ComplaintsforJack Powell Ford Mercury Inc

• Initial Complaint

  03/30/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In June of last year I purchased a used vehicle from **** Powell **** in ************* *****. It is a 2016 Santa *********** I got it for about $16,000... Since we moved to Oklahoma I had issues getting my license in the state; between financial issues and covid making getting into the *** almost impossible.So I was unable to drive my car until I could get my ID because I couldn't get my registration without the ID..At the beginning of March I was finally able to get my driver's license, I paid $1,000 to register my car, and for the first time in 8 months I was able to make a trip back home to *****.While in ***** I was going to pick up my daughter and my car suddenly broke down coming into ******************.I had the car towed to a mechanic in ****************** and they weren't sure what was wrong or what had happened but it turned out I needed a new motor...I couldn't understand how a motor could just give up with no warning.. I hadn't even been able to drive the car for most of the duration I had it...It turns out my car had a recalled engine through *******.I think great, that makes sense, the product was defective.. what do I do from here to get this fixed? I had the car towed to ******* dealership because they said they needed to verify it was the recalled motor, I waited about a week and a half to find out it was the recalled motor, however ******* denied my recall claim do to a free software engine update not being performed. I was not informed of any recalls on the vehicle when purchasing it or else I would have met the requirements to still be able to use the recall or I would have picked a different vehicle. I only got ***** miles out of a $16,000 vehicle that is now sitting without an engine, and all of this could have been avoided if **** Powell had given me information to know what kind of car I was dealing with. I'm looking at **** to put a new engine in my car when it should be a free repair on a faulty product.

  Business response

  04/05/2022

  Tell us why hereCustomer Information:
  *******************************
  605 *****************  *******, **  73547
  Daytime Phone:**************
  E-mail: ********************************
  
  
  *** details of this matter are as follows:
  Complaint Involves:
  Repair Issues
  
  Customers Statement of the Problem:
  In June of last year I purchased a used vehicle from **** Powell **** in ************* *****.It is a 2016 Santa *********** I got it for about $16,000... Since we moved to ******** I had issues getting my license in the state; between financial issues and covid making getting into the *** almost impossible. So I was unable to drive my car until I could get my ID because I couldn't get my registration without the **** At the beginning of March I was finally able to get my driver's license, I paid $1,000 to register my car, and for the first time in 8 months I was able to make a trip back home to *****. While in ***** I was going to pick up my daughter and my car suddenly broke down coming into ******************. I had the car towed to a mechanic in ****************** and they weren't sure what was wrong or what had happened but it turned out I needed a new motor... I couldn't understand how a motor could just give up with no warning.. I hadn't even been able to drive the car for most of the duration I had it... It turns out my car had a recalled engine through ******** I think great, that makes sense, the product was defective.. what do I do from here to get this fixed? I had the car towed to ******* dealership because they said they needed to verify it was the recalled motor, I waited about a week and a half to find out it was the recalled motor, however ******* denied my recall claim do to a free software engine update not being performed. I was not informed of any recalls on the vehicle when purchasing it or else I would have met the requirements to still be able to use the recall or I would have picked a different vehicle. I only got ***** miles out of a $16,000 vehicle that is now sitting without an engine, and all of this could have been avoided if **** Powell had given me information to know what kind of car I was dealing with. I'm looking at **** to put a new engine in my car when it should be a free repair on a faulty product.
  
  *** complaint was submitted on 3/30/2022 and was assigned an ID of ********.  
  
  
  
  *** customer that has filed this complaint purchased her vehicle from **** Powell **** on 06/01/2021.  It is a 2015 ******* ***** Fe Sport.  At the time of purchase, according to the odometer statement, this vehicle had ******* miles.  This vehicle had the appropriate Buyers Guide sticker displayed on the window at the time of purchase as required by the state.  *** Buyers Guide stated clearly:  AS-IS NO DEALER WARRANTY THE DEALER DOES NOT PROVIDE A WARRANTY FOR ANY REPAIRS AFTER SALE.
  *** customer was presented with the Buyers Guide again in the finance department when she signed her contract.  *** Buyers Guide is signed and filed.  Every customer that enters the finance department is presented with warranty options to protect their investment.  This customer chose not to purchase any extended warranties.  It is **** Powell ****s recommendation that every vehicle purchased should be protected with extended warranty, especially higher mileage vehicles.  Every vehicle, in fact, is just a machine.  Every machine at some point will break down, eventually.  We hope that its further down the line and you get to enjoy your vehicle with no problems for as long as possible, but eventually it will break down in some way.  A service contract, or extended warranty, is utilized to assist with the financial liabilities if, and when, the vehicle does mechanically fail.  This customer chose to bypass any additional warranty. 
  On 6-01-2021 this vehicle was purchased at a sales price of $13,500.00 with additional fees of $187.95, the customer was to pay her taxes and registration separately in ********.  All necessary paperwork was sent to her local tax office in ******** the week of the purchase in June of 2021.  This is usually done in a timely manner as temporary Buyers tags are only good for 45 days after the purchase.  After all paperwork is sent, it is up to the customer to finish the registration process. 
  We had not heard anything from this customer, good or bad, until February of 2022, 8 months after the purchase.  *** customer called us because she had misplaced her buyers order and was trying to finally register the vehicle in ********.  We took down the fax number from her and started to fax the paperwork to the tax office she was currently at.  When we called her back, she stated that she had found the originals and didnt need for us to do anything.  She never mentioned anything about the vehicle and thanked us for being so helpful.
  On approximately March 22nd,this customer called to report to me the situation she is currently having with her ******* ***** Fe.  This was now over 9 months after the date of purchase.  She explained to me the situation, it had broken down somewhere around ******************, she took it to a local mechanics shop here in ******************, they couldnt pinpoint the problem, so she eventually took it to the ******* dealership in ***********,**.  She stated that she was working with a service advisor over there and that they were trying to get this problem covered under a recall.  We both agreed that it was best to wait and see if it was going to be covered.  She eventually called me back a few days later to tell me that it was not going to be covered because the recall had expired.  I called that service advisor myself to learn the details.  *** service advisor stated that the current mileage on the vehicle is now ******* miles.  *** customer had put ***** miles on the vehicle in the almost ten months she owned it, not the ***** she had told me over the phone. 
  *** service advisor told me that they were still going to try to figure out a way to get this covered, and to give him a little time.  I relayed this information back to the customer and said lets see if they can get this resolved by filing an appeal with ********  I told her again about our warranty guidelines from the store and about the current mileage on the vehicle.  *** customer had also already written a negative post on social media pertaining to our store and this whole situation.  I told her that is not the way to handle problems like this, especially when we were still working on resolving this matter together.  *** customer then became agitated and told me that she is going to keep recirculating this post until the vehicle is fixed.  She then stated that she has two lawyers that both want this case and that she is going to the ************************ with it.  She was very agitated, so I simply said, ***n thats what you need to do, and said goodbye.    
   It is not our goal or intention at this store to sell vehicles that we know are going to break down.  Every single car we sell, including this customers vehicle, is run through our service department, and checked out by certified mechanics thoroughly prior to being sold.  Vehicles that do not pass a 125-point checklist, provided by ****, are sold at auctions or to wholesalers.  It is our goal to sell customers quality vehicles that they can enjoy for years and then hopefully they will come back and buy another.  Although this inspection process does drastically reduce the number of mechanical issues on sold vehicles, there is no way to guarantee that a vehicle will not break down.  Again, every machine will eventually fail due to normal wear and tear alone,this is where extended warranties come into place to protect the buyers investment.  Also, when a vehicle has higher mileage, the buyer is taking even more of a risk.  *** state of ***** requires every licensed dealer to display a Buyers Guide next to the window sticker on every pre-owned vehicle.  ***se Buyers Guides clearly display what is covered by the dealer after the sale.  We require every customer we sell to sign this form.  This form is designed to protect both the consumers and the dealerships.  Our store also has a 2nd form we have the customer sign pertaining to promises made by the store, proving that we didnt make any special promises to get the customer to buy the vehicle, this form clearly states, again, that the sale is final,and the vehicle is AS-IS.  Finally, a 3rd form is signed called a WE-OWE, this is where anything promised during the sale would be itemized so that we can get it completed after the sale.  On this customers WE-OWE, its states clearly NOTHING IS OWED BUT GREAT SERVICE AFTER THE SALE.
  Again, it is NOT our intention for these types of situations to occur, but from time to time they do.  We do apologize that this happened.  We know that this is a VERY frustrating situation for customers, and that they are never happy about it.  ***refore, we heavily recommend, at the time of sale, that every single customer we sell protect their new investment with an extended service contract of some kind, whether it be a used car or even a new vehicle.  Dealerships cannot be held responsible for used cars months after the sale and thousands of miles later, and we make this perfectly clear to customers during the sale.             ...

  Customer response

  04/05/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  I have a couple of issues with the response I was given:
  
  The car had a recalled engine. This isn't a normal wear and tear situation that I'm dealing with. A car was sold to me with a faulty engine, and I was sold the car with no knowledge of that. With a recall that is no longer being honored by ******* because of a software are updated that needed to be completed well before I ever purchased the car.
  
  I do also feel the interactions I had with the supervisor of **** Powell weren't as positive as he portrays. When the car broke down I had it taken to the mechanics in ******************, but the first place I had called was the dealership I got it from, **** Powell, to see if they could offer any solutions. I was pretty much told tough luck. So I ultimately had the car towed to the *********** ******* shop. That's where I learned it was a recalled engine. After the first request was sent to ******* and denied *******'s response was to talk to the dealership that I got it from. So I reached out to the dealership again to be told that because of the time span and the lack of warranty there was nothing they could do. We discussed resending in the appeal with the added information that I had no knowledge of the recall, and we were waiting for the reply from *******. Upon hearing news of the second denial and being told the reasoning was that a recall was sent out in 2018 and the timeline to update the software was by 2019. Which was before I had purchasedthe car. I was told that it was the dealership that I needed to speak to, because there was nothing they could do. *****, the supervisor from **** powell, had told me he would reach out to ***** the service person dealing with the car at ******* and that he would give me a call back. I tried to reach out three different occasions to be sent to a voicemail that was full. I hadn't been given much hope from ***** that they were in any way willing to help me, I was told the same information each time. That because of the miles being more than ****, the length of time I had the car, and because I had no warranty there wasn't anything they could do. I then posted to ********* which was ultimately the last thing I wanted to do, however when you're trying to go through all the proper channels and you're being ignored and led around in circles there are times that it's the only way to be heard. I called the dealership yet again before I circulated the post to try to get a hold of ***** to hopefully be able to find a peaceful resolve to the problem, only to be told again that because of the time line and since it was over ***** miles that there wasn't anything they could do. I then proceeded to try to say they were holding to the platform that because of the timeline, the couldn't help me. I had already explained why it been such a long stretch before I had a noticable problem with the car: I had issues getting my out of state id because of covid and trying to get into the DMV.so I was unable to register the car until this February (when I had contacted them about the certificate of sale) this would be a completly different situation if the motor was just too old, if there was anything i could have done to prevent this massive of a mechanical problem from happening... but the engine had issues that were so severe that the engine was recalled. I should have been informed of this..
  
  As soon as the issue occurred, it was sudden, the car was fine and all the sudden it needs a new engine, at no fault of my own.. these companies have profited from their bad car and I'm left holding the bucket. I contacted everybody I knew to, to which I was then called *****, so in return I did threaten legal action, but the sad truth is the is an ethical issue. A car dealership is only as good as the quality of the vehicles they put out and the desire to do right by the customer, no themselves. I do feel like the dealership should be responsible for fixing the engine they should have fixed before they sold it to a trusting customer, and if they weren't willing to do that, or take responsibility when a faulty vehicle fails, they should have sent this one to the auction.
  Regards, no
  
  
  *******************************

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