Villa Ford of Orange CA loves their parts: Long rant about their prices on parts

[TerryF350]

Hi everyone,
Here is a warning about parts prices at Villa Ford, Orange CA.

I wrote a letter to Liz Farr, Parts & Service Director and got a call back from Ken Gallagher Parts Manager.

The bottom line is their parts seem to be about 2x the cost that you can get at other dealerships. I now believe that if they like their parts that much, they can keep them.

Any other stories?

Here is the story and the letter I wrote to them:

28 June 2006

Liz Farr
Parts & Service Director
Customer Relations
2250 North Tustin
Orange Ca 92865

Terry Erickson
12 Deer Creek Lane
Laguna Hills CA 92653

Reference: Parts Invoice #264561

Dear Ms. Farr,

I have a long history as a customer with Villa Ford, as my father was a Ford employee. I bought my first new truck from Villa Ford over 20 years ago, I grew up in Orange and my family and I continue to drive Ford cars and trucks.
I am currently on my 4th Ford truck right now and have put over 250,000 miles on two of them.

I was recently very disappointed while buying a part from Villa Ford and for some reason I have taken this personally.

I am changing the clutch on my 2003 F350 crew cab 4x4 and planned to replace a throw out bearing plastic pivot (stud, F81Z7B602AA). An article on the web on TheDieselStop.com and a magazine article in Diesel Power Magazine identified the part as about a $5.00 dealer part that should be replaced if you replace the arm that was redesigned in 2002. I planned to change it since I was there and it was inexpensive even though my truck already has the upgraded arm.

On 26 June I went to the Ford dealership next door to my office and they gave me a list of dealers that had the part and told me the part is a $6.50 part. Villa Ford is on my way home and you had 2. The parts guy got me the part, printed out the invoice #254561 and it showed $13.50 as the list and sell price plus tax.

I questioned him about the price and he told me he doesn’t know anything about anybody else’s price said “hey, we need to pay our mortgages”.

Is the part price something the individual sales person determines on the spot or is this something that Villa Ford has a policy on? Could you explain Fords recommended retail prices and Villa Fords pricing policy on parts?

I walked away with a strong negative feeling that this individual increased the price to me more than double the recommended retail price to increase his bonus.

So I guess my question is does Villa Ford charge 2X the suggested price on parts as policy or did this sales person decide to give me, an individual customer, a “special” (my buddies and I have another term for this) 2X price.

I felt you as the Director and Customer Relations person would be best to explain this to me.

Thank you very much,

[super_stroke]

this is intresting. what did he say when he called back?

[Banshee34]

I would have ranted about that too!!!!!!