Simon O

Shocking customer experience

Frustratingly shocking customer experience with Ford related to a used car sale which kept breaking down..... I stepped in to help my son with the troubles he experienced with TrustFord Cobham & Byfleet. He bought a used 2019 plate, 20k miles, Fiesta EcoBoom just over a year ago from Cobham Trustford. They up-sold him an extended warranty & Warrant Protect etc etc. Within 2 months the car broke down with a failed clutch on the motorway leaving him in danger on a major live road. The Police attended; the vehicle was recovered to TrustFord but my son had to pay for all that (£200+). Byfleet TrustFord 'fixed' the car. My son tried to reject the car under 2015 Consumer Law to get his money back but TrustFord were very difficult. My son reluctantly took the car back as he was in the middle of his university finals and didn't have the time for all the ongoing inconvenience. He still wasn't happy with the car and Guildford Ford independently inspected the car and found it to have multiple residual issues (including an engine/gearbox oil leak which should not have been there following the clutch repair as that was exactly the area within which the repair work would have been done). Over Christmas 2023/2024 my son paid out £350 on a full service/MOT. Jump forward another month (with a few thousand miles on the car since the first 'repair') to just a few weeks ago and the same thing happened again (clutch failed). The car broke down in Reading on a majorly busy dual carriageway. Again my son was put at risk. The Police attended and the car was recovered to a police car pound. TrustFord were next to useless and didn't help at all. My son had to pay £270 to get the car out of the pound and then another £355 to have it transported back to Byfleet. My son said he was rejecting the car under 2015 Consumer Law again (since the repair failed). Ford refused it. We escalated to Ford UK Customer Relations / Experience team. No one across Ford / TrustFord took any ownership to help. Their communications was terrible. Finally the TrustFord General Manager offered £9k back against the original £12.5k car. My son rejected the offer. We went to the Motor Ombudsman who said they would take it on, that it would undoubtedly go in my son's favor but it would be 6 months before a case worker could be assigned. In the meantime my son had started his first post-uni job at the start of his career - again he needed a car, his money was tied up, he did not have the time for the inconvenience. My son was forced in to accepting TrustFord's money back. Communications continued to be non-existent from Ford. None of the managers had any customer service skills (show empathy, appologise, work on an action plan to fix etc). I feel so terrible that I couldn't get this sorted out for my son and that he has come off so badly. TrustFord & Ford UK......SHAME ON YOU!!! You need a rebrand to DO NOT TRUSTFORD.