It’s now been a little over a couple of months since we bought our new Ford Escape and during this time we’ve been training ourselves on all the neat features it has, especially the use of the hands free lift gate that is supposed to work by kicking your foot under the back bumper. But, it hasn’t quite worked.
At first we thought our problem was “user error” but after two months we decided we weren’t THAT slow in learning. So, off to the Ford dealer we went. I made an appointment for a Friday morning and was told that it might take a couple of days to fix so they gave me a loaner car. Late Monday morning I called to see if we could pick the car up later in the day but was told that they hadn’t even looked at it yet.
Needless to say, I was not happy with the repair shop. I asked them “Why make an appointment if you’re not going to look at the car on that day?” He didn’t really have a good answer. Later that afternoon they called to tell me that the problem was a “defective motor” and that it would be a couple days for the part to come in.
The following day I received a call letting me know it would be a week before the part would come in because it was on backorder. Hmmm … no parts for new cars?
A week later … well, you know where this is going, right? We took the car in on November 2nd and we’re still waiting. (No, we did not keep the loaner car but instead decided to get our car back until the part came in.)
Last week, I tweeted with the Ford dealer people at headquarters and received a call from a manager who told me she would escalate our getting the part and would get back to me in one week. One week? That’s an escalation?
What’s ironic about this whole thing is that here we are in the middle of the busiest shopping season and the so-called wonderful feature they have to help with putting packages in the car hands free doesn’t work. The hatch won’t open with my key fob either as the lights give a quick blink and then it does … nothing. Well, okay, on occasion it MIGHT work.
The last time I heard from the local dealership was the day after Thanksgiving when he told me that he would contact me this week as that’s when he would get the next update. Yes, you read that correctly. He would get an update not a part.
The manager at headquarters told me she was not aware of any part that was on backorder.
In addition to this problem, the car’s navigation screen and radio turn off as it performs “maintenance” on an almost daily basis — sometimes twice a day and sometimes twice an hour. We don’t know what that’s about. I called and they walked me through re-booting the master system in the car but it still turns off at least once a day. There is an error that pops up before it turns off but it goes away too quickly for us to write down what it says.
In effect, I’ll be using the navigation system and the whole thing will turn off for a couple of minutes and I’m left in limbo as to where I’m going. If nothing else, I’m learning not to depend on the navigation system.
I was told that if the master re-boot didn’t work that I needed to take it in to the local dealership for repair or call them back. I think I’ll wait for the part to come in before making another trip to the dealership though.
For now, I’m thankful the car runs and that this re-boot problem doesn’t turn the engine off also.
More updates later …
