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Cargo Privacy Cover


Beta Don
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For those of you considering buying this OEM Ford accessory for your passenger wagons, I'll relate my experience with it and maybe save you some time, trouble and expense

Our last 4 or 5 vehicles have all been hatchbacks and they all came with this 'accessory' as standard equipment.  It covers the cargo area behind the rear seats which allows you to store valuables in the car out of sight of anyone looking in the windows to see what you're carrying.  On our hatchbacks, the cover is tethered to the rear hatchback so when you open the hatch, the cover raises for easy access to the cargo area.  Not so with the TC

This accessory is $135 plus tax from your Ford dealer.  It comes with a 3 page 'installation manual which is supposed to be in English, Spanish and French  -  The 'Congratulations, you just purchased . . . . ' part is in all 3 languages, but the actual instructions use no language at all and are just a series of 'universally understood' drawings with no instructions necessary  -  "We have made every effort to ensure that the Cargo Shade Kit is top quality in terms of fit, durability, finish and ease of installation.  After more than an hour of trying to figure out how to make it work, it's going back to Ford this morning

It's two pieces, which in the drawings are clearly held together by the hinges which allow the back half to both fold backwards onto the top half and then fold forward when the back half is raised, but the one we received have hinges which fall apart every time you try to use it and they added a pair of permanently installed straps not show in the drawings which keep the two pieces from getting completely separated.  Ours is obviously a factory defect, because the hinges will not allow it to move into the positions shown in the drawings

IMHO, this is a clunky, unworkable attempt at an easily usable cover  -  Even if it did work as designed, I'm not sure I'd want to use it as it's more trouble than it's worth  -  At $141 including tax, it's definitely not worth the trouble, at least to me.  Generally, Ford does not allow returns on purchased accessories and they warned me of that when I bought it, but since it doesn't function as the drawing suggest it should, it's going back!

I'll let you know what happens when I return it

Don

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Well, they agreed it was a factory defect and "We'll order you another one"  -  I said I didn't want another one, I wanted my money back.  "We don't do that on accessories"

I ended up talking to the manager who said he would try to see if they could send it back to Ford, and if so, they'd give me back my money.  He called me back at the end of the day and said that Ford had agreed to give him back my money and he would refund it to me . . . . less 10% for a restocking fee  -  I'm paying about $15 so they can restock a factory defective OEM accessory  :cry:  The box had been opened and retaped closed when we got it  -  I'm pretty sure it had been 'restocked' before

Time to find me a new Ford dealer  -  Sadly, this one was 5 miles from my home and the new one will be 15 miles, but that's the price I'll have to pay to deal with someone I can trust.  The new dealer allows you to return anything you order for a 15% restocking fee  -  This other guy claims he can't return *anything* to Ford (he even had to get special permission to send back my factory defect) so if I need any further accessories, I'll be buying from them

Don

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Well, any 'restocking fee' on a defective part seems a bit much to me  -  If I had opted for them to get me  replacement, the defective part would have been returned with no fee.  Refunding all my money would have been the simplest thing for them to do, but when you have a chance to put the screws to a new, first time Ford owner, you just can't pass that up, evidently

When I spoke to the dealer manager, he said the fee would only be 10%  -  Not the 15% the other dealer charges.  When I actually went in for my money, it was 20% and not the 10% he told me over the phone.  I'll chalk it up to a learning experience.  I've never owned a Ford of any kind before, so I was kinda 'shopping' for a Ford dealer.  My last 4 vehicles were all Mazdas and the good news is, our local Mazda dealer is also a Ford dealer.  They are twice as far from my home as this dealer is, but I'm never going there again.  I'll get my warranty work and recalls done from the Mazda dealer, but my plans to use the local Ford dealership for oil changes and tire rotations will have to be changed  -  Too far to drive for everyday things.  It cost me about 30 bucks to find out the local guy isn't the dealer I want to do business with.  Small price to pay I guess

I probably will buy more things on-line in the future and forego having to deal with the parts department

Don

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