I challenge all you Ford lovers, leave a message at your favorite Ford customer service to check if they reply. In my experience no one is ever available and messages are never returned. Possibly there is another number but my advice is not to waste your time phoning the Ford customer service at 0860 011 022. I have left in excess of 10 messages and have yet to have someone return my call. I have asked for the problem to be escalated, and again this is an impossible task. They will not let you get hold of the MD. Either his staff are pulling the wool over his eyes or he doesn’t care to know.

The reason for trying to contact Ford SA customer care was 8 months of chasing after dealers and not getting issues successfully resolved. Now more than 2 months, 5 e-mails and at least 50 calls, all that has happened is that I am frustrated and still have a vehicle that is not operating in the manner that it should.

So let’s get to the problem and as to why I was trying to contact Ford SA. For starters my car, a Terrotory ST, which is the most expensive passenger product that Ford SA offer was in at Fury Ford William Nicol for about 15 working days last year. It would have been longer but the last time, I was scheduled to leave the car for another week, Ford was going to give me a replacement car (The service manager’s car). When I went to drop off the car they had a Fiesta for me but I was told that I would have to sign accepting an excess of R40 000 should anything go wrong – this is totally ridiculous, as I was not taking my vehicle in due to my own fault.

What are the problems that I have been having that they haven’t been able to fix.
• Faulty cruise control, been in 5 times to have this fixed. I finally asked my brother in law to help. He found that the brake light and cruise control switch connected to the brake pedal was faulty and fixed with a piece of cardboard.
• Arm rest fixed twice broken again.
• ‘Clonking’ noise in the front right (Sounds like shock) fixed once re-occurring again.
• The warning signal for the lights has stopped working, I think this is a result of them trying to fix the cruise control.

To add insult to injury this Christmas I was on vacation in Knysna. I checked and there was a local dealer as the car was getting close to its 45 000 service. When I got to Knysna I phoned the dealer to book the car in and was told that the Ford dealer was being bought out and they weren’t taking other bookings. So I was back on the phone to my favorite FORD SA customer service team. I was given 3 stories 1st they were being bought out so weren’t taking other bookings, 2nd they didn’t have parts, 3rd they were fully booked, they could only fit me in on the 6th January (3 weeks lead time). To get to this point took 10 days and as many calls.

Early last year when I got my car back from a service they left me with a dent. I have to wonder is this due to an overfull workshop resulting from their lack of ability to resolve problems.

I don’t know what is worse the dealers inability to fix problems or the Ford customer service department lack of service. The sad thing about this whole lot is that I like the car, but I guess without the back-up of local supplier that is useless.

To tell you the truth I would not buy another Ford even at half the price.

Bought a brand new ford escape, at 1, 000 miles the transmission started to slip. It has been in the shop for 7 days now, it seems it already needs a new trans. And we should buy american?

I have a 2006 Ford Expedition. The rearview mirror fell off three months after the 2006 purchase. It has just fallen off for the 11th time and although it has been glued 10 times it does not adhere to the window. It is a safety hazard and the Ford Corporation has not come up with a solution. I almost hit a woman right behind be as I could not see her position using the side mirrors.

I have been without the mirror more than I have been with one. Everytime, the solution is to glue again. This has not been the answer and none other is forthcoming.

Well I never thought such a thing could happen�In April I bought my wife a 2007 Ford Mustang. I also bought my daughter a 2005 Focus in July of 2007.I had these car�s until the night of September 9, 2008 that was the night they repoed both car�s. The first thing I did was to log onto my Ford credit account to see why, according to the Ford credit site I was not past due on the Focus account and due to a mistake I made as was $98.00 past due on the Focus account .I also looked up my payment history on the FMC site the history showed 16 payments for the Mustang and that was how long I had the car, the history showed 11 payment for the Focus and that was how long I had that car. I next pulled my three credit reports. According to the credit reposts the Mustang account had one past due payment, I made two payment as per arrangements with FMC, the same credit report showed no past due payments on the focus, because the $98.00 was not over 30 days past due.

When the car were taken in the middle of the night, the were in such a rush to get away they damaged the nose shroud of the Mustang, and get this they towed the Focus away backwards, now remember a Focus is a front wheel drive car, so the tires were squealing all the way down the road leaving black skid mark�s for almost a mile.

The next day I called FMC to find out what is going on here, and I got three different answers, answer one was that the account�s were 31 days past due, when I pointed out the fact that according to my on line FMC account I was current the lady got rude with me and hung up the phone. I called back and talked to another rep and was told that my auto insurance was expired and that Ford was protecting its interest. At the time I was changing my insurance from farmers to GIECO. The farmer�s policy was set to expire on Sep 22, and the GIECO policy was in-force on Sep 3 I also pointed that out giving him the policy numbers and a point of contact. He did not say anything but offered to help me get the cars back, I told him about the damage to both cars (I have photos) he stated that was not Ford�s responsibility and that I was responsible for the damages as well as all repo fees. So I told him to just keep the cars as I was not going to pay for there mistake. I called again the next day and talked to a supervisor that told me that my credit had been reevaluated and I was a credit risk (with a 733 Beacon score) I explained that all payment were made and I had proof, he said take us to court and hung up When I next tried to log onto my FMC account it had been closed only 3 days after the cars were taken, it also hit my credit report 6 day latter.

I have been a Ford customer for 18 years, buying a 92 Tempo, 99 Taurus, 01Explorer, 05 Expedition and then the 05 Focus and 07 Mustang, I also had all my servicing and repairs done at Ford dealers. Well after this Ford will not get one more red cent out of me, and I will tell everyone about Ford and there BS.

So I am doing what the supervisor told me to do I gave my family attorney the pages I printed for the FMC web site (yes I printed the payment history, account history, as well as the payment pages that stated when the last payment was made and due. I also gave him the credit reports I paid for showing that the accounts were up to date according to all three reporting agencies. So we will see where it goes from here. I want Ford to pay, for the embarrassment, stress, my wife missing work, my daughter missing work and school because we only have one car left as well as what ever else my attorney can come up with.

Due to a vehicle defect we had to purchase a sway bar..shock & strut assembly..stabilizer bar control link..a new tire, , and alignment. Our vehicles tire blew out due to this defect and no one at Ford will take responsibility. If we had been on a highway we certainly would have been killed and this would be a major lawsuit. Our total expense came in at $1277.54. Ford has stated they have no record of this vehicle having that problem but have had this particular problem with other Ford products. We want reumbursed for the amount this problem cost us. We have the parts, pictures, and info from people who saw this accident. Please respond !