Westway Ford

On Monday, June 14th, 2010, our company truck, 2005 Ford F350 began overheating when pulling loaded trailer. The radiator reservoir was still full and after idling for a few moments, engine temperature redu F350 began overheating when pulling loaded trailer. The radiator reservoir was still full and after idling for a few moments, engine temperature reduced back to normal. My extensive experience diagnosed problem to be a plugged oil cooler and vehicle driven to North Central Ford whom CONFIRMED radiator was in perfect working condition. Unfortunately they would not be able to work on truck for several days so had to look elsewhere for immediate service. Called Westway Ford and transferred to service advisor, Joe Conyers and told him what I needed to be done. He promised if truck was there in 30 minutes, it would be repaired by lunch the next day. Truck was delivered on schedule and Joe met me in service drive. I again told Joe the oil cooler was plugged and instructed him to replace it along with the oil cooler screen and fuses that control dashboard lights and rear running lights which were not working. He clearly wrote each of my requests on spiral notebook along with my contact information. For several days, Joe never called back nor returned phone calls. On third day when he refused to return calls, I called Service Advisor Director, Larry McLaurin and told him about Joe. Moments later Joe called to inform me that radiator was blown out and would cost $800. I told Joe that I never asked him to check the radiator. It was just serviced and another Ford dealership confirmed the radiator was in perfect working condition on the day it overheated. I again instructed Joe to replace the oil cooler and oil cooler screen. Joe promised the vehicle would be ready before noon the next day, Thursday which he never did so I again called Service Manager, Larry McLaurin. Larry assured me that vehicle would be ready by noon the next day, Friday. In meantime, I was renting comparable vehicle for approx $250/day from Capps Rental. What was supposed to be single day rental had now cost over $1000. Late Friday, I went to pick up vehicle. Oil cooler and oil cooler screen was not repaired but radiator was replaced without authorization! Service Manager Larry McLaurin would not make himself available to speak to me in person. I was told by service cashier I would have to pay invoice in order to drive vehicle. Hours after picking up vehicle, I was ticketed by Dallas Police for non-working running lights. The very lights I instructed Joe to repair. Monday morning, I called Larry to inform him of my ticket and if he went to look at Joe’s notebook he would see my instructions to have lights repaired. At this time Larry informed me Joe had been fired for incompetence and failure to complete his job task in this matter. Days following, truck was lightly used but not until Friday did it have a trailer hooked up to it. Within a few miles, secondary fan began turning on and off exactly had it did before Westways repairs. Then white smoke began gushing out the tailpipe and you could smell engine coolant. Because the repair I authorized was ignored, the EGR valve and the EGR cooler was now destroyed. Confirmed as well was the $800 radiator NEVER had to be replaced and if it was damaged, it was done so during the unnecessary removal. Vehicle driven back to Westway where I insisted to meet with Larry McLaurin who apologized for Joe ignoring my repair orders and I would be taken care of. A few hours later I was told the oil cooler needed to be replaced as well as the EGR valve and EGR cooler. EXACTLY what I had instructed Joe to repair the week before except for EGR valve and EGR cooler which was only damaged due to Joe’s negligence that Westway Ford acknowledged! The estimate was nearly $4000 and they expect me to pay for it. Do they seriously expect a customer to have to pay for one of their “certified service advisor’s” incompetent mistakes that they already admitted to and fired an employee for? I emailed Westway Ford's Managing Partner, Barton Hankins and he simply forwards them to others and nothing gets resolved. More