Keith Browning Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 So, now that my service advisors have had so much shit piled on them I thought might try to do more to get some of my jobs expedited a little quicker. My dealer is on ESP prior approval for repairs over $1200. No big deal, right? I mean I have done cost caps and prior approvals for engines and transmissions... injectors and so for years now. But ESP... WTF is this shit all about? You fill out the form. THEN they want more information. No problem. THEN they want pictures. Data plate, all four tires, entire vehicle, odometer, license plate, underside of the vehicle, the fluid and of course, the failed parts. I have well over a 1/2 hour doing all of this crap and the icing on the cake - you can't claim the "PRIOR" op code for ESP repairs??? FUCK ME! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 ESP is a pain in the ass. I had a reductant pump not long ago covered under premium care. I literally took pics of all brand new parts, tested new DEF, sent it in and got approved almost right away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad_Kelsoe Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Our service writers are also suppose to do them and they do in the car shop. However, in our truck shop where I'm employed they are too lazy. So I do them myself. After doing them doing them for 2 years now, guess I'm just use to it. Lucky us, our prior approval level is now $2500, which don't take much on the diesel side to push over it. I've got tons of pics on my computer from approvals over the last 2 years. When I started doing them, we still serviced around 15 E-series vans for our local ambulance company and they all had ESP to 200k miles. I ended up doing at least 10 engines thru ESP, so I learned real quick how they want things done. Hardest part is on the big jobs, limiting the tech findings to fit within their 1000 word limit crap. It's the same way on our operating system here at work, our tech comments are limited to a certain amount of room. Looks like a bunch of 3rd graders writing tech comments here which drives me crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 The dealer gave our service advisors a camera for such goings on. The guys always bitch about it, saying they don't know how to take the pics and get them to Ford. Of course they don't have any problem taking photos on there own and posting them to their Facebook account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 That's what I do, snap a pic with my phone and email it to myself, save the pic on a pc and upload it from there. Actually I do this for the whole shop most of the times. We're not that big so it isn't too inconvenient Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted November 13, 2015 Author Share Posted November 13, 2015 Now I feel like they are dragging their feet. 12:30 the next day and still no answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad_Kelsoe Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 All our service writers and most of the car shop techs all got I-pad mini's when they went to the new operating system. Techs are suppose to be doing multi point inspections on them. However the 3 of us techs in truck shop didn't get them and when I asked, I was told we didn't need them. My manger and 1 service writer both have one each, but only use them to surf the internet, look at Facebook, and play games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbriggs Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 We're not even allowed on the wifi in our building. Our controller comes out an enters the password in the IDS's if required. We had a visit from our FSE a few years ago, and he needed wifi access for some data entry, and they wouldn't even let him know the password.... Yet its free in a Mcdonalds restaurant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Bruene Posted November 17, 2015 Share Posted November 17, 2015 I had that issue with my last dealership. They wouldn't give us WIFI access. The IT guy said that if he gave it to us, we could access the company server and find confidential information... I guess you could only do that with your own computer, but not the laptops that were already connected to the network Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbriggs Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Our wifi is on a separate internet connection, not even through the server though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forddieseldoctor Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Our wifi is on a separate internet connection, not even through the server though.We can't access the server from our wireless either. Otherwise we'd have to have static ip addresses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbriggs Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Back on the topic of esp.... I have an ecoboost torn down to the bare block, Lunch time today was 7 full days waiting for prior approval for an engine due to a broken piston/ scored cylinder wall / metal in oil. (and short blocks aren't available anyway) Luckily we have 2 guys off right now (out of 4) so I have a spare bay. Customer is not too impressed, at this point it is fairly clear that he will not be buying another ford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 16, 2016 Author Share Posted January 16, 2016 We have an explorer Police Interceptor on the lift - 4 weeks now. You know, the one with the engine with the water pump inside the crankcase. Low Compression, misfires. It overheated severely. It also looks like the oil has not been changed as frequently as it should have been but that is not why it failed. They want to know why we want to replace everything. 4 weeks! Engine dropped, heads off. 30+ pictures submitted and still no fucking decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy57 Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Wonder how long it would take to make a decision if the Explorer was sitting in the way of the assembly line running at a Ford plant? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 16, 2016 Author Share Posted January 16, 2016 Wonder how long it would take to make a decision if the Explorer was sitting in the way of the assembly line running at a Ford plant?If you think about it, it is. Pull this kinda shit enough times and Ford wont be selling a lot of them so it wont matter what comes off of the assembly line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy57 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 The manufacturers push for "service capacity" so customers have minimal wait and completion time for their vehicles. Then Ford (and the others are just as guilty) drag their feet trying to see how to skirt paying for repairs and tie up your shop space. The dealer principals need to attack this. NADA surveys need to get blasted over this. That could change it. Techs and service managers have little "juice" to make these kind of policy changes happen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 Fuck, I'm mad right now. Got the same damn shit here. 3.7 police explorer basically blown up. The water pump bearing failed, sheared all the teeth off the sprocket, ground the chain into the front cover and dumped a shit load of coolant in the engine oil. Hotline still wants me to rip every single damn piece of this engine apart to cost cap and prior approval. I pulled one cam cap and it's wiped so I can imagine what the rest of the bottom end looks like. They noted that I should be prepared to support all my findings with pictures. I still to this day can't understand why ford wants us to be engine rebuilders. There is a lot of time and effort that should go into assembling an engine and it's way fucking more than they're willing to pay us. If they can't pay us to do the job then why in the hell would any technician invest in the tools required to make measurements and care enough to reassemble it correctly? Yeah lets cheap together an emergency vehicle and hope it makes it out of warranty. There's a good fucking plan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbriggs Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 Finally got approval today, after an email from us to them asking WTF is going on. They replied, still pending, then 5 minutes later the approval came through. 10 days with the truck torn apart on the hoist. Customer is in a much better mood about the time now that it is approved though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Bruene Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 I don't know if this is a sign of things to come. I have heard that warranty is really going to tighten the purse strings for 2016... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batmantech Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 It might be in a good idea to look ahead in the prior approval process to find out what pictures they want. The last 6.7 required none, (but that one had a huge hole in the pan and rods missing) The last 5.0 they wanted three pictures not very specific seemed more like they want to see that it was actually torn down. One pic required was of the oil filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 I was venting yesterday because hotline had me pissed off with their cut and paste responses. They offered zero assistance in the ways of leading me in the correct direction for the repair. I have never touched a 3.7 engine or even seen one in the shop and I still knew to suspect the water pump came apart. The police interceptor I am working on is still under powertrain warranty and I wasn't aware that prior approval would NOT be needed for my situation. I believe they changed our requirements for 16 but I'm not sure. I went ahead on my service managers instruction and submitted a voluntary prior approval. I was worried on tear down that I would not find enough damage to warrant a long block replacement. I was wrong. Cams scored, mains scored badly, left side intake valves hit the pistons and bent, cylinder walls scored. The engine was definitely overheated as my lower intake gaskets were all melted. The main pictures they wanted were a shot of the lower end, upper valvetrain and a cut open oil filter. You wouldn't be able to see any damage from the first 2 pics I sent but I sent about 15 additional ones showing it. Also what grinds my gears is SLTS. How am I to determine if its more cost effective to install a bare block and crank + all bearings VS a shortblock if there are no labor ops for a bare block? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbudge Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Do you US guys not have the cost cap tool? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Oh yeah we have that marvelous piece of garbage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Wow, I'm glad I got out when I did. I just love wasting my time on that prior approval bs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmorris Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Matt...any time I have decided to go see if a bare block is available, there was none available. Same with pistons, none available. I gave up on that and now go straight to short block. I don't even know why it would even be in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.