So funny story. I thought I'd drop it here since I detailed the rest of my buyback story.
After the buyback, I swore I'd never buy another Ford, and just kept using our 2 cars to drag my family everywhere we needed to as a large group. 3 kids, 2 adults, 2 dogs, chairs and etc for the kids sporting event, so we had to take 2 cars. Fast forward months, I was looking at buying a Jeep Grand Wagoneer and after living on their forums for a while decided they are more F'd up than Ford is right now. So for SnG I stopped at my old dealer (who took amazing care of us while going thru the buyback BS) just to see what they had. Long story short (at least this part, the funny part is coming up), we drove home a 2023 Expedition Timberline. The staff at THAT dealer is the ONLY reason I am back in another Ford. Great deal and LOW year end interest rates helped :-D
So anyway, I grabbed my phone and popped open the Ford Pass app, I hadn't opened in a long time, since before the buyback was done, and went to add the Family Destroyer 2000 (what my 12yr old named it... I swear SHE is going to be a serial killer...) and there is the old explorer. Being an IT guy I thought to myself, "self, I bet if I click on the old truck I'll get an error, I wonder if it will be a connectivity error or an access error?". So I did and behold it opened. Not only could I see that the NEW OWNERS of this PoS buyback nightmare had taken it in for service twice in the 2 months they have owned it but that they lived REALLY close to me. Surely this had to be a mistake, right? So I jumped in my car and drove down the road and there it sat as per the geolocating said.
So not only did a dealer get my buyback and resell it (I understand business, it just seems.. dirty to me) but that dealer did not reset the vehicle before they sold it. I called my attorney to see if this was some sort of breach of privacy on all sides and he said as long as someone didn't do damage or harm based on the geolocation that the app provided then... no.
I called Ford customer server and nicely but directly questioned WTF! and wanted to make sure that nobody was tracking my new car... because... why couldn't someone? I mean, think about it, you buy a car after others have taken on a test drive, who knows if they have or have not added it to a Ford Pass app on a pre-paid phone, then could follow you home, or wait until Christmas, follow you around and unlock your car and steal all your stuff when you go get dinner or something. I mean I am not crazy here right???
Customer service said that they could see my still attached to my old explorer as are the new owners, I deleted my old explorer during the call and made SURE she could not see anyone else attached to my new vehicle.
All this to say, MAKE SURE you reset your vehicles when you buy one used OR new... and as an IT guy I can say this is HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE consumer privacy policies and practices. If this were a bank, hospital, credit company... they could be sued hard, but since they are "just" a car company it seems these policies don't matter as much. /SMH
Good luck to everyone here, and stay safe.
