This probably isnt the right place but I wanted to tell as many people as possible about my horrible experience so that it might spare others the same and also to have a massive rant.
Basically I have a disabled dd aged 4 who receives the higher rate mobility component of DLA. Applied to Ford in November 2011 for a 7 seater Ford Galaxy under the motability scheme and was told that a car would be ready mid December. So far so good.
The deposit was £2000 meaning that I would need to sell my old car to pay it. I put the old car on a few online car sale sites but had no joy and started to panic when it came to the second week of December. Knowing I needed to get the deposit quickly I put the car into an auction and accepted an offer far less than what it was worth. Anyway I paid the deposit the next day, asked if everything was still on track and was told yes no problems the car would be ready in two weeks at the latest.
DSIL generously lent me her car for these two weeks though its only a 5 seater and there are 6 of us. About a week later we had a call from Ford saying that unfortunatley the car we ordered wasnt going to be made afterall as the factory in Belgium had gone bust. There was one being made elsewhere that we could have but it wouldnt be ready until january or early feb. By this time it was the 17th Dec, a week before christmas and they said that for £500 thay could get us a rental car!
We didnt have this kind of money and needed to give SIL back her car so were in a really bad situation. After many phone calls back and forth Ford agreed to pay for a hire car for 1 week and after this to put us on the insurance of a demo car. After the week was up they realised they had no 7 seater demo cars and the best they could do was a 5 seater. We reluctantly took it as we needed to get from A to B somehow although with 4DC one with a disability it really wasnt suitable long term.
Last week we had another call from them to say that actually the original car we ordered WAS going to be made afterall and would be ready late February. Ok we thought we've waited this long. Fast forward to yesterday and yet another phone call telling us that actually there were no Ford Galaxys available until November!!!
The best they can do is a different 7 seater, one that we looked at in the very beginning and decided against as the boot was too small for all our stuff we need.
Obviously we can cancel and go elsewhere but this means starting all over again, having no car in the mean time and having to wait however long another company tells us it will be. Not to mention having to cancel important appointments for DD and the general hassle of being carless.
Sorry for the epic post but AIBU to be absolutley livid that this is the best a massive company like Ford can do? If they had told us February at the very start we would never have sold our old car. Their slogan on their motability advertisments by the way is "worry free motoring"! Its laughable.