Advice on Ford dealership questionable repairs?

AMc

The steering wheel pointing in the wrong direction could just be misfitted - given they contain airbags that would worry me.   
Alternatively it could mean the front wheels aren't pointing in the right directions - something I had with my Merc after it was hit while parked and Merc main dealer failed to notice when they had it in the air.
I've never felt brakes being spongy for very long after new discs and pads and if they don't feel right I would be worried too.
IMHO when the van came in missing the wheel nut the service manager should have inspected all the work immediately with the people who worked on the van.  
As they don't think this is serious I would probably take a similar approach.  £3.5 is a lot of money and the work should be done properly.

Cocksure

No argument there

However the letter isn't mine and is instead one that the inspection company provided for me to use and edit as required, so whilst I agree, they know the form better than I do.

I just edited it to remove the signs of it being a standard letter.

I offered the garage the opportunity twice to double check the work and fix the two confirmed items. All the garage would agree to was looking at the steering wheel alignment and looking at the damaged wheel nuts on Monday, and then ordering in replacements nuts then (Walking to their car park to look at the damaged nuts so as they could be ordered in ready for Monday was too much hassle for the service manager) and may be doing the work if it was their fault. Nothing more.

They even called in the guy who had done the work who said, yes I missed the wheel nut, but their is no way anything else was missed. Which is madness to me . I can understand that the guy is worried about being sued, but you would have thought that the manager would have more sense and jumped at the chance to double check (and fix) any work done, as I couldn't prove a thing that way if something had been missed.

Anyway with it now being booked in for an independent inspection I've had to cancel the Monday booking, as I can't have any items fixed until they confirm acceptance of my inspector or have had a chance to arrange their own independent inspection. Once that is done then any items can be fixed. It's a massive pain, but I can't use any evidence without giving them a chance to challenge it, otherwise they could just fix it and deny it.

Besides they still aren't taking me seriously so I question how thorough any check would be at this stage.

Maybe @IronGiant is right and I'm over reacting, it just peeves me off their whole attitude which seems to be the common one to van drivers I can't help but wonder if things would have been different if it was a car, besides for 3.5k I expected better service.

I did think last night about may be leaving it, but then it dawned on me that the inspector has to only find one thing wrong and I have a case against them. As I have already found 2 things wrong already for sure (the steering wheel needs to be confirmed) then there refusal to take me seriously has steadily my mind on the matter and I can't see it not going to court now.

Ps in regards the brake warning light, it was looked at 10 months back by a different ford dealership who recommended against fixing it (due to the costs and they only measuring two out of the four brakes) and that the brakes where all good. Besides once again the brake pad that got down to metal on metal was on a non sensor wheel so wouldn't have warned about it anyway. Still glad it's fixed now

outoftheknow

Metal on metal or spongy hydraulics........?

Spongy isn’t the same feeling as bedding in IMO. Either way that should be an easy check for the experts

Cocksure

Low brake warning light . Might be a useless thing half the time, but it's rather nice no longer having a permanent light lit on the dash

car-man

Firstly, I fully understand the brake warning light situation as it often happens where the pad on the non sensor side wears out before the sensor one and causes metal on metal...this morning I fitted new steering arms and tyres on my van and inspected my pads and discs...the pads are wearing down in exactly the same way! New discs and pads next week!

It's very frustrating when there is a dispute and the garage doesn't take you seriously, but I wasn't present so can't really say whether the situation was handled correctly or not.
Personally, If anyone had a problem with my work I would be on it straight away, but I'm a one man independent not a big garage.

One simple check that you could do regarding the brakes...
Start up the engine and feel the brake pedal and the softness then turn off the engine and pump up the brake pedal...if the pedal then becomes solid (hard) then the issue is probably a bedding in situation, if the pedal is still spongy (soft) then there is a possibility that the brakes need bleeding again.
Regarding the chrome wheel nuts, I have to say that this a very common problem when removing/replacing them...they do get damaged as the size of socket required to undo the nuts is a bit odd...from memory it should be 19mm but a 19mm socket is a very tight fit and sometimes results in the outer part of the chrome nut pulling off and when fitted back on can get damaged by hitting...yes, you should be more careful, but from personal experience I fully understand what happens. If I had damaged them I would pay for new ones.
Regarding the steering wheel being out of line, yes, that is something that should have been noticed on a test drive after the work was finished, as the service guy has said, it would probably be an alignment issue.
Anyway, see what happens with the inspection and good luck with it.

SteveCritten

I had my brakes done at an independent as the low pad warning light came on. It wasn’t the guy I usually use as he was away. I thought it was rather cheap and found out why when it next went in as they hadn’t reconnected the sensor

Cocksure

@car-man I did your test and the brake pedal became firm on the 2nd pump so it would appear to be a bedding in issue which is a great relief.

I fully understand what you are saying about the wheel nuts (having replaced them many times myself) and alloys on a van are not something I would get again.

From a cosmetic view I don't care and would have left it if it wasn't for the fact that the socket spanner that comes with the van doesn't fit properly on half of them now (I checked when I fitted the new locking nuts).

I've had an email back from ford hq who I contacted over all of this basically saying that we don't care and nothing to do with us. I wasn't expecting much, but I was expecting more than that!

Time to start saving up for a VW me thinks

ufo550

@Cocksure, that's quite a list of things that needed doing, weren't any of those things picked up on last years MOT?

Cocksure

Now that is a good question? The van last mot was 10 months back as I always have it done at the same time as other work.

I asked the ford dealership at the time if everything was good before I authorised the new turbo etc and got told it was. As they were a specialist ford transit repair centre instead of the normal ford repair centre, I happily accept there word.

However on my drive up to Leeds from Shropshire, I started of with 5 wheel nuts on one wheel and arrived with only 2 left on it. So maybe I should have dug a bit more. But unlike this time, the garage couldn't do enough about it all. It was enough for me to not want to use them again, but not enough to worry me if that makes sense?

Edit
It's why I went straight to the wheels this time around, and why there attitude bothers me so much. Once with loose wheel nuts is bad luck, twice something wrong there shows a general lack of quality control across ford.

booyaka

I agree with others - that letter is WAY over the top for a 1st letter.