It seems that one of the most important pieces of equipment for a dealership’s service manager should know how to use is a telephone. If the service manager at Titan Ford in New South Wales, Australia, was able to properly hang up his telephone-machine, then a pretty colossal mess involving a Focus RS head gasket recall could have been avoided. Of course, it wasn’t, which is why we’re here.
Xander is a Focus RS owner from Australia, and, according to his Facebook page, appears to be a fan of small dogs and orange shoes. He had posted about his Focus RS before, a post expressing his displeasure with the head gasket issues that Focus RS have been suffering all over the globe, issues that have led to a recall to replace the improper gaskets.
Xander’s original post has been removed, but the image associated with the post has been re-posted here:
Additionally, Xander has had issues with Titan Ford’s handling of the recall, stating in another Facebook post:
In regards to this Gasket recall, Titan Ford Brookvale first doesn’t even call its RS customers to book in the job. 2nd, when i try and book it in myself I am told by the service lady “we are only doing one RS with a Rental car per week (wtf?), and we already have 3 or 4 booked in (meaning I have to wait till April)“... its just terrible service. I bought the 3rd RS from these amateurs (waited 9 months also), have taken it in for every service to them.
In response to his Facebook post, Titan Ford’s service manager, Rob Pappalardo, called Xander to discuss his Facebook post, and left the following message, which included a good bit of conversation that occurred after Pappalardo thought he’d hung up the phone:
So, yeah, he calls Xander a “fuckwit.” It’s a nice contrast to that happy little dog-face on that phone screenshot there.
We’ve reached out to Xander and Ford Australia for comment.
Not a great look for Titan Ford on any level here, and a very good lesson for service departments everywhere: make sure your phones are hung up before saying terrible things about your customers.
Also, replace those head gaskets, already, fuckwits.
(Thanks, Alan!)