Dealing with Ford's Customer Service Line

On Thursday, March 13th, 2008 I made the mistake of calling Ford's customer service line, 1-800-565-3673. I spoke with Michelle (employee ID 4523). I explained to her everything that the dealership had told me, about the unavailability of parts until June, shipping them back to Turkey because of quality issues, the dealership not inspecting my car, all of it. I was put on hold several times and then told that they'd call me back, which they did. This was not a short process. After all this I was told that there was nothing that Michelle could do for me and it would have to be escalated to her supervisor but that wouldn't happen on the 13th because it was almost 5:00 and that's quitting time. Not to worry, she assured me that I would be top priority the next morning and that I would be hearing from them.

Ford's Customer service line is available starting at 8:30 am. By 11:00 am on the morning of March 14th, 2008 I decided that I'd call them to find out what had happened. The customer service representative insisted that I'd have to talk with Michelle again but I was assured that she would call me right back. At approximately 1:30 pm I received a call from Michelle (at the work number I had left with them as my day time contact). She informed me that my matter had been escalated but nothing would happen on the 14th either. I would be called on Monday, March 17, 2008. I told Michelle that this was unacceptable and that I wanted to talk to her supervisor. I let her know that my car is almost completely undrivable at this point and that I required it to get to and from work. She told me that her supervisor was too busy to speak with me because she was on the phone with someone else, so I asked her to have her supervisor, Enedina (employee ID 4515), call me as soon as she got off the phone. She told me that she couldn't guarantee anything, all she could do was put in a request to have her supervisor call.

Now let's be clear about what is happeneing here. Ford's customer service is saying, in a very back handed way, that YOU are not allowed to speak to a supervisor until a supervisor is damn good and ready to speak with you. They are taking the blame away from the CSR by having the CSR say "all I can do is put in a request" which equals "all YOU can do is have ME put in a request and then the supervisor will get back to you if and when she is good and ready." Needless to say Enedina, the supervisor did not return my call.

The morning of Monday, March 17th, 2008 I had received no call from anyone at Ford customer service. I decided that the only way I was going to get anywhere was to take matters into my own hands to escalate this situation. I wrote a letter to the V.P., Customer Service. This was listed on the Ford website as being Gilles Contant. I have scanned it and it is available for viewing here: http://www.stopthenuisance.com/Ford.htm

I wanted to fax it as well as mail it so I called the Ford Customer service line again to find the fax number. I spoke with Douglas this time, I didn't get his employee ID number this time though. I asked him for the fax number so that I could send a letter to the V.P. of customer service. He told me that he'd have to see if that was allowable and put me on hold. I was on hold for several minutes before he hung up on me (you can see now why I didn't get his employee ID number.) Under normal circumstances this would be enough to infuriate most people, however in my case it just re-enforced what I already knew about Ford Customer Service, that it is pretty much an oxymoron. I called back to find the fax number and got Michelle (possibly the same one) I told her that I just wanted a fax number to send off my letter and was told that there was no fax number available and that I could mail it. While speaking with Michelle I found a fax number online for Ford Canada (BTW, it's (905) 844-8085). I told Michelle and asked her to verify if it was the correct number, she could not and told me that Ford's head office was large and that if I faxed a letter to the VP there there would be no guarantee that it would reach him. I took her advice to heart and sent a copy of my letter to Ford's head office by priority post, tracking number LT 318 649 837 CA.