Ford Service Offer

Premier_2

jeannieblue wrote: »

...Meanwhile back on thread, the above dealership are also giving special deals on servicing!! I had a customer ask me to quote on a third service, bearing in mind that I needed to ensure the warranty was kept in tact, I did my research, called customer back and found that we were 62p cheaper than the dealership.....

The service due, was obviously oil & filter, pollen filter and spark plugs. I phoned said dealership and pretended I was the owner. The quote was for service including oil & filter....... I asked about the pollen filter and plugs - and they said that they were an 'advise'. If they needed replacing they would call me.... Now it stated very clearly that to service this car and keep the warranty intact, you had to service it according to manufacturers instructions - which said 'change' pollen filter and plugs - not 'advise'!!

I bet anyone booking in for that service got a call an hour or so later saying, oh by the way we need to replace blah blah blah - and the cost of this will be................ :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

If they didn't - then the car wasn't serviced in accordance with manufacturers instructions and warranty was b*ggered. And that, from a dealership!

Well this thread is about 3+ year old cars, so I'm not convinced you are back on topic.

If you are speaking of Allens, who I believe are the franchised dealer in Brentwood, then they only offer the £99 deal for Ford cars 3+ years old.

Any other deal they offer on Ford service will be in line with manufacturers recomendations. e.g. depending on the vehicle, Ford may have extended the service interval on replacing plugs to 4 years, or even 80,000 miles.
Ignore what it says in the Ford service booklet given with new cars - these are often updated by Ford to monitor the condition of parts replaced ... and extend/reduce the replacement interval as applicable to ensure ongoing customer satisfaction.

Now if you were an approved Ford dealer, you would (a) receive those updates and (b) be able to readily check their validity. As you are not, you can't and so you could be incurring your customer in the added expense of replacing parts not requiring replacemnt.

Of course, as you are not an approved Ford dealer, one would expect your costs to be less ... a lot less than just 62p. :eek:

jeannieblue

Premier wrote: »

Well this thread is about 3+ year old cars, so I'm not convinced you are back on topic.

If you are speaking of Allens, who I believe are the franchised dealer in Brentwood, then they only offer the £99 deal for Ford cars 3+ years old.

Any other deal they offer on Ford service will be in line with manufacturers recomendations. e.g. depending on the vehicle, Ford may have extended the service interval on replacing plugs to 4 years, or even 80,000 miles.
Ignore what it says in the Ford service booklet given with new cars - these are often updated by Ford to monitor the condition of parts replaced ... and extend/reduce the replacement interval as applicable to ensure ongoing customer satisfaction.

Now if you were an approved Ford dealer, you would (a) receive those updates and (b) be able to readily check their validity. As you are not, you can't and so you could be incurring your customer in the added expense of replacing parts not requiring replacemnt.

Of course, as you are not an approved Ford dealer, one would expect your costs to be less ... a lot less than just 62p. :eek:

Agreed - went off topic, oops... No, wasn't speaking of Allens. was referring to FMC headquarters. Someone very close to me works there :eek:.

They can't keep changing the goal posts re servicing when a car is under warranty - either the plugs/brake fluid whatever, needs changing or it doesn't to keep the warranty intact. After the warranty has ended you use common sense and replace/change what needs to be replaced or changed. In other words, we are in agreement - except for the point that you seem to be in favour of the dealerships, where as I am not.

But not all dealerships are bad - as I said before, the one very local to me is not good - but in saying that, they may have upped their game, but as I received such awful treatment and haven't heard of any improvement - I do not feel inclined to go back there - nor will I. Shame that son has chosen to go there - due to work commitments, he doesn't have the time to go back to Dagenham Motors, which is a shame. God help them if they c*ck up - he is not the most patient of people.... :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Premier_2

jeannieblue wrote: »

...
They can't keep changing the goal posts re servicing when a car is under warranty - either the plugs/brake fluid whatever, needs changing or it doesn't to keep the warranty intact. ...

They can and they do ... via service bulletins issued to their dealers.;)

Why would they continue to expect customers to pay to renew perfectly good parts after they become aware that they last a lot longer than they originally thought? (or why wouldn't they insist parts are replaced earlier if they find they are likely to fail earlier?)

If they didn't, it would seem to contravene their philosophies of ongoing continual improvement and exceeding the customer's expectations as well as possibly contravening the company's policies on protecting the environment.

jimdog

Premier wrote: »

They can and they do ... via service bulletins issued to their dealers.;)

Why would they continue to expect customers to pay to renew perfectly good parts after they become aware that they last a lot longer than they originally thought? (or why wouldn't they insist parts are replaced earlier if they find they are likely to fail earlier?)

If they didn't, it would seem to contravene their philosophies of ongoing continual improvement and exceeding the customer's expectations as well as possibly contravening the company's policies on protecting the environment.

That is interesting - how does an independent know when the goal posts have been moved? If they didn't replace something that didn't need it under warranty, and then a fault was found, could they then say the customer had blown the warranty for not having it serviced according to manufacturers instructions?

If BER is not renewed next year, this question will be irrelevant!

Premier_2

jimdog wrote: »

That is interesting - how does an independent know when the goal posts have been moved? If they didn't replace something that didn't need it under warranty, and then a fault was found, could they then say the customer had blown the warranty for not having it serviced according to manufacturers instructions?

If BER is not renewed next year, this question will be irrelevant!

I think Ford sell the information - they appear to be online (for a fee)
http://www.etis.ford.com/home/welcome.do

jimdog

Premier wrote: »

I think Ford sell the information - they appear to be online (for a fee)
http://www.etis.ford.com/home/welcome.do

That is fine - but will it stop next year when BER runs out? No doubt the information won't be available to independents anymore...

Premier_2

I don't know how long it'll continue to be available.

Knowing Ford (;)), I suspect any decision will be based on pure economics

If they can make more money by selling the info than it costs to provide it, then they'll probably continue.

Service schedules are currently available for free:
http://www.etis.ford.com/fordservice/home.do

jimdog

Premier wrote: »

I don't know how long it'll continue to be available.

Knowing Ford (;)), I suspect any decision will be based on pure economics

If they can make more money by selling the info than it costs to provide it, then they'll probably continue.

Service schedules are currently available for free:
http://www.etis.ford.com/fordservice/home.do

That is brilliant Premier! It will save me alot of time! I don't suppose you supply the info for all makes? Or is it just Fords?

jeannieblue

Premier wrote: »

I don't know how long it'll continue to be available.

Knowing Ford (;)), I suspect any decision will be based on pure economics

If they can make more money by selling the info than it costs to provide it, then they'll probably continue.

Service schedules are currently available for free:
http://www.etis.ford.com/fordservice/home.do

Now that is exactly the type of information that I am interested in.. Like Jimdog, would you know if service schedules are available like this for all makes?

Naturally we could lose all this information next year, sad really, but we will have to wait and see...... meanwhile, I'm looking forward to receiving service schedules for all the other makes of vehicles...

jeannieblue

Premier wrote: »

I don't know how long it'll continue to be available.

Knowing Ford (;)), I suspect any decision will be based on pure economics

If they can make more money by selling the info than it costs to provide it, then they'll probably continue.

Service schedules are currently available for free:
http://www.etis.ford.com/fordservice/home.do

AND............ on this, all you have to do is put in the reg (in case mine) and it came up with all the info that I didn't know about my car which before I couldn't really careless about.. :rotfl: BUT, if I have a new customer book in with a Ford, I can put the reg and have all the info straight off, without having to make a couple of phone calls. Excellent, be great to have it with other makes, as said before. I'll shut up now as I am beginning to bore myself..........