Ignacio C. Tonarely

Picked up my vehicle yesterday afternoon. It feels good to be back in my own car after all this time (twent-six days, I think). Let's hope that everything is resolved as I don't think I could go through this again. Thank you all for all of your input and advice. I really think that everyone's support throughout all of this was what really lit a fire under Ford. I.

Today is the day. Just got a call from the dealer that my vehicle is ready to be picked up. According to him, it was the high voltage battery that failed and now that it has been replaced, she's ready to go. I hope that this is correct. I do not want to go through anything like this again...

VAuthor, I hope that your situation isn't the same as mine. Today is day twenty-three and the battery only just arrived at the dealer today. In a solid example of customer service, neither anyone at the dealer nor the guy put in charge of this mess (via the internet) thought to call and let the customer who has been waiting for nearly a month know that his battery had arrived. Now they have to install the battery and determine if in fact the battery failed on its own or something else caused the problem. If it is something else causing the battery to fail then I pray that it doesn't screw up the new battery. I cannot tell you the nightmare this whole mess has been. Completely mishandled in my opinion. Anyway, I hope that whatever the problem with your vehicle might be, that is handled in a competent manner. Please let me know what they find. I am curious to know if there might be any commonalities between our two problems (my vehicle was just about to hit the 5,000 mile mark as well). Thanks for reading and good night.

Never mind, Ashley. He just called me and resent me the e-mail. Thank you, anyways.

Ashley, I am sorry to have to keep bothering you but could you please send me Mario's contact information? I cannot locate his e-mail in any of my mail accounts. Thank you. I.

Ashley, To clear up a few facts (hopefully, in fairness to everyone and in an effort to make sure that these facts are properly represented): I contacted you directly on January 9th asking for your assistance. That would be six days ago and not three. Please note that I didn't contact you earlier (despite suggestions that I should) because I had been told that my battery had shipped and was on its way (which it turns out was not the truth). While I appreciate all efforts taken to help me, you have to understand that, while my initial frustration was brought about by the battery not coming in as promised (on several occasions), the fact that I was completely misled as to the situation regarding my replacement battery is what I find utterly unacceptable. People have known all along that my battery had never shipped. Yesterday (day nineteen) was the first time that anyone told me that the battery had not in fact shipped. Ford should not continue to try to paint this as some sort of unfortunate incident in which both parties had miscommunicated the facts. The facts were, knowingly or unknowingly, completely misrepresented by Ford. This either makes someone inept or a liar. Understand, I am not launching these accusations at you but I don't think that it is fair to try at this point to paint this as some sort of mixup. Somewhere along the way, someone at Ford was not telling me the truth. If in fact time travel were an option available to us I assure you that neither you nor I would be sharing this correspondence as I wouldn't be driving a Ford (desperately) in need of repair.

Ashley, I know you're just doing your job but I don't think "confusion" is the appropriate word. Confusion seems to insinuate some sort of miscommunication. What I have been receiving is misinformation (to put it nicely) and excuses. I hope someone puts the proper postage on that crate as this is now the fourth time it ships... Unfortunately, at this point Ford can possibly repair my vehicle but i don't think it will ever be able to fix my expectations of the company and its service capacity.

Now that "the battery is on its way", I hope the dealer hasn't started crating up my car for delivery to Detroit (good suggestion, vangonebuy, that was my frist good laugh of the day). Day 20. Let's see what happens...

Hybridbear, Thank you for all of the info (and everyone else who has sent me useful info/advice over the last few weeks). I spoke briefly with the BBB last Friday to try and get some basic info. Before I go back to them I will be speaking with my attorney to see what course of action he recommends I take. I will update soon. Again, thanks to everyone for their advice and support.

Riddle me this, Batman: What does the trucking company transporting my battery have in common with the Easter Bunny? Answer: They're both fictional! (Ha! It would be funny, if it weren't all happening to me) The latest update confirms my deepest suspicions: my battery has not shipped. The new story is that the battery is waiting to ship but the actual crates they use to ship then in are scarce. Honestly, I don't even know what to say anymore (if I even want my care back anymore, it will probably be to sell it and move on to something else). Ford couldn't have worked any harder to lose a customer. The last person I spoke to, Mario, offered me a refund for this month's payment. While my initial reaction was to say yes to the check I think I am going to have to check with my attorney first. This situatiuon is getting worse with each phone call. After nineteen days, we have only taken several steps backwards.... How can Ford operate in this manner?

Ashley, I simply don't understand how this has become a logistical issue. The primary mission at this moment is to tell me where the battery is. If for some reason it hasn't shipped or is stuck somewhere along the way or even got lost along the way, then that is something that will have to be dealt with. However, someone along the way (assuming that it has in fact shipped out) has had to sign paperwork for that battery (and please don't tell me that this is a delicate item that needs to be shipped in a particular way - sensitive and/or dangerous items are shipped safely every day once they are crated/packed appropriately. Once we establish who signed for it we make a phone call to that individual/firm and ask them where it is. Now, since we have been (supposedly) looking for this battery for at least a week now and still cannot find it then perhaps the best thing to do (to take care of your customer) is to order another battery or (ideally) carefully consider the option of swapping out a battery from another like vehicle in your local inventory (again, to appease a customer who has waited patiently for two weeks and impatiently for another week - with no end in sight, I might add). I don't know you, Ashley. I do not know whether or not you have any pull or even if you do or don't care. My nature compels me to take you at your word but at the end of the day I am still waiting on a battery that seems to be making absolutely no progress. I would like to think that you are trying to help me but so far I haven't made any progress in the last three weeks. My local service people are only interested in telling me that the battery is not in yet and that they cannot do anything more to help me. The individual I spoke to on the 800 line pretty much told me that they are waiting for info and that they will call me when they recieve it. This is my fourth Ford vehicle and I cannot tell you how disappointing and frustrating this entire experience has been. To recap: if the battery doesn't show up, order a new one (expedite it) simply to appease your customer up and shut him up.

Unfortunately, I have to agree that this does make Ford look bad but I also think it makes them look inept as well. They're losing points not for a bad vehicle, nor for their inability to correct an issue but simply because no one involved in this can take the steps needed to trace a shipment. If something shipped, locate it. I do it every day. I'm not saying that have to tell me what street it's on but the should be able to tell that it's between points A and B and it is scheduled to arrive by X. They have been using the weather as an excuse but I have shipments coming in from all across the country and nothing has been postponed more than a day or so (besides they have already given me three different shipping dates). My last vehicle was a Prius (my son is using it now for college) but I went with the Fusion so that I could stick with a hybrid while enjoying a little change. Unfortunately, not having my car to drive for nineteen days (and counting) wasn't the sort of change I was looking for.

A copy of my letter to FordService (posted 01/13/2014): Good afternoon. I have not heard anything from Ford today except for a phone call from my service rep telling me that they had no news yet. I just called Ford directly (800-392-3673) at my rep's advising and was told that the battery shipped on 01/06/2014 (not what I was previously told by my rep) but that no one can tell me where it is. The person I spoke to told me that they are trying to track down the battery and have the trace flagged for a follow-up on 01/15/2014 (that is, if no one calls them back, they will call again to ask the same question in two days). The trace they are referring to was initiated today (so I don't know what they have been doing to track this down since last Monday). I am very disappointed that no one at Ford can tell me where the battery is. When you ship something, it is customary for someone to sign for it. It is quite normal to have that person's contact info so that, should they simply up and disappear, you could have some way to track them down. Someone is either lying to me or simply not doing their job. This makes me a very unhappy Ford customer right now. This is pretty much where things stand right now. It is pretty crappy that in 2014 no one can tell me where a pretty expensive piece of equipment in transit is. I have a meeting tonight and there will be someone there who can give me more info regarding the Lemon Law. This would not be my ideal solution to all of this but I don't see one iota of progress being made on my case (man, I never thought I would find myself caught up in something like this, especially with Ford). For all of those who are still reading, I will keep you posted.

My fusion was dropped off on December 26th at 7:00am (or 8:00am, whenever they openned their doors).

The USPS now has my two books (tracking number and all). Any bets on whether the two books will arrive at their respective destinations before my battery gets here? Okay, I know that's not a fair comparsion but this is really frustrating. I haven't heard back from Ashley so I don't even know if she's gotten involved yet.