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I sued Ford Motor Company today in small claim court today and killed them where they stood.
Some of you may know I have a 2005 Mercury Mountaineer (see story on this blog) and the paint on the roof had delaminated from the primer. Ford has had a paint problem for over 25 years and can't afford to handle all the complaints because repainting a vehicle when the primer is defective means stripping all the paint and primer off and down to the bare metal, priming and painting it again. Estimated cost to do this to the average car is around $5,000. With the millions of cars produced with defective paint over the past 20 years this would amount to Billions of dollars...so it is less expensive for them to simply deny any wrong doing and only pay out when you wring their necks as I did today (it really felt good).
For has practiced what the media called a Silent Warranty...the people that made the most noise of those that took them to court would be approached as I was to take some form of compensation. Their warranty on paint defects is only one year, but this problem does not show until almost 3 years, hence they play the game with the average customers ..."Sorry we can't do anything for you, it is out of warranty" They did this to me for a period of about 2 years, until I decided enough is enough and went to Small Claims Court, paid the $22 and sued them.
I had over prepared for the case, but the 8X11 photos of the peeling paint as it progressed, the two estimates and my speech about Implied Warranties convinced the judge that it was a paint defect and that it could not be environmental issues as claimed by the Ford Rep....Can you imagine after looking at these photos that the rep claimed it could have been bird droppings, UV rays, etc. My car has a total of 25,000 miles in 5 years, is perfect in other areas, and as you can see the roofs paint is simply peeling off. The judge was a very wise man, like a Judge Joe Brown on TV, he knew the truth from the lies.
He ruled in my favor and awarded $1800 which was the estimate I got for the repairs to my roof and rear door of my SUV.
Ford offered me $1700, before court and at mediation the same offer, if I would sign a release not to ask for any additional money if other parts of the car started to peel. They also had a confidentiality clause, so I couldn't talk about the settlement and finally a clause that the stated they are not quilty of any wrongdoing and they made no admission of guilt or improper painting of the vehicle.
After my active participation in various Ford Peeling Paint forums and groups including the one I formed on Facebook and their refusal for over a year to even talk to me, I basically told them to go screw themselves and I would see them in court.
They have been so nasty each time I have had to talk to them and so arrogant, that I was so happy today to beat them bloody. The regional service manager that came down to court today was a nasty son of a bitch and as we walked out, he turned to me and said you waited all this time to get $100 more then we were going to offer you, I turned to him and said, you know if the hood peels, I am going to come at you again and you also know I am a journalist and now I can write all about this all over the internet...he was not happy. :-)
Great day for me and all the others suffering with this peeling paint on their vehicles.
One down and one more to go as I filed today to sue the puppy store for selling me a mixed breed dog and forging paper work to show he was a pedigreed dog. Can't wait to take them on too.
I AM THE MAN...I warned them Not To Get Me Mad...
Len
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April 4, 2010
After 30 days of waiting for Ford to send me a check to cover the judgement amount, I decided it was time to remind them that they owed me some money.
I sent a Certified Letter to both Ford in Michigan (their legal department) and their corporate agent in the state of New Jersey.
I received proof they received the letters on or about March 29th. On April 2nd, I was pleased to find a FEDEX envelope at my door step. It was the check from Ford. You will note that the check date was March 31st, two days after they signed for my Certified Letter demanding payment.
I will be taking my car into the body shop this Sunday so they can begin the process of stripping all the old paint and primer from the roof and top rear door and painting it the way it should have been painted in the first place. Boo Yah!!!
Will post some photos of the repairs so you can see how involved it is to repaint these vehicles.
Side note...Puppy store saw the wisdom in settling our problem without going to court. Hopefully I can rest now and hope the next post on this blog will be a nice one, one complimenting a company for doing something good, not bad. It seems that lately it is harder to find companies and people going out of their way to make our lives better, but I am an optimist and know they are out there.
