- First Name
- peter
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2023
- Threads
- 4
- Messages
- 39
- Reaction score
- 29
- Location
- Long Island
- Vehicle(s)
- Bronco
- Your Bronco Model
- Outer Banks
- Thread starter
- #1
I got a Bronco Outerbanks in August 2023. Only thing missing was the Sasquatch package, but to make a long story short, I lucked into it, and took it. Bought from a dealer in New Jersey. I live in New York. No connected services from day one. I spent several weeks trying, without success, to work with Ford and Fordpass people (could not connect to Fordpass, hence their involvement).
I probably had between 15-20 calls with both Ford and Fordpass and with few (perhaps one) exceptions, the people were utterly incompetent and made it clear they simply didn't care that a car I had just spent more than $60k for was not able to function fully. I performed more soft, hard, head unit and complete (as in remove the battery terminal) resets, at their direction, than I do on most cell phones or other electronics/computers.
I was repeatedly promised return phone calls from "engineers" that never occurred. Finally, one day, after multiple promises that a Ford "engineer" would be calling, I spoke to another representative, probably number 10 or so in my quest to find out what was wrong with my car, and explained my saga yet again.
Curiously, I had to tell an ever lengthening story about what was wrong and what they had already had me do to every representative. It's almost like they didn't write notes in their files or simply couldn't read what others had written. In my opinion, both are equally plausible.
So, after telling him my story and the things I had been directed to do by his colleagues and specifically telling him I would not perform any further resets he asked me to go to the car but promised that he wasn't going to make me do another reset. Hah, stupid me. Sure enough, he started me down the path of another reset. It was almost like the earlier conversation (perhaps 30 seconds earlier) had never happened. Yes, I admit, I called him the "I" word. Yes, I used the word "idiot" in a fit of pique. Of course he hung up on me.
I waited several days after that for a Ford engineer to call me and when no call was forthcoming, I called back asking to speak to a supervisor. Did you know that supervisors do not take calls? I learned that Ford supervisors do not take direct calls and I was advised that supervisors cannot be spoken to directly but will return the call within 48 hours. P.S. I'm still waiting for any supervisor to call me back.
However, the person I spoke to looked up my case number (I had several for Ford and Fordpass--their systems apparently do not communicate nor cross populate) and she told me there was an engineering finding but the case had been closed and that is why I had not gotten a return call from a Ford "engineer".
I asked why it was closed and she told me from her notes (amazing--she either was one of the few capable of reading, or my abusive behavior had made it into the notes) that it was because I was abusive to the last person I had spoken to.
So, after learning that an "engineer" had diagnosed the problem but Ford had not relayed the diagnosis to me because of my abusiveness, she was kind enough to ask if I was interested in what the "engineers" had found and when I responded affirmatively, she sent me an email with the diagnosis:
"There are two ECG DTCs present in the vehicle: U2401-00 and U2401-92 indicating loss of communication with the APIM. I also see the CCS in “Waiting” status which explains why the vehicle is receiving commands but not displaying the popup for the customer.
I recommend a dealer visit and TCU update to start, then an APIM and GWM hard reset."
To be clear, the dealer was awesome. Took the car from me several times (30 miles one way trip and could be anywhere from an hour to 2 plus hour drive) to fix it and bring it back. Something about a strike and not wanting to leave the car at the dealership for any length of time made them bring it back to me while waiting for a new APIM to arrive.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, shortly after my connected services issue was fixed and my laundry list of mechanical issues now includes:
-seat belt retractor issue on left rear seat (used once)
-rattle in driver's window when partially open (recently started happening)
-charging pad gets incredibly hot and barely charges a phone (tried both Android and Apple and truthfully only noticed it this past Sunday)
-threw a fault for both blind side assistance and cross traffic (started happening last week)
I love how the Bronco looks and the ride is pretty darn good for what it is meant for, but the quality of the build, at least from my experience, and the customer service, again only from my experience, are bad and really, really awful, respectively.
Sorry for the rant, but it was cathartic!
I probably had between 15-20 calls with both Ford and Fordpass and with few (perhaps one) exceptions, the people were utterly incompetent and made it clear they simply didn't care that a car I had just spent more than $60k for was not able to function fully. I performed more soft, hard, head unit and complete (as in remove the battery terminal) resets, at their direction, than I do on most cell phones or other electronics/computers.
I was repeatedly promised return phone calls from "engineers" that never occurred. Finally, one day, after multiple promises that a Ford "engineer" would be calling, I spoke to another representative, probably number 10 or so in my quest to find out what was wrong with my car, and explained my saga yet again.
Curiously, I had to tell an ever lengthening story about what was wrong and what they had already had me do to every representative. It's almost like they didn't write notes in their files or simply couldn't read what others had written. In my opinion, both are equally plausible.
So, after telling him my story and the things I had been directed to do by his colleagues and specifically telling him I would not perform any further resets he asked me to go to the car but promised that he wasn't going to make me do another reset. Hah, stupid me. Sure enough, he started me down the path of another reset. It was almost like the earlier conversation (perhaps 30 seconds earlier) had never happened. Yes, I admit, I called him the "I" word. Yes, I used the word "idiot" in a fit of pique. Of course he hung up on me.
I waited several days after that for a Ford engineer to call me and when no call was forthcoming, I called back asking to speak to a supervisor. Did you know that supervisors do not take calls? I learned that Ford supervisors do not take direct calls and I was advised that supervisors cannot be spoken to directly but will return the call within 48 hours. P.S. I'm still waiting for any supervisor to call me back.
However, the person I spoke to looked up my case number (I had several for Ford and Fordpass--their systems apparently do not communicate nor cross populate) and she told me there was an engineering finding but the case had been closed and that is why I had not gotten a return call from a Ford "engineer".
I asked why it was closed and she told me from her notes (amazing--she either was one of the few capable of reading, or my abusive behavior had made it into the notes) that it was because I was abusive to the last person I had spoken to.
So, after learning that an "engineer" had diagnosed the problem but Ford had not relayed the diagnosis to me because of my abusiveness, she was kind enough to ask if I was interested in what the "engineers" had found and when I responded affirmatively, she sent me an email with the diagnosis:
"There are two ECG DTCs present in the vehicle: U2401-00 and U2401-92 indicating loss of communication with the APIM. I also see the CCS in “Waiting” status which explains why the vehicle is receiving commands but not displaying the popup for the customer.
I recommend a dealer visit and TCU update to start, then an APIM and GWM hard reset."
To be clear, the dealer was awesome. Took the car from me several times (30 miles one way trip and could be anywhere from an hour to 2 plus hour drive) to fix it and bring it back. Something about a strike and not wanting to leave the car at the dealership for any length of time made them bring it back to me while waiting for a new APIM to arrive.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, shortly after my connected services issue was fixed and my laundry list of mechanical issues now includes:
-seat belt retractor issue on left rear seat (used once)
-rattle in driver's window when partially open (recently started happening)
-charging pad gets incredibly hot and barely charges a phone (tried both Android and Apple and truthfully only noticed it this past Sunday)
-threw a fault for both blind side assistance and cross traffic (started happening last week)
I love how the Bronco looks and the ride is pretty darn good for what it is meant for, but the quality of the build, at least from my experience, and the customer service, again only from my experience, are bad and really, really awful, respectively.
Sorry for the rant, but it was cathartic!
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