Little Help? YFMV. How about Tweeting @Ford

My sister Terry could use a little friend-of-the-DOC help. She has has two thing going on: one is chemotherapy and the other is a ballet with with Squirrels. Guess which one is tougher? (Hint: Ford is on team Squirrel)

Terry has a Ford Transit Van with wheel chair ramp for her daughter. Apparently, Atlanta Squirrels like the taste of Ford Transit Van wire harnesses as a pre holiday snack. Terry's van has been at the Ford Dealer for month while Ford, Squirrel ally, struggles (possible an excessively active verb choice) to find a wire harness.

Meanwhile Terry is doing Chemo, calling Ford and writing about squirrels on Facebook. Here is her latest followed (by a little ask for some social media help):

Squirrels vs. Vehicles Report
Squirrels have new ally to keep our Ford Transit Connect ramp van off the road. Believe it or not it is the Ford Motor Company. They can't or won't or at least haven't shipped the wiring harness that the dealership needs to fix our vehicle from Turkey (country of origin). 

You may be able to guess whether the customer contact center notified me in a timely manner about whether the part had shipped? You guessed right if you answered that they let a whole week go by before letting me know who was "expediting the case" and that when she called she reported not knowing whether it had shipped or from where it had shipped. But she knew it hadn't arrived. I called her back today to find out what she had learned. After a delay to let her slow system load the Info for she had typed into it earlier in the day, She was trying to determine whether it could be shipped direct to the dealer or if it would have to go through a parts supplier. Where is the manufacturer I asked? She did admit that the part came from Turkey. The van came from Turkey so that was not a surprise but I did express hope (probably not founded in reality) that the part would be shipped individually by air not plopped in to a cargo container bound for Baltimore (no offense Baltimore, but that is the harbor the vans come to and I don't want to wait that long.). When will it ship? Maybe mid-January. When I pointed out that it was already mid-January, she pulled out the old hem and haw. I asked her to call me every day. She said she may not have anything to update every day. I said to call anyway. I asked for the number of her direct supervisor and the number of the Ford exec her department reports to. She would not give me either. But she could ask her supervisor to call me. I said I would get numbers and make contact myself.

For those of you following this saga, recall that today is Wednesday, my cancer Chemo day and I have steroids in me at max level. So instead of feeling sick and unable to lift my head as I had been feeling for the last 6 days, I am in battle mode. 

I needed a contact in Europe. Hqtrs in Germany. Hmm - time zone and language issues. Plant in Turkey - ever worse time zone and language issues. But yea for searching the Internet. I found the Vp of Ford Communication and Public Affairs. he used to work for a newspaper in Detroit. Probably speaks English or at least reads it. He has a Twitter account. So All I had to do was get my own Twitter account and "follow" him, then sent him a call for help mentioning squirrels and part shipping problems, etc in the super short structure of a tweet. Seeing I was allowed to attach a photo, I also sent along a picture of Anne. The only trouble with the photo is that there is a gorilla in the background, not a squirrel. He can use his imagination to convert it to a squirrel. Maybe I should have photo shopped a squirrel in there, but not that advanced.

Skilled relatives and friends with Twitter accounts, would you like to jump into the fray? He is Mark Truby @mtruby. I think I got that right. I will send him some more calls for help. I also called Autumn from the Ford Customer Relationship call center and left a message (because of course she knows it was me and didn't answer) to tell her I was tweeting him.


So YDMV Friends how about sending a Tweet to Mark @mtruby and Ford @Ford. I mean they have all those Squirrels on there side, Terry could use some Tweets on her's. @FordService, @sherylconnelly Futurist for Ford, @jc_enoch N. America Ford Truck PR.

UPDATE: Jan 15. Yay! Ford reached out. Here is hoping they can switch from Team Squirrel. I'll let you know.