FocusCanada Forums

So they send you a survey for their dealership service. Rate them horribly and then month later you get a french postcard in the mail.

"Chez Ford du Canada Limitée et chez nos concessionnarires, commentaires, tout comme vous l'avez fait, et nous aimons avoir la possibilité d'en faire le suivi.

Nous avons tenté de vous joindre par téléphone, mais jusqu'à présent, nous n'y sommes pas parvenus. Si vous avez encore des préoccupations au sujet desquelles vous désirez nous parler, veuillez communiquer avec notre Centre de relations avec la clientéle.

Nous espérons avoir bientôt de vos nouvelles.

Ford Canada
Vous pouvez nous joindre au:
1 800 565-3673."

Guess this is one way to prevent people from knowing what they had in mind. But from what I can surmise and my french sucks. It seems like they tried calling me but were unable to, and if I want to call them back I can. Basically long and short of why I gave their dealership crap survey. After my roof was repaired from the fatman stop. My rear wiper wasn't spraying took it to quick service couple months later on an oil change to find out why. They had to take apart my roof liner but found out the 1way valve was in backwards from the body shop. So they corrected that. However they broke both the front and rear on the passenger side "holy s*** handles" the roof grab handles. So they had to order new ones. Called me a week and half later got the handles installed them I picked up the car and found out durning the install they cracked the handles and the front wasn't installed correctly. So back again they ordered new ones. Week and a half later new handles. This time installed no problem, however they broke the passenger seatbelt restraint system. It no longer wanted to adjust in height up and down, it just slid and stayed at the bottom, nor did it recoil in. So they ordered a new assembly. 2 weeks later they get the part in, install it. I go pickup the car and sure as s***, it still doesn't f***ing recoil. Okay they order a new spring for it. 3 weeks later car gets dropped off and they install it. I go to pickup the car, and half the roof mouldings are hanging down. I kinda lost it on the service guy. They fixed them their and all seems good. Other than what I think to be a kinda losely secured A pillar cover. Hence horrible survey. I will prolly just take the car over to the bodyshop and see if they can do anything to tighten it up. Or if it's supposed to be like that cuz honestly I can't remember how tight it was b4. But yah f***ing kids and no respect or follow through on their work. If your gonna do a job do it right.

Btw if anyone can tell me exactly what they said that'd be great. I tried a few online translators but they all kinda gave it garbled a little.

wow
looks like you have a really s***ty Ford dealer....im glad u gave em a bad feedback....

NikiterZTS,Apr 4 2007, 11:02 PM Wrote:wow
looks like you have a really s***ty Ford dealer....im glad u gave em a bad feedback....
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I've never had problems with this dealer ever b4. Always had great service. It's where I bought the car from. This was at the quick service bay there and was always nights. Maybe that's where I went wrong. But I like the night parts guy, awesome dude and very helpful with finding me stuff.

Quote:"Chez Ford du Canada Limitée et chez nos concessionnarires, commentaires, tout comme vous l'avez fait, et nous aimons avoir la possibilité d'en faire le suivi.

Nous avons tenté de vous joindre par téléphone, mais jusqu'à présent, nous n'y sommes pas parvenus. Si vous avez encore des préoccupations au sujet desquelles vous désirez nous parler, veuillez communiquer avec notre Centre de relations avec la clientéle.

Nous espérons avoir bientôt de vos nouvelles.

Ford Canada
Vous pouvez nous joindre au:
1 800 565-3673."

My French is rusty, but I'll give it a shot:

Roughly,

"At Ford of Canada and our dealers, we would like to follow up on the comments like those you have given.

We have tried to reach you by telephone, but at present this has not happened. If you still have concerns on the subject please contact us at our Customer Relations Center. We hope to hear from you soon.

Ford Canada
You can reach us at 1 800 565-3673"

Online translators only give a general translation; Quebecois French is quite bastardized from Parisian French.

did you mark "english" as your preferred correspondence on the survey?

darkpuppet,Apr 5 2007, 06:29 AM Wrote:did you mark "english" as your preferred correspondence on the survey?
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of course

Phantom,Apr 4 2007, 11:43 PM Wrote:my french sucks.

What? I thought the great P.E.T. brought bi-languagism into this country and spent plenty of our money to make sure we can all communicate in both French and English. :speakenglish:
Sorry. Little rant is over for now.

When I gave Discovery Ford a bad report (too many things to list here), Frank the 'service advisor' had the ignorance to call me at home and try to berate me over it. If he'd been in front of me I would have stepped on him. My wife couldn't believe the words coming out of my mouth before I hung up on him. Never been back in 5 years. :blink:

Call back using the French number, and unload on them in English :)

I'd start taking it to another stealership since you've been having that problem.

I guess there are always good and bad ones.. I've had nothing but stellar service at mine here in the states, but I've had words with the one where my wife takes her car up there.

CanadaSVT,Apr 5 2007, 10:51 AM Wrote:

Phantom,Apr 4 2007, 11:43 PM Wrote:my french sucks.

What? I thought the great P.E.T. brought bi-languagism into this country and spent plenty of our money to make sure we can all communicate in both French and English. :speakenglish:
Sorry. Little rant is over for now.

When I gave Discovery Ford a bad report (too many things to list here), Frank the 'service advisor' had the ignorance to call me at home and try to berate me over it. If he'd been in front of me I would have stepped on him. My wife couldn't believe the words coming out of my mouth before I hung up on him. Never been back in 5 years. :blink:
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Frank is an asshole. I'll even admit that. However, I have YET to have any issues with Discovery.
Infact, I've always given them the highest marks I feel fair.

Phantom,Apr 5 2007, 09:32 AM Wrote:

darkpuppet,Apr 5 2007, 06:29 AM Wrote:did you mark "english" as your preferred correspondence on the survey?
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of course
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they really need to..

I work in a call centre, I am the Quality Manager.
You know when you call a 800 number and it says 'This call may be monitor for quality purposes...' well I manage the team that listens to those calls.
I say this because I know customer service.

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience.
Her are some key things to say when dealing with these issue (I recently had a bad experience with Canadian Tire myself).

Tell them... in a VERY calm, friendly, cooperative tone...
I am very dissatisfied with the service because (always give a reason!)
I understand how important customer satisfaction is to Company Name and want to provide every opportunity for you to make it right.
Let's work together to come up with an agreeable resolution
We can all learn from this experiene
Putting yourself in my shoes I'm sure you can empathize with my situation.
I'm not looking for special treating, only fair treatment.

The issue I had with Canadian tire is that they told me that the belts on my summer tires had warped and they needed replacing. They had less than 20,000 KM but where 3 years old. I was able to get 4 new tires at $50 each. Reason, I was polite and convinencing...

Hell, I even had Visa refund me the interest payment on my Visa bill that I admitted to paying late... Why would they do that? Because I am a loyal customer and my satisfaction is important to them...

^-- good advice!!

As puppet says this is good advice ... if for no other reason than it is common courtesy and it fits nicely with the "catching more flies with honey" approach.

My question to you is this: in the Canadian Tire example and the Credit Card example you cite, were the front line CS reps empowered to make the decision themselves in terms of giving you a better price on replacment tires and in terms of refunding your interest?

I think the thing that bothers people the most (okay, bothers me the most) is companies that create the pretense that CS reps are there to make things right for the customer ... whereas in reality (according to my experience anyway) the real role of the CS rep is to isolate the customer from the person who actually has the ability to spend the company's money and either run interference for them, or actually persuade the customer that their situation isn't as bad as they think and therefore be happy with the way things are.

In Ford's case, as an example, it doesn't matter how friendly, persuasive or civil you are with the frontline CS rep, there's very little they can actually do for you. Their primary role as far as I can tell, is to provide "stock" answers and send the customer back to the dealer.

So, as far as I'm concerned, a Customer Satisfaction process that doesn't empower frontline CS reps to actually provide some relief to the customer ... isn't really worthy of the term customer satisfaction ... and this is in no way intended as a slight against the folks who actually answer the phones.

And to put this into context vis a vis this thread ... dealerships that don't empower Service Advisors to make things right for the customer, but force you to negotiate with them first just for the "privilege" of talking with the Service Manager ... are also missing the point of Customer Satisfaction.

Alec Brandon,Apr 5 2007, 01:19 PM Wrote:I work in a call centre, I am the Quality Manager.
You know when you call a 800 number and it says 'This call may be monitor for quality purposes...'  well I manage the team that listens to those calls.
I say this because I know customer service.

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience.
Her are some key things to say when dealing with these issue (I recently had a bad experience with Canadian Tire myself).

Tell them... in a VERY calm, friendly, cooperative tone...
I am very dissatisfied with the service because (always give a reason!)
I understand how important customer satisfaction is to Company Name and want to provide every opportunity for you to make it right.
Let's work together to come up with an agreeable resolution
We can all learn from this experiene
Putting yourself in my shoes I'm sure you can empathize with my situation.
I'm not looking for special treating, only fair treatment.

The issue I had with Canadian tire is that they told me that the belts on my summer tires had warped and they needed replacing.  They had less than 20,000 KM but where 3 years old.  I was able to get 4 new tires at $50 each.  Reason, I was polite and convinencing...

Hell, I even had Visa refund me the interest payment on my Visa bill that I admitted to paying late...  Why would they do that?  Because I am a loyal customer and my satisfaction is important to them...
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ZTWsquared,Apr 5 2007, 02:37 PM Wrote:I think the thing that bothers people the most (okay, bothers me the most) is companies that create the pretense that CS reps are there to make things right for the customer ... whereas in reality (according to my experience anyway) the real role of the CS rep is to isolate the customer from the person who actually has the ability to spend the company's money and either run interference for them, or actually persuade the customer that their situation isn't as bad as they think and therefore be happy with the way things are.

Bothers me to. Bell's reps can;t do crap when I call. As an emploee it really frustrates me that others have to go through that. Bell is just 1 example, I'm going throught it with home depot and a late dishwasher delivery as we speak. <_<

Actually I've worked in a call center for the last 4yrs, frontline rep for Cingular wireless, formerly att wireless outta the states. I know all about being nice to the rep, as when customer's are outright bitchy to me I'm less likely to bend policies for them. I prolly will call their number just it closes at 5:00pm cst. I just kinda want to know what they are gonna say. I had no intention of tearing them apart. I never really tore apart the service advisor I spoke with at ford just always bad mouthed their technicians that can't put s*** togther properly without breaking it. Thing that really made me do the horrible survey was the lack of my dealership offering me any compensation, hell even a free oil change would have been a nice offering, just to appease me for the crappy service.

holy sh*t..does everyone on this forum work for a call centre?? lol, Like everyone else said.. The best way to get stuff done is be nice.. I work for Citi Bank Credit Services (Home Depot dept) and if someone wants an intrest reversed and are nice about it I have NO problem doing so.. If they wanna be ignorant though.. they can pay it! :)

Looks like it is time to seek out a new dealership!

I've dealt with one Ford dealership, on Eglinton near Warden, ........ Salesman was great, of course, service was pretty good until after the transmission was replaced under warranty. After that, I had an issue with tires, and they weren't very helpful. After several months, we traded in the car, and told them that that was the last new car we were buying. Now, only go in a Ford store to buy parts, and only when really necessary

I find myself acting increasingly like a prick toward call centre folks lately. I've always found face time works where possible, because it shows that you're willing to put in the effort to meet with them to discuss your problems. I'm working on reining in my inner grizzly. <_<

Of course, in this approach I'm referring to the dealer and not a credit card company. I get quite far speaking very calmly with the service folks at Stockfish, because as noted above by Ken you catch more flies with honey. I'm sure the SAs thought I was completely nutso this week when I reported the two problems and set up the appointment for Monday morning. In any case, they were polite and pleasant with me... never questioning the rationale I had nor discouraging me from dropping it off.

I've actually had the unfortunate luck of returning one of my two new N-scale diesel locomotives this week to the store I bought them from in Hamilton, sight unseen. The employee from the store was quite nice on the phone as well as via email. I got my return auth number in a matter of minutes and I sent it back as per their instructions. Keep in mind, it's their first time dealing with me as well and I'm sure they're trying to get a handle on me, too. For all I know, the guy I've dealt with both times is actually the owner. He seems nice enough, even when faced with product that doesn't work.

Be nice, be polite even if they aren't and be patient. Sometimes that makes you get just that little bit further and that's what matters in the end.

jen_deans,Apr 5 2007, 08:55 PM Wrote:holy sh*t..does everyone on this forum work for a call centre?? lol, Like everyone else said.. The best way to get stuff done is be nice.. I work for Citi Bank Credit Services (Home Depot dept) and if someone wants an intrest reversed and are nice about it I have NO problem doing so.. If they wanna be ignorant though.. they can pay it! :)

Looks like it is time to seek out a new dealership!
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If it makes you feel better, i work for the NB government.. not like its any better... :rolleyes:

Anyways, if I remember right from stripping my car apart, the A pillar has a couple clips on it that have a metal bracket over them to hold the piece in firm. If one of the metal brackets is missing, it would cause the piece to be loose.

Reading this thread only reinforces what I've believed. Play nice with others how you would want to be treated and you are more likely to get what you want.

True story about my job.... Yesterday I was snowed under with work and a tenant walked in and demanded that the secretary get someone out front tto see them right now.

Now the secretary we have right now is a temporary one and tends to get flustered when there is a demanding client and came and wanted to know what she should do with her (Keep in mind that this tenant doesn't even meet our income criteria, but we give advice in all cases)

The tenant's problem was not urgent, in fact it was something that the tenant could resolve themselves with the correct documents and simple instructions (Basically the landlord illegally collecting 100% utils instead of the 70% that the written lease that they had a copy of) I give the secretary the information while trying to research an urgent problem in front of me.

Less than a minute after the secretary leaves and brings the tenant the docs and explains the situation do I hear this tenant screaming demanding to see someone. I hobble out to the front and I briefly explain that I am unable to see them, suggest that they complete the forms as best they can and when they have, call me for an appointment and give them my card.

I leave and the kvetching loudly continues a minute later, the tenant claiming that they were told by the agency that they would be seen today. I hobble out one last time, calmly explained that the agency was unfortunately mistaken, that I could not see them right now, explaining about the documents again and went back to my office.

I hear the tenant loudly claim that they will be filing a letter of complaint...

Why is it that when people access a "free" service that they expect to be waited on hand & foot? <_<

NefCanuck