Ford fails to perform a $45 TSB, Agrees to pay $33,610

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Aaron Yarbough

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Ft. Myers, Florida

8/05/09

Ted Greene of Krohn & Moss, Ltd. prevailed over two of Ford Motor Companys top trial attorneys in a three day jury trial in Ft. Myers, Florida over a lemon law case. On July 23, 2009, Ford was ordered by the jury to pay John Kellermeier damages to the tune of $33,610 concerning a 2005 Ford F250 Super Duty truck with a recalcitrant transmission issue.



I was a very proud man when I signed the ownership papers for my new 2005 Ford F250 Super Duty truck the consumer told Ted Greene of Krohn & Moss, Ltd. Within six weeks my euphoria disappeared as the vehicle started flailing with transmission problems. The consumer brought it back for three repairs with increasing apprehension within the first 5,200 miles. Ford rebuilt the entire transmission for the vehicle on the third visit and pronounced it repaired. However, the transmission continued to gyrate. It shifted harshly. It banged into gear. It twirled and twisted the tires after finally engaging. The consumers attorneys , Krohn & Moss, Ltd. sent a letter to Ford with a detailed description of the defect. In the letter they also made an express statement, Ford is being given a final opportunity to repair the vehicle.



At the trial Fords representative leaned heavily on the ruse, Ford has never been given a proper notice that the consumer does not consider the vehicle repaired.



Referring to the letter sent by the consumers attorneys, Fords representative contended, The letter wasnt in the format we usually get. As a result it has been misdirected internally. Based on this, Ford contended it was never provided with a final opportunity to repair the vehicle. The jury remained unimpressed.



During the course of the trial Mr. Kellermeiers attorney elicited proof that not only had Fords dealer called Ford directly on the second repair visit, but also that Ford was aware of the problem and would be coming out with a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) to correct the issue. However, even after the TSB was issued, Ford never performed the TSB at issue. Ironically, the TSB at issue would have cost Ford a mere $45 if performed. Only after filing the suit did the consumer come to know that a TSB was available.



Armed with this evidence, Plaintiffs attorney convinced the jury that Mr. Kellermeier had given Ford a reasonable opportunity to repair the defects in the Ford truck and that Ford had failed to stand up to it. In turn, the jury unanimously agreed that Mr. Kellermeier was entitled to $33,610 in damages. The Court will now be called upon to decide the amount of attorneys fees and costs Ford will forfeit to pay Krohn & Moss, Ltd. for their successful litigation of this consumer action.



The law firm of Krohn & Moss , Ltd. Consumer Law Center was founded in 1995 by attorneys Adam Krohn and Greg Moss, to provide legal representation to consumers with defective vehicles and products. Krohn & Moss, Ltd Consumer Law Center has litigated over 35,000 cases with a 99% success rate. As a result, Krohn & Moss, Ltd. has had a profound impact on consumer protection law. For more information contact Adam J. Krohn at [email protected].
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This all falls on the fact of a shoddy dealer, most likely.

The dealer I got my '04 trac from, is no more. They had an excellent service dept.

I have the extended warranty. The only dealer left close to me are high volume. They have been known for a shoddy service dept, since the 1960's. I hope I never need them..:(
 
-3...



... to subtract from what Eddie, Les and Rodger said. ;)



Ford dealers are part of the Ford franchize. Their dealer service centers have people representing Ford and Ford's best interest.



The BUCK stops with Ford.



The whole, somewhat apologetic manner of blaming the dealer is crap, IMHO. If a dealer sucks then FORD SUCKS. Period.



Too many people here like to give Ford a pass and put all the issues back on the dealers. The issues are Fords...not the dealers. If Ford has crappy dealers then that is a FORD problem. Period.



TJR
 
Too many people here like to give Ford a pass and put all the issues back on the dealers. The issues are Fords...not the dealers. If Ford has crappy dealers then that is a FORD problem. Period.
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+1 on what TJR said. If Fords allows it's dealers (aka Representatives) to use poor judgment in handling situations then it's Ford's fault, period.
 
And how is Ford to know that it has crappy dealers? Make a surprise and clandestine inspection? Have the CEO go incognito to have his Ford ride repaired with a known problem (to him) and see how the dealership treats it, the who "king of persia" system?



Ford would do well to expunge shoddy dealers, but how are they to tell one bad apple from thousands? Blaming Ford as an entity for the dealers' mistakes has some merit, but it is too easy.
 
KL,



It's FoMoCo's responsibility to know their dealer quality and to ensure an acceptable level of quality across the board is maintained.



The fact that doing so might be "hard" shouldn't make the responsibility go away.



TJR
 
KL, a few easy and inexpensive ways to get feedback:

1. A 1-800 number for the customer to give feedback

2. Arbitrary surveys to customer's that recently visited the service department (target warranty related visits; omit oil changes, tire purchases, etc.)

3. A program where certain vehicles are monitored throughput their warrantied service life. VIN numbers are arbitrarily selected from the factory and tracked each time the vehicle went in for service. They always record the VIN number... The vehicles owner would not have to know their vehicle's service incidents were being tracked.

If you can't control the quality of your product's representatives, then you've really got problems.
 
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The whole, somewhat apologetic manner of blaming the dealer is crap, IMHO. If a dealer sucks then FORD SUCKS. Period.
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Bullsh!t, this was a local problem handled badly, blaming the manufacturer is narrow-minded...











 
Les,



No it isn't bullshit because I am NOT blaming the manufacturer. If there were a factory defect then I would put some of the blame on the manufacturer. But in this case there appears to have been shoddy dealer support. That example has partial blame on the dealer.



But ultimately, the buck stops and the full blame "roles up" to Ford Motor Company the "corporation", of which they have a sales arm, a manufacturing arm, and a service arm...among other arms.



The responsibility of a corporation is to make all of its parts work well. It doesn't matter if the factories make the best widget in the world if sales can sell them, or if service can't service them.



The BLAME is with FoMoCo, which is why FoMoCo gets dragged into court for lemon law claims and not the dealers themselves.



We've all heard horror stories of tranny work and TSBs, etc, and lamented that its the fault of the dealer. The dealer didn't make the faulty transmission. The dealer isn't the one that didn't get "out in front of the problem sooner" with a TSB. Yes, some dealers do suck...but many are just working with what "headquarters", or "regional" is giving them to work with.



TJR
 
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The dealer didn't install the TSB provided. Local failure to perform...
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TRUE, so who's responsibility is it to to chew some azz out for not handling the situation correctly? Also, who should be a prime candidate for having their dealership closed if this is a pattern at this (or any other) dealership? And lastly, who makes the decision on which dealers gets closed? Is the gray water getting any clearer yet on who is ultimately responsible?
 
Where this is obviously a problem with the local dealer, a representative of Ford Motor Company, Ford is the one responsible for the dealers actions. Saying that the duty goes to the parent company to take responsibility, in this case pay the money, for the dealers actions. I'd bet that the dealer is going to lose out on about $33k plus legal fees in the next couple of years or lose their franchise. In this day and age the parent companies aren't going to put up with much B.S. like this from their dealers.
 


R1CH,



Regarding "in this day and age"...



I say we are in "this day and age" largely because so many large corps stopped taking their eye off the ball.



If you don't take care of the customer someone else will, or they will stop buying your stuff altogether.



TJR
 
Right, we are where we are because of that but I think that companies and people are starting to realize there isn't an endless source of income/customers and things have turned around into the customers favor. One of the things I've notice, and I'm pleased with, about this recession/depression is that customer service matters again. When a business has to keep their customers because another one isn't right behind them waiting to take their place then they start caring what that customer thinks and wants. If you complain to a manager about poor service now chances are they won't just say 'Well what do you want me to do about it?' and they'll do what they need to do to correct it. It's also going to change the way a lot of young people feel about their own financial worth. For the last few years you couldn't get kids to work for minimum wage, they had to have better. If you wanted a kid to take on extra responsibility they wanted the extra pay first. That's changing, I see young kids struggling to find summer jobs, some even quoted in the papers saying they'd even settle for minimum wage. Settle, when I was going for a job that's all I was offered any place I worked and I had to compete with half a dozen other kids going for the same job. I ended up working in a crappy part of town for minimum wage and I was glad to have a part time job. People are starting to discover what they're truly worth and in some cases it isn't pretty, but who is going to try to better themselves if they don't have to? Why work harder, stay in school, get a better job if you have everything you need/want by doing a half-assed job? In this particular case the dealership is the one who is going to have to work harder in order to keep their customers and keep their franchise.



How's that for going slightly off-track?
 
Not to mention that he bought the truck in 2005, maybe even 2004, so it wasn't even in this day and age that this started.
 

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