I visited South City Ford Noida for a minor glass replacement on the rear door on my Ford Fiesta. The car is provided by the company and the delivery had been taken from a different dealership however since South City Ford is closer to my residence I visited their workshop for the work.
One of the sales staff at South City Ford asked my how the glass got broken and I told him that someone had delibrately broken in to get to the stereo but somehow he could not complete the job and nothing was stolen. At this point this chap suggested that I have a AutoCop anti theft device installed as it could deter potentail thieves. I agreed to believing that being a Ford Dealership I was assured against any unforeseen issues. Little did I realize that I was so badly mistaken.
First there was no qualified technician in their service staff and they had to call someone from outside. this person took more than an hour to get there and while fitting the Anti Theft device ge discovered that the manual locking was not working (As I use the ford provide remote keyless entry, I had never noticed this). As he was struggling to find the cause of the problem other staff at the workshop started "Helping".
This drama went on for almost four hours and thats when I lost patience and asked what was wrong. I was told three different stories by 3 different people which infuriated me so I went to the head of this branch and asked him for an answer. What came to light was the most astonishing fact about Ford technology and accessories policy. Apparently the fault had been traced back to an electronic Module called GEM which controls the locking system and other electronically controlled systems like Vipers, Indicators etc.
Ford and Ford dealerships do not take responsibility for even Certified Accessories and these are fitted by the respective company’s representatives (in this case AutoCop). Now thats not a problem while things are fine, in my case things had gone wrong and South City Ford took the stand that the AutoCop technician had goofed up and he or AutoCop would have to bear the cost of the replacement as it will not be covered under warranty. AutoCop folks were unwilling to take responsibility claiming that the technician didn’t make any mistakes to damange the GEM moduel and that it had some inherent fault which showed up at their technicians hands. Each one was pointing finger to the other (My car is less than one year old and still under warranty). I have been running from pillar to post since then to have the replacement done but to no avail. As things stand my car is dirty from the inside (all seats and trimmings have dirt and grease marks) my car’s central locking doesn’t work properly and the dealership is not willing to repair/replace it even under warranty.
I as the customer have suffered at the hands of these useless service providers (or non providers). If this is something of a precedence to go by DON"T BUY FORD AND IF YOU DO DON’T EVER TAKE IT TO SOUTH CITY FORD.
Update posted one week afterwards : Post this episode the AutoCop people took ownership of the issue and got the same resolved through another dealership. Hats off to AutoCop, Thumbs down for South City Ford.