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Showing posts from January, 2010

A tale of two mother in laws, Part 2

Meanwhile out in rural Berkshire at Gran #2, my own mother's Fiesta sits abandoned. And, apparently there are similar Fiestas in the same situation all over the UK with some 20+ in one dealership in the Borders if sources are correct. The problem? An "EAC fail" message is the electronic accelerator control system fault warning but it can often flag a code in the main engine management self-diagnosis system too. Once you work out what to type into Google you get loads of results (for example, honest john #1 , honest john #2 , ford_fiesta_common_problems_and_solutions , askabout #1 , SA Ford Owners , another one , just answer #1 , just answer #2 , just answer #3 , just answer #4 ). It is possible to deduce from this jumble that Ford or at least Ford dealers appear not to have a clue about this issue and its impacts on owners; where information may have been circulated to attempt to deal with it they appear incompetent in either finding that information or working through

A tale of two mother in laws, Part 1

When these things happen to you or those you hold dear you somehow hope that they will turn out differently and that the anonynous powers that be that hold the health, security, wealth and happiness of your nearest and dearest in the palm of their hands will turn out not to be as in so many conspiracy theories, consumer magazines, fellow blogs et al. You hope, with no great confidence it must be said, that the reassurance offered by these global brands will deliver your relatives from the frustration, undated and anonymous letters, obfuscation, contact ping-pong and other quasi bureaucratic devices deployed to delay, depress and deter those who are actually their customers. The architect of Sears-Roebuck's rise to become a great retailer was Julius Rosenwald, who once remarked, "My ambition is to stand on both sides of the counter at once." We strive for that; would that these others would do the same. The overlapping stories of the mother-in-laws begin aorund the same