[hserus]

Yet another case of a service center damaging a car and the owner taking to FB to tell his tale of woe.

https://www.facebook.com/harishkara/...54573127124089

Lakshmi Ford in Guntur, AP (or is it telengana these days?) apparently had a driver bash in the entire front of a brand new Ecosport by ramming it into another parked car at high speed.

Ford offered to pay for the repairs
The dealer is asking the guy to claim from his own insurance
He is demanding a replacement as the car was near new

[IUNKWN]

Originally Posted by hserus

Yet another case of a service center damaging a car and the owner taking to FB to tell his tale of woe.

https://www.facebook.com/harishkara/...54573127124089

Lakshmi Ford in Guntur, AP (or is it telengana these days?) apparently had a driver bash in the entire front of a brand new Ecosport by ramming it into another parked car at high speed.

Ford offered to pay for the repairs
The dealer is asking the guy to claim from his own insurance
He is demanding a replacement as the car was near new

Poor guy, I know what he is going through. Sadly, the legal recourse isn't going to help him much. The terms and conditions clearly say the vehicle is serviced at owners risk, any damage will have to be claimed through the owners insurance.

These dealers need to be very strict with these rogue drivers. My 3 months old SCross was damaged by RKS Kukatpally during the second service. The driver hit a wall within the service center, when he was taking the car for a wash after service. Can you imagine how fast he was within the campus itself. The dealer replaced 1 headlight, lower bumper and repainted the front at his cost. I was not happy, seeing a new car go through this. I felt like killing that driver (for liberals, there is pun here). Don't pull, this single line out from the post and start beating me.

[Dry Ice]

Came across this depressing news on FB.

A service station damages the customer's car (brand new, less than 3k kms driven) while in their possession and then asks the customer to claim insurance! Ford India on the other hand, washes its hands off saying they don't have any responsibility.

Except the market leader, do other companies not have any hold on their dealers? Who are free to do as they please without any fear of repercussions?

I hope the person gets justice soon. Our other Harish's struggles with judiciary and Skoda is still a fresh memory.

Quoting from FB

This thread is going to be a long one, please bear with me.

My Name is Harish Kara and I live at Hyderabad. I along with my wife have purchased a Ford Ecosport TDCi 1.5L Diesel Titanium- Silver (Black Edition) on 25.05.2016 at Modi Ford, Hyderabad.

As things stand, while traveling out of town on 03.09.2016, I took the vehicle to Lakshmi Ford Service station at Guntur, Andhra Pradesh as the Engine Malfunction Check light went on. I was informed by the Service Station that it is a small issue and will be addressed quickly. Whereas a couple of hours later I was informed by the Service Station that the vehicle met with minor accident as the driver/mechanic, driving the car for test post service, has rammed the car into another car ahead at excessive speeds. I reached the service station and found out that the accident was not a minor one and it resulted in excessive damage to my car. This Car has clocked only 2800Km till date

Lakshmi Ford has suggested to get the car repaired by making a claim from my insurance company, for no fault of mine. The damage caused is entirely due to the negligence of Ford's Service Center personnel for which I should not be made to pay a price.
In this context, I have asked the service center (who is also Ford dealer) to replace the car with a new one as the accident has been caused due to the negligence of Ford’s personnel and also vehicle is brand new and I am not ready back to take a damaged car the value of which has already dropped considerably owing to this accident even if repaired and given back. The dealer turned a deaf ear and did not even bother to meet or respond to my mails and phone calls.

Then I request Ford India to intervene and make sure this issue resolves quickly. As it is a clear case of negligence and carelessness by Ford’s Personnel who did not even take the basic precautions to maintain minimum safe distance from the vehicles ahead. Ford India replied me stating that they do not have any legal responsibility for the accident but have offered to get the Vehicle repaired at the cost of Dealership which was totally not agreeable to me as even if repaired the value of the car has already been considerably lost due to excessive damage for which I should not be made to suffer and also I cannot drive this car again with same confidence as I drive an accident free car. Ford’s response that they do not have any legal responsibility for the accident that was caused by the negligent driving of their personnel is pathetic.

Left with no option other than to proceed legally we have sent a legal notice through our Lawyers to Ford and the Dealership asking them once again to resolve the issue at the earliest. Instead, we received a reply from the dealership that the dealership is not responsible even to get the car repaired and I should get the car repaired claiming costs from my Insurer, and the driver and owner of Vehicle to which my car has collided. On one-hand Ford offers to repair the Vehicle free of cost and on the other hand dealer is threatening to collect a parking fee of Rs 250 per day from the customer for the vehicle lying at their service station. This clearly shows the arrogance and Highhandedness with which Ford and the Dealership have been handling this issue.

It has been more than a month since we have been waiting for the issue to be resolved and believe me, Ford has handled this very badly so far. How can Ford India authorize a service centre where its personnel don’t take a minimum precautions when driving a customer car? Ford has been assuring its customers of a family like experience. Negligent driving and causing excessive damage to customer car is definitely not a family like experience.

Please Share and Reshare this post till it reaches Ford!!!!

Souce - https://www.facebook.com/harishkara/...54573127124089

[arunphilip]

Obligatory link to this recent thread: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...lved-ford.html (Bangalore: Lathangi Ford crashes customer EcoSport; 1.6 Lakhs of damage. UPDATE: Resolved by Ford!)

Once might be chance, but twice is a pattern. Ford India - time for you to crack the whip with your dealers.

[sunishsamuel]

This seems to be a hot topic on Facebook these days. On any post made by Ford someone will share this story and question Ford.

Legally, i think what Ford and Dealership says is right. That the customer should claim insurance and get the car repaired. But that's not ethical. The dealer should understand the problem he got(bad staff !) and fix the car at his cost or replace it with a new one (considering the car which met with the accident is ~3000kms only) Ford should talk to the dealer and get it done by the dealer, maybe Ford can extend some discounts to the dealer at a later stage.

Accidents do happen. But i do not understand why people tend to ward off responsibility. When i am giving my car to the service station i expect my car to be taken care and returned back in the same shape. I think we need to have a better framework on this and hope that happens soon.

If the car is new and under the bumper to bumper coverage, then dealer can help customer claim insurance for the car and should pay from his pocket the remaining amount (taxes, registration etc.) Plus give customer free service coupons or NCB loss in cash in the next year. I only hope for a positive outcome on this. Ford should get involved as this is the second EcoSport incident reported in the last one year. Once customers lose faith, then its tough to get it back.

Quite interestingly such horror stories are reported for the Germans and the Americans. Never heard such stories on the Japanese brands.

[sdp1975]

What makes this incident worse for the customer than the Lathangi incident is that the car is less than 6 months old.

That looks like a full frontal accident. Are there more details available on this case - was it the driver's fault when he rammed into the other vehicle ? The truth will probably never come out . In the Lathangi case the driver rammed into a divider at high speed, so he was at fault.

I think dealers should have some sort of insurance to handle damage to customer vehicles while in their possession . The cost will eventually be passed on to the customer , but at least some respite is assured.

[F150]

I think the solution is already present in the previous thread.

> · Option 1 – Dealership will repair the vehicle under free of cost and offer Total Maintenance plan for 2 years
>
> · Option 2 – buy back vehicle at cost of Rs. 7 lakh
>
> · Option 3 – Will share you the quotation of the same model / variant of the new vehicle, 7 lakh will be supported by us and the difference amount should be borne by you.

I read on FB post comments section, Ford has already offer Option 1 without total maintenance plan for 2 yrs.

Pushing for a new car is plain ridiculous and the kind of comments on the FB post are very aggressive. People have completely forgotten the word "reasonable".

[sdp1975]

Originally Posted by F150

Pushing for a new car is plain ridiculous and the kind of comments on the FB post are very aggressive. People have completely forgotten the word "reasonable".

*If* it was the drivers fault, I wouldn't think a full replacement is unreasonable in this case.

The car is less then 6 months old , with less than 3k on the odo. To take a benchmark , cars undergo a 5% insurance depreciation in the first 6 months of ownership . So a fair buyback by Ford should be at 95% of the car value.

If a full replacement is offered, then the owner stands to gain by 5%, which I think is a fair compensation for the problems he has faced.

[drmohitg]

I too feel sometimes we do tend to get aggressive. The same car could also have been involved in an accident with the owner at the wheel due to someone else's mistake. Insurance is there for such unforeseeable circumstances only. Ford should ideally throw in free maintenance pack too for a couple of years to offset the NCB lost by the customer. The lower resale is something you can't really help and possibly if the owner sells after 5 + years, it will have a very negligible effect on after sale price. Also up north I have seen most people not go into service details of the car. Rather they just get the car inspected for its basic fundamentals by a competent FNG that they trust.

Fighting for a new car is also not entirely justifiable. But is it worth the effort, time and money spent in achieving that?

[rajeev k]

Usually dealers do have their own insurance policy to cover for any such untoward accidents while taking trial runs and the dealer has to get the car repaired under this.

Moreover, in this instance, the mechanic is at fault as he has rammed onto the rear of another car.

Take it up with Ford at the highest level.

[jetsetgo08]

There any many such incidents, but in most cases the damage is minor and hence such incidents pass of unreported, where the customer settles with the compensation offered to the minor damage.

But in this case, airbags have popped. This by no means is a minor accident. Dashboard has to be replaced, and the overall repair costs would most likely be northward of a lakh.

No offense. But for those who regard full replacement as aggressive and unreasonable, a million rupee car is still hard earned for many in India. Why should the owner repent for no mistake of his. So much for a check engine light.

Even if the car is repaired, the dealer with his bullish attitude of charging parking fees would have implicitly washed off his hands for any further guarantee on the repairs.

Ford India has to amicably solve the issue, and the dealer should be heavily penalized not just for the accident but for the way in which the situation has been handled with business as the only motive and little ethics towards a customer.

[wilful]

I think Ford India would do well to sort out the issue amicably and penalise the dealer sufficiently to make them take utmost care in future.
The legal aspect is one side of the story. The company and its dealers have the fullest moral responsibility to take the greatest of care as regards their customers' vehicles that are entrusted to them. And if it is through their carelessness that an accident happens, washing their hands off with a buckful of legal whitewash would not do their reputation any good at all.

[arun_josie]

So, Ford resolves one customer's issue and ignores the other customer with the same issue. Why this double standard?! Why not give the same 3 options for this customer as well and resolve the issue. Instead they have allowed the customer to take the Social media route and expose their weakness in customer service.

[Axe77]

This is a bit unrelated perhaps but it makes me feel that:

1. I should rely less on pick up / drop service from service stations. I'd rather drop the car myself - god knows how their drivers rip the cars on public roads if this is what they could do within the service station.

2. For the reason above, important to buy a car where the service facility are at such a distance that you don't mind driving there yourself. Case in point in Mumbai are people like Renault and Nissan who are unfamiliar with the phrase 'South Mumbai'. I literally had to go to 25 - 30 kms away to Palm Beach Road for a Duster TD recently.

I'm aware of course that an accident can happen anywhere. Its just trying to retain control of as many parameters as you can. i.e. using a trusted driver (you yourself or your own driver) as opposed to an unknown entity.

On the incident itself, I really feel for the owner. The car is 6 months / 3000 kms new.

- I understand the legal liability that Ford Co and dealership might have.
- BUT, this is a case of extraordinary negligence it would seem.
- I certainly feel if any insurance is claimed, it should be dealership's and not the owner's.
- I generally feel a new car is really uncalled for in most situations and is an overkill ask. But given that this vehicle is damn near brand new, this could be considered. To this end, the dealership should give him market value of a 6 month old 3000 kms run car (sans the accident which they themselves caused), Ford Co give him as healthy a discount as possible on a new car (basically at cost if possible) so outflow on new car is limited to only tax type overheads for the customer.
- If this is not possible, at the very least, customer insurance should not be used, some future service costs be waived perhaps, and some very healthy extended warranties be offered to him.

Its unfair to throw the rule book on these matters. Its all very well to sign a delivery form that says at customer risk, but it ought not to protect dealers from extraordinary negligence as seems to be the case here.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by hserus

Ford offered to pay for the repairs

Originally Posted by F150

Pushing for a new car is plain ridiculous and the kind of comments on the FB post are very aggressive. People have completely forgotten the word "reasonable".

I agree with F150. As unfortunate as this episode is, fact is accidents do happen. The customer should've taken this option up & pushed for some extras (courtesy car during repairs + free extended warranty).

If the customer does want a replacement, he will have to contribute something toward the depreciation on his 6 month old car. Perhaps, the dealer & customer could split the depreciation up. Proportion could always be decided on the bargaining table, but it's unreasonable to expect a brand new car with no $$$ paid by the customer.

Originally Posted by jetsetgo08

But in this case, airbags have popped. This by no means is a minor accident. Dashboard has to be replaced, and the overall repair costs would most likely be northward of a lakh.

Looking at the car, I'd guesstimate repair costs of over 2 lakhs.

Originally Posted by Axe77

This is a bit unrelated perhaps but it makes me feel that

Very good points. Due to lack of time on weekdays, I usually depend on the workshop for pickup & delivery, but such incidents are making me reevaluate that.

EDIT: Wow 50,000+ shares on Facebook! Ford must surely be rattled by the bad publicity.