fastfords Posted October 4, 2007 Report Share Posted October 4, 2007 I posted yesterday but it is gone now. I have been unable to get an expected build date from the zone rep. Can anyone shed some light on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastfords Posted October 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 I was able to contact Ford customer service. They confirmed that the vehicle would be built this quarter. That is more information that the dealer was able to come up with. Once again Ford Motor takes a black eye due to crappy dealer customer service. Kinda hoping now that the deal does fall through. Way more effort than someone should have to expend to order a car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShelbyDude Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 I was able to contact Ford customer service. They confirmed that the vehicle would be built this quarter. That is more information that the dealer was able to come up with. Once again Ford Motor takes a black eye due to crappy dealer customer service. Kinda hoping now that the deal does fall through. Way more effort than someone should have to expend to order a car. That is because dealers are mostly left in the dark. Dealers typically get the same answers from Ford that you get from the dealer. If Ford doesn't tell the dealer anything then there is no way the dealer can tell you anything. Usually, unless the dealer's allocation is due to come up within the next month or two then the dealer has no way of finding out when they will get their allocation. The only answer the dealer can get from Ford is, nope! Not before such and such month. Check back after that. I wasn't able to find out when we were getting our allocation on ours until about 6 weeks ago and was told sometime in Oct. We were told to get our order in just this past Monday. Prior to 6 weeks ago they could not tell us when we would get our allocation because they said they did not know yet. Everyone here probably already knows more about the Bullitt coming out for Job 2 than what the majority of the dealers know. There has not been any updates or announcements from Ford on this to the dealers. The only thing there is for a dealer to know anything is IF the dealer happens to pull up the new updated order guide on Mustangs that was just posted. That is the only place that has any info at all pertaining to the new Bullitt coming out which only the spec's on what comes with that package. The dealers are the LAST to know about almost anything that is released from Ford. Ford will release it to the press and public days to weeks before telling the dealers anything. This is why it is common that a consumer will walk into a dealership and inquiry on something new coming out and just get that dear in the headlights look from the dealer, because the dealer has not been informed or told anything from Ford about it. Yet Ford tells the press and the public long before telling their dealers. Dealers have been complaining about this for years. Ford keeps promising to correct this by keeping the dealers informed ahead of time, but so far they have not done this. Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of dealers that should know things after Ford has finally informed them about it where some are still in the dark about it, but in most cases anything new is told to the press and public long before it is told to the dealers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastfords Posted October 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 And they expect to be competitive in todays car market???? I have to say, I think Ford Motor overestimates their captive audience. I used to be a lifelong blue oval loyal buyer. I can tell you that the treatment of myself and many others by dealers and the factory has erased that. You may say that other manufacturers will give the same results. My answer is simple, just walk away. Find a vehicle and a dealer that meets your needs and give them your patronage. I think maybe they are forgetting who needs who in this equation. Maybe the 26% decline in Mustang sales will clue them in? At this point, I would be open to purchasing a vehicle from manufacturers that I previously considered inferior.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShelbyDude Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 And they expect to be competitive in todays car market???? Yeah, right! Get this. The new 08 Focus coming out. They will offer sync on this car. Sync is tied to the steering wheel with having controls on it for this feature along with having the cruise control. BUT!!!!! Sync will be late availability on this car. Sooooooo, guess what? Since there won't be any sync available, there won't be any cruise control available either! Sync and cruise control come as a packaged option. Now what kind of sense does that make???? I guess this is how they move along with their way forward plan! Only they keep getting way behind instead! Always a day late and dollar short! I guess it is to much trouble to order steering wheels with cruise only so unless you get sync you can't get cruise! Since sync is not available yet, you can't get cruise yet either. Must be cheaper just to order standard steering wheels with no controls at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShelbyDude Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 Here is a thread from the dealers message boards complaining about allocation problems. This will give you an idea of what dealers are going through. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So here I sit with 2 sold fleet orders that have sat since 07/09/07 and am told MAYBE they MIGHT be picked next week. And why are we shutting down the Kentucky plant for 7 weeks? If you build it we can deliver it. To shut down without filling sold orders IS STUPID AND SHOULD BE CRIMINAL. Who ever makes these types of decisions should be out of a job. I can't believe a dealership would close the door on a customer that ws ready to take delivery! ================ Here... here. I had a sold, city government fleet order that they sat on for 60 days before they finally submitted it and now it's been sitting idle for 12 days. And I have another fleet order of 3 vehicles for one client that hasen't had a thing done to it for 57 days while they go ahead and build a non-sold stock order in that same amount of time. And then they submit 3 sold "retail" units in the span of 3/4 weeks. Sounds like they don't care about fleet orders? Thank goodness I have my fleet accounts sign off on a "term & conditions" adendum to their order letting them know we can't quarantee exact delivery times. ================ I ordered a regular cab F-250 4X4 for a government unit ordered 4/26 schedule date 9/16 now produced. cv P71 ordered 5/29 scheduled 10/01. Thank goodness these people still talk to me. Even drink beer with me. ================ Do you guys thinnk anyone even cares about the dealer body any more? HEY PEOPLE, WAKE UP WE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS. IF THE DEALERBODY GOES AWAY YOU DO NOT HAVE JOBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ================ Last August I had a Freestar ordered for Joliet, Il. Could not get build unless I added alum. wheels which would not meet w/ city approval. Ford would not pony up $185.00 to make the deal. Production stopped at year end so the truck would not get built. Solution: sell a stock unit and FMC kicked back $3200+ to make it possible (thank God) Too bad they couldn't spare $185.00 in October...... ================ Ordered a X20 F 250 for a govt. body in early April, received in early Sept. Had a bad rear axle assembly. Not in stock at Ford had to wait a week for complete assembly. What a way to go Ford. ================ I have 6 X21's with gas engines for a 56A account that have been sitting since July. I had lost this customer 5 years ago to GE CAp and hve just gotten them back, now this. By the way I also ordered 5 F150's at the same time for the same customer and they have all been produced and delivered. ================ I ordered an Escape 8-20. As of this morning showing "unscheduled/ clean." Asked Ford rep about it and he couldn't give me an answer. It is supposed to be pulled this week, while another stock unit ordered after it already has been built. Can someone please tell us what is going on. ================ Ford is not building F or X body styles on superduty. They only want to build W. They say retail will get pulled. I have 10 56A vans to be built and nothing yet. Ed try retail sold and then reinvoice. They will build retail. Our Ford rep said no on these body types till mid Nov for stock. Plus they have cut way back on production. God help us all if they go on strick like GM. ================ I don't think we would notice any difference if they went on strike. Funny thought... Years ago I worked for Porsche/Audi. I got tired of the Germans not listening and doing things their way because they knew best. We seem to be running into that same attitude at home! ================ Sad fact, they seem to be spiraling into the pit. Circling the drain. This mornings commodity sheet shows 20" Wheels on Expedition at 19% DNE. Below this, in bold print it states: "For week 38, Expedition orders with an 18" or 20" tire (T21, T22, T5P) will not be selected for scheduling. Please enter orders with a 17" tire." So what is it, we do or don't have 20" available? It would sure be nice to get my unscheduled RETAIL Expeditions with 20" wheels built. ================ Welcome to the fun, fun world of commodity controls! Spin the wheel to see what goes on hold and what comes off! As a bonus, Ford will announce a commodity control on a hot button option for your retail unit at 3pm on FRIDAY! Hope you catch it! Gotta love those "A" units! =O ================ HA! *maniacal laughter* You just TRY to get a Mustang built with the 18" wheels!! "sorry, sir, i KNOW it's in the brochure, but if you want this Mustang in this model year, you must stick with the (ugly, let's face it) 17"'ers." Honestly, I really thing most of the people I try to explain this to think I'm full of it. Or, how about an Expedition EL with the 20"s? Just got the one I ordered in, oh, *MAY* for my owner two days ago. I get used to getting yelled at by people that can't understand why I can't just call somebody and get it built.... LOL ================ I ordered an X21 in March 2007 (VSO Yellow) along with others for the same Fleet customer. It received a vin in July and in Sept I was told to cancel it and re-order! I couldn't get a better explanation than "there is a problem." The others are already delivered. ================ The only things that should hold a unit in the order bank for an extended period are high priority, commodity issues, plant shut downs or low wholesale allocation for the production cycle. I watch these pretty carefully and don't usually have any issues with production. If you get into a pinch and your Regional Rep is worth anything, you can call them and plead your case and sometimes they can contact other Dealers in the Region and "borrow" a unit or two from them to help fill your need. You need to be willing to reciprocate in the future because we are all in the same boat. If you get help this month, you may need to give help next month. I can't speak for the Fleet side. It seems to me they get their orders a lot quicker than the Retail side does. That seems to be true especially early in the Production Year. ================ Problem with the wheels, Celeste, is that they're having so many issues with transferring Tire Pressue Monitoring bands to aftermarket wheels because the customer wants 20" wheels that they can't get from Ford... Things that make you go Hmmmmmm..... WTF? (wheels through Ford) ================ you make a good point. Problem is though that when you tell a customer it's going to be a while due to whatever commodity issue is at hand, they go to another store and some jack-donkey will tell them "no problem, have it for you in 6 weeks." I can relate to having to TRY and explain why the week I had an allocation for ONE Navigator was one of the weeks there were no 20" wheels for the Dealer's Demo ("well, just refuse to take it then..."). ================ Or when the order I placed for a Escape Hybrid in February was here in about 10 weeks, and yet the order I placed for one in July (for my sister, who was a die-hard Toyota driver, no less) can't get allocated, so I can't tell her when the vehicle might even be scheduled.. ================ And by the way, if anyone can tell me who to call... as in, "Can't you call someone at the factory and tell them to put the tan running boards on my Lariat F150, even though it's not in the book unless I order a King Ranch?" or "Can't you call and have it built this week? Or can your boss call them?" Who the hell is it I'm supposed to call?? I order the unit (JUST as you wanted, sir, the day we sat down and specc'ed it out), submit it to the order bank, call the rep and tell him I need it ASAP... what else do you want me to do? Anyone know who this "Somebody" is and just where I may reach them? (heehee) ================ This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Somebody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done =============== Who's on 1st? =============== so...is Anybody in charge of getting allocation? Or is it Nobody? =============== From what I keep hearing, it's Somebody.... but Somebody just got blamed for not doing it... lol... Did I get that right? What do I win?! A Focus with cruise control?? =============== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 Wow! How do they stay in business?? Dude... here's a well-deserved break - :beerchug: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SVTregistry Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 don't you love the element of surprise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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