08/06/2023
6/10 2:30 pm: WE ARE HEADED HOME! Rocky Top Ford was able to do for us what Ford Motor Company had obligation to do but couldn’t. We are so very thankful for their fast work on getting the alternator into place and the truck up and running. While this experience has been less than ideal, the timing has been terrible, and the customer service from Ford Motor Company was lacking, Rocky Top Ford, the KOA, and the people of East Tennessee as a whole have been more than willing to assist us and have been great to work with.
Thanks everyone for your helpful comments! Lessons learned are:
- Speak to your dealership in person! More than likely they’re trying to do the right thing for you, and understanding and compassion are much more easily communicated face-to-face.
- Don’t let Ford Motor Company be a middle man and do not expect them to get you home. Know what your options are before you head out. Retrospectively, our best option would have been to rent an Enterprise Truck earlier this week and travel with our family, dog, and camper home, and let Ford figure out how to get it back to where it has to be returned. We did not know Enterprise Truck existed.
- If you know what you’re doing and can get an aftermarket part, you can fix your vehicle yourself without voiding your warranty, but it will void the warranty on the part that you fix. If they can prove that your part caused an issue, the factor warranty may not cover you.
- Ford Motor Company has offered us a “goodwill offering” of an extended warranty on our truck for two additional years or 75,000 miles. I’m uncertain how I feel continuing to give them my business, so we’re currently undecided on what our next steps will be.
Thanks for sharing and thank you to everyone who helped to get us home. I hope to never update this post again. 😊
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6/9 10 pm: Ford Motor Company indicated that the correct alternator arrived and that Rocky Top was actively working on the repairs, so we headed to the dealership with the help of the campground. That wasn’t true. There was no alternator yet, BUT going to the dealership turned into a blessing in disguise (after some car sickness and a mild anxiety attack). They were able to get us in a car for the night, and we’re sooo very grateful!!
No, this doesn’t mean we get to go home, but at least we’re covered in case of an emergency. We’ll know more tomorrow on what our ETA home looks like.
(Older updates below original post.)
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Hi fellow campers, friends, and Ford Motor Company! We’re stranded 14 hrs away from home with our camper because our new 2022 truck broke down under bumper to bumper warrnaty. They’re saying it’ll be months before we can get our truck back. We’ve tried to work with Ford customer support for a vehicle for days but why haven’t found a solution. Help pls!
Things we’ve been advised to do by Ford Customer Sevice agents:
- Rent a U-Haul to tow the camper and travel home with my kids and dog in the travel trailer. 🤯
- Rent a vehicle via Enterprise and tow my camper home, which breaks the Enterprise policy!
Things we’re going to need very shortly:
- A campsite. We have to leave our KOA campsite today! The spot were at has a different family staying it in tonight.
- Food! Our kids are 6 and 3. They can’t walk miles to a grocery store very quickly or easily.
- A tow vehicle! This is the only item we’ve requested of Ford, and the one thing they continue to delay.
Ways you can help!
- Share this post and tag Ford!
- Know anyone in Tennessee with a tow vehicle who would be willing to take a drive to KC with a family of 4 and a dog? DM us!
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6/8 12 pm: A few updates for those asking:
They’ve escalated to a supervisor (who btw is very nice, but still can’t solve our biggest concerns.)
The KOA has agreed to let us stay a few more nights.
Our dealership back home ordered the part (alternator) immediately and has it today. The local dealership where our truck currently sits did not bother ordering the part because they said it was back ordered.
Our home dealership is going to overnight the part to the dealership our truck is at.
The dealership with our truck will then place it in the truck when they can.
They’ve told us we can “hope” to be out of here by Tuesday morning. And that’s only if the new alternator fixes the problem.
Reasons why this is still a problem:
- We currently have no way to drive anywhere to get groceries, etc. What if my kids need a dr?
- My daughter has a specialist appointment for her ears at a Children’s hospital on Tuesday and we won’t make it at this rate. We’ve been waiting almost a year to get this appointment.
- We have jobs, and we need to do them.
My solution for Ford Motor Company:
- Allow me to trade in my 2022 Lariat F150 for a new vehicle that can tow so we can go home! And ideally help cover the difference in costs that you’ll already spent to tow/rental/accommodations/food/etc.
Open to other suggestions to get us home! But would ideally not like to have to pay significantly out of pocket since I trusted Ford, their new vehicle, and their warranty.
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6/8 3 pm: Rocky Top Ford where our F150 has been residing, has claimed they can now get the back ordered alternator tomorrow morning and have it in the truck tomorrow by EOB. We’re still not sure this is the only fix needed to get our truck running. We have not been provided a rental car or loaner vehicle and have been told by Ford that we must stay put here in Townsend, TN.
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6/8 10:30 pm: Just providing an update:
We’ve worked all day to arrange something with Ford and Rocky Top Ford discussing some of your suggestions - things like towing with a Enterprise truck, having a private party take us home, trying to find an Uber in Townsend, seeing what Ford will reimburse, using a third party to fix the alternator, etc.
Ford is not great with returning calls and when they do it seems as though there’s many approvals they have to get before they can provide an answer.
Where we left off:
- Rocky Top initially declined to replace the alternator because they told us it would take months to get the part, and they’re moving dealerships so they don’t want our dead truck on their lot. They arranged for our truck to be towed to our home dealership for around $3k. (6/9 update and clarification: After meeting with Rocky Top in person, Rocky Top helped to explain that they were unable to even order the part until we spoke with Ford Corporate, not necessarily that they declined service!)
- Our home dealership emergency ordered the part for us before the truck even arrived. It got there today!
- Rocky Top had not yet towed our truck to our local dealer, so now our local dealer is overnighting the part to Rocky Top.
- Rocky Top promised to have the new alternator before EOB tomorrow, but it doesn’t look like the part is going to make it in time according to the tracking number. (6/9 update: The alternator made it, but was the wrong one. Apparently our truck has two.)
- Rocky Top’s GSM response to our troubles with his dealership taking three days to diagnosis the problem and then refuse to order the part was, “I’m sorry this ruined your vacation. These things happen. I have compassion for you.” And then stated he’ll be out of the office and unable to assist us tomorrow.
- We also aren’t certain the alternator is the only problem because we don’t know that the dealership was able to ever run the diagnostic test because the battery was so dead.
- We do have many locals and campground neighbors offering to take us to get groceries and some have even volunteered to drive us to a hike or two so we can enjoy our stay however long it ends up being. We hope to take up the drive to groceries offer tomorrow.
- Additinally the Townsend / Great Smokies KOA Holiday has been a BLESSING! They arranged for us to have several extra nights in our campsite, have had workers go out of our way to check in on us, and even transport us. We’ve been to a lot of campgrounds, and they are by far the most welcoming.
- There’s a local ministry group holding a Bible camp at the campground this week and our kids have been invited to participate. They’ve loved it and are signing John 3:16 on repeat.
- We feel fortunate to be where we are and thankful to have met the people we’ve met through this experience. Well… everyone except Ford. 😉
- My biggest concerns continue to be getting home for our appointments and getting back to working not in a camper. Also, it’s unnerving to be in a strange place with young kids and no way to get them around if they were to need something.
- Hopefully, we’re closer to getting home tomorrow! We’ll update when we know more.
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6/9 10:30 am: Rocky Top Ford received the ordered alternator this morning. When they opened the box, they noticed it was the wrong alternator.
We’re back to square one on waiting. I’ve contacted the Sales Manager at Rocky Top get an estimate on the trade in value of my truck and contacted the supervisor at Ford Motor Company to begin discussion on how to get us and our camper home again with or without our truck.
We’re still looking into Enterprise Truck, Rental Cars, U-Haul, etc, but all appear to be one way.
