James Trent

I have never left an online review for any business, but our experience with the service department at Opelika Ford has been so deeply concerning that I feel obligated to share it. Our vehicle spent roug our experience with the service department at Opelika Ford has been so deeply concerning that I feel obligated to share it. Our vehicle spent roughly 3.5 weeks at this facility for an initial warranty repair. Over nearly a month, we did not receive a single proactive update from the staff. Every piece of information required us to chase them down. Phone records show we called 15 times just to get status updates, often sitting on hold for over 30 minutes or being promised callbacks that never happened. Our service advisor completely stopped responding to texts and calls. At one point, a major delay occurred simply because our assigned technician was out sick and the department neglected to contact our warranty company, forcing me to handle the communication with the warranty company myself. The physical handling of our vehicle was equally disorganized. We were repeatedly told the vehicle was ready when it was not, leading us to drive down multiple times only to find the vehicle locked with no keys inside. When we finally retrieved it, the original problem was still not fixed. Following our initial complaints, the Service Manager, James Trent, got involved. He admitted our vehicle had been completely overlooked, promised to personally oversee the repair, and assured us he would keep us updated. Unfortunately, the communication did not improve, and we still had to repeatedly hound the department until the vehicle was returned. A week later, a severe vibration began in the vehicle. We took it to Sons Ford in Auburn for an independent inspection, where technicians discovered that the driveshaft was completely loose due to an improper installation by Opelika Ford. When informed of this mistake, James Trent offered to have the car towed back to Opelika Ford to correct it, but he flatly refused to cover the diagnostic fee we incurred at Sons Ford in Auburn, treating the situation as though he was doing us a favor by fixing his own shop's error. Because we no longer trusted the quality of work at Opelika Ford, we drove the vehicle straight back to Sons Ford in Auburn to have the secondary repair verified as soon as we got it back. The inspection revealed a severe safety violation: One of the critical bolts on the driveshaft had been sheared off by the Opelika technician during reassembly. Instead of replacing the broken hardware, the technician superglued the broken bolt back together to hide the mistake, and returned the vehicle to us without disclosing it. Furthermore, they failed to replace the rear driveshaft, which had already sustained visible damage from their first improper installation. Opelika Ford went beyond poor customer service and failed communication. By concealing a broken drivetrain component with superglue and returning a structurally compromised vehicle, they showed a complete disregard for the safety of my family. I highly recommend finding any other dealership to service your vehicle. More

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