Dealer used my reservation and ordered a Bronco without my permission, on hold with Ford customer care now! ?

[dblev]

The '6G Forum Posse' should do what Steve Bannon would. That is to assemble 'The War Room Posse' to inundate the phone/e-mail banks to have their grievance be heard.

A thread should be started> 'Inundate to Remediate' from every member of the '6G Forum Posse' to express this issue/'fraud'.

I've learned a bunch here from members and am thankful for the knowledge I've gained.

This must be an organized objective to stem a possible metastasizing event for Bronco rez. holders by Shady Ds'...

I am calling Ford Marketing today 800-334-4375

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[ZackDanger]

You are wrong on so many levels. Did Ford hit refresh on browser for an hour to place an order for first edition then wait 1-2 additional years because they were not prepared for the demand? What about those who wanted a different version now when I learned of the interior problem. I walked in to the dealer yesterday saying "to manyast minute changes I I will not place my order today but want to see some colors and discuss the vehicle. I told them I have until mid March to decide but not to worry because I'll have my order in far earlier. Have you ever taken an business ethics class? I have and as a business owner clearly see a big problem here. Especially when other dealerships agree!

I pulled your comment out of the quote to it's easily visible.

My point wasn't that they were *right* to do it, my point was that it may not have been a malicious act.

Obviously we have a spectrum of cases in this thread alone... some being people that woke up to find their order had been converted (what I was speaking to) and some who had their order converted after they told or implied to their dealer that it shouldn't be (yet).

 

[North7]

1. The customer holds a reservation with them specifically. Why would they hold that reservation with them if they didn't intend to purchase from them?

The rub is that so many people still have not had conversations about price and are planning to still being able to switch up until the March deadline. This is a totally reasonable thing for people to want to do... and dealerships should have anticipated this problem and done a better job communicating.

People have to be assigned to a dealer to start serious negotiations, when the dealer refuses to negotiate in good faith and demands markups, that is why the customer was supposed to be able to switch dealers up until March 19th. The unknowledgeable or unethical dealers who converted a customers reservation to an order, without their consent, have stolen the customers ability to do so.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity...

And the corollary is also true:

"Attribute to stupidity when your malice ways have been found out..."

 

[Headsong]

I can't disagree more. Maybe it is OK come early march with the customer consent but my early FE timestamp should guarantee me the Bronco I want with the year 2021 on it. I made not fuss of big deal and let the dealership with a printout of my already placed order. And a list of other orders. The sales manager clearly was playing dump. My salesman clearly saw red flags and was as confused as I. The man behind the tall desk and see through glass had also heard of brongo6g.com which I highly encouraged him to view. I bet consumer reports would love a story like this.

As Zack says, he never said it was right, and I don't either. Just explaining it from the dealer's perspective, assuming they're not up to no good, but believing they're doing what's best for the customer.

 

[toughtoaster]

Had this happen to me. Looks like my reservation was converted to an order as of yesterday. I did talk with my dealer yesterday and let the GM know that I was interested in ordering and he said the guy inputting the orders would give me a call. Surprise... no call yet. I was hoping to settle up on pricing before converting but I guess now all I can do is try to get them to commit now and come delivery I will just have to sit in the dealer seat all day if they don't give me the price I now command.

 

[ZackDanger]

I was told all their FE orders were processed together and Ford would contact me in a week for specific details. I have a very early time stamp. I am furious. This would have worked on a common Joe buyer but not someone who has followed the Bronco for over a decade and knows the buying process or anything about this new vehicle than the sales manager. I was going to downgrade away from then FE and build up a badlands to FE specs because if the Charlie Foxtrot Ford trying to make the FE "special"'.

This is pure unethical and I would never ever expect it from a dealershiop where I purchased multiple vehicles from, personally know the family etc. I should get interesting. How long be or some media outlet picks it up?!

I can't disagree more. Maybe it is OK come early march with the customer consent but my early FE timestamp should guarantee me the Bronco I want with the year 2021 on it. I made not fuss of big deal and let the dealership with a printout of my already placed order. And a list of other orders. The sales manager clearly was playing dump. My salesman clearly saw red flags and was as confused as I. The man behind the tall desk and see through glass had also heard of brongo6g.com which I highly encouraged him to view. I bet consumer reports would love a story like this.

@dblev

I'm confused to what you're furious about. With an FE reservation, you're guaranteed a MY21 FE. It doesn't matter when you get your order in (assuming its by the deadline).

Other dealers on this forum have stated that the FE ordering was a little screwed up and that they were going to wait to enter those orders because some options (like the black interior) weren't showing yet.

Sounds like your dealer was being an honest straight shooter with you.

Am I missing something?

::EDIT::

I keep rereading your post... are you saying that they placed an order without your consent for a FE? But you wanted a BL?

Agreed, they should not have converted your reservation to an order without your consent. We agree on that.

That said, as long as you were planning on purchasing from that dealer, that's okay... you can edit your order... even changing trims (if reports by other members are accurate).

Just know that by changing out of the FE, you're not guaranteed a MY21... but if you have a very early reservation, you should be okay assuming no commodity issues.

If you were still planning on shopping around.. then yeah... you and I feel the same way about it.

 

[xylophone solo]

Distraction ploy incoming.Predicting the 2022 colours come out reeeal soon now ,like today .... hey look over there,shiny gas cans.

 

[dblev]

The '6G Forum Posse' should do what Steve Bannon would. That is to assemble 'The War Room Posse' to inundate the phone/e-mail banks to have their grievance be heard.

A thread should be started> 'Inundate to Remediate' from every member of the '6G Forum Posse' to express this issue/'fraud'.

I've learned a bunch here from members and am thankful for the knowledge I've gained.

This must be an organized objective to stem a possible metastasizing event for Bronco rez. holders by Shady Ds'...

Agreed. People that follow this page are not the Shsepeople they think we are. I feel like I got a kick in the butt (not sure of forum swearing rules) and then pissed on as we realized what occurred. Before going to my dealer, I called 2 Rivers Ford in Nashville. They sell all ford's at invoice all the time and are no commission the same manager is a big follower of this group. Unlike you would expect he doesn't want to chitchat and get off the phone. He loves to talk Broncos. They sale at invoice but must charge the $450'dealer junk fee. However xplan people only have to pay $100. Now I feel like I have lost my right to select dealerships. My local dealer does own my RSVp. Things happen. People move, deploy, etc. This is why they allowed you to transfer RSVP. Again if you call, use the term "unethical business practices" as this is exactly what occurred. I believe dealerships should have to release our "order". Return our RSVP. Ford guarantee our spot in line if we choose to go elsewhere. Then the dealer needs to have their hands slammed in the form of lower allocation for gaming the system. Form better get ahead of this before I share this with Consumer Reports, Car n Driver or anyone that will listen all wrapped up in a neat understandable package. I never claimed the industry to have a reputation of honorsble business practices but when it hits close to home it hurts. My buddy wrote the CEO over the interior color crap and got a hand written apology which included that he was about to go into a meeting on the very topic. They will listen. Even Keep couldnt have orchestrated a better story

 

[BroncoBLMT]

For those that do not have an understanding why some are upset; I believe it is solely around the fact that reservationers are expecting the ability to negotiate and approve final pricing. It is my understanding the ability to change dealers is removed once a reservation is entered and "converted".

 

[dblev]

Had this happen to me. Looks like my reservation was converted to an order as of yesterday. I did talk with my dealer yesterday and let the GM know that I was interested in ordering and he said the guy inputting the orders would give me a call. Surprise... no call yet. I was hoping to settle up on pricing before converting but I guess now all I can do is try to get them to commit now and come delivery I will just have to sit in the dealer seat all day if they don't give me the price I now command.

Oh you must be far more aggressive as you have consumer rignts under the banner called "Business Ethics"! Call Ford marketing today and share your story. Most dealers have stated that the will not negotiate? Offer favorable financing, nothing. I don't blame them as they are in business to make money. However we also had the right to change Dealers so we can pay invoice or even go to the creepy west Virginia dealer. They knew this and ? on that right. Please call today

 

[dblev]

Agreed. People that follow this page are not the Shsepeople they think we are. I feel like I got a kick in the butt (not sure of forum swearing rules) and then pissed on as we realized what occurred. Before going to my dealer, I called 2 Rivers Ford in Nashville. They sell all ford's at invoice all the time and are no commission the same manager is a big follower of this group. Unlike you would expect he doesn't want to chitchat and get off the phone. He loves to talk Broncos. They sale at invoice but must charge the $450'dealer junk fee. However xplan people only have to pay $100. Now I feel like I have lost my right to select dealerships. My local dealer does own my RSVp. Things happen. People move, deploy, etc. This is why they allowed you to transfer RSVP. Again if you call, use the term "unethical business practices" as this is exactly what occurred. I believe dealerships should have to release our "order". Return our RSVP. Ford guarantee our spot in line if we choose to go elsewhere. Then the dealer needs to have their hands slammed in the form of lower allocation for gaming the system. Form better get ahead of this before I share this with Consumer Reports, Car n Driver or anyone that will listen all wrapped up in a neat understandable package. I never claimed the industry to have a reputation of honorsble business practices but when it hits close to home it hurts. My buddy wrote the CEO over the interior color crap and got a hand written apology which included that he was about to go into a meeting on the very topic. They will listen. Even Keep couldnt have orchestrated a better story

Correction. Typing fast out of anger. Unlike what you would expect. The sales manager DOES want to talk shop.and talk bronco. He appreciates this bronco for what it is rather than just a sale

 

[toughtoaster]

Oh you must be far more aggressive as you have consumer rignts under the banner called "Business Ethics"! Call Ford marketing today and share your story. Most dealers have stated that the will not negotiate? Offer favorable financing, nothing. I don't blame them as they are in business to make money. However we also had the right to change Dealers so we can pay invoice or even go to the creepy west Virginia dealer. They knew this and ? on that right. Please call today

I'll give the GM a chance to answer for his team before I go blowing up bridges. My family has been long term customers for them so I'll give them a chance to fix it.

 

[Natai]

Hot take.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity...

Hear me out.

From an otherwise ill-informed dealer's perspective these non-consensual conversions make total sense:

1. The customer holds a reservation with them specifically. Why would they hold that reservation with them if they didn't intend to purchase from them?

2. Orders converted before the March deadline are what is being used to calculate allocation. If a dealer has hundreds (or thousands!) of reservations, it's a huge task to physically enter them into the system and they'd want to get started as soon as possible.

3. Orders can be edited/changed for a while. They wont even get to scheduling for a while, and Ford has said they will reach out and let individuals know an estimated build date and any specific item that is causing a delay. Thus, dealers are *expecting* to have to go back and edit orders once the dust settles.

4. Orders can be cancelled (and now per Mike Levine, delayed) without penalty if done before the build is scheduled... so there's no downside for the dealer to converting it now if the customer decides they didn't want it after all, or wants to wait for MY22.



With those things in mind, it would seem reasonable to a dealer that the most logical thing is just batch convert all their reservations into orders as quick as they can. Get them in before the deadline because people are going to want to / be able to edit the orders for months to come.


The rub is that so many people still have not had conversations about price and are planning to still being able to switch up until the March deadline. This is a totally reasonable thing for people to want to do... and dealerships should have anticipated this problem and done a better job communicating.


I would like to think that this will all get sorted out... it's just going to be a super headache, and the question is, who's going to need the Advil.

$0.02

::EDIT::

I just want to be clear that I'm offering this perspective as a possible *explanation* for some of the behavior we've seen... not as an *excuse.*

Additionally, there is clearly a difference between people who woke up to find an order conversion, and dealers who converted orders after being told not to... my comments were speaking to the former.

Always a good axiom to remember.

However, in my humble opinion a dealer should NEVER be converting a reservation to an order (or in any way altering a customer's order) without the approval of the customer.

I understand the desire to get a jump on conversions to help with allocations, and I understand there could have been good intent. But touching a customer's reservation or order without their express consent is unethical in my opinion.

 

[martyb]

To his great credit, Mike Levine responded directly to my email to the dealer before my dealer did. He said he is on it and will get back to me.

 

[P52Ranch]

Hot take.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity...

Hear me out.

From an otherwise ill-informed dealer's perspective these non-consensual conversions make total sense:

1. The customer holds a reservation with them specifically. Why would they hold that reservation with them if they didn't intend to purchase from them?

2. Orders converted before the March deadline are what is being used to calculate allocation. If a dealer has hundreds (or thousands!) of reservations, it's a huge task to physically enter them into the system and they'd want to get started as soon as possible.

3. Orders can be edited/changed for a while. They wont even get to scheduling for a while, and Ford has said they will reach out and let individuals know an estimated build date and any specific item that is causing a delay. Thus, dealers are *expecting* to have to go back and edit orders once the dust settles.

4. Orders can be cancelled (and now per Mike Levine, delayed) without penalty if done before the build is scheduled... so there's no downside for the dealer to converting it now if the customer decides they didn't want it after all, or wants to wait for MY22.



With those things in mind, it would seem reasonable to a dealer that the most logical thing is just batch convert all their reservations into orders as quick as they can. Get them in before the deadline because people are going to want to / be able to edit the orders for months to come.


The rub is that so many people still have not had conversations about price and are planning to still being able to switch up until the March deadline. This is a totally reasonable thing for people to want to do... and dealerships should have anticipated this problem and done a better job communicating.


I would like to think that this will all get sorted out... it's just going to be a super headache, and the question is, who's going to need the Advil.

$0.02

::EDIT::

I just want to be clear that I'm offering this perspective as a possible *explanation* for some of the behavior we've seen... not as an *excuse.*

Additionally, there is clearly a difference between people who woke up to find an order conversion, and dealers who converted orders after being told not to... my comments were speaking to the former.

Three points.
If the dealer has converted these orders early with the excuse of "they have so many orders that they need to get a head start" that is at total B.S. argument. The dealers just proved that dozens or hundreds of reservations can be converted into orders in a matter of hours. The real effort is working with the customer to make sure they are ordering what they want.

I understand that when a specific model of Bronco is ordered (say a BD) that the order cannot be changed to a different model (say a BL). Instead the order must be cancelled. But since the reservation is already consumed cancelling the order then requires a new reservation where the customer is now at the back of the line six months behind where they started camping out. Same logic applies for someone still trying to find a dealer who is willing to negotiate on price.

Ford needs to resolve this by either 1) allowing a customer to cancel the Bronco order and still retain their original reservation date/time stamp. 2) allowing the customer to force Dealership and/or Bronco model changes on the order that has already been placed.

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