Being charged "no fault" fee after technician spent 4 hours on my car

prowla

The OP has reaffirmed my decision to never own another Ford; every one I've ever had has had some mysterious problem which could just not be fixed.

Pastabath

prowla wrote: »

The OP has reaffirmed my decision to never own another Ford; every one I've ever had has had some mysterious problem which could just not be fixed.

I totally agree with you. This is not the first incident I had with Ford car quality issue, Ford customer service didnt care to help at all. I regretted buying a Ford honestly.

mije1983

Pastabath wrote: »

Best case scenario is someone could point how to escalate further.

I did. Sue them. How can you escalate further than the CEO? There is nobody higher in the company, so your next step is legal.

Pastabath wrote: »

But £52 is not worth going for legal and I have no experience in legal too.

Ok don't then and let it go. SCC is designed to be simple so Joe Public can use it without legal qualifications.

Pastabath wrote: »

I know Resolver was just passing the complaint, but I expect Resolver to pass to the right department, escalate to the right executive office or top management.

But again, they don't have any special powers that you or I don't possess. You could have just started the AC complaint process yourself and had the same result. And again, to be blunt, a £52 complaint isn't going to get anywhere near top management or execs!

Pastabath

mije1983 wrote: »

And again, to be blunt, a £52 complaint isn't going to get anywhere near top management or execs!

My work requires me to handle customer complaint sometimes too. I never ask how much money is involved. A complaint is a complaint, it is product/service quality issue. I am glad to know the issue early before it grows big. The nearest question I would ask is, how many units do the customer has? The intention was to hope the issue would not cause huge complication to the customer, and immediately suggest a workaround solution before the fix is ready.

My company has some reference to how Ford handle engineering problem (8D investigation report), I was amazed with how they handle the product quality, which indirectly influenced me to buy a Ford. But after having a Ford car for 3 years, it is a nightmare for me, probably the issue is the sales and service unit, it is simply a nightmare.

If a company judges the complaint on the monetary value, we should think twice before using any of its product at all. Especially a car or an equipment that can endanger your life.

just sharing my experience.

Pastabath

mije1983 wrote: »

Ok don't then and let it go. SCC is designed to be simple so Joe Public can use it without legal qualifications.

What is SCC? Appreciate you can tell the full name or more details

mije1983

Pastabath wrote: »

My work requires me to handle customer complaint sometimes too. I never ask how much money is involved. A complaint is a complaint

But that is your job. It is not the job of a CEO or senior management. That is why they have employees. For hundreds of thousands of pounds you may have got the CEO's interest. For £52 you would not have.

I wouldn't in a million years ever expect the CEO of the company I work for to do the job I am paid to do, and that's if they even knew HOW to do it! It's not their job, just as mine isn't running the company.

Pastabath wrote: »

What is SCC? Appreciate you can tell the full name or more details

Small Claims Court.

A guide here

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/small-claims-court

unholyangel

Pastabath wrote: »

I totally agree with you. This is not the first incident I had with Ford car quality issue, Ford customer service didnt care to help at all. I regretted buying a Ford honestly.

Years ago I had a 1.25 zetec which was a great car, but that engine was designed by yamaha I believe. Could take off in 3rd and would zoom up even the steepest hills. Was more in line with a 1.6 for "oomph". We only got rid as the car body was going to need major work.

As for your issue, i'd say theres 2 possible points you might be able to proceed on. The first is by diagnosing the fault to be one that should have been covered under warranty (or that would make the goods not of satisfactory quality - which is unlikely in a car you've owned for years but mentioning it to cover all bases). You said (a lot of times) that there was an annoying noise from the rear - but what kind of noise?

The second point would be that under the Consumer Contract (Information, Cancellation & Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 that a trader needs to tell you the total cost before you're bound by the contract - if this isn't possible then they need to tell you how it will be calculated. So they should have told you that - if there was no fault found - it would be charged at £x per hour.


That all being said, £52 is extremely cheap for 4 hours labour from any garage. Thats more like half an hour at dealer rates (while the actual mechanic will probably be lucky to be on £15 an hour).

bris

Pastabath wrote: »

It is not big money - £52, but very frustrated because I feel I was scammed and bullied. for 8 weeks, the CEO didnt want to reply me at all.

You weren't scammed and bullied, as far as they are concerned you wasted their time for 4 hours and got off lightly.


3 hours in a main dealership is normally about £320.

flicks

I may be totally wrong here but if the fault was first reported when the car was under warranty and not found, could you not just go back to the dealership now the same fault has returned and demonstrate it to the mechanic?

agrinnall

Pastabath wrote: »

May be Arnold Clark was not that professional as I thought.

You wouldn't have needed to spend much time on this board to get the general view of members on Arnold Clark (or Arnold Shark as they are often named). Personally I never had much of a problem with either of the cars I bought from them or AC's dealing with the few issues I did experience, they seem no better or worse than any other very large dealer in mass market vehicles.