Well, as some of you may know, I've recently acquired a '98 Mark VIII. She has some minor mechanical issues involving a wheel bearing beginning to squeal, some dying power steering assist at full stops, a light creak, and the telescopic steering wheel hangs up. Upon purchasing it, only the telescopic steering wheel was the problem, but these others have popped up over the first 600 miles. Not a big deal, these things happen with age, but I like to address them as early as possible.
Well, I work full time at Autobarn Headquarters, so I have little time to do these things myself and have no access to a lift. The car's been fully documented for all service records at a Lincoln dealership near the original owner, so I thought I'd keep with the tradition of this car's heritage and bring it to one by me... Bad idea.
I brought my Mark to Port Lincoln/Mercury/Subaru for these issues, thinking that they would be taken care of quickly and relatively painlessly. I was wrong. Not only did they take an extremely long time, they failed to contact me several times and needed me to help point out some VERY obvious symptoms to their supposed A-tech while test driving it after 2 days in the shop... And they still weren't able to take care of these. But that's not the worst of it.
The worst of it is that they tried giving my car back to me in far worse condition than it was previously in. The bumpers, driver-side mirror, and every single piece of sheet metal on the car except the hood and driver-side fender have been damaged. They're all dented, scratched, and scuffed pretty badly. The passenger side has several streaks that run the length of the entire car, from the fender all the way to the tail lens, where the chrome trim is also bent. The trunk lid has scratches all over it, it looks like someone sat on it pretty good. The molding and doors are heavily scuffed, as are the bumpers, where it looked like someone backed the car and parked it against some sort of abrasive surface. My paint is the Pearl White Metallic Tri-Coat, a rather expensive option and very expensive paint to reapply. There's no way I'd let them get away with that.
Originally, the service manager tried pinning this on me, saying that it wasn't his shop's fault. After requesting the original vehicle condition report (which was blank, with absolutely no issues at all) and making it abundantly clear that this was impossible, he caved in rather quickly to say the least. The fact that they even attempted to give my car back to me and take no responsibility for it is rather disturbing. I'm extremely unsatisfied with their service.
I've received a full, thorough damage report that includes every area of the car with his signature on it. She currently sits in the shop still because I don't want them trying to pin any liability on me, saying that additional damage could've been done over the weekend.
The lesson here is to never take your car to Port Lincoln/Mercury/Subaru if you're in the Long Island, NY area. I don't think I've ever seen or heard of anything so terrible in the ways of automotive service... Actually, I take it back. My buddy's Camaro was burnt down in a body shop that was replacing the quarter and rocker panels and they had no insurance. But that's another discussion.
All this before being able to put 700 miles on the car and taking pictures... Looks like I'm not going to the Flowerfield show this weekend.
Well, I work full time at Autobarn Headquarters, so I have little time to do these things myself and have no access to a lift. The car's been fully documented for all service records at a Lincoln dealership near the original owner, so I thought I'd keep with the tradition of this car's heritage and bring it to one by me... Bad idea.
I brought my Mark to Port Lincoln/Mercury/Subaru for these issues, thinking that they would be taken care of quickly and relatively painlessly. I was wrong. Not only did they take an extremely long time, they failed to contact me several times and needed me to help point out some VERY obvious symptoms to their supposed A-tech while test driving it after 2 days in the shop... And they still weren't able to take care of these. But that's not the worst of it.
The worst of it is that they tried giving my car back to me in far worse condition than it was previously in. The bumpers, driver-side mirror, and every single piece of sheet metal on the car except the hood and driver-side fender have been damaged. They're all dented, scratched, and scuffed pretty badly. The passenger side has several streaks that run the length of the entire car, from the fender all the way to the tail lens, where the chrome trim is also bent. The trunk lid has scratches all over it, it looks like someone sat on it pretty good. The molding and doors are heavily scuffed, as are the bumpers, where it looked like someone backed the car and parked it against some sort of abrasive surface. My paint is the Pearl White Metallic Tri-Coat, a rather expensive option and very expensive paint to reapply. There's no way I'd let them get away with that.
Originally, the service manager tried pinning this on me, saying that it wasn't his shop's fault. After requesting the original vehicle condition report (which was blank, with absolutely no issues at all) and making it abundantly clear that this was impossible, he caved in rather quickly to say the least. The fact that they even attempted to give my car back to me and take no responsibility for it is rather disturbing. I'm extremely unsatisfied with their service.
I've received a full, thorough damage report that includes every area of the car with his signature on it. She currently sits in the shop still because I don't want them trying to pin any liability on me, saying that additional damage could've been done over the weekend.
The lesson here is to never take your car to Port Lincoln/Mercury/Subaru if you're in the Long Island, NY area. I don't think I've ever seen or heard of anything so terrible in the ways of automotive service... Actually, I take it back. My buddy's Camaro was burnt down in a body shop that was replacing the quarter and rocker panels and they had no insurance. But that's another discussion.
All this before being able to put 700 miles on the car and taking pictures... Looks like I'm not going to the Flowerfield show this weekend.
