F in Ford Service stand for FAIL

Ford Service Centers are FRAUD, RIPPOFF ARTISTS.

I don't want my money back at this point, I want consumers to know about Ford service centers.  If you have a similar story you would like to share email it to bdavidson94@gmail.com.   

So, I drop my car off at about 9:30, prepared to pay a lot for this one, may $300-$500 as it could be very labor intensive.  Luckily, they call me about 12:28 to begin work saying it is a ground and may take a while to fix.  Good news is I get a call that it is done at 1:48 pm, under 2 hours to fix and program a key fob.  Nope, 5 hours labor and shop fees!

While in the dealership today, I saw a guy with a bill for $85 to diagnose and install a battery while I am waiting to get tested.  I asked him if he was going to charge me $85 dollars as this is exactly what I am waiting for and he said, "please wait your turn."  I then got a little rude and reminded him that I was their first and I want to know if I am going to be charged.  He just kept saying how busy he was and giving me the run around.  REALLY.  One hour of labor for what they will do at AutoZone for free!

Here is what I have learned.  My first 3 vehicles were fords, I loved my ford ranger.  I hate Fords/Mercury now.

1.  Here is what I have learned, always record conversations with salesman when legal in your state. 

2.  Find a good garage to get a diagnostic done, call around when possible.  Use dealerships (especially FORD) as last resort!

3.  Get a price up front whenever possible, call and shop around.  Get quotes in writing, flat rate means they have a book with hours.  Some garages are cheaper, make sure parts are all new/equivalent.

4.  Car dealerships make things proprietary and difficult to work on w/o the right tools/computers.  My transmission does even have a dipstick to check transmission fluid!  This is an example of how bad design = profit for them.  

5.  Service writers often get a commission based on how much they can rip you off, don't trust them.  Dealerships are better trained at ripping people off from my experience then your local garage.

6.  Dealership on top of there high fees charge a standard shop fee, for grease bolts, which is exorbitant.  Another way to overcharge the customer.  Look for shops that do not charge shop fees.  They already are charging making lots on the mark up of the hours they pay their mechanics.


In summation, find a good mechanic you can trust.  I have found several, but do not take you car to Campbell Ford in Niles, MI.  I have had other bad experiences at other ford dealerships including Jordan and Gurley Ford, but this one takes the cake.  Best part is that he tried to tell me it was a deal as they didn't charge me diagnostic on each thing wrong with my vehicle.  Flip side, they didn't charge me for my quoted $75 clicker, instead they double the hourly labor.  F is for Ford and a few other four letter words.  F is exactly what they have done to me over and over again.  I will never buy another ford.  I don't want my money back at this point, it is a totally slash and burn campaign.  I don't think chevy dealerships are as bad from my experience with Gates in downtown South Bend and from comparing quotes.

I will be uploading and adding links to the voicemail and pictures of times and bills from Campbell Ford.  Mr. Campbell, get a new service team.   I am not sure I would blame them for becoming such jerks after having to rip people off on a daily basis.  I was hung up with no good bye on almost every call to talk to a manager and they gave me a true run around wasting my time.

Best part, is my car alarm went off in the middle of the night twice, my wife fell down the steps (she is fine) trying to get to the new clicker, waking up my 3 year old daughter and probably half of my neighbors.  I had to go in and deal with your service center and decided to take this up again with your service manager, Shane Johnson.  This guy shouldn't work with people, period.  When I asked if I could record him, he hung up on me when discussing flat rate, even though this was an hourly job.  No dealership would take this on hourly, I am calling around and checking just to see if they do if they would charge this much!

Offline Android GPS Apps

Have you ever been lost in the woods or in a very rural area (think Deliverance) and wished you could use your cell phone as a GPS?  The problem is that without a device with preloaded maps or a data plan you are never going to find you way.

My brother has been wanting to replace his GPS with his droid tablet (w/o data) and has me researching offline GPS applications.  It appears that Android is going to be releasing an offline GPS, but I have not been able to find a clear release date.  In the mean time, I am looking into Co-Pilot Live USA (approx. $20 for offline maps) and there are rumors that TomTom is going to release an app.  I will be researching this more in the future and if you have any other recommendations of good offline android gps applications feel free to comment and leave your reviews.

West Side Technology

I have recently acquired the position of overseeing technology for the West Side Technology Group or more specifically, Holy Cross, Holy Family, Saint Aldalbert's, Saint John's, and Our Lady.  I have been lucky enough to have gotten the best all round technician I know to be the Network Administrator for this project and everything seems to be going great.  

I am thinking I am going to change the purpose of this blog to sharing information with the other feeder schools about the deals that Al and myself are finding, with the other feeder schools in the diocese.  I am also hoping that putting this out there others might say, hey, I have a better deal on this that you might want to try out.  

Our first goal is to set up G-mail for the schools.  This is free and right now it looks like archival will be $11 per account (this is a little expensive, but it is done right).  

The second primary goal is to build TTC servers.  Now I have tried less expensive firewalls (FreeGuard 100 with fortigate 3.0 firmware and waterloo for reporting).  This is a great system, but I really miss the security agent that blocks spyware, programs, viruses on the local machine. In combination with Microsoft's Steady state (free) there really is no need for anti-virus on all of the machines.  Al has also found he can purchase SQL for much less ($175) then we originally thought.  

Third, Windows servers ($105 license, $500 for server w/3 yr warranty)  for user, file, print management.  This is a no brainer when you get educational pricing.  The only thing that is bad is the cost of the CAL's (approx. $9) for each computer that connects to the server.  I am working on getting a better price on these also.

We are going to be buying our computers from insight investments.  We are looking at trying to get Dell GX280 with 3ghz procs, 1gb ram, 3 yr warranty for $130 a machine.  Al thinks we may want to buy even better computers with at least hyper threaded procs.  I am not sure that these are not, but he may be right as all the software is becoming more demanding.  

Well, it is about time for bed, but I will be writing more here about the technology project in the future. 

Great Background switching software

http://www.johnsadventures.com/software/

This guy makes awesome software that will grab picture from a variety of sites, like my Flickr account, and display the pictures (even two at a time on my dual monitors at work) on you desktop background!  This is great free software although he does accept donations for his work.   He also has a piece of software for compressing pictures.  I havn't tried it, but if it does what it says it is a great piece of software.

Naming my first Blog

Well, I decided I wanted to write a technology tips blog that was witty and fun.  So, the first name that came to my mind was Ben'sWittyBlog, but well, that is like wearing a Dave Mathew's shirt to a Dave Mathew's concert.  

So, I asked my wife who is smarter then me.  She blurted out, BenBites.  Wow, and I thought she liked me.  Then she explained, no BenBytes like a play on words, a pun.  I told you she was smart.  But someone already took that, so I tried BensBytes....taken...iBen...taken.   I explained that I like the constenation and my smart wife once again corrected me and said, "I think you mean alliteration".  

I was starting to wonder how such an average geek ended up with such a smart beautiful wife, then she asked me to change a diaper and I realized.....I do have value to her.   

So, while I was changing the diaper, eureka, it hit me like a foul smell, BensBlogBytes (lots of constenation).  It is sort of witty and funny, a little self loathing, but I was changing a diaper when it came to me.  BINGO