It is  the first time in three years that I have been at a Ford service dept.   After being ignored by the two receptionists for a few minutes, one of them barked at me "Picking up or booking in?" I didn't get it first time as I was expecting "Hi" or "Good Afternoon ". I asked him to repeat and got barked at again, but louder. I explained what I wanted and he fetched a slip of paper for Ford Parts plus. "Phone them. Our parts department is closed."

"But I know what I need, I need a fob and I need it programmed, please"

"You'll have to get it from them then book it in for programming."

I rang them and they gave me the price for the part (Some £240 less than the programming cost BTW) but couldn't help any further.

What the Fxxx is going on? 

Having been given the impression by my local dealer that I had been dipped in raw sewage, I called another dealer nearby who said that they would call back. Some time ago.

I know why I always do my own work on cars. The motor trade is not what it was. It is even surlier and less reliable.

You know there's a global pandemic on right?  

Business is totally different now to even the start of the year.  I'm surprised you could even walk into a dealership without an appointment!

Yes, My company has worked all through it, being key workers. Despite the current difficulties, we have remained polite to our customers and been as helpful as we could be.

Rather like the chap in Ringwood who has a fob in stock and will supply it with the key cut and programmed to the car for £145 tomorrow morning.

Politeness costs absolutely nothing.   Surliness and rudeness might cost you a customer.

Yes Bob. As Ford wanted £273 for a job that the local car locksmith can do for little over half the price, they really messed up this afternoon because it would appear that much of that was money for nothing that they will not now get.

I've found Ford garages are very good - at overcharging.

The locksmith could not do it. He tried two keys and couldnT get the car to accept either of them. Another Ford dealer I visited today listened then quoted £118 for a programmed fob. Then asked ME when it would be convenient to book it in. I shall report what happened on Friday evening.

Politeness costs lives!  It's all the unnecessary talking and handshaking that got us into this mess in the first place!   

I suspect there's a generational difference here though, I've much preferred the 'to the point' interactions since lockdown myself lol.  

 

Interesting that the locksmith couldn't do it though, would think they've done plenty of Mk8s by now, the oldest ones are 3 years old afterall.

 

Yes. As I explained to the minister for Domestic Affairs it is a remote for the telly. If you try three of them, the fault is probably in the telly. If Ford fail to get it going, there will be long faces at the supplying Vauxhall dealership.

Keith Motors, Verwood. Did it in 20 minutes, came out £12 under the quote. Very happy with that. They'll see me again. Fitted my cherished plates having done the paperwork. My insurer's online doesn't so I had to spend a long time on hold but it all seems to have been sorted out. DVLA was, as usual seamless and took two minutes. Final job to do now will be fitting the RVC which will entail a fair bit of trim removal. The APIM lies behind the instrument cluster but the connector for it is shown on the manual as being behind the centre console so It might end up being interesting...

Some really good independent garages around that do an amazing job and not rip you off on price or on work needed

I've used one for many years and do not have to book in weeks ahead and then not get the problem solved

You get good morning can chat to the mechanic and services are completed fully ie taking the wheels off for a start services include wheels and brakes

So can't wait for warranty to end in March and flip over to my garage for the cars health and personal touch 

 

My local Ford dealership has admittedly been polite pretty much all of the time but general level of service was disappointing.

They’ve had the car in a few times for various jobs, mainly positive end result apart from one or two visits which ended up with nothing being fixed or no specific diagnosis given. 
 

However, quite a few times odd stuff happened, 

When trying to book a car in for an additional oil service, I was told it’s not needed and despite explaining that I wanted to do it as an extra, I actually ended up having to go elsewhere which all things considered was absolutely ridiculous.

I wanted to buy a spare wheel to replace the kit, waited for a fair while before a call back to find that the set was significantly more expensive that what the former Ford parts website wanted for the alloy. Ford parts was about £50, dealer wanted £90 for the exact same part. 
 

I then enquired about the cost of another oil/oil filter change, this was about a month and a half - still waiting on the promised call back! 
 

You very often had to dig deep into a conversation to find out what the true issue was and what was done to resolve it and with all due respect to the people at service reception, you sometimes got the feeling they read off the job card without actually knowing what the hell it is they’ve just said. 
 

Now I know Fords are popular and this dealer does have large catchment area but based on the level of service, I felt I was a customer that didn’t really matter as they’d have people go there anyway so very much a case of if I said “I will take my business elsewhere”, they’d simply shrug it off as “yep,ok”

Yes, the dealer for Poole and Bournemouth doesn't need to try and with a wealthy catchment can try it on ( like the time I test drove a new car from them that went up £2045 by the time I had returned from a test drive of five minutes. I reasoned with them that if I wanted to spend £2000 a mile in running costs, I would have bought another Boeing and went elsewhere.) The little dealership in Dorset I now use is in a quiet town but the service car park is usually chock full.

Only just read these posts , were the remote fobs like these? Got 2 virtually brand new awaiting new owners.