Joe, Ernie, Pascal, Geno, Squirtle and I were all happily packed into my ZX2 and headed toward Louisiana for a relaxing weekend with my parents.  We had laundry in the trunk, and were making fairly good time despite the traffic.  I love my little car and was quite happy since, although it was just out of warranty earlier that week, we were going to pay it off in a month or so.  Joe was driving and we were traveling down I-10 at about 65 mph .  At about 9pm, soon after passing Beaumont and the worse half of the drive behind us, the car slammed into first gear, and shuddered and shimmied like Apollo 13.  We made it safely to the shoulder, but once there Joe found that the car was stuck in first gear and we couldn't even put it into neutral.  We drove slowly onto the frontage road, where we got out and took a look under the hood ("Everything looks okay to me...", "Yup, looks all there to me, too.") and not finding anything obvious, I followed my first instinct:  call Mom and Dad.  Very grateful, now, that we had gotten the cell phone, and actually remembered to bring it with us, we found out that we were about 10 miles from Orange.  We drove all the way there in first gear. Whee! Took us an hour to drive the 12 miles to a hotel, and that included driving on a one-lane, no-place-to-pull-over construction zone -- twice, when we missed a turn off and had to U-turn.  We made quite a few friends traveling at 15 miles an hour on the frontage road.  We found our way to a Ramada Inn and, after remembering not to pull into head-in parking since we couldn't go in reverse, we moved all the birds and our valuables into our room.  They had the best, high pressure showers that I appreciated incrediblely after the previous two hours.

Saturday, July 14th

We woke up quite early, 6:30am, anticipating that the Ford dealership would be open early.  However, we had no clue as to their office hours, since whenever we called any of the departments, the phone just rang... and rang... and rang.  Giving up on them, we called a wrecker service, Kenny's Towing,  that I remembered seeing just down the road from the hotel.  I gave the answering service my location and phone number, hoping someone would call me back and that they would know about the Ford place.  After half an hour waiting for them to call back, I finally decided to call the Ford Roadside assistance, even though my car, being 200 miles out of warranty, would not be covered.  I figured for sure that they would have the office hours for the Ford dealership here.  The guy who I talked to, who sounded like he had his handfree phone up his nose, tried to be helpful.  He said he might get us a deal on the tow and would speak to the dealership and hopefully get us on some sort of priority list with the service department.  He told me he'd call me back and never did, either. 

After calling our hotel room from my cell phone, just to make sure that our phone was working, I had just about given up.  At 8am, I called Roadside Service back and explained to the woman my situation.  She said there was no record of me calling earlier that morning, nor could she find my car on the computer.  I just told her I wanted to know the hours for the Ford dealership and after I gave her my location, she started talking about the closest one being in some place called Neanderthal or something several miles away down some highway of which I've never heard.  About this time the tow truck guy decides to show up and, after apologizing for falling asleep after getting my call, he assured me that the Ford Service is open. 

The wrecker driver was a quite pleasant guy and his wife rode with us to the dealership.  I told Joe I would go with our car while he sat in the hotel room with the birds.  I figured he could use the extra rest after driving that horror the night before, besides, if a pregnant woman couldn't get perferential treatment, no one could.  Once we got to the dealership, the wrecker driver was awfully nice, making sure I had a ride back to the hotel if I needed one, and talking to the service guy for me, telling him all our troubles.  He refused to take payment, saying he'll straighten it out with Ford, later, even though I told him I wasn't covered.  I'll have to call sometime to make sure he got paid. 

So, I sat in the depresingly dark waiting room at the dealership.  Half way through that, the cable on their tv went out.  Yay.  Luckily, I had Bridget Jones's Diary, so I sat outside in the bright morning sun and read. It was quite nice considering the consequences.  I kept in touch with Joe on the cell phone and we were getting concerned, since we had to be out of the hotel by noon.  Additionally, the only real place to rent a car, Enterprise, closed at noon as well.  Joe had called and they told him that they had a car we could take one way to Houston for $50. 

Finally Wes, the service manager, told me that my transmission was shot.  He was incredibly sympathetic and seemed to really feel sorry for me.  Both the transmission plugs were loose and all the transmission fluid had leaked out.  When they replaced the fluid, the gears still did not work.  They would have to keep the car and have the transmission guys come in and take it apart on Monday.  He was incredibly kind, though and assured me that since my car was so recently out of warranty, he would call Ford and try to get some assistance with the repair.  He also said he would take me to Enterprise and talk to the guys there since they have a special $30 deal with them.

He personally drove me over and even walked in with me, telling the guy to take care of me and asking him to get me a Ford discount on a rental.  The Enterpeise guy assured he would and Wes left.  Then the Enterprise people stopped smiling and told me it would be $50.  I looked at him in disbelief and said, "But Wes said you could get me a deal for $30."  He then told me, "No, the deal is $50.  It's a weekend special."  "But we only want the car for 3 hours, "  I explained.  "Yea, well, we're closed on Sundays, and we can only give you prices based on our hours."  I tried to explain to him that we were just going to return it to a Enterprise in Houston and he said that the Enterprises are closed.  I asked him, "Even in the airports?" and he got all frustrated and told me he had no choice.  Yea, we got the  "special deal", alright.

After spending ten minutes trying to convinced them that I did NOT care to pay an extra $30 for a weekend of added insurance, I finally drove away in the most plastic, non-Driving-Machine car I have ever driven.  Ugh, really rubbed it in that my car was broke.  We packed up, and drove back to Houston, incident free.

When we returned the closest open Enterprise was the one at Hobby airport.  After unpacking, we immediately took the rental and returned it.  Of course, the guy there told us that we could be charged a $100 drop-off fee for returning the car to an airport.  What??? The guy in Orange never, ever mentioned this to me, even when I told him I was going to return it to an airport.  I have yet to see if he charges us, but I will be quite irate if he does. 

Monday, July 16th

Having not heard from Orange Ford all day, I finally called them at 3pm.  Since Wes was off, I spoke to Will.  He wasn't very helpful and didn't know anything about my car, apparently, except what he wanted to charge me.  He couldn't give me a single detail about the damage but told me that the transmission would need to be replaced for $3000.  After my head exploded, I asked him, "Is that the absolute LEAST you can do to fix my car??"  He admitted, "Well, we could rebuild it for $1700."  Better, but not great.  I told him that was still so expensive for me and he then said, "Well, the parts are only $800.  I'll give Wes a call and see what he can do."  I asked him for details on the damage, and wanted to know exactly what is broken, or is everyhing is fused or what.  He told me that the guy who actually worked on it, early this morning, was at a doctors appointment but should be back soon.  He assured me that he'd call me back after talking to Wes and the mechanic.  And then, "So, do you want us to get started on the work?"  What?? Without even knowing which way we're going to go or how much it'll cost??  I emphatically said no and told him to call me when he got more info.  Needless to say, I never heard from him again.

Tuesday, July 17th

Joe called Orange Ford around noon and luckily Wes was there.  Wes certainly seemed like he was much more informed than Will.   After Joe spoke to him, he called me at work to tell me Wes would be calling me there.  When I hung up, there was a mesage from Wes, who apparently tried to call me immediately after talking to Joe. When I spoke to him, he was so much nicer and straight forward than Will.  He told me that he spoke to Ford and anticipates that they will pay for all the repairs, save $500.  !!!   Then he asks if that's okay.  I asked him, "So we would only pay $500?"  He said yes, and I totally gushed over him, telling him how wonderful he is and how that's much better than I ever thought he would be able to do.  He did emphasize that this was not confirmed, but that he couldn't see that there would be any problem with getting the assistance.  So I'm not holding my breath too much, but I feel much better thinking that Wes is a good guy who will do what he can to help us.

After agreeing with each other that Orange Ford is the best and that if I ever buy another Ford it will be from them, he told me that he'd call me back if the Ford assistance falls through, otherwise he'd like to start work on the car.  I told him okay, and since I haven't heard back from him, I assume that everything's going as he said.

If this goes as Wes said, I will be truely amazed.  And curious, since it seems to me that the last people to touch my transmission would be at fault, not Ford.  And that this would thus not be considered warranty work, since, as far as I know, there was no mechanical defect.  And besides, my car is out of warranty.  I wonder if there's something about the transmission that Ford knows that I don't.  Regardless, I'd be mighty pleased if we get away only paying $500.  I'd be happy if we get away paying $1000, at this point.  And either way, I plan on bringing Wes a nice batch of my chocolate chunk cookies, so long as he doesn't share with Will.

Tuesday, July 31

After several rounds of Orange Ford putting off when my car would be ready, I finally got the okay to pick it up.  Five or six  times they have told me it would be ready on a certain day and, after not hearing from them, I would call only to be told it would be another three days.  Will have repeatedly proven to be a bit dim and uninterested in helping me out, while Wes has always been honest with me about the reasons for the delays.  So in the end, it took them nearly 3 weeks to do 9 hours of labor.

So Tuesday, Joe and I drove back to Orange and picked up my car with a minimum of effort.  True to his word, Wes did honor his promise of extending my warranty and I only had to pay the $500 deductible.  Unfortunately, he was not around to thank personally.

My car drove wonderfully at first, especially after the carwash I stopped to give it.  But just past Beaumont, I started hearing an odd, buzzy whine.  The pitch and volume was solely dependent of the speed of the car and did not change with respect to the gear I was in or the rpms.  Quite disappointed, I decided to take it into our neighborhood Ford dealer, Russell Smith, in the morning.

Wednesday, August 1

I dropped off my car and was told that they would not be able to get to it today.  I figured they couldn't be as slow as Orange Ford. But I was wrong.

Saturday, August 4

Late Friday afternoon, I finally called Russell Smith Ford.  I was told that there was nothing wrong with my car, it sounded normal and that I could come pick it up.  I found this hard to believe, so I tried to discuss this with the guy, to make sure he had actually heard the sound I was concerned about.  He was less than interested and I am totally convinced he didn't even look at my car, no less listen to it.  I asked him, then, if he could order an oil change, and that I would pick up my car Saturday morning.  He refused, saying I would have to call in the morning to order it.

So, knowing how quickly the oil change line fills up on Saturday mornings, I got up bright and early and tried to call the service department.  After half an hour of calling and letting it ring and ring, the only answer I got was some guy telling me to hang up and call back in another half hour, when the operator arrives, since he didn't know how to work the phones. yay.  After I gave up, I had Joe drive me down to the dealership.  When I got there, I found that they had already done the oil change, and to my dismay, they had neglected to use synthetic oil.  So the guy I spoke to went back and had it done anyway, without my knowledge, so I was unable to tell them to use synthetic oil.

When I paid, I saw that they had charged me $36 for half and hour of labor that took them three days to do (or not do, as I believe the case to be).   I am sooooo never going there again.

Wednesday, August 8

I finally called Texan Ford, where I oringinally bought my car.  These guys have been good in the past, but they are 45 minutes away in Katy.  But when I called, the guy, Joe, was quite attentive and spent the time to listen to me.  He told me that I could bring the car in and he would personally take a test drive with me to check out the sound.  After the grueling drive down there, I only had to wait ten minutes before he was avaliable to ride with me.  Before we were even out of the parking lot he heard the sound and assured me that it was ceratinly not normal.  We took a good ten minute drive, and he thoroughly listened and had me do things to see how it would affect the sound.  He concluded that he had no clue what it was, but after we got back he spoke to a tech and they figured it may be ball bearings loose in the drive train, or something like that.  He seemed to be quite sympathetic to the fact that I did not want to take the car back to Orange, but did admit that if it ended up being poor workmanship, then I may have to.  If I have to take it back to Orange Ford because of poor workmanship, I will be quite, quite irritated.

But he scheduled me an appointment for Monday, so that they could get a good look at it and hopefully they will be able to fix it under the warranty of the transmission job.  At least I know I'm not crazy and that Russel Smith really are rip-off artists.  Texan Ford didn't even charge me for the time Joe spent, which ended up being about half an hour. 

Wednesday, August 15

Early, early Monday morning Joe and I drove the 45 minutes out to Texan Ford, to hold the appointment Joe Fanelli had made for my car.  My car got there fine and I only had to wait a short while to talk to a service advisor.  I really wanted to speak to Joe Fanelli again, but he seemed busy, so I just got the next in line, which seemingly was a mistake.  M.B. (apparently he just goes by his initials) was much more interested in how I got the last name Abdalla and whether my husband was in the Nation of Islam than my car.  But I filled out a form, detailing the whole story of my car's transmission, including that the invoices for both Orange and Russel Smith Ford were in the glove box, in case they were needed. 

When I called Tuesday to find out the status of the car, and to make sure that I would not have to pay for any of it, Mr. Fanelli told me that my car wasn't scheduled to be seen for three days.  As soon as he said that, he muttered, "That doesn't seem right, let me see..." He discovered that M.B. had put me in the line for automatic transmission, rather than manual.   He assured me that the car would be looked at promptly.

So today, I called M.B. and after 45 minutes of unanswered phones and being on hold, I finally got to talk to him.  I had to repeat my entire story to him, even though he had it in writing.  He had no clue what was going on with my car and gave me some run around excuse and told me he'd talk to the service tech and call me back with a verdict.  Yea, right.  He got quite defensive when I started pressuring him for details, as well. 

He was also very uncoorporative when I expressed concern about the cost of the repair.  He said they couldn't know about the cost until they looked at it, which they had apparently not done yet.  I'm not liking this guy very much.

Friday, August 17

I tried to call M.B. again, since I never heard from him.  I finally just asked the woman who answered the phone in the service department if she could tell me the status of the car.  She looked it up in the computer and told me that it was waiting "authorization" which meant that the advisor needed to speak with me to get the okay to work on the car.  Interesting, since I hadn't heard a thing from M.B.  I finally got in touch with him, and he told me that they would have to take apart my transmission to find out what the problem was, and it would be about $600.  I told him that I was not going to pay for any of this repair and he told me indifferently that if it ended up being a workmanship problem, then I would have to pay the $600 and then take the car back to Orange for the repair.  But there was no way of knowing without taking apart the car.  I asked him if he could possibly speak to Orange and see if there was some way to arrange for them to pay for the repair, but he blew me off.  I told him that I would call Orange myself, and let him know later whether I wished him to go ahead with the work.

Rather than call Orange Ford, I figured I'd try the Ford Coorporation Customer Service.  Anticipating trouble, I had already called and spoke to a guy earlier this week, but got no response.  This time I spoke to Matthew, who was quite sympathetic and understanding.  In addition, he actually seemed eager to take action.  While he kept me on hold, to avoid me from thinking I'd never hear from him again, he called both Orange and Texan Ford.  Ironically, or maybe appropriately, he clicked back to me to double check M.B.'s number.  "I just get a phone that rings and rings and no one ever picks up!"  I told him that was par for the course.  Eventually he did get a hold of M.B. and assured me that if it ended up being workmanship we'd find a way to resolve the problem.  There was no reason for me to have to pay for anything, he agreed.  He told me to go ahead and authorize the work.

He also told me that the $500 I paid for the job at Orange was a little high, and that I could've gotten away with paying less.

So I immediately called M.B., who sounded quite sullen and annoyed.  Before I could even finish my sentence he interupted me, telling me accusingly, "Yea, Ford just called me."  So I told him to go ahead with the repairs and he all but hung up on me.

Friday, August 24

I've made it my habit to call M.B. at least every other day.  Matthew has been keeping his promise of keeping in touch and I update him of the situation.  He is quite a joy to talk to, as he always keeps his sense of humor about him while listening to my complaints and concerns.  Earlier this week, M.B. told me that the work would be covered by the warranty on the transmission job, and I asked him to confirm it another three times to make sure I hadn't misunderstood him and that he understood that this meant I was not going to have to pay a dime.

Today, M.B. actually called me!  Of course, I was at lunch, so I had to go through the whole time-wasting sport of listening to his phone ring before reaching him again.  He seemed to have forgotten why he had called me, or who I was, so I had to explain my story to him again (which I have to do almost everytime).  It took him about 4 minutes of ambiguous stammering, before he remembered that he had called to tell me that the wrong bearing was ordered, but they were expecting the new one in a day or two.  I don't know how a Ford dealership could order a wrong part on a Escort, but whatever.  He probably ordered a part for an automatic.

Wednesday, August 29

I jumped through the usual hoops to speak to M.B. today, expecting another run-around, ambiguous update on my car that doesn't tell me anything.  Instead he told me that they got the car all back together, but the tech said that one of the gears "didn't have enough play," and that they would have to take the transmission apart again.  I was quite furious, and grilled M.B. for details.  He couldn't tell me if this was a new or old problem, whether it had anything to do with the bearing, how long it would take to fix or anything!  He got quite defensive and short with me.  I don't think he knows much about cars, really.  And it irritates me that he never called me with this new, serious development.  He even had the nerve to tell me, "I was just about to go speak to the tech and find out exactly what was going on so that I could call you."  Yea, right.  I asked him to call me as soon as he does find out details from the tech.

When I spoke to Matthew about all this he advised me to give them just a few more days, since the delay in getting my car back may legitimately be due to mechanical problems with it.  If my car is seriously messed up, it may just take them this long to fix it.  He told me he'd call the dealership if I wanted, but suggested we give them until next Wednesday.  But then, if my car wasn't ready, he'd shut down the dealership.  I laughed and asked, "You have that kind of power?"  He said, "Yea, got a button right here on my computer: 'Shut Down Dealership'."

Friday, August 31

Of course, I never heard back from M.B.  When I got in touch with him today, he told me that my car was just now being looked at.  Absolutely infuriated, I immediately called the service manager at Texan Ford and leave a voice mail for him, explaining that M.B. was not handling my car in a satisfying manner and that I had no clue what was wrong with my car and whether there are real mechanical problems or whether it was M.B. that was causing the delay.  I never heard back from him either.

Wednesday, September 5

I had Joe call Texan Ford, since I was sick of them and didn't want to call M.B. after tattling on him to his manager.  Amazingly, Joe was told that M.B. no longer works there!!  This made me feel much better, as it not only means I don't have to deal with him, but it validates my complaints against him.  To make it even better, my car has been turned over to Joe Fanelli.  And when I spoke to him this afternoon, he really took a load of stress off my shoulders.  In addition to actually calling me, he took the time to explain that M.B. was sent back to the sales floor (so, THAT explains it .... he's a salesman!), but also admitted that M.B. wasn't doing his job and apologized.  He went over everything that has happened with my car and was quite impressed with the extensive overhaul and the number of parts that had to be replaced.  Apparently, Orange Ford didn't not replace some of the parts that they should of, which just caused more damage.  And the more Texan Ford got into my transmission, the more they found that had to be replaced. 

So yes, M.B. was a loser, but there was also a lot of search and repair that had to go on with my transmission.  But since Mr.Fanelli explained it to me so upfront and honestly, I don't have a problem with them taking so long, now.

He also told me that he believes my car will be ready tomorrow afternoon. 

Friday, September 7

When Joe Fanelli hasn't called me by 3pm, I called him.  He told me me car was ready, and that the bill was $3000, with over 16 hours of labor.  Wow! I reminded him that it was to be covered by the transmision warranty he said they were still finishing the paper work.  When we got to the dealership, Mr. Fanelli was on the phone with Ford, resolving my warranty coverage.  He told us that M.B., of course, never did the paperwork, nor even got an authorization number from Ford.  But he seemingly dropped what he was doing to get that all settled for us, and did so in 15-20 minutes.  So I was able to drive away in my car with unexpectantly minimal trouble.  I was really thinking we would have to explain our story again and go to great lengths to avoid having to pay anything.  

Epilogue

My car is running quite well! It's very nice to be able to zip and zoom around town again, particularly when it comes to parking.  Additionally, when I opened up the hood, I pleasantly surprised to find the engine compartment rather well-organized and uncomplicated.  All the interesting parts are incredibly easy to get to, including all four spark plugs.  I'm really looking forward to playing with it in my auto mechanics class.

Of course, after weeks of being out at the dealership in dusty Katy, my poor car is incredibly filthy.  So Saturday, I headed out intending to find a car wash.  To my delight, the Marines (who have a reserve unit right down the street) were having a car wash for their charity ball.  I have never had my car get cleaner in a shorter amount of time.  Those guys even scrubbed the brake dust off my wheels!  It's true: if you want to get a job done right, always call in the Marines.

To top off everything, Ford sent me a thick package in the mail.  Apparently, they felt bad enough for everything to give  me, at no cost, a full extended warranty with roadside service, for 100K miles or 72 months.  It's at least a $2000 value, and transferrable, so when we decided to sell this car, it will certainly add to the value.

So I suppose that the moral of this story is that when Ford is good, it's very, very good, but when it's bad, it's unbearably incompetant.