I just wanted to share with you the absolute absurd nonsense I had to go through to get the defective airbag fixed on my 2009. First of all... 10 years to fix a problem people knew about, but that's besides the point. Anyway, when I got my original letter from Ford stating there was a problem it said "parts are not yet available, do not let anyone sit in the passengers seat". This was over a year ago and since I own a regular cab that literally ment my truck couldn't safely hold any passengers. I have kids I have to take to school so I disabled the passenger air bag during that time. Risky but their school is around the block, unlikely to need an airbag driving 15mph. Anyway in early April I got my second letter stating parts were now available for my model and to call my local dealer. I called the dealer I purchased the truck from 10 years ago but since I had never once brought it in for service they had no record of me. My first response was "who cares, this is a recall and I don't need to be a customer of yours to get it fixed". The parts guy was pretty rude about the whole thing but finally ordered my art... note I said ordered. The letter I got said parts were now in stock but I guess the dealers don't have that stock.

3 weeks go by and nothing. I call several times to inquire, mostly getting passed around from person to person until I finally get someone who says the part is coming direct from Japan so it will take a while and to relax they will call when it's in. Bull effin crap... but what can I do but wait?

finally I get a call 2 more weeks later with a message on my answering machine from the parts department that says "if you do not make an appointment asap to have this part installed we will return it". So now I try calling the service department. 4 days to get someone on the phone. They literally don't answer and the desk girl keeps saying leave a message with me but no one ever responds.

so then the parts department calls me back and leaves a message and says the part will be shipped back on Monday. I try to call again and get the mousey receptionist who says leave a message. So I said " Miss, I've now called this place at least a dozen times and no one ever calls back from the service department, so give them this message, I'm on my way down there."

I drive to the dealer and find the girl under 5'2" with the Mickey mouse voice standing at the reception office and say "excuse me I'd like you to call the service department." She looks confused and I say "I'm the one who just called, I just wanna walk down their while your calling them so I can see what ******* isn't answering the phone". She jumped up and says oh I'm sorry sir come with me and leads me straight to the service manager and tells him the whole story. The service manager is half apologetic and half pissed but he can tell I don't care what is mood is, he gives me a shitty apology and walks me over to a service writer and sorta just nudges him to do what I ask... so all that got me an appointment a week later for them to do the work. Didn't care, at least I got an effin appointment and it'll be fixed.

I drop the truck off today at 8am, hand the guy the keys and say call me when it's done. I expect all is well and the bullshit is over. 2pm I get a call from the dealer and I'm thinking my god that took forever. It was the service department telling me they don't have the part because the parts department returned it....

so now I'm obviously done with that dealer and off to start the process over at a new dealer. Thanks for hearing me vent.

 

Jeeeeze

And it was all BS because I am sure yours wasn't the ONLY Ranger they sold that year that would need the parts for this recall.
So they either installed them on another Ranger or never got them to begin with

 

That's some BS for sure!!

 

Sounds about like a few dealers around me - most are crap around me and try to scam people. (amazing my tires had no issues when I dropped the truck off now all 4 are "cupped" or" worn uneven". Must have some black hole gravity going on) But of course they have a tire special going on. or the brake calipers and pads i put on 2 months ago are already worn and need replaced asap.

When you find a good dealer let everyone you know about them. They deserve the business.

 

I know recalls make no money. I've been a mechanic, been a tech. No one loves recalls. But you do your effing job. And in my case no tech ever got my truck... it's all bs.

 

I find it fun to act completely ignorant of cars and ask really basic silly questions to see how they answer them. If they make up a load of BS i will take my business elsewhere.

 

I found another dealer about 15 minutes from where I work, i don't plan on calling im just driving there tomorrow on my lunch and handing them my recall letter. Im so done with this bs if they dont have me a part and appointment within a week im calling a lawyer. I honestly just hope this was an isolated bad dealer. What else am i suppose to do? Im afraid to let my kid drive in my truck. I dont have a second vehicle to rely on. My wife is an emt and she practically lives out of her truck so its not like we can just take each other to work or swap trucks. legally i cant even drive her damn truck! Im just beyond furious. Thanks for listening.

 

I have two local Ford dealers
Both are great, I only use them every few years but never had any issues

 

Well I stopped at the second dealer this morning and went direct to the service department. The writer took my recall notice with all my trucks info and said not a problem. As he was filling out the info on the computer I sort of explained what happened at the previous dealer. He was pretty amazed by the BS I went through and then asks for my key. I didnt understand why he wanted the keys... He goes "you want it done now right?" I said "uhhh you have the part in stock?" He said "yea we got a bunch of them, we can have you fixed up in about 3 hours". I didnt plan on it getting done today but I figured id rather miss 3 hours of work and be done with this crap. The guy says "oh you dont have to wait here, our shuttle service can take you to work and pick you up when its ready"....

Sure enough 3 hours later they called me up and said it's ready, would you like us to send the shuttle? They picked me up and brought me back to my truck and I was on my way. No fuss, no cursing, no BS. Effin amazing! I cant figure out how the other dealer can stay in business with the crap they pulled.

 

Glad you got it sorted out

That's a Ford dealer worth knowing

 

Agreed - shoot them a great review on google maps or yelp or whoever and slam the other guys into the 1 star zone while your there.