Mall of Georgia Ford

October 18th, 2013,had an appointment with John Schaffer Service Advisor at 3:00 pm. I told John about my car not shifting correctly, and that it seemed to be flooded, and had no pick up. John stated that it was probably due to the double clutch transmission that Ford had installed in my Focus. He, John, told me that my car needed to be driven approximately 5,000 miles, before it would adjust to my driving. John did say, he would have a technician check my car out. John came back and said my car needed a computer upgrade, and did I have about an hour. I stated I did and he left to tell the technician. After an hour and a half John came back and told me my car would be ready in a few minutes. He stated that the technician found that my knock sensor was going bad and that they did not have one in stock. He said he would order one and call me when it came in. About 20 minutes later they brought my car to me and said I was good to go. John stated again that he would call me and set up an appointment when my knock sensor came in. October 23rd, : Received a phone call from John Schaffer , and he told me my knock sensor had come in and he asked; When can you bring your vehicle in, I told him I would drop it off after business hours on the 24th. He stated that was good and they would have it finished around noon on the 25th. I received a call on my home phone at approximately 1:30 PM, the 25th. John explained to me that my car was taking longer than expected and would not be finished by 6:00 PM, when they closed. He offered to get me a rental. He told me that they should be able to finish the work, Saturday the 26th. I declined the rental and told him he may have to send someone out to pick me up Saturday, and he said no problem. Saturday October 26th, I received a phone call from John at approximately 11:50 AM, and he stated they would not be able to finish my car by the time they closed at 3:00 PM, and told me he would send somebody to pick me up so I could get a rental. I was picked up and taken to the service department, where I met with john, and he told me they were having problems, because this was a new car and they had never replaced a knock sensor on this model. He told me he did not want to rush his technician because he wanted the job done right, I was inclined to agree. I took the rental, and went home. I received a phone call on Monday, October 28, and was told my car was ready. I went to the service department and turned in my rental, and spoke with John. He told me they had fixed my car and I was good to go. He also stated that because it was the new focus with the Eco Boost system, I would still feel it hesitating when shifting until I had driven my car 5000 miles at which time it would adjust. I continued driving the Focus having faith that the Ford Service Department knew what they were talking about. The car was a little better but it still acted as if it was flooding, and I was afraid to pull out in traffic because I never knew when it was going to stall and not move forward. Having that faith, I continued to drive and cuss the car, drive and cuss the car, and cuss and drive the car, hoping that eventually it would “adjust to my driving”. I finally reached the 5000 mile mark and made an appointment on February 26, 2014 for my 5000 mile checkup. I had and emergency at work and I had to have my wife take the car in. I told her to tell John Schaffer, that the car was still flooding and not driving correctly. They changed the oil, and John told my wife that he had 3 separate technicians drive my car and they all said it ran fine. He then told her that the more we drove it past the 5000 mile mark the better it would adjust. When I drove the car, after the 5000 mile checkup it appeared to me to be worse. I had to travel to Santa Fe New Mexico the week of 3-3-14 to 3-10-14, and my company rented me a 2014 Ford Focus. That was an “[non-permissible content removed] moment”. However I did learn something, this 2014 was exactly the same as mine, and it had 2420 miles on it. However, it did differ from mine because it actually ran extremely well. I traveled in the mountains, in the mesa, and not once did this Focus have any problems. That is when I knew for a fact that the Ford Service Department was feeding me [non-permissible content removed]! I was determined that when I got back home, I would call Ford and raise the roof. Low and behold I received a survey from Ford asking me about my last service and how they did. Needless to say, it was perfect timing, and I unloaded on the survey, as much as I could with the limited characters the survey allows. After filling out the survey, I received a phone call from John Schaffer asking when I could bring my Focus in for them to look at, and I said “the sooner the better”. That was on Friday, March 21, 2014. We made an appointment for the first thing Tuesday morning, March 25, 2014. Yesterday, March 25, I brought my car in and John Schaffer was out sick, and a Service advisor 9292 Sterling Patrick Oliver, met me and ask what was wrong. I told him the whole story and I must say I was not a pleasant person. He stated he would have them check out my car and they would hook it up to a laptop and drive around to see if they could get real time data. 4 hours later Patrick said I was good to go that they had found a short in the harness that connects to the Knock sensor. Please note this is the same knock sensor that they had such a hard time with and took 4 days to install back in October. I told him I couldn’t believe that I had been driving around all this time waiting for the transmission to adjust to my driving when obviously this problem has been causing all my headaches. The Service Advisor said, “It could have been shortening out intermittently”. I understand things happen, but it seems awfully funny to me that it would not act out when supposedly, John Shaffer had 3 technicians drive my car and all said it was fine, when it was not intermittently with me, it WAS EVERY FRICKEN DAY! I am writing this today, March 26, 2014, to tell you that for the first time since I have owned this Focus, which now has 6213 miles on it, is the first time I felt it perform as a new car. It is actually running good and no stalls, for the first time while driving up the hill to my subdivision. I am both disgusted and amazed that it has taken 6213 miles and 5 months to fix my car. I have to say that your service department completely let me down. I do not know if I was told the truth when I was told that 3 technicians drove my car and said it was fine, I do not know if the knock sensor was installed correctly (or if it even needed one), if the short was missed at that time, I do not know how it was possible that I was naïve enough to drive a car for 5 months believing the Service Department. What I do know is I feel like a fool, that I have been driving around a new car that ran like a POS, believing and having faith in your service department.