Bradk13's dashboard

I'm so tired of feeling like David against Goliath (except I don't have a stone). I hope to make this description of our problems concise since I'm exhausted from dealing with it.

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We own a 2003 Ford Explorer XLT 2WD (6 cyl). w/ 74,500 miles (purchased as new)

We have suffered through the legendary differential failures (clutch pack). Three of them (34K, 47K, and 73K). Our cost for the 2nd repair was $1400. (thank God the first was under warranty)

The 73K mi failure cost was $1650 because we chose to replace the entire differential with an new after-market positrac rear-end at the recommendation of a reputable local AAMCO manager who provided some insight about this differential design.

The mechanic shared that he replaces a few of them every other month and that Ford Explorer (and F-150) rear ends of 02-04 are one of the worst he's ever known. The replacement clutch packs will only fail another 30K later along with correlating rear-end bearing packs, etc.

That experience was corroborated by a service consultant from a local Ford dealership we'd worked with for years. He told us (most certainly off the record), that they have this continual problem with both Mountaineers and Explorers for those years.

Our experience with customer service of local Ford dealerships and Ford Corp was very upsetting. The goodwill put forward by the dealership was immaterial and somewhat insulting ($600 towards $1200 dif clutch, if we bought additional $2000 in brakes and tires). Ford corporate maintained that they stand behind their dealership's recommendations. Trying to be a squeaky wheel, I asked to speak with with a corp customer relations manager. They said they would do no more. I asked,

"To cut to the chase, are you telling me I have no more recourse with Ford and that if I want to pursue my complaint any further I must do so with personal legal action?"

He replied, "Yes sir. [Pause] I am not advising that, but that is your only option remaining."

For the record, we've also experienced the failure of the proverbial 2003 Explorer transmissions; that was a $2200 bill at ~37K miles. Another issue for another day...

Unfortunately, my father is terminally ill with pancreatic cancer and had recently been admitted to the hospital; however, fortunately, that also gave us a great life perspective to leave this defeat behind us. (That is when we decided to pull the vehicle from the dealership's shop and replace the entire rear-end at a local mechanic) We didn't have time to be concerned about inequity with a company, which in our experience is operating with a lack of integrity in product and service.

We had been a Ford family for over 30 years. Regrettably, we are no longer. I wish we didn't have to suffer the loss financially and in brand confidence. Nevertheless, we are happy to know exactly where we will not spend our money again. This has irreversibly shaped our future vehicle decisions.

Respectfully,
A Past Ford Customer

My experience:
I have just transferred service to my roommate with Comcast because i moved out of the area. My roommate remained in the house with plans to keep the same service without interruption...you would reasonably expect.

After an ACT of CONGRESS (3 trips to the comcast building - 3 hrs, 9 phone calls - 6 hrs) we are finally told we have transferred the service to his name, apparently in Comcast terms "disconnect and reconnect". (we won't even discuss those extraordinarily frustrating episodes of schedule a tech or working with a crippled customer service reps with no capacity to assist us) During the last trip to the comcast building the first knowledgeable Customer Service Rep said he was able to perform a transfer with the equipment. MIND YOU, we asked for NO changes in service or equipment, just names on the account.

I had 2 pieces of equipment in my name, a standard digital cable box and modem. As of today (4 weeks into the ordeal) it seems that the transfer only occured with the modem and not the digital cable box.

As of today, at the residence there has not been a change or disruption in comcast digital services. However, after speaking with a phone rep this afternoon, Comcast, now has a $80 warrant out on my head for a "unreturned digital cable box", but not the modem. Correspondingly, on my roommate's new account, Comcast is charging him for digital cable service even though there was NO cable box issued or ever attached to his account. The proverbial double dip...

So tomorrow my former roommate and I are left to pick up our swords to find in resolution in this battle (change names on an account).

My peaceful conclusion that I wish to share with Comcast:
I am disappointing given the premium price Comcast collects, and the fact that their actual video/data service was very good.

I am aghast at the difficulty of performing fundamental business processes such as schedule a technician, obtain updated and accurate info on my account, or making simple changes to an account details. I'm no longer annoyed or frustrated. The next time I'm living in an area of Comcast coverage, I will evaluate ever other possible alternative for digital service.

Regards,
Simply Aghast

i received this error a several times this morning while doing a standard text search on www.lifehacker.com. my search string was "wish list", the error msg was "SolrAPI request failed: HTTP request failed: Operation timed out after 15 seconds with 0 bytes received (28)"

Thanks
Brad