Complaint 1956266

Complaint Summary

FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM

Owner Narrative

I bought this vehicle in 2018. For the next 6 years, I lived in an area where I was unable to plug it in to a wall to charge, so used it as a hybrid. Now, I have a house and when I plugged it in for several hours, it melted the plug and nearly started an electrical fire. Upon further investigation, I found the serial number to the charger that was included with purchase as the factory-issued charger, matches a known recall due to fire safety hazard, but my VIN does *not* match the recall. At the time of purchase I was informed the charger was not the factory original but "everything would be okay." I have contacted the dealership that sold it to me and they won't take responsibility for not only selling me a faulty piece of charging equipment, but also failing to inform me about a recall that impacted it, and only through sheer luck and me noticing the outlet was starting to melt, it didn't start an electrical fire in my house. Ford also refuses to take responsibility for it. My local Ford dealership confirmed that it's a recalled charger, but also said they can't process the recall because my VIN doesn't match it, and confirmed it was not the correct charger to be sold with that car. I already had the electrical outlet replaced, and didn't realize at the time that there may be a recall issue with the charger, but the charger is visibly scorched and melted and I can also get the statement from the electrician that the outlet was scorched. I can't afford to replace the charger, and Ford refuses to help me correct their mistake - which was both expensive and created a serious safety hazard for me. NOTE: File upload feature is not working, but I have photographs of the melted charger and it's serial number

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.