Ford Warranty Dealership Scam? e.g. Air con leak (Condenser rivet corrosion).

spinbuster

Regarding the scenario below, has anything similar happened to you, perhaps regarding your 2007 (or later) Fiesta, Focus or Mondeo where a Ford Dealer says one thing and a credible independent specialist says another?
If so, please add your experiences to this post so that it can be referred to Which, Watchdog, etc.

Your air con stops working during the warranty period so you pay a Ford Dealer say £45-£65 for a diagnosis.
He/she tells you that they will have to re-gas the air con system including a dye in order for them to detect any leaks.
After re-gassing the Ford Dealer tells you that the air con is leaking because a stone hit the air con condenser which is located in front of the radiator and this is what happens if you are not careful.
He then tells you that he believes Ford will reject a warranty claim because the problem was not caused by a manufacturing defect. However, he can offer you a repair for say £450-£500 using Ford Parts or £350-£400 using non Ford Parts.
You politely decline his offer and take your car to a credible independent air con specialist who tells you that the air con condenser leak is caused by a common problem i.e. corrosion of the rivets on the condenser (i.e. a manufacturing defect).
You then report this to the Ford Customer Relations Dept. who tell you that they will only accept diagnosis and repair information from a Ford Agent so they will not be offering you compensation.
You then wonder what benefit/value you received from paying the Ford Dealer £45-£65 for a diagnosis and re-gassing?
You also find out later that vehicles should not be re-gassed using coolant to diagnose air con leaks as this damages the environment and that Nitrogen should be used instead.

jcb208

How old is your car then,most only have a 3 year warranty,or was it bought second hand

Crabman

You shouldn't have had to pay for the diagnosis. What dire customer service from Ford.

As for the independent opinion, if they can put it in writing you will be able to then make things more formal. If there is a cost for the written report, get a receipt as you can claim the cost from Ford if they are found to be in the wrong.

Ask the Ford garage to put it in writing that the problem was caused by a stone chip.

Then you'll be able to compare it with the independent report. If the independent report doesn't list a stone chip as the cause, then it will call into question Ford's credibility.

Once their credibility is in question, you can then refer to the true cause of the fault.

Best to do this with a letter before action, that way you can simply follow up with a small claims case if they don't resolve it to your satisfaction:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_taking_action_e/consumer_legal_actions_e/consumer_going_to_court_e/consumer_taking_court_action_e/step_one_write_a_letter_before_action.htm

Jvic28

Why didn't you ask the Ford dealer to show you the hole made by the stone. Simples. If it wasn't there, they wouldn't be able to show you one.

As far as I know it's common practice to regass 1st and go from there. Obviously, if no leaks are present and just a regass was required, then you would have to pay, if there's a leak you wouldn't have to pay, providing the car is under warranty. You asked about 2007 cars onwards?? Way out of warranty if it's that old anyway.

harveybobbles

Ask Ford to show you where the leak is.

Ask the other garage to show you where the leak is.

spinbuster

Crabman wrote: »

You shouldn't have had to pay for the diagnosis. What dire customer service from Ford.

The main purpose of my thread is to seek out customers who have paid Ford Dealerships for a diagnosis to assist them in making a Warranty claim and then later got the impression that they have paid the dealer to act in the interests of Ford and not their own.
Thank you for your feedback.
As I understand it, if a manufacturer doesn’t want to honour a warranty claim they do not have to. That then leaves the customer with the Sale of Goods Act. From what I have gathered, in some cases Ford has not defended court action by persistent Ford customers.