Consumer Complaint Against Maxwell Ford- Austin, TX

To : The Attorney General of Texas Consumer Protection Division

(via fax: 512-473-8301)

Austin Better Business Bureau ( Email User)

From: Leilani Lim-Villegas and Alex Villegas

Date: March 7, 2007

Re: Consumer Complaint Against Maxwell Ford, Austin, Texas

________________________________________________________________________

Please accept this letter as a consumer complaint against Maxwell Ford Service and Parts Department, located at 5000 S. IH-35, Austin, Texas 78745. My name is Leilani Lim-Villegas and I am the registered owner of a white 1997 Ford F-150. Below is a description of my complaint:

Thursday, March 1, 2007: My husband, Alex Villegas, took my truck to the Maxwell Ford Service and Parts Department to address a front brake problem.

Friday, March 2, 2007: The next day, Mario Fuentes (Mario), the Service Representative, contacted my husband to advise him that they had diagnosed the truck and the brake issue would be resolved by replacing the brakes with Ford original parts, which would cost approximately $145, an amount which my husband agreed into. Hours later, Mario contacted my husband again and said that the calipers also needed to be replaced. Mario estimated that the replacement for both calipers would cost approximately $400 for Ford original calipers. When my husband asked if there were any other less expensive options to get the truck in working condition, Mario gave us the option of purchasing non-Ford calipers, deliver the parts to their Service Department, and they would install and only charge us for labor, which would total approximately $85. Given this information, my husband and I purchased a pair of calipers for a 1997 Ford F-150 from AutoZone and delivered them to Maxwell Ford. Since this is our work/business truck, my husband asked Mario to please have our vehicle ready for pickup by close of business on Saturday, since we needed the truck for work on Monday. Mario told us that although he was not scheduled to work on Saturday, he would contact us by noon on Saturday, March 3rd, to give us the status on the truck.

Saturday, March 3, 2007: When my husband did not receive a phone call from Mario by noon, he decided to personally visit Maxwell Ford to check on the status of the truck. Other service department staff checked their computer which stated that work had not yet been completed. My husband contacted Mario’s cell phone, left a voicemail message, but Mario never returned the call. My husband is a welder and our family business is our main source of income. We were disappointed because this meant that my husband would not be able to go to work on Monday, due to lack of transportation. Since my husband is devoted to the construction industry, transportation is very important to carry the tools and equipment he needs to complete his jobs; thus, our work truck is one of the most vital elements in maintaining our family business.

Monday, March 5, 2007: Mario contacted my husband around 9:00 AM to advise him that the truck was ready for pickup. Mario said that the truck had been ready since Saturday at 2:30 PM. My husband paid the service fees (approximately $200) and drove off the Maxwell Ford Dealership en route to pick up our four-month old son from daycare.

Within 15 minutes of departing from Maxwell Ford, the brakes locked and a cloud of black smoke started to blow from the front tires. A burnt odor seeped out from the front tires, then suddenly the front tires caught on fire. In such an emergency, my husband had to forcefully change multiple lanes and skidded to the curb, which almost caused a multiple car accident. Fortunately, the truck did not roll over, which would have potentially caused serious injury or death to my husband, a collision with other vehicles and/or innocent bystanders. When the truck finally stopped, my husband immediately jumped out of the truck and rushed toward the front of the vehicle to extinguish the flames. My husband immediately contacted Mario to let him know about this life threatening incident and Mario stated that this is very unusual since the truck was working fine when they test drove it prior to releasing the vehicle to him. Mario mentioned that the reason why this happened was because the calipers were not Ford original parts. He reiterated that it would cost $400 to replace the calipers with Ford original parts and Maxwell Ford would pay for a tow truck to haul the truck back to their dealership. Minutes after speaking with Mario, my husband received a phone call from an unknown number. The person identified himself as Brandon Hamrick (Brandon), an employee of Maxwell Ford. Brandon said, “Did they tell you about the frame? Your truck was wrecked here in the shop after falling off the lift. Be careful driving the truck because I saw what happened and the frame was bent out of shape, and it even knocked the battery out of your motor. So you car is practically totaled. The impact was so bad that it even cracked our concrete floor.”

Brandon continued to explain that our truck was immediately rushed into their body shop to patch the damage. My husband contacted me about the situation and I told him to take pictures of the damage and that I would contact the State Bar of Texas to get a consumer attorney referral. While my husband visually inspected the truck, he noticed the area where the frame was damaged, which confirmed Brandon’s statement. In addition, the gas tank was damaged and the oil filter container was punctured. When my husband inspected the calipers, he noticed that only one of the calipers was an AutoZone caliper that we had purchased and delivered to the dealership; and the opposite caliper was a Ford original caliper. Please note that when Mario released the keys to my husband, he never mentioned the truck falling off the rack and also failed to notify us that they did not replace the truck with the AutoZone calipers we brought to their service department on Friday, March 2nd. Brandon told us that after the lift incident, he had approached Jim Ramsey, his supervisor who also witnessed the incident, and asked him whether the customer would be notified of this incident. Mr. Ramsey chose to ignore the situation and told Brandon that it was not necessary. Brandon was very upset about this response and advised Mr. Ramsey that he had already contacted us about the situation. Only after Mr. Ramsey was advised that we were aware of the incident, he then realized that he had no other option but to contact us. Moments later, my husband received multiple phone calls and voicemail messages from Jim Ramsey and Mario Fuentes asking to return their call regarding our truck.

After consulting with three local attorneys who are willing to take our case, I was legally advised that under Texas Law, the consumer must give Maxwell Ford the opportunity to inspect and repair the truck prior to being able to file a lawsuit under the Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act. I was also advised that if Maxwell Ford does not repair the truck to our satisfaction, the consumer has every right to further proceed with legal action.

My husband was so upset about the situation that I decided to return Mr. Ramsey’s phone call and expressed our dissatisfaction with their service and deliberate dishonesty. I asked him to explain to me what had happened to our truck and Mr. Ramsey said, “When we were servicing your vehicle, the truck was lifted and it slipped off the rack.” When I asked him why this information was not disclosed to my husband, he remained silent. I told him that the main reason why we chose a Ford dealership to service our vehicle in the first place was because we were under the impression that they would be the most qualified experts to repair Ford trucks. We were willing to pay more in order to have Ford certified technicians repair our vehicle. I also pointed out that I needed an explanation as to why only one of the calipers was installed when we brought two AutoZone calipers to Mario. Mr. Ramsey answered that he was not aware of this situation.

Mr. Ramsey agreed to tow our truck back to the Maxwell Ford dealership and rent us a vehicle and fuel reimbursement for the duration of the repairs. I mentioned to Mr. Ramsey that the rental vehicle will also require full insurance coverage, since this will be the truck my husband will be using daily to work. At first, Mr. Ramsey refused to provide full insurance coverage and said that the insurance would be my responsibility. However, after expressing my dissatisfaction about refusing to pay and mentioning to him that I was legally advised by an attorney that I was not required to pay more money due their negligence, he finally agreed to supply full insurance coverage for the duration of the rental vehicle. I clarified to Mr. Ramsey that I will not be satisfied with their service department with simply doing patchwork of the visible damage or by merely checking our brakes and calipers, since the impact of the truck falling off the rack has caused multiple yet to be determined internal mechanical damage. In addition to the brakes, calipers, fire damage and a bent frame, the gas tank and oil filters were punctured. Furthermore, due to Mario and Mr. Ramsey’s deliberate dishonesty, my husband’s life was put in danger since the dealership nonchalantly returned the keys to my husband, knowing that the truck had been seriously damaged in their premises.

On a side note, while we were renting the vehicle, a female staff from Enterprise Rent-A-Car located inside the dealership casually asked our reason for renting the vehicle. I briefly told her that our truck had slipped off the rack and Mr. Jim Ramsey had authorized the vehicle rental for the duration of the vehicle repair. She asked “What color is your truck?” I told her that our truck was white. To our surprise, the female employee stated that a few days earlier, a red truck that was being serviced right in front of their building had also “slipped off the rack”, which tells us that this is not the first time this has happened, and based on our experience with this dealership, we are certain that the owner of the red truck was not notified of that incident either. It is apparent that Maxwell Ford is ignoring the fact that their service equipment is defective, not addressing personnel training issues and failing to effectively and honestly communicate important matters with their customers.

In addition to filing a complaint against Maxwell Ford, this letter is also a plea to protect the employment of Mr. Brandon Hamrick. It would be unfair if Brandon is penalized or punished in any way by his employer for doing his due diligence as an honest person and employee. My husband and I are fully aware that it took a great amount of courage for him to risk his job by contacting us. We are very thankful and commend Brandon for notifying us about the situation.

To our knowledge, Mario had two opportunities to advise my husband about the truck incident: 1) prior to releasing the vehicle to my husband; and, 2) during the tow truck conversation with my husband after the truck burst into flames. But instead he tried to place the blame on the non-Ford calipers and attempted to convince my husband to purchase $400 Ford calipers to fix the problem. Based on the facts, we believe that Maxwell Ford has violated the following laws, according to the Business and Commerce Code, Chapter 17: Deceptive Trade Practices, Section 17.46:

DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES UNLAWFUL

a) False, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce are hereby declared unlawful and are subject to action by the consumer protection division under Sections 17.47, 17.58, 17.60, and 17.61 of this code. “False, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices” includes the following acts:

(7) representing that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade, or that goods are of a particular style or model, if they are of another

(8) disparaging the goods, services, or business of another by false or misleading representation of facts;

(13) knowingly making false or misleading statements of facts concerning the need for parts, replacement, or repair service;

(22) representing that work or services have been performed on, or parts replaced in, goods when the work or services were not performed or the parts replaced;

(24) failing to disclose information concerning goods or services which was known at the time of the transaction if such failure to disclose such information was intended to induce the consumer into a transaction which the consumer would not have entered had the information been disclosed.

I am requesting the Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau’s assistance to file and review our complaint. We are seeking your guidance to find the best way to remedy this situation. I have also sent a copy of this complaint letter to: Jim Ramsey, Maxwell Ford Service Manager; Guy Hopkins, Maxwell Ford Parts Manager; Bill Scott, Maxwell Ford General Manager; along with the Austin local news stations to alert and inform other consumers of our experience. At this point, the culmination of Maxwell Ford’s deliberate dishonesty and their intentional and repeated acts of deceit, my husband and I have arrived to the conclusion that we no longer feel comfortable driving our truck, regardless of the multiple repairs Maxwell Ford offers to service our truck free of charge. My husband was fortunate enough to prevent a potentially serious accident and/or death on his way to pick up our four month old son in daycare, and had he not been so lucky, I highly doubt that Maxwell Ford would claim any responsibility for the potential injuries. My husband’s appalling incident is more than enough for us to realize that our truck is no longer safe to drive.

I thank you for your time and look forward to your response regarding this matter. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us (512) 484-8739 or Email User

Sincerely,

Alex and Leilani Lim-Villegas

cc: Jim Ramsey, Maxwell Ford Service Manager ( Email User)

Guy Hopkins, Maxwell Ford Parts Manager ( Email User)

Bill Scott, Maxwell Ford General Manager ( Email User)

Brandon Hamrick ( Email User)

Fox 7 News (Email User)

News 8 Austin (via fax: 512-531-1234)

KVUE 24 (Email User)

KEYE 42 (via fax 512-837-6753)