Gotta Vent about My Order

[clrsky]

My car was built on 10/01 and has been awaiting transit since then. It was originally estimated delivery date of 10/21. The 22nd, that estimated date disappeared from COTUS. I called the dealer and they are "looking into it". I called Ford Customer service on Friday 10/24 and they said they were going to have a regional rep call me and put a trace on the car. Whats up with this??? I am beginning to wonder if it is sitting on a rail car somewhere trying to get to south FL. Has anyone else in South FL gotten their car yet?

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[blue]

I'm a Realtor. I sell old houses, resale properties and BRAND NEW HOMES that haven't been built yet. It is my job to know about, and relay to my client, every speed bump that we encounter along the way. I don't make excuses. If I don't have an answer, I FIND IT!! It's expected of me when people are trusting me with huge amounts of money, including their life savings. There is nothing wrong with expecting good information or service from someone. When you don't have the answer, you freaking find it. Because I'm in sales too, I won't settle for less than I'm willing to give. I'd rather be honest and disappoint someone, than lie or give misinformation and disappoint someone. I'm dealing with a lot more money with a house than a 40K car. If a salesman doesn't have an answer, he should skip his next smoke break and get one. And Ford should be willing to give it. If it's going to take a year, say it! If you run out of materials, say it! and let every salesman know it, via a meeting or bulletin. To have to get online and search for answers when you are spending money is ludicrous. Just my two cents. But hey, I care about my clients' needs.

 

[ArabianOak]

YES! Nice answer Blue and XX.

And the answer is simple Rising Force...if the dealer TELLS us the car will be there in 6-8 weeks, then he needs to stand by his word. He sells cars for Ford, therefore he is a representative of there company.

Lying to customers is never good business.

This forum is a great example of how angry and pissed off customers get when they are constantly lied to. They need to rename the site from Mustang6g to MustangFme.

How many more will we see come on here and tell the same story? These cute little ford gals can tell us to PM them and all that jazz but what do they really do?

If they wanted to really impact the way things worked they would start printing out all these threads and handing them over to the ford execs. Maybe they don't care, but they should.

 

[Bucky69]

Customer Service!! I stand by my previous post elsewhere:

I've worked in manufacturing for over 25 years and this is a terrible example of customer service.

The basic rules of good customer service dictate:

1. Don't lie to customers (it will bite you in the ass).
2. Give customers an honest answer as to why their product is on hold.
3. Don't ever say "we have no idea when the quality hold will be lifted".
If you don't know why, get off your butt and find out why. If the plant manager doesn't want the reason out there, then tell the customer it's a quality hold and they are working to resolve it.
4. Give the customer your professional "best guess as to when" and follow up with the customer in a week. Do not make him come to you again.

Bottom line, if you are honest with customers, they will stay with you. BS doesn't fly in the customer service world. The competition is just too high out there.

Sorry to ramble....end of rant.

 

[aspensilver]

Agree w/ bucky and blue

 

[ArabianOak]

Customer Service!! I stand by my previous post elsewhere:

I've worked in manufacturing for over 25 years and this is a terrible example of customer service.

The basic rules of good customer service dictate:

1. Don't lie to customers (it will bite you in the ass).
2. Give customers an honest answer as to why their product is on hold.
3. Don't ever say "we have no idea when the quality hold will be lifted".
If you don't know why, get off your butt and find out why. If the plant manager doesn't want the reason out there, then tell the customer it's a quality hold and they are working to resolve it.
4. Give the customer your professional "best guess as to when" and follow up with the customer in a week. Do not make him come to you again.

Bottom line, if you are honest with customers, they will stay with you. BS doesn't fly in the customer service world. The competition is just too high out there.

Sorry to ramble....end of rant.

Yes! This is exactly why I told the dealer to get me another car ASAP or I wanted my deposit back and to cancel the order.

Now i'm driving a ruby red GT with PP and couldn't be happier!

 

[Seabee1973]

The salesguy may represent Ford products but honestly folks, each dealership is a franchise.... they represent their own dealership... some are crooked, some are honest, many are misinformed or lack the knowledge, most want your money, the sales guy wants his commissions which he does not get until sale and delivery is set. I don't understand how a person can sit there and blame Ford when it was the dealership that gave you the wrong info....also keep in mind if the dealership were Ford owned, don't you think that every dealer would offer xplans versus selective ones like we have now? It's not Ford's fault on that... it is the dealer

 

[RisingForce]

No dealer tells you exactly what day or week your ordered vehicle will arrive.
Rule of thumb is in AVERAGE , a vehicle takes 6-8 weeks from order to delivery.

However there are always exceptions that lead to delay that are out of dealers control.
Keep in mind that a dealer can not contact every single customer on every single order to keep them update as they go forward.
We are on top of our game. But when there's no info from Ford , the answer will be ITS DELAYED. Dealer can not predict how close each vehicle is to completion or even delivery for that matter. Once the built vehicle has left plant it could be a huge headache to find why a vehicle that left a plant 80 miles from dealer , still hasn't arrived after 4 weeks. We get frustrated cause ford won't give us any answers and then we have to deal with s customer who wants his vehicle and thinks we are fools for not knowing what is going on.

No dealer would on purpose withhold any information and try to further delay a delivery. It's our business to get the vehicle as fast as possible and get it to the customer ASAP.

Of course it's easier for you guys to just see it your way cause you don't deal with it daily.

There are some dealers out there that make up stories instead of just telling the truth and tell the customer that as far as they know Ford hasn't released any info out the whereabouts of an ordered vehicle. That's completely dealers fault.

In the end , if you hear the 8-10 weeks and take that ETA that seriously on a hot commodity that keeps getting hit with delays , shame on you. Reading around this forum most should be educated enough to know that dealer has no power on producing your vehicle faster and no control over how random Fords system is with building vehicles. No first come first serve.

 

[RisingForce]

What does Fords money and training have ANYTHING to do with delays CAUSED by FORD?
We sell the products as we get it from them. If there's a delay we have no control over it.
Do you get mad at your local GameStop when Sony delays a game indefinitely? With your analogy it's GameStops fault cause they are representing Sonys games.

And as far as our customer service and providing them with info , we do the best we can. We always pass on info to them as we receive it. But when we keep calling Ford and they have no clue why a Navigator that has been shipped is still in transit 4 weeks later, we look like fools even though we are trying to best to get info for customer.

 

[blue]

LOL. A testosterone filled peepee contest. LOL

So, Ford should or shouldn't communicate better with the dealerships that sell their products? Yes or no?

 

[RisingForce]

LOL. A testosterone filled peepee contest. LOL

So, Ford should or shouldn't communicate better with the dealerships that sell their products? Yes or no?

Not a contest. Just explaining our side of the story that you don't see.


Ford tries to communicate with dealers. Could they do a better job , yes.
Are there dealers who make up lies as they go? Yes.
But at the end of the day, even Ford doesn't have the ability to produce every single mustang for all the members here during one week to reduce the stress it's causing some if you.

 

[blue]

You answered my question. I haven't asked for crap.. LOL I just feel sorry for people that need questions answered, and can't even get that. That is pathetic. I, personally, would move to another dealership to find someone that knew what they were doing, and could at the very least, answer my questions. If Ford won't tell them, that's where the disconnect is. Maybe we agree.

 

[FASTBACK 50]

My tale of woe

I ordered my car on July 23rd. My dealer told me that Ford wasn't taking my actual order into their system until sometime in September so I went through a number of feature add-ons - especially when they finally came out with the lease details and I found I could afford more car with a lower monthly payment. I was also assured that all my changes would NOT change my place/priority in line.

So my order finally ended up being:
Ecoboost Fastback Auto
Ruby Red
200A
Performance Package
50 Years Appearance
Enhanced Security
Reverse Sensing Sys
Adaptive Cruise Control
Voice Activated Nav

I stopped altering my order around the first of October since my dealer said that Ford was getting ready to put it into their build lineup.

I then waited, and called for three weeks. The dealer couldn't tell my anything so I obsessively checked cotusb.com. My car was in their system (yeah) but there was not action being taken. Finally on October 20th I got my VIN. Now my understanding is that when you get your VIN your car goes into production right away. Not so in my case. I waited and checked. Nothing.

On October 30th my dealer calls to tell me that I finally have a build date... on November 24th! A whole month away. Five weeks AFTER my VIN number was assigned. Based on Fords standard process my car should already be built and in transit.

So now I might get it a week before Christmas or around New Years.

Now, I'm definitely not happy about the delayed gratification of getting my car but I have a much bigger problem with this whole process. I have a current lease that expired in October with a one month extension that ends at the end of November. Before the delay the transition between cars was going to be tight but now it's impossible.

My dealer told me that the reason for Fords build delay was due to supplier problems. Ford isn't getting the parts in time, or to specs, or something. Basically they can't build the cars because they don't have the parts. Since others are getting their cars I can only assume it's a specific part that belongs to one of the features that I ordered but others didn't. So if I hadn't ordered the fancy whizz-bang-doo-hicky thingy then I'd have my car sooner than later.

Getting my car much later than I want? I've come to begrudging terms with it.
Walking 20 miles to work and back for a month?? No F'ng way.

I'll add one more issue I have (if you've gotten this far). I chose both the Performance Package AND the 50 years Appearance Package which BOTH come with upgraded wheels. Individually you are paying for a new set of wheels so logically when you order both packages you are paying for TWO sets of wheels. Since I'm only getting one set of wheels on my car then I believe the logical conclusion is that I should get some sort of reduction in one of the packages whose wheels I'm not getting. This may apply to the tires too. Ford is charging twice for a single item. Sounds like a great way to treat your customers.

End of rant.

 

[Drazen96]

There is no discount for pp and 50 package. Yup you got it goes is double charging you and keeps the profit

 

[FASTBACK 50]

My tale of woe

I ordered my car on July 23rd. My dealer told me that Ford wasn't taking my actual order into their system until sometime in September so I went through a number of feature add-ons - especially when they finally came out with the lease details and I found I could afford more car with a lower monthly payment. I was also assured that all my changes would NOT change my place/priority in line.

So my order finally ended up being:
Ecoboost Fastback Auto
Ruby Red
200A
Performance Package
50 Years Appearance
Enhanced Security
Reverse Sensing Sys
Adaptive Cruise Control
Voice Activated Nav

I stopped altering my order around the first of October since my dealer said that Ford was getting ready to put it into their build lineup.

I then waited, and called for three weeks. The dealer couldn't tell my anything so I obsessively checked cotusb.com. My car was in their system (yeah) but there was not action being taken. Finally on October 20th I got my VIN. Now my understanding is that when you get your VIN your car goes into production right away. Not so in my case. I waited and checked. Nothing.

On October 30th my dealer calls to tell me that I finally have a build date... on November 24th! A whole month away. Five weeks AFTER my VIN number was assigned. Based on Fords standard process my car should already be built and in transit.

So now I might get it a week before Christmas or around New Years.

Now, I'm definitely not happy about the delayed gratification of getting my car but I have a much bigger problem with this whole process. I have a current lease that expired in October with a one month extension that ends at the end of November. Before the delay the transition between cars was going to be tight but now it's impossible.

My dealer told me that the reason for Fords build delay was due to supplier problems. Ford isn't getting the parts in time, or to specs, or something. Basically they can't build the cars because they don't have the parts. Since others are getting their cars I can only assume it's a specific part that belongs to one of the features that I ordered but others didn't. So if I hadn't ordered the fancy whizz-bang-doo-hicky thingy then I'd have my car sooner than later.

Getting my car much later than I want? I've come to begrudging terms with it.
Walking 20 miles to work and back for a month?? No F'ng way.

I'll add one more issue I have (if you've gotten this far). I chose both the Performance Package AND the 50 years Appearance Package which BOTH come with upgraded wheels. Individually you are paying for a new set of wheels so logically when you order both packages you are paying for TWO sets of wheels. Since I'm only getting one set of wheels on my car then I believe the logical conclusion is that I should get some sort of reduction in one of the packages whose wheels I'm not getting. This may apply to the tires too. Ford is charging twice for a single item. Sounds like a great way to treat your customers.

End of rant.

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