Rottet Motors Inc

Review: In February 2013, I was moving duty stations and due to the situation I had to tow my 2010 Shelby GT500 from [redacted], Fl. to [redacted], Pa. I had a Ford Dealership in Florida remove the drive shaft and bolts and box them up in the trunk of the car. When I arrived in [redacted], Pa I left my Shelby with the dealership to reinstall the driveshaft. The technician and I spoke over the phone about the bolts and the need to replace them once complete with my move (no one at either Ford dealership, until then, had told me of the need to replace the bolts). I understand that and have that in my basket. He also communicated that no one had indexed the driveshaft. I had specifically asked the dealership in Florida to do this and the Florida dealership said they did. The Rottet Motors mechanic insisted they did not.

I drove the vehicle back to Florida for shipment to Hawaii. I didn't notice any major issues since most of the driving is open highway straight down to [redacted] with almost no low speed driving. I shipped it out at the end of February and picked it up around the end of March/beginning of April. There is a significant amount of slow driving around the island and I noticed that my car would have an audible vibration at 25MPH. I took my car into [redacted] Ford. After explaining it to the senior mechanic '[redacted]' and taking him on a drive that demonstrated the vibration he quickly identified the driveshaft as misindexed. I expressed to '[redacted]' that the guy who reinstalled the driveshaft (at Rottet Ford) said it wasn't marked at all and that he tried to line it up the best he could (I am paraphrasing, but he did say that). '[redacted]' said it was clearly marked in yellow. Inquired if it was hard to see or maybe in a strange spot and he said 'no' and that he found it right away. I had them rotate the shaft to match the indexing and we had to order aft drive shaft bolts for replacement. I have to order a whole new driveshaft to get the forward bolts replaced according to Ford.

When I called Rottet Ford to talk to them about the misindexing. I initially got the service guy who said he'd have to talk to the owner. The second phone call there resulted in the service guy telling me that the owner had confidence in the technician's ability to reinstall the driveshaft, alluding to that it didn't happen the way it actually did. The third all to Rottet Ford resulted in me being forwarded to the owner's cellphone. I left a message asking her to return my call, left my cell# (which they already had). I went through this twice. No phone calls, no apology. Nothing.Desired Settlement: At a minimum I would expect an apology from that service department/dealership. But not even one inkling of contrition. I am at a disadvantage of a time difference so trying to contact anyone is putting other important morning issues to the side to do so. I would have been pleased if someone, anyone, would have deigned to take five minutes out of their day to figure out what actually happened and maybe give a phone call acknowledging that people do make mistakes in maintenance. In the service when working on multi-million dollar aircraft, we do what is right. Lives are on the line, and we have the integrity to stand up and say 'I made a error.' I am disappointed that a dealership displaying the name of Ford cannot.

Business

Response:

[redacted], Regarding complaint number [redacted]. The customer had not been here before and had his vehicle shipped to this area from Florida where they removed the driveshaft. This was done in order to ship the vehicle the way he did. The dealership in Florida told him that they had indexed the driveshaft so it could easily be re-installed. When [redacted] brought the car in and the driveshaft my technician(who has over 20 years experience and also owned Ford Mustangs) we could not find any so called yellow markings that the Florida dealership said they had left. We reinstalled the driveshaft and bolts as best as we could but with no markings from the previous dealer. I am the owner of Rottet Motors and the customer states in his complaint that they were given my cell phone number. I never spoke to this customer at all regarding this situation and no one ever contacted me personally. Rottet Motors has been in business for over 64 years and 11 out of the last 12 years we have won Fords coveted Presidents Award which is based on customer satisfaction with service and sales. Had the driveshaft been marked as the dealer from Florida had said, it would have been very easy to line up the driveshaft to where it should be. Without that it turned into a guessing game which we gave the customer prior warning of. [redacted], the bottom line is that the customer assumed that the dealer from Florida had indexed the driveshaft but it was absolutely clear that there were no markings on it. Of course they would say they did mark it. If that was the case the installation would have been simple. I always love how as a dealer we get caught in the middle of a repair that was not disassembled by us to begin with. Because the customer had to replace the entire driveshaft they have to blame someone. We were just trying to help them get the vehicle back on the road. Could the driveshaft have been damaged when removed? Was it the same driveshaft that was taken off? I cannot answer these questions because I have no way of knowing. We were asked to install a driveshaft that was clearly not marked. Personally, I would have shipped it some other way rather than removing a factory installed main component of the drivetrain. Hopefully, this will help you clear up the case from our perspective. Sincerely,[redacted] Rottet Motors Inc.