That's a frustrating experience for sure. Same with dealers that won't address TSBs for weeks or months. One issue they are having though is they can't find enough techs to do the work, so they are going to focus on the work that brings them more money. I have no idea how the price structure works for reimbursment from Ford for TSB resolution, but I imagine it's not as much as a lot of their other types of work. From ADMs to lack of service in the service department it's no wonder everyone (other than dealers) wants dealerships to just go away and do a straight to consumer type of situation. The next several years are going to remain very interesting in the automotive market.
There is zero incentive for dealer service to make warranty work, TSB related or not, a priority over out of pocket or third party ESP work. None. And while it makes sense, this was news to me and something I learned first hand last week. I took my Gen 2 in for 4 TSB related issues this past Friday. 3 covered under 60k Powertrain while the 4th covered under 60k Safety & Restraint warranty. I’m at 52k miles.
Service absolutely insisted I provide them with my third party ESP warranty info and tried telling me repeatedly that my truck is out of warranty. I gave it to them, and then produced printed copies of all the TSB’s from Ford and handed it to the service manager. All of a sudden it went from out of warranty talk to it’ll be several weeks till we even get to it and if you don’t leave your truck here now to sit and wait it won’t be serviced.
I left. Went to another dealer who, upon seeing my printed list of service concerns related to TSB’s, told me they aren’t addressing any concerns related to TSB’s until end of September sorry.
I called Ford Customer Care. Asked what it was that I was now supposed to do. The guy gave me a very much appreciated honest explanation of what was happening…under Factory Warranty Ford pays a set labor rate to the dealer along with set prices on parts. Thus, the dealer receives less money for a lower labor rate and parts as opposed to the higher labor rate and markup on parts charged by the dealer when the work is paid for out of pocket or through third party extended service plans.
Monkeys fking coconuts is what’s happening. I have an appointment this coming Monday at my last option in the area, a dealer who made headlines for doubling the price of the new Lightning.