ComplaintsforBredemann Ford

• Initial Complaint

  07/15/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Got the old bait and switch here. Bredemann advertised a pre-owned **** Fusion through Edmunds.com, I contacted the dealership to confirm it was available and was told yes and they set up an appointment for me. I drive up from *******, enter the show room and was told, "Sorry, that car sold last week". Didn't know this practice still went on. How *****, they knew what they were doing.

  Business response

  07/16/2023

  Dear BBB staff,  as you know,  we have an outstanding record with the BBB.  We always try to deal transparently with our customers and potential customers. The worst thing one of our employees can do is mislead a customer.  
  

  We are happy to respond to this complaint.  On June 24th, after two months of review, training and preparation, we switched our main computer system over that weekend. We had to terminate all of our third party applications and integrations over that weekend, totaling over 50. That included our electronic integrations with all the various departments with **** and ****** as well.  
  

  Unfortunately, this large scale conversion did not go well over the next 10 days, and we ended up having to revert back to our prior system, including redirecting all those applications and integrations that we had just changed 10 days prior. 
  

  Due to these problems with our systems, we were unable to post our car deals or repair orders for 10 days. As a result,  our vehicle inventories were not updated either for incoming vehicles or to recognize new and used vehicles that we had sold during that 10 day period. 
  

  As a result, our website which integrates with our main system was not being updated either.  
  

  Before we realized what the impact of all the downstream problems of this computer conversion were, we had a few customers, like Mr ************  that saw a vehicle online that in fact we had already sold, but that had not automatically been removed from our website. This was not immediately apparent to our sales staff as well, who all rely on the accuracy of this big system. 
  

  We are very sorry to have given ************* false expectations that this vehicle was available. That was not our intention, and is never our intention with any potential customer. 
  

  it is my understanding that our staff tried to explain what happened to *************, and apologized for all his inconvenience. But if our staff did not do a good job of apologizing and explaining what happened and why,  then I am happy to apologize to him personally.  This was absolutely not a case of bait and switch as he suggests. 
  

  Thanks.

  *** Bredemann

  Bredemann Ford

   

• Initial Complaint

  10/24/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I took my 2013 **** Escape to the Bredemann Ford ************** in ******** on Tuesday, October 18th, 2022. I made an appointment two weeks in advance however whenever I dropped off my car I was told they were behind schedule and would do their best to look at my car same day but it may not be until the following day. I took the car in for three items, 1) correct the alignment as car was pulling to the right, 2) check the muffler/exhaust as there was an odd sound when accelerating, and 3) the back left door panel was loose and needed to be popped back in.It took two days for the service center to look at all three items and the total estimate to address all three issues came in north of $2,000. I was told that:1) The front right control arm was broken and had to be replaced before the team could even address the alignment. The replacement part was ~$600 and would require 2 hours of labor for a total of ~$1,000. On top of that I would be charged $199.95 to check the alignment.2) There was a hole in the muffler which required a new muffler kit that cost ~$300 for the part plus 1.5 hours of labor so ~$600 for this issue.3) Stated the door panel had to be replaced; the part cost ~$600 dollars but was on backorder with no ETA so could take days, weeks or months to arrive.At this point I felt like I was being taken advantage of so asked how much I would owe to simply come pick up my vehicle. I ended up paying $80 for nothing and took my car to another service center. Upon inspection the service techs informed me the front control arm was NOT broken and adjusted the alignment. They also had spare plastic clips to reattach the door panel and advised of a more cost-effective solution to fix the exhaust. Bredemann ******* center fabricated my cars damage, and I was almost out north of $2K for unnecessary repairs.

  Business response

  11/04/2022

  Dear BBB staff, thanks for forwarding this complaint to us. 

   

  Our Service Director ******************* has both called and emailed this customer several times to discuss her concerns and to also review the issues on her 9 year old Escape in person. She has chosen not to return or calls or  emails. 

   

  We can identify with her problem. She had to decide whether to replace the *** parts (connecting rod, door panel and exhaust system) or have someone band aid the repair. There is not a right or wrong answer. 

   

  We had one of our senior techs diagnose her Escape, and he found a worn bushing on the connecting rod, which would be very typical for a 9 year old vehicle. If you do not replace the connecting rod, any realignment will not hold for long.  Second, her door panel had broken clips that are integral to the door panel.  We understand her decision to simply put some new screws through the panel to simply hold it in place, but that is not how we repair vehicles. Lastly, we even suggested that she take her vehicle to a muffler shop and have them patch the existing muffler, rather than installing a new muffler on a 9 year old vehicle.  Again, not the same repair we would have done here, so we gave her good advice to go to a muffler shop for that patch. 

   

  The $80 we charged her amounts to just 30 minutes of our technicians time to inspect these three items and get cost estimates to repair.  We also do a complimentary safety inspection for her vehicle at no charge.  And by the way, we view her decision to not replace the control arm with its worn bushing a safety concern for her.  That control arm could snap at the connection and could result in the loss of steering control. 

   

  She brought her 9 year old Escape to us to evaluate several concerns, which we did. Our tech spent more than 30 minutes of his time on the diagnosis and estimates, and we tried to help her to prioritize how best to resolve her issues.  We believe the $ 80 inspection charge is more than fair, and we tried to meet with her in person to discuss that. 

   

  *** Bredemann

  Bredemann Ford

  Customer response

  11/08/2022

   
  Complaint: 18306388
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The business continues to make false claims and their response is inaccurate. 

  First, the business has not called me, the person that filed this claimed. I'm am the person (who happens to be a women) that made the appointment, took the car in, spoke with the service tech, picked up the car, paid, emailed the Sales Director and Service manager directly and filed the BBB complaint. The dealership chose NOT to respond to my email AND have not called me directly. They chose instead to call my husband. To me, this is sexist and my husband and I made a conscious decision not to return their call in hopes they would reply to me directly but that hasn't happened. I don't want to even hear that they don't have my contact information; I provided my cell to the service center, its likely provided in the BBB claim and I emailed two company reps directly the day I filed this complaint so they know how to reach me for a discussion.

  Regarding the 'worn brushing on the connecting rod'. They did not use this language. They said the control arm was broken and couldn't even do the alignment without replacing the control arm. They did not say it was worn and the realignment would not hold for long. They said it's broken, period so this response is inaccurate and misleading.

  Regarding the door panel, I did not 'simply put some new screws through the panel to hold it in place'. The service center I took it too said the door panel coming loose is a very common problem for the **** escape and they had extra clips laying around at the shop so they replaced the clips to pop the panel back in place. So again, their response is accurate and misleading. Given they are a **** dealership it's highly likely they also have extra clips but if not, at a minimum I could have been presented this option vs. being told the only seemingly choice was to replace the entire panel.

  Regarding the muffler, the dealership NEVER gave the advice to go to a muffler shop. They quoted me for the part and labor without ever suggesting their was a more cost effective solution. The second service center I took my car to is the one that provided that direction to go to a muffler shop so this is a written lie by the Bredemann Team. They are essentially responding to this complaint using language and information I sent via email to Bredemann reps directly. This should raise a concern from the BBB team as well, how can you trust their responses if they are willing to provide you with a straight up lie in response to my issue?

  Regarding the $80, the dealership had my car for 3 days which resulted in me having to take 2 ubers to their dealership and be without a car for that period of time. Their response to my complaint is inaccurate and contains a few straight up lies which makes this whole thing even more shameful. They had the opportunity to contact me directly, forego a very nominal amount to remedy this situation but instead made it worse.

  The dealership has chosen to ignore the complainant, a woman, in favor of only contacting her husband. Hello, its 2022 guys, do better...

  So no, I do not accept the response made by the business. 

   

  Sincerely,
  

  *******************************

  Business response

  11/11/2022

  Dear *******,  first of all, we are not trying to aggravate you.  Your purchased this Escape from us, and have returned to us for service a few times,  the last time being 3 years ago in 2019 as I recall.

   

  Nor are we trying to be sexist in any way and just talk to your husband, ***********************  As a matter of fact, if you look at your current and previous receipts from us, the receipts show ***********'s name,  not yours.  And the phone number in our system from previous transactions is ************ and the email in our system is ****************** I believe that that phone number and email address are ***********'s, not yours.  So please do not deny that we called and emailed you to follow up after your initial complaint  with the information we had in our files.  We also checked our repair order that you signed when you first arrived , and there was not a notation of your name or a different mobile number.  I am happy to show you these documents. 

  Further, I have a wife, three daughters, and three granddaughters.  Plus many female employees and Managers, and I don't think anyone would ever character me or our organization as being sexist and stuck in the last millennium as you suggested. If somehow one of our staff members came across as sexist, I would be more upset with him that you would! 

  Next, let's address the time we spent on your 2013 Escape and the issues that you asked us to address.

  The first item on the repair order was a noise when accelerating. We diagnosed the problem as a hole in the back of the muffler.  We quoted an OEM replacement muffler,  which was entirely appropriate, but you declined.  No problem.  Our Service Advisor thought he suggested that you could ask a muffler shop, but we will accept your word that he did not.   Hopefully a muffler shop provided a temporary repair by patching the hole.  

  Second, you asked for an alignment. The steering wheel was very off center as the tech recalls.  We tried to align the front end, but were were unable to get the adjustable components to hold the factory spec settings. Upon looking further, we found that where the control arm fits into the ball joint was sloppy, rather than tight as it should be, so we advised against the alignment until a new control arm/ball joint was installed.  Any alignment done without replacing those parts is futile and will not last.  You said you had it aligned at a **************, so you will wait to see how long it stays in alignment.  

  Third, you mentioned the left rear door panel was falling off.  In fact, it was held on by tape.  Our ************************************************************************************** fact, as you suggested,  there were broken clips that can be replaced on that model year Escape.  That is not true with all model years,  but new clips could likely solve your problem if the tabs the clips attach to were not broken.  We apologize, and are glad you resolved it much less expensively. We have counseled our tech to be more aware of this less expensive way to solve the problem.  This clips do break over time, so now you know how to resolve if another panel becomes loose. We apologize that our tech did not know he could replace clips on your 2013 Escape. 

  Fourth, we performed a safety recall for you at no expense.  We also performed an overall inspection for you at no expense, looking for obvious leaks and other problems, etc. I believe that you were given a copy of that report.  We should be able to reprint it if desired. 

  Lastly,  we charged you only one half hour (30 minutes)  of our tech's time to diagnose all these issues. Do you doubt that we spent that time?  As a matter of fact,  I would bet that we spent more than 30 minutes. But when one of our customers decides not to get any of the work done that they asked us to inspect,  we charge a minimum half hour to cover our techs time. 

  Frankly, now you and I both have spent much more than 30 minutes in this back and forth.  I will end the drama now by giving you a choice:  if you really want a refund, despite the time we spent on your Escape, we will gladly send you check as customer goodwill. However,  we would prefer that you find a different dealer for future service work.  This might be just fine with you, and even your preference.  If so, we wish you the best of luck.

  Just let us know and we will mark this case closed with that note in your file. 

  *** Bredemann 

  Bredemann Ford

   

  Customer response

  11/14/2022

   
  Complaint: 18306388
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  *** and Team, I am rejecting this response because I'm not sure if I accept the system will still allow me to respond as there were a few things I wanted to clear up. I will accept your next reply so rest assured we are both putting this drama behind us.

  I am 38 years old, and this is the first time I've thought a business was treating me different given I am a woman and first time I've been impassioned enough to contact the BBB. I do not frivolously throw around those words. ***, I do not know you personally and appreciate the many women in your life, but this was my experience and perception of the series of events. I hope by highlighting it can lead to continued improvement going forward; I am a business professional as well so with each complaint comes lessons that just improve the overall experience for future customers.

  Regarding my contact information, I was speaking directly with the service center rep, so he did have my personal cell phone. Now, if that didn't make it into our client profile then I can understand however it was available if someone really wanted to speak with me. I provided it in the BBB complaint as well and in this response attached the email I sent to your sales and service director from my personal email address the morning before I filed this complaint. I found the contact information from your website and that email went unacknowledged.

  I have spent way too much time continuing to raise my experience for a fair and honest acknowledgement for what truly occurred. If I hadn't filed the BBB complaint and continued to reject the response, we wouldn't have gotten to the place of educating the service center staff around the door panel and a reminder on the muffler replacement options which could save customers down the line and put you all in a more favorable light as not focused on money but rather customer service.

  Pointing out the recall being free of charge is sort of pointless given it was a **** recall and my understanding is this is done at no charge to the owner. And if you offer a complimentary service that I didn't ask for nor did I know that was being performed on my behalf I don't understand why that is even part of the discussion. I don't need you to respond to this, just didn't quite understand why this needed to be part of the conversation.

  This was not about money for me. $80 is nominal, it was about a really bad customer experience which could have been put to bed by replying to my initial email to the service and sales director, refunding the nominal $80 to simply have this go away but instead it took escalating via BBB to get to a resolution. 

  I appreciate your time reviewing the situation and addressing points of feedback with your staff. I leave the $80 gesture of goodwill in your court and can agree on parting ways going forward.

  Sincerely,
  

  
  *******************************

• Initial Complaint

  08/20/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I went to Bredemann Ford to fix power stirring. Next day my car overheated. I went back. They said someone put power stirring fluid in my radiator reservoir. I rinsed them that they worked on it the day before. They said it wasnt them. They charged me for a complete flush and for burned out thermostat. I asked owner, ********************* if he would cover the cost as no one else but them have been under the hood in the past 6 or 7 months. He refused. He shouted at me and told me to leave. Later, *** had the audacity to make up a story that I did it. He claimed I had an open can of break fluid on my back seat. What a horrible man and dealership to make the mistake then charge me device and parts then shout at me and make a false report blaming me with his elaborate story.

  Business response

  09/12/2022

  Dear BBB staff,  as you know, we have an excellent, long term relationship with BBB, and take your complaints very seriously.  We also do everything reasonable to review and claim and take a second look to see if our staff acted appropriately. 

   

  For several reasons, this is not a valid complaint.

   

  First of all, the last time ************* had any service work done with us was May 26, 2020, over two years ago!  And so he is filing a complaint with you for service that was done almost 30 months ago! 

   

  Second, I reviewed the issue with our Service Director at the time of the service work, and felt our actions were appropriate and that his claim had no merit.  It appeared that either *************, or another mechanic, had worked on his vehicle just prior to bringing it to us for service, yet he was blaming us.  As I recall, there was an open container of power steering fluid in his back seat.  Yet he was blaming us? 

   

  Lastly, I did review the issue with him at the time, but at no time did I not act professionally.  After a thorough discussion with our Service Director, and the very senior technician that did the repair work on his vehicle, it was clear it was not our error.  Frankly, if anyone acted inappropriately,  he was accusing us of an obvious mistake that only an amateur would make, not a long time technician with us for 25 years of **** experience.  We did ask ************* not to ever return to our dealership because of the nature and tone of his complaint, in a gentlemanly manner. 

   

  Please call me with any further questions.   

   

  *** Bredemann

• Initial Complaint

  05/11/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  -I have asked numerous times yet have received no documentation of diagnostics, pricing, parts or man hours being put into my car but verbally quoted "roughly four thousand"-They did a diagnostics and changed a couple parts. Yet the car didn't work when I went to pick it up. Verbally told it would cost me $800 with no documentation but was told that they didn't know the source of the problem and they have to put it back in the shop. Yet I was told they charged me for diagnostic with no documentation.-After a couple weeks I called back to check on my car and they told me that they ordered a new computer for my car. I was told it would cost a couple grand.- I call today to ask for an update and the new computer didn't fix my car either, yet they never bothered to contact me to inform me and I was not informed of the next steps they have to take. When I was on the phone with ******************* I was told that even more money and time has to be put into the car. Yet I still have no documentation aside from an email I got from the highest position I could contact within that business, *************, which I have attached screen shots of the emails sent to me.-Two months my car still isn't fixed -They do diagnostics yet are throwing parts in my car and attempting to charge me when the parts they are installing aren't the root of the issue I would like to have my car back free of charge. They haven't fixed it and I'm verbally close to 4k in debt with them with no documentation.

  Business response

  05/22/2022

  Dear BBB staff,  we have a happy ending for you. 
  

  As I understand the history of this repair, there  were several factors that complicated this repair:

  It is an older **** with high miles

  it was not running when it was brought in, so we had to spend some time and money to get it running so we could start to diagnose the issues, and there turned out to be several

  the diagnosis ultimately was for around $4,000 which was an expendive repair to consider on an older vehicle. We suggested the customer consider not repairing it, and trading it in instead.

  the customer considered this option for several weeks before finally giving us the go ahead to fix it.  It was at this point that our Service Director ******************* stepped in to help the customer personally. 

  Then there was a delay getting the parts, which is somewhat typical these days especially for less common parts. 
  

  But we now have a happy ending. The vehicle is repaired, the customer is picking it up as we speak, and is happy with the result. 
  

  Thanks for your assistance.

  *** Bredemann and staff

  Bredemann Ford

   

   

  But now the vehicle is fixed, the customer has picked up his vehicle, 

   

   

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩