Ford Inspector for Warranty Repair-Update:Warranty Denied Claim Due to Off Road Racing

[Inthehighdesert]

Here its 10k for small claims court. I haven’t priced out a clutch and tranny install at the dealer I just know where the parts are priced. Best of luck.

Just fyi this is gonna be above the $ limit for small claims, unless you cap your claim to $5k in Virginia. This is one reason arbitration is better. No need for OP to have an attorney (unlike regular civil court Im pretty sure). Arbitration may be non-binding, but I suspect ESP will follow the arbitrators decision. If they (esp) do not, it’s such an easy slam dunk and bad faith/fraud win in civil court I think it would be easy to retain an attorney with favorable terms and you might get an even bigger punitive award . I’m sure the judge would love to hear why esp refuses to payout on their own contract’s mandatory arbitration provision just bc they lost in arbitration. That’s another claim in and of itself.

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[km1075]

I'm curious, are there others on this forum that have had good experiences with large ESP claims from Ford Protect (i.e., after the initial warranty expired) that also track their GT350? Did the inspector look at the seat, cage, stickers and tires/wheels and just decide to deny where others have had major repairs covered on their unaltered GT350 that spends time at HPDE events?

 

[Kachow]

I'm curious, are there others on this forum that have had good experiences with large ESP claims from Ford Protect (i.e., after the initial warranty expired) that also track their GT350? Did the inspector look at the seat, cage, stickers and tires/wheels and just decide to deny where others have had major repairs covered on their unaltered GT350 that spends time at HPDE events?

I mentioned it previously but yes. ESP/Dealer just approved and replaced my gen 1 motor after OPG failure. Total bill of 31k. I towed the car to my house from Road Atlanta, removed stickers, put my street PZeros back on, and cleaned the car. Removed Go Pro etc, and then had it towed to dealer.

I did choose this dealer because they had replaced GT350 Gen 1s before under ESP that I knew through my local Georgia 350 Facebook group.

The Advisor at Ford said ESP requested pictures of engine bay, wheel wells, and other items. She explicitly stated "ESP is looking for evidence of racing and your car has clearly not been raced". They also wanted to know if the engine was modified, of which mine is stock.

I never volunteered the fact it was at the track. I said as little as possible "My car lost all oil pressure".

That was that. To anyone with ESP - I would say - Find your local 350 group, ask around on the dealers that have gotten warranty Gen 2s installed - and be nice to your advisor etc. Also, play dumb. Super dumb. It is shitty that we have to Play the Game so to speak....but ESP isn't Ford unfortunately. Let's beat them at their own game (reading through this thread that has become evident).

 

[Tomster]

I mentioned it previously but yes. ESP/Dealer just approved and replaced my gen 1 motor after OPG failure. Total bill of 31k. I towed the car to my house from Road Atlanta, removed stickers, put my street PZeros back on, and cleaned the car. Removed Go Pro etc, and then had it towed to dealer.

I did choose this dealer because they had replaced GT350 Gen 1s before under ESP that I knew through my local Georgia 350 Facebook group.

The Advisor at Ford said ESP requested pictures of engine bay, wheel wells, and other items. She explicitly stated "ESP is looking for evidence of racing and your car has clearly not been raced". They also wanted to know if the engine was modified, of which mine is stock.

I never volunteered the fact it was at the track. I said as little as possible "My car lost all oil pressure".

That was that. To anyone with ESP - I would say - Find your local 350 group, ask around on the dealers that have gotten warranty Gen 2s installed - and be nice to your advisor etc. Also, play dumb. Super dumb. It is shitty that we have to Play the Game so to speak....but ESP isn't Ford unfortunately. Let's beat them at their own game (reading through this thread that has become evident).

Thats what I will do if it ever happens to me.

 

[passwords]

It has nothing to do with "company" being in the name.

To answer the question, though, Ford Motor Service Company is a corporation formed in Michigan and registered to do business in multiple states. See this link, or do a search on the Michigan Secretary of State's website. (Yes, I'm a corporate attorney working in-house for a large company for the past 15 years.)

Great information, thank you. So this confirms Ford Motor Service Company, the ESP provider, is a corporation owned by Ford Motor Company.

 

[passwords]

This is correct. From what I have gathered the ESP is located in Florida. I believe that the attached is the entity that deals with the ESP and is owned by Ford. The contract does disclose a bunch of other make and models of vehicles in the contract that they do not cover so it definitely is some national insurer of some sort. I don’t have any official proof of that it is but I am working on it.

I reached out to the ESP yesterday and the personal handling my case was not available and their supervisor did not honor my request for a call back. I will try again today. I am happy to ask them any questions and will ask them about their legal structure and ownership. I doubt they will give me any info but I can ask.

OP, are you sure about this? It looks to me like American Road Services Company LLC (Ford Motor Insurance Company) is just an entity designed to hold the contractual liability insurance policy for Ford Motor Services Company where that type of insurance is required. Beyond paragraph 1A, I’m not seeing any other entities or aliases that would be applicable here. Of course I may have missed something…

 

[mikedahammer]

I am uploading a draft of what I have written thus far and supporting documentation. This is just a draft of information and I have not proofed much of it so please no grammer nazi's but helpful insights are always welcomed. I had to significantly downsize the PDF quality for it to be able to be uploaded.

 

[mikedahammer]

I am uploading a draft of what I have written thus far and supporting documentation. This is just a draft of information and I have not proofed much of it so please no grammer nazi's but helpful insights are always welcomed. I had to significantly downsize the PDF quality for it to be able to be uploaded.

Not sure where the draft went or if it was deleted. Uploading draft again.

 

[passwords]

Not sure where the draft went or if it was deleted. Uploading draft again.

Mike, overall very good job addressing the differences between racing and HPDE. I do have some suggestions that I’ll PM to you. I’ve been tied up getting ready for a trip, but I’ll try to get some input to you before Wednesday.

Edited to add: I see you posted this yesterday morning. I assume the lack of response relates to the TLDR element of your response…123 pages LOL! That being said, I think you’re on the right track as far as Arbitration goes.

 

[MikeR397]

I thought it looked very good overall as well. I looked at most of it. I could nitpick some little stuff, but on the whole very through and well layed out. Obviously that took some serious time.

 

[Tomster]

Hey Austin (if you are reading this, and usually by this point you are)

How does it feel to wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror and say to yourself "wow, I am going to F a bunch of people today and deny legitimate claims".

Its called Karma. Have a nice day and go get 'em tomorrow.

 

[mikedahammer]

I thought it looked very good overall as well. I looked at most of it. I could nitpick some little stuff, but on the whole very through and well layed out. Obviously that took some serious time.

Thanks. It is not done yet, but it is close. My wife is going to clean the letter up as she is really good with that type of stuff. I am prepared to keep pushing this through all the channels.

 

[Zooks527]

Thanks. It is not done yet, but it is close. My wife is going to clean the letter up as she is really good with that type of stuff. I am prepared to keep pushing this through all the channels.

Two comments.

1. The "Warranty Start Date" refers to the date that the original warranty for the car went into place, and does not refer to the ESP itself. Pushing that point will get you nowhere. As an example, here's a cut from my ESP. Note that the ESP just under a year after the Warranty Start date and when there's over 6000 miles on the car
   
2. On the other side, their statement that it's an "insurance contract" and not a warranty is undercut (at least on my ESP) by a notation on page 2 of 11 in my ESP, where they explicitly refer to one part of the contract as a warranty.
   

Good luck.

 

[mikedahammer]

Two comments.

1. The "Warranty Start Date" refers to the date that the original warranty for the car went into place, and does not refer to the ESP itself. Pushing that point will get you nowhere. As an example, here's a cut from my ESP. Note that the ESP just under a year after the Warranty Start date and when there's over 6000 miles on the car
   
2. On the other side, their statement that it's an "insurance contract" and not a warranty is undercut (at least on my ESP) by a notation on page 2 of 11 in my ESP, where they explicitly refer to one part of the contract as a warranty.
   

Good luck.

Thanks for the input. I now know it is different. However, at the time and up until this incident, everything led me to believe it was something different. The marketing, backing, and promotion of it is deceptive as it led me to believe I would have the same coverage and rights or more. Everywhere you read it says stuff like....add to your coverage.....buy the ESP as it will help you after the coverage expires..extend warranty..etc etc. The screen shot below is from the ESP website.

 

[passwords]

Not sure where the draft went or if it was deleted. Uploading draft again.

Mike, I just sent a PM for your consideration. To be clear, I am not a lawyer but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night…

I also want to say how impressed I am with what you put together here. That was a lot of very good information and clearly a lot of work went into researching, collecting, and presenting the information. If you are successful in this effort, and I think you will be, all of us GT350 ESP owners will owe you a beer.

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