John had said that I could pick up a rental car in the morning (the rental place was closed by the time he had set it up the night before...)
Overnight I had remembered that my cellphone mount and garage door opener were still in the car so I figured I'd got down to the dealership and grab them before the car was taken away to who knows where to have people "fix" it or "inspect" it.
I arrived at the dealer shortly after 9am (opening) and went to the service department to get help in getting my stuff out of the car. This went pretty smoothly, however no one from the dealership put 2 and 2 together that I was the guy who had called 4 times the day before and was having catastrophic Ford Fusion issues. Not surprising, but still an interesting observation.
After getting my stuff I decided to inquire if the manager might be free so I could fill him in on my "saga" and see if he was willing to strike a deal.
I waited over 30min for him to wrap up a meeting and for other employees to finally remind him he had a customer waiting.
Upon meeting him I asked "if there was a place we could chat". Oh, by the way, I had been extremely pleasant with all of the dealership employees all morning wishing them a happy Friday and happy Spring and in general trying very hard to NOT be the typical ANGRY, YELLING customer that is so often observed in customer service issues.
I filled the manager in at a high level the experience I'd had with his dealership over the last 9 months (since leasing the car). I assure it was the 3min version of this blog. I informed him I no longer thought the car was safe to drive and that it was unacceptable to me to continue paying for a car that isn't safe.
I ended the conversation with a simple request. A solution to this "problem". I offered for him to tear up the lease contract, keep the car, and I'll stop making my lease payments. SUPER EASY. I knew that this was generous compared to the lemon law and I knew it'd be a MUCH simpler solution than all of the alternatives, and also probably be a lot quicker.
He made up some excuse that only Ford Credit can make the decision and then tried to "pass the buck" to "Art" in the Service Department and proceeded to lead me to the back of the dealership and hand me off to JP, John Henry (Service Advisors) and Art (Service Manager). He never even offered to "replace" the car. Or sell me a new one... haha.
I couldn't believe that the manager when presented with a textbook customer support nightmare situation would just pass it off to middle management to "deal" with it.
John Henry said that Corporate had already sent a request for the repair notes & history and that "Art" was getting things together.
I left the dealership not hopeful and very surprised that once again I had been given POOR customer service.
I never once yelled, made a scene or tried to expose my situation to other customers in the dealership. Nor was my safety concern ever acknowledged and my ordeal sympathized with. I got the impression that this was like any other "car problem" where a part isn't working and the customer just doesn't "get it" and has unrealistic expectations. I think this situation warrants a slightly more escalated level of customer support and I had yet to experience it.
