Complaint Review: Heritage Ford - Wesley Chapel Florida - Wesley Chapel Florida

I recently moved to a house in Wesley Chapel Florida from an apartment not far from Plant City Florida. While I lived in that apartment I purchased a replacement engine for my 1998 Cobra which only had 72,000 miles on it. An unknown critical problem caused something inside the motor to break and it became inopperable... all involved with diagnosing the engine alleged it would cost more to repair the engine than to just replace it. One was Brandon Ford, and the other was an SVT certified mechanic in plant city near the ford dealer where I purchased the replacement engine. Dave, the SVT certified mechanic in plant city, assured me the new engine would be covered by the Ford 3 year 36,000 mile warranty and after a few months the car was reassembled and working flawlessly. This car is my toy car and I only drove it about once a month to and from work. In total... I have only put about 2000 miles on the new engine; it even still has the factory oil and filter in/on it. I started the car up in my garage, yes... garage kept, and noticed a slightly different sound coming from the engine, but I ignored it... I drove it out to the main road and when I took the turn onto the main road and started accellerating I noticed a very loud ticking sound upon acceleration. I immediately drove the car back home and it has been sitting there since.

I contacted Heritage Ford since they were the closest dealership to my new home. I was transfered to a lady whom I spoke to for a few moments about my problem. I explained to her I was unable to find the receipt of purchase, but I also told her it only had 2000 miles or less. She assured me that would not be an issue as they can verify the warranty and purchase date off of a tag on the side of the engine block. She said she was going to contact Ford with my information and call me back. I intended on giving her a little over a week that ended up being several months.

When I tried contacting Heritage Ford again a few days ago I spoke with a guy in the service department. He claimed I would not be able to redeem the warranty on the engine without a receipt of purchase and that I would have to pay an inspection fee. I tried to explain that I had already called and that my move from a house to an apartment to another house had forced me to pack even important things into boxes for over a year and I was unsure how long it would take me to find the receipt. He still insisted there was nothing that can be done without the receipt. After a few hours of tearing up my garage with the contents of many storage bins I found the receipt and called Heritage Ford's service department again. I spoke with him again and he again said I had to pay an inspection fee and that the engine may not be under warranty. I asked to speak with his service manager. He said he was busy but he would call me back. About an hour later I received a call from someone who claimed to be the service manager and he first asked me if it was a stock engine, whick I replied yes to. It was a factory replacement for the factory engine in my 98 Cobra (F8ZZ-6006-ARM). He then continued by saying that I should take it to the dealer that I bought the motor from. I responded that I was only trying to take the car to the closest dealership to avoid having to pay excessive towing fees. Heritage Ford is within 5 miles of my new home and the ford dealer in plant city os well over 25-30 miles away. He again insisted that it was not so far out of the way that his service department had to touch it, and that he would prefer not to work on it since his mechanics would have to take the time to tear down the engine and prove to Ford why the motor failed. He claimed other dealerships would do the same thing to him if the motor was purchased at his dealership. I quoted the nation wide any Ford dealership clause on the warranty form for the engine and he cut me off by stating "I have the right to refuse service on any vehicle... and I am refusing to work on yours." This ended our conversation.

I contacted the dealership in Plant City and decided I should start off by working directly with the service manager. I explained what happened with Heritage Ford. He seemed suprised with what kind of a response I got from Heritage Ford and assured me he would contact Ford and verify that his dealership had authorization to begin working on the car since he did not have an SVT certified mechanic. He called me back today and told me he got approval from Ford and said I need only to drop the car off with them and he would handle it. I plan to drop the car off in a few days since I am expecting to have to pay an outragious towing bill since I have to have to car towed more than 10 miles. I do not understand why Heritage Ford could not have been this easy to deal with.

John

Wesley Chapel, Florida

U.S.A.

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