warranty reviews... what gives?

Alex Bruene · January 25, 2007

Seems lately that I have seen alot of "stupid" warranty claims come back to me. Last week one was returned for a high pressure oil pump that I had replaced and at the same time installed the STC bracket. The pump was at fault, but doesn't it only make sense to install the bracket while you're in there? Today was a 5.4 that had 3 broken exhaust studs on one side, so I changed them all on the effected side, it came back asking if only 3 were broken, why did I replace them all? Even though the WSM says to replace all the studs, nuts and gaskets anytime a manifold is serviced... what gives? Is this just a sign of things to come?

Jim Warman · January 25, 2007

Appeals have worked pretty good for me.... cite the source of the text (section, subsection, all the good stuff) and print off the necessary part of the manual....

I have to admit that it looks like the warranty nazis are getting worse, lately, though...

G. Bedford · January 25, 2007

Sure seems to be more second guessing of repairs lately. What sucks worse is Ford sending out inspectors on warranty jobs. Warranty time and waiting with a tied up stall for Hector the Inspector to come by. Unreal.

Keith Browning · January 25, 2007

Hey man! Haven't you heard? Ford is in deep financial trouble because of bad management and poor quality product. Don't feel bad about this though, those five !@#!?$! bolts are going to make a big difference! Seems like any claim over a grand is subject to penny pinching and it's up to YOU to prove them wrong when they have no basis other than cost cutting when it comes to cannibalized warranty claims. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/puke.gif

Alex Bruene · January 25, 2007

Oh, the other thing that gets me going... this stupid "diagnostic battery charger", which I prefer to call the "warranty saver battery charger". I had to charge and test 3 batteries on an F-650. Each battery went into the 3 hour charge mode to recover before retesting and then they passed. We have 3 of the old hand held testers, each of them failed all the batteries at 300cca or less after the recovery, although the charging tester passed them all. The stall was tied up for just a little over 9 hours to test 3 batteries for 0.4 labor. Good thing we have a spare stall...

nelsona19 · February 15, 2007

Tell me about it, we used to be level one, but this last year killed us and sent us to level two detention and now we have to do prior approval on certain modules as well as engines and trannys. Looks like ford is trying to really put the screws to warranty claims. Looks lie we'll probably get audited this year. Lucky us!! All ford wants is some money back, because even if we cross all our t's and dot our i's they'll still find some reason to fine us or charge back a claim. ford warranty sucks.

DamageINC · February 15, 2007

If you guys honestly think you've got an audit coming, I'd start making 100% sure that everything you touch gets properly documented and all parts get returned as needed. Audits will usually end up in your store owner cutting a 6-figure check and then they'll jump down the throat of whoever's tickets were the "problem" tickets. That whole extrapulation process is brutal...

...if I remember right, they take all of last years Warranty RO's and randomly pull 10% of them. Of the 10% they pull, each one with a mistake, even something as simple as a missing signature from a customer, ends up costing the owner 10 TIMES the amount the bill came to. So a $200 repair becomes a $2,000 fine.

And a $3,500 trans job is now a $35,000 pooch-screw. It doesn't take more than a dozen or so RO's to start equaling enormous sums of money.

Dave