mdawson

I'm the owner of a 1996 Lincoln Towncar with a 4.6 liter engine. As with most 4.6's I suffered a cracked intake manifold in 2001 and paid nealy $800 to my Lincoln Mercury Dealer to have it replaced. At the time I checked on any recall info and finding none, I didn't worry about hanging on to the receipt for the work. Now of course, Ford has settled the class action suit regarding the mainifold. I took my car back to the dealer that did the work in 2001, they inspected and verified that the manifold was replaced and had me sign the settlement docs and then sent them to Ford. I was told that I didn't need any receipt. A few weeks later the service manager called me back and said that Ford had notified him that they wouldn't authorize a payment without a receipt because now, in 2006, my car is more than 7 years old. I asked the dealer to check their records to see if they still had it in their system. The next day the dealership called and told me that they had just purged anything older than 1 year from their service records if customers didn't have an active account and that they'd have to check their paper files for a copy of the receipt or service record. A week later the dealer called to say that they checked their archives and the box with my files in it were "missing." Funny how that works. So I'm screwed - I have no receipt, the dealer says they have no record of my ever having been a customer (after 3 years of exclusive service on my TC and two vehicle purchases.) Needless to say they have lost this customer. Ford may be losing this lifelong Ford customer too (my Mom even worked at a dealership) Any ideas from the Forum on what I can do or do I just eat the $800 I spent.

I'm the owner of a 1996 Lincoln Towncar with a 4.6 liter engine. As with most 4.6's I suffered a cracked intake manifold in 2001 and paid nealy $800 to my Lincoln Mercury Dealer to have it replaced. At the time I checked on any recall info and finding none, I didn't worry about hanging on to the receipt for the work. Now of course, Ford has settled the class action suit regarding the mainifold. I took my car back to the dealer that did the work in 2001, they inspected and verified that the manifold was replaced and had me sign the settlement docs and then sent them to Ford. I was told that I didn't need any receipt. A few weeks later the service manager called me back and said that Ford had notified him that they wouldn't authorize a payment without a receipt because now, in 2006, my car is more than 7 years old. I asked the dealer to check their records to see if they still had it in their system. The next day the dealership called and told me that they had just purged anything older than 1 year from their service records if customers didn't have an active account and that they'd have to check their paper files for a copy of the receipt or service record. A week later the dealer called to say that they checked their archives and the box with my files in it were "missing." Funny how that works. So I'm screwed - I have no receipt, the dealer says they have no record of my ever having been a customer (after 3 years of exclusive service on my TC and two vehicle purchases.) Needless to say they have lost this customer. Ford may be losing this lifelong Ford customer too (my Mom even worked at a dealership) Any ideas from the Forum on what I can do or do I just eat the $800 I spent.