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Leif Johnson Ford - Horrid Customer Service

In today's economy, customer service needs to be top notch.  Consumers have a choice on where to take their business and spend their hard earned money.  In Texas, it’s the law that drivers may choose where to take their cars after an accident.  In May 2010, our truck had been stolen.  It was recovered the next day but needed some body work as well as some other repairs to it.  USAA tried to recommend a body shop to us but because we had bought the truck from Leif Johnson Ford in July 2004, and had all service and maintenance to the truck handled there for years, we didn't hesitate to take the truck there for the body work it needed.  We understood that our insurance company could not "recommend" this shop to us per their contracts with other shops but we had a choice so we decided they would be the best bet.  BOY were we ever wrong! 

First off, I'd like to say that the insurance company DID do a great job of accommodating our choice.  They allowed a direct billing of the rental car instead of making us pay and then get reimbursed for the 30 days of coverage which the insurance company pays.    They also set up an inspection fairly quickly. 

May 11, 2010

Our truck (a Ford F350, Super Duty, Crew Cab, Long Bed, which was purchased July 2004 from Leif Johnson Ford’s New Truck Show Room, was stolen on May 11^th, 2010, and recovered by police on May 12^th. 

May 12, 2010

We dropped off the truck at Leif Johnson Ford Collision Center on May 12^th – late in the day.  It was inspected by our insurance adjustor from USAA and a quote drawn up.

May 14,  2010

Quote drawn up and approved by both insurance and shop for repairs to begin.  Our insurance had approved a rental car for 30 days.  The truck was missing a backseat, broken turn signals on the mirrors, missing a battery, missing the tow ball hitch, missing the front center steering column panel, broken locks, broken ignition switch, missing a light under the hood, numerous scratches, and had a burn hole in the front seat.

May 29, 2010

We had an appointment to look over the truck. At that point, we fully thought the truck would be completely finished with backseat included based on a phone call from Don Emig earlier that week.  It was Memorial Day weekend and we thought our truck would be ready.  If they knew the work was not finished, we should have been told that when we set up the appointment.    We got to the shop and were told it’s not ready.  Probably ready in a week.  When we asked Don about the seat and what was taking so long, he said the guy was working on reupholstering the seat and that it shouldn’t be much longer than a week.  Come to find out they were not able to get in touch with the guy because he had gone out of business!  If he knew then that he wasn’t getting responses from the guy, he shouldn’t have promised us just one more week and more should have been done at that point to locate another upholster and another seat.   

Side note:  at this point, we had no idea if the engine had sustained any damage.  We asked that a diagnostic be run so that if there was any damage, then the insurance and the body shop would be able to fix it. 

June 4, 2010

Diagnostic tests were run and we were told the turbo charger was not working right and had to be replaced.  The insurance would not approve a new one so a used one was obtained on June 10, 2010.  This was installed and still showed problems so a new one was ordered and installed on June  14, 2010. 

June 16, 2010

We picked up the truck from the shop because we were already 6 days over the rental car allotment and had to pay $30 per day out of pocket.  They had done the repairs to the inside steering column panel, and they had made the engine repairs.  They also fixed the lock and the door where it had been jimmied.   All it needed was the seat, battery latch, tow ball hitch, hood light and a burn hole repaired.  At that point he said it would be ready on June 19^th.  Again, if he knew then that there was no way the seat would be ready, we should not have been told that.  

June 18, 2010 - He called to say it would be ready on June 22^nd, and that he would call us when it was ready.  No call.

June 23, 2010

We were on the way to the shop to speak with Don when he called late in the day.  We were told they were looking for the clamps for the seat that it didn’t have with it.   Again, he said it would be ready later that week. 

June 25, 2010 - Don said they were still looking for parts and he’d call on Tuesday, June 29^th. 

June 30, 2010

Don called Mike and admitted that this was the first time he had seen the seat.  When he saw it, he told Mike is was only half of a seat and missing a lot of parts to it.  Apparently, they were going to use both seats to piece a full seat together.  After all this time he was telling us it was almost ready, this was far from the case.

Also, on June 30, 2010, I received an email from Stella Colunga apologizing for the mixups and saying that now that she was involved, we would get a resolution. 

 July 5, 2010 - I was told by Stella that the seat would be ready on July 8^th. 

July 7, 2010- Received a call that she saw the stitching and it was not to her satisfaction and she sent it back to be redone.

July 8, 2010

Stella called to say it would be ready by the next day and did I want to bring it in.  I was off the 9^th because it was my birthday so I told her no, I could not do it that day.  She said there would not be a tech there on Saturday and not enough time to complete all the other repairs which at this point had STILL not been completed: buffing out scratches, touching up paint, installing the ball hitch, battery latch, hood light and fixing a burn hole in the front seat center console area.

July 13, 2010 (Tuesday)

I left the truck at the shop at 7:45AM and someone from the shop took me to work.  The shop considered this to be a convenience to me.  I think being without a car most of the day as a rather large inconvenience.  I got a call at 11AM that the seat was not dyed to her satisfaction and the head rest part needed to be redyed or touched up to match better.  All the other work was to be done and they dropped off the truck to me at 3PM.    They had touched up some scratches and it looked awful. The paint they used looked brownish compared to our bright metallic red/maroon truck.    If Stella had inspected the job they had done (the other repairs listed above), the truck should have never been delivered to us in that condition.   Also, the burn hole in the front was much worse than before.  Whatever was done to repair it made it look like a whole new problem.  These are just a few examples of the poor quality of work that Stella is willing to pass off.

She said the seat would be ready on Thursday, July 15th and delivered to the shop between 1PM and 4PM.  Stella wanted to set up an appointment on Friday to install it, but I insisted that we had already been inconvenienced enough.   She agreed to have someone come in on a Saturday.

July 17, 2010 (Saturday)

We arrived at 11:30AM on Saturday and waited 20 minutes for the seat to be delivered (which should have been at the shop already per our conversation); only to find out the seat was the wrong material – wrong colors and style of seat upholstery.  The guy (Paul at Leather Menders) said it was material for a SportTrac Explorer.  He saidhe knew it was wrong but when he asked the Stella and Don, they said it was right.  Now we have to wait to get the material ordered and redone and they are telling us another week.  If Stella saw the seat twice the week before, and had our truck there in the shop, she would have known that the seats didn’t match the interior of our truck and should have double checked the material order.   If the seat had been delivered on Thursday, she would have had yet another chance to review the seat and make sure all was correct.  

We also complained about the paint job/scratch touch up.  The paint guy came out and said who did this?  We were surprised and said you did or someone here.  The brown paint was a bond agent or sealer and should not have been left on the truck and returned to us that way.  He used some solvent to remove the bond agent and gave us some touch up paint (the right color) to use on our own.

July 22, 2010 (Thursday)

I received a call from their service manager or department head or someone supposedly in charge named Kevin Hopper.  I think he said Chief of Operations.  Kevin was in a position to make things right for us and asked us what it would take to make us happy.  This threw me a bit.  We weren’t in this to get anyone in trouble or to get anything out of it.  We wanted to be fairly treated and fairly compensated for the horrible experience we had up until this point.  Considering time away from work, time without our whole vehicle, frustration with the process, multiple, fruitless trips to the shop and back, condescending tones and attitudes from the service staff – well, what price can you put on all that?  I told him the least they could do was refund our insurance deductible of $500.  I would also have to talk to Mike about what he thought would “make us happy.”  Again, that is the phrase that Kevin used.  We assumed he was serious when asking us this.  Mike decided a sprayed-in bed liner would make him really happy, which is about $300-$400 but we are sure cheaper at a dealership.  Note, we have been loyal customers to Leif Johnson Ford since 2004.  Every oil change, maintenance, etc., you get the point, has been handled by this company for us.  Mike is really resistant to change so anything for us to NOT have to change companies is what we are looking for at this point.  Kevin said he’d take this to the “Monday Meeting” and discuss with the managers and owners.

July 29, 2010 (Thursday)

Finally called us that the seat ready to be installed.  Truck needed to be in the shop all day to repair the burn hole in the center console.  The Front Seats had to be taken out of the truck, the center piece removed, taken to the upholsterer, recovered, returned to the shop for install and the front seats reinstalled.   I dropped off the truck and got a rental car and was told it would be 24 hours.

July 30, 2010 (Friday)

Didn’t receive a call until after lunchtime that it was ready but they wanted to detail it.  I picked up the truck at 5:00pm.  The plastic parts of the seat were painted to match the interior and were already flaking off the parts.  I think it might have been done during the install or during the detailing of the truck but the paint is not adhering well to the plastic areas of the seat.  It is very noticeable that the original plastic hinge covers were gray and our truck interior is tan.  I called Stella as soon as I could on Friday after arriving home but she was gone for the day and Don Emig took my call.  He said he would let her know and be back in contact with us.

August 2, 2010

Received a call that we’d need to bring in the truck so they could see the flaking paint and contact the insurance to approve new parts to be ordered and installed on the seat. 

August 3, 2010 - Mike took the truck in for them to take pictures and make sure they could order the right parts.

 August 9, 2010

Kevin called to tell me that they decided that rental car reimbursements were more than enough to make us happy and that was all they were willing to do.  I reiterated to him that we were long time customers and did they really want to treat us this way.  He said that he was trying and that this was the best they could do.  I told him, I didn’t think he was trying hard enough.  I told him that I didn’t think the owners would appreciate losing our business in regards to a new vehicle next year in the amount of $45 to $50K.  He said that the rental car reimbursements ($230 approx) were a lot of money to them.  I told him that I think they would be losing a lot more income after I got my story out about how they treated their loyal customers.

August 10, 2010

Parts arrived to the shop on August 9, 2010 with no call to us.  I called and asked for an update.  She called me back to say that all but one of the pieces were available and the final piece would have to be painted. But that there was a special paint mix that her painter could get to paint the plastic piece where it wouldn’t flake.  Ugh.  Couldn’t they have done this in the first place???  Since the piece that would have to be painted is on the passenger side, I agreed that if that is all that can be done to have that done.

August 12, 2010

I plan to take the truck in for the “painting” and replacement of the pieces for the seat.  Might take 1 or 2 days and I’ll have a rental.  I sent him an email stating… “I understand that you think paying for a rental car for us YET AGAIN is an incentive or compensation for us; however, we wouldn’t need the rental car in the first place if the seat was done correctly 2 months ago.  Wasted time, inconvenience, frustration, not to mention condescension from your managers, seems to be standard operating procedure when working with your company and you seem to not care to have us as return customers.”

It has now been over 90 days now that the shop has promised to fix our truck to our satisfaction.  We are not sure what else we can do at this point other than be as patient as we have been waiting for the shop to do its job.  We are not asking for anything other than our truck to be returned to the condition it was in before it was stolen. However, we contemplated taking legal action to get some compensation for our time and inconvenience and for not having our truck repaired in a timely fashion, and altogether aggravation at the process when other shops would have taken far less time in completing.  We are not getting the customer support that this company is known for in the community and are appalled that this collision center can stay in business with this type of customer experience.