They just broke into my van at Freedom Ford of Fresno

[Roonie]

Wow this would suck due to someone else's lack of responsibility!! Hopefully the claims process turns out for you in the end.

[BroncoHauler]

It makes no sense. When I was at Freedom Ford, they had a HUGE parking lot with acres of open space. There's no reason it should have been out in the open.

Dave, let us know if you need any help with ANYTHING. This should be a wake up call to the rest of us to document (photos, receipts) everything of value we're carrying in our vans or have added to our vans. Clearly some people we entrust our vans to have no sense of responsibility with other people's property.


Herb

[Ford_6L_E350]

Whenever I take the van in for service, my wife insists I take everything out of the van. Up until now I just thought she was/is paranoid. Now I understand the reason for her paranoia.

Damn Dave, that really sucks. Especially since you use your van regularly and now you have more downtime to get it fixed from getting it fixed.

Good luck with the claims process.

Mike

[daveb]

I'm almost more enraged at the fact that I asked them to please park it inside so nobody would try to steal the lighting and solar. Dummies didn't activate the alarm. That alone might have scared off the guys and all I would have to worry about would have been a broken window. I looked at my DVD player/computer behind my seat when I dropped the vehicle off and thought...na nobody will take that. Well they got that and more including over 400 bucks worth of DVD's some of which I've yet to see. In my quick survey I found they took an I-pod, Binos, chepo camera, scan gauge (ha it wasn't working) a stinger flashlite, Possibly the fantastic fan, some sat radio stuff, my new garmin , sunglasses, plus some fishing gear. They ripped out the gun safe but all it had were about 5 clips and a knife in it. You would think they would have taken it but they just threw it on the ground and I don't know why. They did get 4 boxes of 10mm ammo. Oh yeah 3 pairs of 48x32 wrangler pants. Guy must be a fatso like me or he singin that pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin like a fool wit your pants on the ground. But the way they did it by ripping off the cabinet doors, ripping out my stereo and tearing the gauge pod from the headliner was classic. I also found damage when they threw a chair into the back. It put a hole in the leather seat and broke a speaker cover. On the bright side they didn't get a bag that had my keyes in it as well as the wheel locks. It could have been worse if I had not unloaded some of my other gear. Now I have got to do a better search to see what I missed.

For now I'm going to see what the owner plans to do. Not good advertisement to say the least and you would think Freedom Ford would offer to cover my 500 deductable but the word was no. Don (member "doubled") suggested to contact BBB or the local call for action TV station guy Jay Mento has been great in trying to get something done. SMB is also being very helpful. I'm just going to have to see how stubborn F Ford is planning to be. If I were the owner, I'd offer to pay the deductable and supply a rental car for as long as it took to put things right. Seems he is out of town. BTW Towne Ford would offer to pay my deductable if I would have had that happen on their lot....sorry I didn't take it there.

Thanks for all the group support from ya all. Gotta get a claim goin.

I'll update soon...thanks
Dave

[BroncoHauler]

Dave,

It's easy for us to sit on the sidelines and offer advice, but this shouldn't be a claim against your insurance, not to mention your deductable. FF should be covering it with their insurance. If the vehicle was in their possesion, it should be their responsibility to make it right. They'll probably just try to wear you down by slow-rolling things, but stick to your guns if at all possible.

Good luck.


Herb

[billwilson]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

Dave,

It's easy for us to sit on the sidelines and offer advice, but this shouldn't be a claim against your insurance, not to mention your deductable. FF should be covering it with their insurance. If the vehicle was in their possesion, it should be their responsibility to make it right. They'll probably just try to wear you down by slow-rolling things, but stick to your guns if at all possible.

Good luck.


Herb

10mm at that

[Scalf77]

Dave,
Sorry to here about this. This appears to be a bad story that keeps getting worse. Did you have the request to park inside written on the work order. That would certainly lean more to their negligence, might check police records for the area, if they have had other break-ins in the recent past it would show some knowledge of a problem. Good luck and keep the pressure on them. Don't even deal with the locals ask to call the customer service hot-line or what every they call it. I was stuck in Virginia waiting for a part to show up for a problem that was on its third incarnation, when I walked in on the fifth day and was told the part had not shown up and they did not know when it would show up, the service rep just handed me the phone and dialed the number. Later that day I had rented a car to drive back to Oregon as I needed to get my kids back for school etc. This was all approved on the phone by a Ford rep. But as Herb said they try to wear you down and drag everything out. In the end I got what was agreed to and a little more, but it took over eight months of being a pain in their ass.

-greg

[joey2cool]

That sucks. While it isn't always our first choice, happiness is still your best choice. May good will, courage, and strength be yours Dave.

And thanks for sharing your pain with us - we can all learn from it and do our best to make the world a better place to live in. I for one will unpack everything (even when I have to truck 1,500 miles to SMB West for warranty work), require written garauntee of vehicle security, and seek documented evidence of vehicle insurance coverage while it is on the service ourfit's property (they may not have it, but I'll be asking anyhow).

[Roonie]

Originally Posted by joey2cool

I for one will unpack everything (even when I have to truck 1,500 miles to SMB West for warranty work), require written garauntee of vehicle security, and seek documented evidence of vehicle insurance coverage while it is on the service ourfit's property (they may not have it, but I'll be asking anyhow).

I have owned a mastercraft boat for awhile and there is a sign at the dealer that says in big bold letters do not leave anything of value in your boat.... we are not responsible for it. They even told me this as well to take anything of value out of it like skis, wakeboards etc.... If something happens and stuff gets stolen people can say they had 3 laptops, 5 garmins, etc in the boat and no way to prove it. I have followed this advice for everything I own when I take it in. Clean it out completely as it is much easier to do this than try and argue what was in the vehicle of value if it gets taken. More than likely they are not responsible for the personal items within the vehicle as well. I have asked several car dealerships and they have all confirmed the above.

A side note as they also tell you at the boat dealer to put the cover on your boat for same reasons. Well one time I didn't as I didn't know the policy even though it is in bold letters at service desk. A bird came along and ruined three seats staining them with poop. After a lot of arguing etc (even though I had just bought the boat from them 2 months earlier) they finally replaced the vinyls on their bill but I think that was a rare case.

[CJ]

Late 80s I had a Very Nice! Challenger in the shop "Dodge dealership” Long story short....was stolen out the back on a weekend and stripped clean.

Outcome ....My insurance paid me for the book value, my home owners insurance covered the contents and I paid the deductable.

No way could I afford to take it to court and fight the BIG dealership.

Hope it works out in your favor, Dave