Freedom Ford

Freedom Ford responded

Hello, my name is Blaine Plester. I am the Marketing Manager at Freedom Ford. I was sorry to read that your experience with our Service Department did not meet your expectations. As you can see from the other reviews on this site, we take customer satisfaction very seriously. I would appreciate the opportunity to investigate this situation a little further. If you could provide me with your name I would like to discuss what happened with the Service Manager to see if we can resolve the situation in a positive way. Regards, Blaine

disatisfied1 responded

Hi Blaine, Thank you for inquiring about this stressful experience. My name is Lisa Zhu. So, essentially what had happened is we were told by another service place to go to a dealership and get our car reflashed and so we went to Freedom Ford and they did that for us no questions asked. So, when we come to get our car back they tell us your car didn't need to be reflashed but they still charged my mother and of course my mother pays. When I hear about this, I am shocked. Why would a company charge for something that they didn't do? Why didn't they educate us any further on why they couldn't do anything or why didn't they ask the right questions to help us?? So, Thursday I call and I explain the situation requesting that I deserve a refund because this is unsatisfactory. We also mention that there is a charge they should have not charge us and Cori apologizes and said that shouldn't have happened but talking with Cori we aren't getting anything resolved. So, she tells us she will get a manager to call us. Clarence calls us and although his tone is calm through out, there were many things that irked me: 1.) When I mention the refund, he says "well I have to pay my technician". That shocked me. Any good customer oriented companies all rely on the money their customers give them to pay their workers but when a customer is not happy they will refund a service, product or food. That also makes me feel like he is saying my time and satisfaction isn't valuable. I am not asking for much back and we can't afford to spend money on things that have not made us in a better situation. I believe an outstanding service department would understand that their customers are paying for their cars to be fixed and would offer a refund on any service that did not help their customers. 2.) He and Cori both do this (and I understand that this is what you do to try keeping customers) but they offer to figure out what is wrong and keep pushing that they want to service our car again instead of offering the original request I wanted which was the refund. What makes me really upset about this, is Clarence starts asking questions about the vehicle and says "Well I want to see if we can check this issue out and see if we can actually help you before you spend money on a service that hasn't helped you". OK....so you do this after we complain? You did not do this beforehand when we asked for a reflash why didn't you ask us why we think we need this and help educate us in making a proper decision? Instead, you did exactly what you just said you didn't want to do- we paid for a service that didn't help us and was no need to us. 3.) We mention the extra charge they shouldn't have been charged to us with Clarence. He goes on to tell us no that is suppose to be there...so right there he goes against Cori's words, which we tell him. And he defends that of course but it's a bit concerning that there is that discrepancy. 4.) He says he is going to talk to a technician and give us a quick call back. My sister and I wait for hours to get him to call back. Only for Cori to finally call us saying Sorry about the delay Clarence had a emergency to attend to but my other manager Jason said this is what your car may need to get done and this cost about $150. By now I realize that they are refusing a refund, so I ask for a discount on this and she says all we can do is about $130. I decide to discuss this with my sister and ask to call her back. We decided we can't afford to do another service on our car that may not help, so we think to ask for a discount on a diagnosis instead for when another issue arises with our car- which I ask her when I call back. She tells me she has to ask the manager to see if she can do this for me and will call me back today. At the end of the call she asks me "Is this satisfactory?" And unfortunately I was so exhausted by this point that I said what else can I do? and that was it..I was so tired of telling them how unsatisfied I was and how all I wanted was a refund. They made me feel like my request was unreasonable and it started to wear me out. After talking to others, I know my request is reasonable and they are also disturbed that a company would not honour the fact that if they have not help their customer they would not just take their customers money like that. If you could help me resolve this problem to my satisfaction, it would be highly appreciated. Lisa Zhu

Freedom Ford responded

Hi Lisa, I have spoken with Jason in an effort to resolve this issue for you. As is typical in these types of situations, it appears that poor communication is at the root of the situation. I am not a vehicle technician, but I will do my best to explain. Apparently this "reflash" procedure is not as simple as you may have been led to believe. Unfortunately, the direction you were given at the other service centre was incomplete. Because your car already had the latest update, a simple reflash was the incorrect procedure to diagnose your car's problem. The other service centre does not have the ability to diagnose the problem as accurately as a Ford Service Centre does and the correct procedure is a bit more complex than a basic reflash. This was the $130 procedure that Jason discussed with you. Unfortunately, as Jason told you, there is no guarantee that this procedure will solve the problem. I was told that rather than having us diagnose your car's problem from scratch, it was requested that we only do what the other service centre told you to do. There was time and effort put into doing this for you, only for us to find out that no further reflash was possible. This is why we do not like to rely on the diagnosis provided by outside sources. This a bit of a complicated situation and as I mentioned earlier, there were communication issues between you and the other service centre and between us and you (and your relatives). I can understand how you could have felt your satisfaction wasn't important even though that is never our intention. In the interest of customer satisfaction, we are prepared to offer you two options: 1) We would appreciate the opportunity to keep your business at Freedom Ford so we can extend a credit of $52.19 toward future servicing, or 2) If you prefer, we will fully refund the $52.16. Please let me know which option you would like to pursue. Blaine

Freedom Ford responded

Hi Lisa, I have spoken with Jason in an effort to resolve this issue for you. As is typical in these types of situations, it appears that poor communication is at the root of the situation. I am not a vehicle technician, but I will do my best to explain. Apparently this "reflash" procedure is not as simple as you may have been led to believe. Unfortunately, the direction you were given at the other service centre was incomplete. Because your car already had the latest update, a simple reflash was the incorrect procedure to diagnose your car's problem. The other service centre does not have the ability to diagnose the problem as accurately as a Ford Service Centre does and the correct procedure is a bit more complex than a basic reflash. This was the $130 procedure that Jason discussed with you. Unfortunately, as Jason told you, there is no guarantee that this procedure will solve the problem. I was told that rather than having us diagnose your car's problem from scratch, it was requested that we only do what the other service centre told you to do. There was time and effort put into doing this for you, only for us to find out that no further reflash was possible. This is why we do not like to rely on the diagnosis provided by outside sources. This a bit of a complicated situation and as I mentioned earlier, there were communication issues between you and the other service centre and between us and you (and your relatives). I can understand how you could have felt your satisfaction wasn't important even though that is never our intention. In the interest of customer satisfaction, we are prepared to offer you two options: 1) We would appreciate the opportunity to keep your business at Freedom Ford so we can extend a credit of $52.19 toward future servicing, or 2) If you prefer, we will fully refund the $52.16. Please let me know which option you would prefer. Blaine

Freedom Ford responded

Hi Lisa, I have spoken with Jason in an effort to resolve this issue for you. As is typical in these types of situations, it appears that poor communication is at the root of the situation. I am not a vehicle technician, but I will do my best to explain. Apparently this "reflash" procedure is not as simple as you may have been led to believe. Unfortunately, the direction you were given at the other service centre was incomplete. Because your car already had the latest update, a simple reflash was the incorrect procedure to diagnose your car's problem. The other service centre does not have the ability to diagnose the problem as accurately as a Ford Service Centre does and the correct procedure is a bit more complex than a basic reflash. This was the $130 procedure that Jason discussed with you. Unfortunately, as Jason told you, there is no guarantee that this procedure will solve the problem. I was told that rather than having us diagnose your car's problem from scratch, it was requested that we only do what the other service centre told you to do. There was time and effort put into doing this for you, only for us to find out that no further reflash was possible. This is why we do not like to rely on the diagnosis provided by outside sources. This a bit of a complicated situation and as I mentioned earlier, there were communication issues between you and the other service centre and between us and you (and your relatives). I can understand how you could have felt your satisfaction wasn't important even though that is never our intention. In the interest of customer satisfaction, we are prepared to offer you two options: 1) We would appreciate the opportunity to keep your business at Freedom Ford so we can extend a credit of $52.19 toward future servicing, or 2) If you prefer, we will fully refund the $52.16. Please let me know which option you would prefer. Blaine