very meticulous care of my car, and a day after getting it back I have deep scratches on the INSIDE. I'm pissed. I'm already scheduled to come in on Tuesday after MLK day for the sunglass repair and the smudge to be taken out of the headliner. I decided I'd bring it up again once I'm there at 8am.

On Tuesday I bring it in and immediately show him the scratches. He has me wait in the lobby as the other fixes are being applied and tells me he's going to call his glass guy and find out what happened, and get a process started with Ford, considering this to be damage that occured during the recall. He comes back 40 minutes later and states that the sunglass holder and smudge have been fixed, but his guys are "...swearing that they only use suction cups on the outside to remove the glass and there's no way they even touched the inside during their process. It seems unlikely they caused the scratches." So in the meantime he's submitted a request to Ford to see if we can get the glass replaced under warranty, as these scratches are too deep to address otherwise.

I got a call yesterday informing me that Ford has declined the replacement of the glass as part of the recall work. The liability goes back to the dealer/body shop. But according to the rep, at this time they aren't accepting any liability because per their glass tech "we had no reason to be on the inside of the window, that must have been preexisting." Well I took a video of the interior of the car as well as measurements around the windshield before any work was done, but because these scratches can be hard to see in normal light, they aren't accepting any photos or videos of mine as evidence.

My position is this. I brought a car in that I know had no scratches on the inside of the window, none. It now has scratches immediately after this work was performed. When I brought it in and we examined the car together, neither I nor the body shop rep identified any damages to the windshield. We certainly identified items as small as very minor paint chips the size of a pencil tip, but no damages to the windshield before the work was done.

The body shop has offered to build me a quote on a windshield replacement that would be 100% my cost. Gee, thanks. I called today to argue my position, and no one responded. I'm calling again in the morning.

@Ford Motor Company I'd appreciate your help. Hell, I'd appreciate anyone's help if there's a way to escalate this. Ford, if you're really trying to make great experiences with your new cars, this isn't it. You need us advocating for your car, your dealers, your brand. Make it easy for us to do. Enable great experiences, not bring more burden on us just to receive what's right as your customer.

Just got mine back on Monday 1/24 as I was out of town over weekend so drolped it off on Thursday before I left so they would have time to complete. There are little grease marks all over headliner and the interior is very light colored so it is very noticeable. Looks like they took out the side liner inside bc the driver side is not as seamless anymore but I am not taking it back bc no telling what else would be messed up so will try to clean up myself and push the liner into place. Im really not sure they changed the front windshield bc it still has tint on there…things that make you wonder.

 

[AlpaChino]

Just got mine back on Monday 1/24 as I was out of town over weekend so drolped it off on Thursday before I left so they would have time to complete. There are little grease marks all over headliner and the interior is very light colored so it is very noticeable. Looks like they took out the side liner inside bc the driver side is not as seamless anymore but I am not taking it back bc no telling what else would be messed up so will try to clean up myself and push the liner into place. Im really not sure they changed the front windshield bc it still has tint on there…things that make you wonder.

Glass replacement is not a required part of the recall work being done to the windshield. The windshield would only be replaced if it were damaged during reinstallation.

 

[iankellogg]

I can't even get a dealer to do the recall. I've taken it to two different dealers to have it done and both times they just didn't. Took my car in for literally nothing twice.

 

[GrumblesTheDog]

Huge bummer. I go in for mine in a week - hopefully I don't join these horror stories. Did they give you an ETA for the windshield, out of curiosity?

 

[VegStang]

This recall is a dumpster fire to me. I know there isn't anyone at the dealer that would take the time and precautions necessary to make sure the headliner isn't messed up or the trim panels scratched. I'm almost ready to drop the headliner myself. My dealer has done at least 30 of these so I just have my fingers crossed whatever blemishes or smudges they leave will be correctable once I get it home. I do expect the glass company to manage the reinstall without scratching the glass though.

 

[AlpaChino]

Huge bummer. I go in for mine in a week - hopefully I don't join these horror stories. Did they give you an ETA for the windshield, out of curiosity?

No ETA yet.

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