Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  11/25/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Purchased a **** Expedition Max from Chiefland Ford on 2/6/2024 for $53,363.66. I was told the vehicle passed the "Gold Certification" inspection, had a recent oil change, was accident free. Within 2 weeks of purchasing the vehicle the oil change light came on and I was told the oil had not been changed "in quite sometime". Then, 2 months later the rear tire blew out and revealed the wheel had been welded together in an attempt to cover up a previous accident. the transmission started acting up shortly after I purchased the car. It jerks and hesitates when shifting, making it unsafe to drive at times. Then, the rear window stopped working it gets stuck and wont roll up. The side-step on the vehicle has also malfunctioned, and it wont retract properly. I have made numerous attempts to reach out to the owner and the dealership but no one gets back to me or makes any attempts at resolving the issues.

  Business response

  12/17/2024

  **** ****** purchased her Expedition on, 02/03/2024.  This is a certified pre owned vehicle which was completely inspected prior to purchase.  **** ****** took her Expedition to one of our dealerships in our auto group, ******* ****, in *******, **, expressing her concerns.  ********************** addressed her concerns, requesting repairs to be covered under her warranty, by ******************, who in turn, denied her claims to be covered under their warranty program.  Her concerns were addressed by our service professionals, however, ******************, makes warranty claim decisions, those are not approved at the dealership level.  If she disagreed with the decisions **** made to her, she does have the right to contact ******************, who, in my experience, takes customer concerns very serious and would absolutely open a case to investigate her concerns further.  After receiving this complaint, I immediately called and left a message for **** ****** to contact me, at which point, I would have provided her the contact number to ****, in order to get them involved to justify their decision to deny her warranty claims.  **** has a customer service number, which is:  *************.  Contacting them is always the best recourse for **** consumers who feel they have been wronged concerning their warranty claims.

  **** ******

  General Manager, Chiefland Ford

  Email:  **************************************************************************************

• Initial Complaint

  11/22/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Hello, My name is ******** ********. I am writing regarding a defective used vehicle that I purchased on November 1, 2024 from Plattner's Chiefland Ford. Despite attempts to resolve the matter directly with the company, I have not received a satisfactory resolution. I am requesting the repair of the broken sunroof and reimbursement of the money I paid to have the defect diagnosed.On November 2nd, less than 24 hours after taking possession of the vehicle- I notified the *** **** ******, of the issue via email and asked him to please call me. I also sent a text message to the sales associate alerting her of the issue. I expressed to both of them that I was otherwise happy with the vehicle but disappointed about the need for a repair.The next day, another issue arose when the "check coolant level" light appeared on the dash. I told the sales associate right away and let her know that for safety reasons I would be bringing the vehicle in to get checked.The diagnostic appointment took place on Nov 5 & the repair estimate revealed that the sunroof would cost several thousand dollars to remediate. I sent an email informing the manager of the diagnosis with receipts and asked if the dealership could repair the issue or cover the cost of the repair. The manager assured me he was working on it and said he needed approval from corporate in order to get repairs approved after a sale. So, I waited. **** later booked me an appointment to have the car serviced by a "master tech" which was scheduled for November 20 (great!) but on November 19, at 4:30pm I received a call on speaker w the ************ manager saying that the technician was not capable of fixing the issue, and that they would not be covering the cost of the repair. According to them, the car was sold as is and it was no longer their problem. (Buyer beware!)A used car should be inspected thoroughly and any defects disclosed to the buyer prior to sale or "as is" cannot apply. This is unethical & unacceptable.

  Business response

  12/17/2024

  In response to this complaint, Ms. ******** ********, did notify us of her concerns the day after her purchase.  Prior to her purchase, she was offered a test drive, which she did, taking over an hour with her sales person, ******** ********.  She did not agree to purchase that day, in fact, it was 2 days after that she stated that she wanted to go forward with her purchase.  She purchased the ******** with a clear understanding that she was purchasing this vehicle, as is, and, was offered extended warranty coverage at the time of purchase, which, she declined.  When she stated her issues to us, she had already taken the vehicle to a ******** dealership, who, no doubt attempted to sell her service repairs, as, that is their job, at their prices.  We do not cover diagnosis costs charged by other dealerships, that was her choice to take it there, rather than bring it to us for that diagnostic.  She proceeded to put a family member on the phone who demanded that we pay for her diagnostic at ******** and pay $6000 to repair the sunroof issue, which was quoted by the Mercedes dealer.  Again, the vehicle was purchased, as is, and it was not a purchase this customer rushed in to, she took 3 days to decide.  The family member continued to threaten legal action, at which time, I ended the conversation.  We are happy to discuss issues with the person who purchased the vehicle, however, we will not discuss the issues with family members who are not associated with the purchase.  It is also our company policy to not pay for additional outside service repairs quoted by other dealers outside of our auto group.  Again, this customer was offered extended warranty coverage which she declined.

  **** ******

  General Manager, *************

  Email:  **************************************************************************************

   

• Initial Complaint

  10/21/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Had my car in to be serviced 09/24. After 3 weeks of them having my car and breaking a few more thing I now have a oil leak broken seat and have of my screws are missing or stripped out. I was told to bring it back to be fixed after a another week I picked it up and was told there never touched it I could drive it home or to another dealership. I'm now having to pay another dealership to fix what they broke. Even though I have a record conversation saying they will pay for it to be fixed.

• Initial Complaint

  04/29/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  ****'s said they were refunding me and that they put in for a check to be sent. Never received anything from them.Complaint # ********

• Initial Complaint

  01/11/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  This dealership certified a Truck using a 172-point inspection. All items on the inspection checklist were marked as passed. After getting the truck I noticed leaking fluid, and several other items needed repair. They passed multiple things that should have been fixed before selling the truck. **** also offers a 14-day money-back guarantee that this dealership is now trying not to honor. They are claiming repairs on a brand-new warranty to get them to float the bill instead of making the repairs before selling the truck. Also, we found black and burnt-smelling transmission fluid they now state is a translucent red color. The *** *********************, slipped up several times telling me that they changed the fluid. I have contacted **** who opened an investigation on the warranty fraud and the complaint about them not letting me return the car. Case # CAS-********-X3R4K1. They have stated for 9 days that they are fixing all these issues but waiting on parts. I went to pick up the truck to take it to another mechanic and they cant get their story straight between the Service Manager and the *** The story at the time of pickup was that no parts had been delivered and then the ** told me 20 minutes later that all but one part had been delivered and they were waiting to do anything to the truck until they had all the parts. I think a little of everything was touched in this scam. Breach of contract, Warranty fraud, and not honoring ****'s products. **** cooperate said they could be removed from selling **** products but they cannot force them to honor our contract. I also called the **************** directly and they stated, that under a certain dollar amount, the dealership can self-approve the work to avoid a red flag since the contract was just executed. A high-dollar repair would require the dealer to get pre-approval directly from the warranty. It is obvious that is why they are covering up that the transmission needs to be repaired.

• Initial Complaint

  12/26/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  My mother has been diagnosed with Stage 5 Alzheimer's Disease. On December 1, 2023 at 10:30am, I was notified by my mother's neighbor that my mother insisted she drive her to a dealership to buy a car. The neighbor drove her to Plattner Chiefland Ford in Chiefland *******. Per my mother's Nuerologist, she should not be driving. I immediately called the dealership and spoke to ***** ***. She confirmed my mother was at the dealership. I informed ***** *** that my mother had stage 5 Alzheimer's, that I have ************* of ******** and to not sell her a car. I offered to fax and/or email the paperwork. She put me on hold. When she returned, she stated that my mother had a valid drivers license and wanted to buy a car so they were able to sell her a car. That my ************* of ******** didn't stop them from selling her a car. I again informed her of her Alzheimer's diagnosis, that she would not remeber to make the payments and they would end up repo'ing the car. I again said "Do not sell her this car". The dealership put the sale through. My mother paid $24,000 for a *********************************************************************** their area.My mother told us she put $1,000.00. When we checked, she had put down $10,000.00. The next morning after the sale, my mother called my brother, worried, and stated there was a strange car in her driveway. She did not remember buying the car. I called the dealership again a few days later and spoke to the sales manager asking him to take the vehicle back and negate the sale. He immediately said no and said he was doing me a favor by just taking my call. This dealership committed a clear ethical violation by making this sale after given the information about my mother.

• Initial Complaint

  11/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Took our 2016 F150 into Chiefland Ford for repair on 2/3/2023. Since we have an extended warranty insurance with rental car service the service manager, Winston Long,said they would rent us a car through Enterprise. It is the only vehicle we have and they were going to have our truck for a few days, which turned out to be over a month. We called every week telling Mr. L*** we still had the car, he kept saying keep the car. We finally got our truck back and returned rental on 3/8/23 to Enterprise. On 3/31/23 there was a charge to our credit card for 1082.00 from Enterprise, contacted Enterprise the informed us that Chiefland Ford had refused to pay for rental. Went to Chiefland Ford Mr.L*** didn't work there anymore. We then talked to Ralf L**** the area service manager we found out Mr L*** had never gotten a hold of our Extended warranty company and had given Enterprise as a PO the receipt number on our work order. Mr Lipps contacted our Warranty company they said they would pay 420.00 for 12 days of rental because the repairs should not have taken over a month to fix. I asked Mr L**** who would pay the rest, was told they would take care of it. Multiple calls to Mr L**** and messages left for owner Doug P******* of ******** ********** ***** and no return calls. We had to pay the 662.00.

  Business response

  11/21/2023

  Check was issued today.  Ms* **** should receive it in the next few days.  

   

  Thank you,

  Erin P*****

  Customer response

  11/25/2023

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********* and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ******* ****

• Initial Complaint

  02/23/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  on august 2022, we bought a 2017 white chevy from them and we even had their mechanic look at it to make sure there was nothing wrong with the vehicle. and we traded our Kia for this truck which we only owe 14,000 on it. Well now we are paying on a truck that does not run and they sold the kia for 14,000 and added the 14,000 to the final financing.

*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. ↩