Re: OT: Car dealer crap - ever hear of this?

Posted by gahorn on October 03, 2004 at 15:07:46 from (4.253.71.1):

In Reply to: OT: Car dealer crap - ever hear of this? posted by Markus on October 02, 2004 at 13:59:50:

In 1977 I ordered a brand new 1978 Ford F-150 PU from Beal Ford in College Station Texas. A month later it was in. Six months later it had a leaking power steering pump. I left it with them while I went out of town for 4 days.
When I got back, the truck had the same pump in it, and the shop mgr told me it was a leaking p/s hose that had been replaced.
I looked at the hoses and both of them were splattered with the same mud I'd driven in with on them, and the hose clamps screw-slots were still packed with mud. The pump still had red fluid dripping out of it's pulley-shaft seal.
I told the service mgr that I'd paid my way thru college and flight school working as a new-car mechanic for a dealership, and I wasn't falling for that crap.
The mechanic that supposedly did the work had his own older Ford truck in his work-bay doing a restoration and I noticed it had all new hoses on it. (My warranty work order had new hoses charged to it.) To the service mgr I accused the mechanic of dishonesty, and the service mgr specifically told me, "Well I'm not going to say that to him, but if YOU'RE ready for an ass-whipping you can!" (No kidding, that's an actual quote!)
I went straight to the sales manager (son of the owner of the dealership) who'd sold me that PickUp and told him what had transpired. He called the service mgr in for a conference. The service mgr was sent to the parts room to procure a pump, and when he returned he reported that there were no pumps in stock, and that it'd be a week before one could be had. I agreed to bring the truck back the following week.
I drove to my office, and then it struck me. I called the parts dept. and simply asked for a steering pump for a '78 F-150, and they told me the price and that they had one in stock. I asked them to go put their hand on it, to confirm it was actually in stock. A minute later the parts guy reported back that they had THREE of them and one of them now had my name on it.
I jumped back into my truck and tore back down to the dealership, walked back into the owner's son's office and told him about it. I was TICKED OFF!!!
The service mgr was called on the interphone and when he came to the office he stated that the parts guy was wrong, that the pumps in question were all being held for other customers who were ahead of me in-line for warranty repair.
What a bucn of LIARS!
And I had screwed up. I should have FIRST gone to the parts window and grabbed the part and then slammed it on the salesman's desk and demand they install it!
I took out a 1/4-page ad in the local newspaper and told this exact story, except I didn't call them LIARS...I simply asked the reader to make up his own mind.
The dealership threatened to sue me and the paper. The paper said they'd run any ad that was properly paid for as long as it was not lewd or vicious, and I referred them to my lawyer friend who told them to go ahead and sue! We'd love to have our day in court!
Ford Motor Co. found out about it (I really don't know how) and they sent a representative directly to my office, who drove my truck to a dealer in another town leaving me with a loaner car. It was returned with a new P/S pump the next day.
Beal Ford went out of business later the same year. I heard that Ford had done an audit and revoked their dealership.
A 1/4 page ad is cheap satisfaction.

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