European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 25, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A consumer watch update Ceil  by Mary net consumer watch editor g generally americans who buy new  through tapes concessionaires an approximately 14,500 Are sold under the pro Gram yearly have no problems. But when problems do occur they can take a lengthy time to . Peter Duffy of the office of the judge advocate Legal assistance division Usa eur questions if the warranty servicing of new american cars is thus Asad  the first place you Don t buy a new car expecting to have problems he says. If then the companies Are unable to offer proper servicing they Are not living up to their promises perhaps Are misrepresenting the reality of their overseas warranty service he says. Cafes agreed to investigate a number of complaint received by the stars and stripes from new car owners the complaints ranging from slow deliveries to Snail paced warranty work. Some of these customers remain dissatisfied even after Kajfes intervention. Any Hopes Lorraine Cier might have had of going camping in Europe with her husband Stephen last summer in a new pm Van were soon dashed Well maybe not soon enough. She had been told that the Van ordered in Marcur 1976 could be Del Veredas Early As june. And in june indeed she was advised that the vehicle had reached the stateside port ready for overseas shipment. Then silence. Finally in August at her and her husband s prompting the dealer contacted pm in Antwerp. Belgium and it became obvious that the vehicle had never left the state Side port. In september they had confirmation that it had been stolen and that their order had been cancelled. A few Days later however they were notified that an investigation was under Way that what had happened was t quite  was explained to them later by cafes that there was a question As to How the vehicle had been lost and whether or not the military shipping was involved. They were also informed by cafes that the loss of the vehicle in this Case is clearly beyond the control of the pm contractor and the remedy to the customer is the return of his  you were promptly notified of the loss of the vehicle As soon As pm became aware of it wrote it. Col. Larry v. Cramer director cafes Public relations to Lorraine Cler a teacher at Stuttgart american High in october. After a great Deal More correspondence Steve Cler says he made seven Long distance Calls to new York alone the couple was promised a 1977 Model Van at the 1976 prices a $680 savings. At last the clerk problems were Over no not quite. In january when they finally did receive shipment of Avan it arrived minus Windshield wiper Blades seat belts and cigarette lighter plus the wrong rear end gear ratio and rear Springs. Everything happily is in order now but the clerk be Lieve the whole situation need not have been such a night  we Are quite pleased with our Van but had we not done some things on our own nobody else would have taken care of us not cafes the dealer pm. You Are on your own when you buy a car. They mis Lead you into believing they take an Active part in helping you when you have , noting this Case file has been closed com ments there will always be customers and spouses of customers who Are dissatisfied with assistance provided  must be understood that customers of its program have a binding Legal contract with a car  conditions of that contract and the limited War Ranty on the vehicle govern what the customer can expect. Cafes will assist customers in obtaining these benefits but can not and does not Promise  could have disregarded this complaint not sold the customer a 1977 Van at the 1976 Price and certainly would have simply refunded the customer s Money had she been a non cafes  having a car stolen before delivery naturally in t an everyday occur Ance. Late deliveries How Ever do occur frequently. This complaint admits cafes is one of the most distressing and hardest to explain to a customer. Take the Case of Scott h. Ash s car. Cafes notes his complaint is similar in nature to those of numerous Page 10 the stars and stripes others we receive throughout the year from customers of All  ordered his car from pm at cafes in Kaiserslautern in january and did t receive it until june 10.according to cafes part of the delay was caused by a last minute change in the order and the fact that the final payment had not been received. After ordering the vehicle  an approximate delivery Date Ash went Back and ordered a differ ent Type of seats. This stopped action on his order and los Tat least ten production Days in no Way retorts Ash. According to him cafes definitely has been misinformed. The car has the Standard equipment. I made no  As to the final payment arriving after the car was inner York he says he does t  the car was financed through a credit Union. There should have been no  it s his understanding that Lack of information about the whereabouts of the car before its overseas delivery was due to the fact that it was being assembled in Kansa City and not in Detroit. We were making inquiries from Here through Newyork to Detroit where the dealer thought the car was being manufacture red. Later we Learned Detroit could respond As the car was t being build in that Plant. The new York office obviously did t know this seemingly a lot of the problems when it comes Tolate deliveries lie in paperwork snafus. Cars arrive in new York from a production line somewhere an Don t get matched up with the owner s paperwork from pm overseas. Then the cars sit while the would be owners in Europe Are fuming and trying to Trace the missing vehicles. Explains it. Col. Nohl d. Petersen director procure ment management office cafes Europe pm in Europe processes All orders to pm new York which in turn sends the orders to the factories. The factories build the vehicles and then communicate with pm Europe Only through pm new  sometimes can result in a problem of Matching up the car the order production papers payments and the customer s shipper in new York before the car can leave. Cafes had hoped that a new pm free flow delivery system would have eliminated any such paper tie  in new  the new system was supposed to have worked As Fol lows pm Europe would take the customer s order and a Down payment and telex the information about the trans action to the factory. The factory would build the vehicle and ship it by rail to new York and on to Europe by its own shipping connection. Cafes had told stars and stripes that the system was to go into effect in october with the delivery overseas of 1978 models. Not so according to Jim Steinhagen of pm Europe. According to him the company was Only investigating the possibility of such a system and has t yet been Able to work out such a free flow operation. This As yet unrealized system would have provided one Boon to the customer. He would not have had to make final payment and take ownership of the vehicle until it arrived in Bremerhaven. On the other hands the customer would lose the savings of free military shipping. Currently when a customer s car is turned Over to the commercial shipper or the military shipper on the East coast pm s responsibility ends and the car becomes the property of the customer. If anything happens to it in route there is no recourse except to go to the shipping company or the . Government if it was shipped by the military for payment of repairs. This also Means that a customer who in t Satis fied with the workmanship on the car which he purchased sight unseen is out of Luck. Hell have to get the automobile manufacturer to agree to fix those defects tinder its warranty service. The Cus Tomer can Only refuse the vehicle if it is not what was ordered according to his contract. When Ash s car arrived overseas he Learned it did not have the Type of engine he had ordered. I wanted to cancel the order he says but the dealer told me there was no Way that i d taken owner ship of the car at the port in the . I feel there should have been some out the car engine is one of those Gas guzzlers i certainly did t want or order. The dealer however said no that if i did t pick it up it would still sunday september 25, 1977 be mine just sitting there and rusting he went ahead and accepted the vehicle. He should not have done so if the car really was t a described in the contract says capt. Peter Duffy of the office of the judge advocate Legal assistance division Usa eur. A number of cafes new car customers have made this same complaint to me Duffy notes. They report that even though the car that arrived i Europe is not what they had ordered they Are told they have to accept  he advises in such cases that the cafes new car customer immediately report the situation to the local Legal assistance office which can advise Hamas to Bis rights according to the contract. Ash still does t see Why he can t be Given the smaller engine he ordered. He is also upset about the condition the car was in when he picked it  was t prepped just checked out mechanically. He d planned to have the prep work done in Kaiserslautern at the garage that also was suppose to handle the warranty service. Now he finds out that the pm fran Chise has been taken away from there and he will have to travel to Frankfurt about 90 Miles away to have such work done. This also is a client problem i be come across frequently says Duffy. Car firms that advertise Good warranty service but Force customers to drive such Dis Tances obviously Are not living up to their  three new car owners also complained to Sta Sand stripes about service at one Ford garage. Cafes followed up these complaints and reports Shatas a result of them Ford it fun dispatched an inspector to review the  was apparently a problem of not having a completely trained parts clerk working on the parts countermand problems resulting from too Many key personnel being on leave at the same time notes  situations now have been corrected according to Peterson had cafes been alerted to the problems being had with this garage the situation would have been corrected  customer James Green of Stuttgart however had notified cafes of his dissatisfaction with the Garag Eback in May of 1976. Cafes also investigated the complaint of t.  w. Graham of Pitburg. Graham had written stars and stripes about a Knock in the engine of his1976 am Hornet Sporta Bont. He said the Auto company s Field representative told him just to put a heavier Oil in the engine. He was t pleased with this  feeling on All of this is that am is trying to get me past the 12,000-mile Point so the car will no longer recovered by the  cafes however assured him that any warranty covered problem identified and brought to the attention of am before the expiration of the warranty will be corrected As a warranty problem even after the expiration of the warranty and that therefore there is no Effort on the part of am to get you past the 12,000-mile warranty  naturally though the customer must be Able to prove he or she had complained about a problem and that the work had not been done. Therefore be sure to notify the company s warrant service about the problem by letter and keep a copy. Also keep copies of All warranty work orders that you Nave placed and any Bills for work done itemized list Ings of what was done parts ordered etc., during the warranty period. Duffy warns that any promised Extension of a Warran. To should be demanded in writing. Should for example a new car owner return to the states and expect to have such work taken care of How could he prove that the repair in question was still War Ranty covered if he had nothing in Black and White stating so for some reason the car companies Over Here see to be very reluctant to give such extensions in writing notes Duffy. In any Case according to cafes the engine Knock problem of the Graham car is on the Way to being solved but it has admittedly taken a bit of time. According to Petersen repeated efforts by am an the cafes garage before and after the customer s letter to stars and stripes failed to resolve the  Pitburg cafes garage and the am tech rep disagreed on the cause of the noise and its  resolve this matter the local cafes automotive operations manager was requested to inspect the car Andrender a decision. His decision was that while the engine noise was not fully identifiable the customer might a some time in the future need a new Short Block. Am accepted this decision and ordered a Short Block which Wasto be shipped from the . By water there is no danger in operation of the vehicle until the Short Block arrives. Cost of the Short Block is approximately $900. Air shipment would have been approximately $400 More. On arrival the Short Block will be installed at no Cost to the customer