Screwed over massively By Jarvis Ford

[EA Bogan]

OK, so i took my 1990 Farimont Ghia in to Jarvis Ford Hillcrest in Adelaide, it needed a few things fixing, such as the rear brake pads, a transmission serivce, and it developed a few leaks, some oil from the rocker cover, and also a coolant leak. Since the car is in mint condition otherwise, both inside and out, not to mention the fact that i just adore driving it, i shelled out $1729 to get her back into shape. For such a high amount of money, i expected them to fix things and they assured me that they did. The brakes they did well enough, and also the transmission, but the day after i got the car back, it began spewing oil all over my garage floor. I took it back straight alway, and the service desk person arranged a time to take it back, and upon fixing it again said there was "insufficiant sealant" on the cover. Well WTF, happens sometimes, i can deal with it. All good. At least thats what i thought untill 3 day later. The coolant came slowly dripping out, despite the receipt from the fine gentlemen at Jarvis Ford stating that "Failed radiator hose was replaced, cooling system flushed and all fluids topped up, pressure test all ok". I was quite annoyed by this point, yelled at them and told them to fix the effen car. They said that the radiator cap was faulty ordered one, and replaced it "free of charge as a gesture of goodwill". I was glad to finally be rid of further problems, when lo and behold, THE VERY NEXT ****** DAY, coolant dripping from the radiator. As it was a satruday and they arent open, i cant contact them untill tomorrow. Their mechanics seem to be completely and utterly clueless, they cant seem to fix anything, depsite the office people telling me that these are ALL well known and easily fixable problems with the EA series. May this be a warning to anyone who even THINKS about servicing your car, be it a Ford or anything else at Jarvis Ford, ESPECIALLY the hillcrest one, KEEP FAR ALWAY FROM THESE ******!! THEY ARE COMPLETELY USELESS!! I really should call Consumer affairs on these morons, im not the onnly person they have screwed over, my friend suffered enormous damages because of them, but hes not aloud to talk about it as it is currently going through a court case. Any advice in relation to this matter?

-Rant mode off..

[DoreSlamR]

If you knew your friend had troubles with them, why did you go to them as well then act suprised when they screw up?

[EA Bogan]

he only told me after i told him about what happened to me..

[DoreSlamR]

Originally Posted by EA Bogan

he only told me after i told him about what happened to me..

Bugger...

[Kryton]

why are you taking your car to Ford to get things like this fixed anyway?
use your local mechanic and you would still have an extra $1000 in your pocket AND the jobs would have been done properly.

[EA Bogan]

and i thought the local mechanics were dodgy..well, ..

[Professor Farnsworth]

that's pretty bad luck, but watch your language on this forum thanks, evading the swear filter with words of that nature is not welcomed.

Post cleaned and words removed.

[EA Bogan]

my bad, no problem

[XA-Coupe]

You know, even if you are 100% right, yelling at them will do you no good. If you have issues calmly speak to the service manager and get him onside. Yelling at them will only get their backs up and make the whole process harder.

[5L]

why would you take your car to fords to be serviced, all the genuine parts are rip off's and there mechanics arnt the best. you local mechanic around the corner who needs to do a decent job to make his business survive, is the one that will spend more time and patience on your car, and is less likely to rip you off like ford have.

[boo81]

Mate, that sucks and I agree with your opinions of that particular service center... I have had issues with them too, but thankfully nothing to that extent!

Hope you get it sorted out

[Yaw]

Just on the last problem with the coolant leaking..... When flushed usually they will overfill it and it takes a day or 2 for the excess water to come out the breather.
Just a possibility.

[InfernoSR]

Take it into a Radiator place for their opinions in regards to the cooling system...

One thing i've been telling people since i started in the cooling systems trade... "mechanics aren't specialists...if they were, then there wouldnt be specialist workshops around"

[daniel_rossy]

i know how you feel mate. Read my thread about how my mechanic put my suspention back the wrong way on friday so my car body rolled an absolute shh*t load when cornering or flicking the wheel at 100, and we found out about 2mins before we were going to take a shortcut to a mates place along a windy dirt road.

[EL8TED]

i work very close to that dealer , and quite often see and hear the apprecntice mechanics talking of much dodgy work , i bought a car from them and had it serviced there , due to it being the closest dealer to me , and found the team in the service dept to be very average and under skilled indeed. Twice they lost my locknut master nut ! twice !! and flat out claimed it was never there , first time wasnt till about a week after , so i had no hope , second time was before i left the drive way , marched back in , they called the mechanic who worked on the car , he told me he never used it and had to rattle gun them off! bullnuts mate , they agreed to compensate me the $10 fee for a new one , why ? cos they knew they lost it ! again! One other time , they ordered a part , and i had a loan car for the day due to work travelling , they mis-ordered the part , told me it would have to stay over night , and then tried to tell me that id have to pay an extra half days rental on the car maybe the full day depending on when it came in the following day !! can you beleive that , theyre fook up and i have to pay more for it , needless to say i got my extra half day free, as per good customer service should be I would never take my car back to jarvis hillcrest again .. theyre probably from my experiance the worst service dealers in adelaide... then again thats ford in general .. ill stick with my ultra tune unless its a warranty issue , thats free .. gone are the days i spend my hard earned bucks for them to goof around

[toyxr8]

Originally Posted by BLUEPRINT

Take it into a Radiator place for their opinions in regards to the cooling system...

One thing i've been telling people since i started in the cooling systems trade... "mechanics aren't specialists...if they were, then there wouldnt be specialist workshops around"

Was wondering what training a "cooling system speciallist" does ?

[gu4800]

Originally Posted by davway

why are you taking your car to Ford to get things like this fixed anyway?
use your local mechanic and you would still have an extra $1000 in your pocket AND the jobs would have been done properly.

X 2

I don't even take my new cars back for dealer service - never have, never will. New cars I have owned that NEVER saw a dealer (except warranty - because it is free):

Ford Falcon BF
Ford Territory SY
BMW 318i
Nissan Patrol GU
Mitsubishi Challenger
Mitsubishi Lancer
Holden Frontera

Just bought a new Subaru last week, and it won't be going to Subaru for service.

Find a good local mechanic you can trust, and go there.

Cheaper, better job and if they stuff up they bend over backwards to fix it.

Cheers

Dan

[TUF_302]

Id have to agree with the advice of going to a local mechanic, a place thats alot smaller has to really be on the ball casue this is there livelyhood, where as at ford they do more than just fix cars, i take my XR8 to my local mech and it always comes back perfectly!, the fact is if it didnt, word would spread and his good rep could take a beating, which is something places like this dont need in a small community, even in cities i would only take my car to a smaller service centre, never to Ford, or holden, come to think of it none of the Big brands themselfs! just cant trust big bussineses like them!

[ELtim]

You should try Valley Ford in Tanunda. I've heard good things about them.

Another crap company is North East Isuzu. My Dad bought his half cab truck from them. They cut it in half and whatnot (You've probably seen them driving around with Bianco stickers on them.) Anyway, they screwed up the central locking, now if you lock the door you can't get it back open.

[Kryton]

Originally Posted by ELtim

My Dad bought his half cab truck from them. They cut it in half and whatnot

explain...........

[nugget378]

Originally Posted by davway

explain...........

Its one of those trucks you see carting steel reo bar and mesh,with just a small cab for the driver I would say..

[Sourbastard]

Originally Posted by ELtim

You should try Valley Ford in Tanunda. I've heard good things about them.

You would be the only one.

[ELtim]

Originally Posted by davway

explain...........

They cut half the cab in half and extend the tray down one side.

He carries steal and mesh so the longer part of the tray means they can overhang on the front and back.

[Kryton]

Originally Posted by ELtim

They cut half the cab in half and extend the tray down one side.

He carries steal and mesh so the longer part of the tray means they can overhang on the front and back.

do you have a pic of one?
im trying to think of what they look like but cant picture it.

[Aaron_EF8]

LOL @ Lynas Valley Ford in Tanunda. They are the WORST Ford dealer I have ever dealt with in my life. The 18yo's that work there know everything, because they have serviced BA's and Territories for 18 months, so they know everything about every model Ford ever built. The old guys that work there know everything because they are old. Just ask them, you will be wrong.

Most car dealers hire young apprentices, who get cocky and think they know it all after 12 months. They work on brand new cars, which are almost always fleet cars, so there is no question of money when it comes to replacing parts. An 18yo EA comes in, they go 'damn what a piece of crap, just sell it and buy a BF' then look at the price listing and just charge that.

For the record, Jarvis at Hillcrest have always been great to me, I've bought a fair bit of stuff from there, had the brakes replaced once, got to test drive 2 BA's when they came out, and have asked them quite a lot of technical assistance from them.

They are mechanics, they aren't psychics, they can't tell when something on an 18 year old car is about to fail.

[alecrain]

man $1700 + for few little things like that?
I reckon that would be the average price you'd be offered for the whole car at the dealers,
just take a good care of her and enjoy riding it.

[ELtim]

Originally Posted by davway

do you have a pic of one?
im trying to think of what they look like but cant picture it.

Found this on google.



If you're from SA you'll see the Bianco ones around sometime. If it's my Dad you'll know because he'll probably cut you off lol.

[sgt_doofey]

Strength Mechanical if you want to come all the way up to Tanunda for servicing. As for Lynas Valley Ford, they sponsor our cricket club so it can't be all bad, can it?

I hate Jarvis Service with a passion as well. I bought my EL back in '99 and I had an incident with them. Basically, the bolt which holds the timing gear to the cam sheared off and I had the top end stop whilst the bottom end did a few rotations. Result was a number of bent valves and a trip on a flat bed to Jarvis to get it fixed under warranty.
I had to chase them up for the whole time they had my car (about 2 weeks from memory) to find out what was happening with it. Not once did they call me.
When I got it back, I drove it for a couple of weeks. One day, I was showing my cousin under the bonnet and noticed that the bolt that holds the alternator in place had pretty much come undone and the only thing holding the alternator in place was the fact that the bolt shifted and wedged itself on an angle. A quick dash up the street to our local mechanic saw him come down and tighten the bolt back up and give everything else a quick check to see if anything else was loose.
If that bolt had fallen out, the serpentine belt would have stopped and the water pump would have stopped, along with power steering and the alternator. My main concern would have been loosing the water pump.

I vowed never to go back there for servicing again after that.

[smally289]

I really have to question the decision to take an 18 yo car to a dealership for repairs. From my experience as a delership mechanic, you rarely get vehicles in that are more than 3 to 4 years old. They have a high turnover rate of mechanics, so most of them would never have worked on an EA, or anything that has done more than 100,000km.
I worked at Jarvis Hillcrest for a number of years, as well as their Norwood and Kensington workshops. Sounds like the place has gone downhill a bit since I left in 2001.

[Kryton]

Originally Posted by ELtim

Found this on google.



If you're from SA you'll see the Bianco ones around sometime. If it's my Dad you'll know because he'll probably cut you off lol.

ok, never seen anything like it before.