Dealers taking priority to dropped/cancelled orders

[Jette]

I have seen a few threads pop up related to the dealerships taking delivery on dropped/cancelled orders or upselling a confirmed customer order; Also reading up on a few threads, it seems that the dealerships have some control over which orders they process. With those two piece of information; is it possible for them to prioritize orders that have been cancelled to increase revenue? I don't want this to be true because it would push all the confirmed customer orders back, but from a business perspective it make sense.

Is anyone else having such thoughts?

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[Monster1926]

The only way they can manipulate orders is if they 99 them. Do I think some really shady dealers are capable of doing this absolutely. I always thought if they really wanted to fuck you they can do it on your trade-in just lowball the shit out of you. Either you take it or leave the bronco. A lot of people are counting on pulling equity out of a used vehicle they have.

 

[martyb]

I would bet a lot of early reservation holders waiting for their VIN's were surreptitiously 99'd....

 

[Compta38]

Dealers don't decide what's built

 

[604Bronco]

The only way they can manipulate orders is if they 99 them. Do I think some really shady dealers are capable of doing this absolutely. I always thought if they really wanted to fuck you they can do it on your trade-in just lowball the shit out of you. Either you take it or leave the bronco. A lot of people are counting on pulling equity out of a used vehicle they have.

That’s why I got my trade-in value in writing, including no restrictions on the km’s I put on the vehicle between now and delivery. I drive low km’s anyways but still - This was peace of mind for me.

 

[West1]

I would bet a lot of early reservation holders waiting for their VIN's were surreptitiously 99'd....

Other than calling the dealership and trusting them to tell you the truth is there anyway to find out if your order has been coded "99"?

 

[HBTFD]

Other than calling the dealership and trusting them to tell you the truth is there anyway to find out if your order has been coded "99"?

Call ford marketing, they can see the priority code.

 

[RagnarKon]

Dealers ultimately can’t decide what’s built. They can, however, change priority codes which has a minor impact in deciding which orders are built first.

An order can be assigned a priority code number between 1 and 99. Orders with a 1 code are built ASAP. Orders with a 99 code are essentially “do not build”. Codes 1-9 are reserved—the dealer does not have the ability to set this code, it has to be set by Ford Corporate. Codes 10-19 are reserved for retail orders (aka: our orders). Codes 20 and up are used for everything else—stock orders, fleet orders, etc.

The 10-19 codes is really what the dealer can change. If they have a high-value customer, they can give their order a 10 code, while every else gets a 19 code. This makes it likely that the customer with a 10 code will have their vehicle built before a 19 code. However, this does NOT guarantee that a 10 order will be built before a 19 order. My dealer has all of their FE orders set to 10 with everything else set to 19. They have received two vehicles so far, neither of which were FE and both of which were set to priority 19.

A dealer can also sell abandoned orders. That is… orders that were manufactured and delivered to the dealer, but for whatever reason the customer never took it home. Usually when this happens it is because the customer failed their credit check and never got approved for a loan. But occasionally it happens for whatever other random reason you can think of... customer moves to a different state, customer just decides they want a different vehicle, who knows.

 

[Jette]

Dealers ultimately can’t decide what’s built. They can, however, change priority codes which has a minor impact in deciding which orders are built first.

An order can be assigned a priority code number between 1 and 99. Orders with a 1 code are built ASAP. Orders with a 99 code are essentially “do not build”. Codes 1-9 are reserved—the dealer does not have the ability to set this code, it has to be set by Ford Corporate. Codes 10-19 are reserved for retail orders (aka: our orders). Codes 20 and up are used for everything else—stock orders, fleet orders, etc.

The 10-19 codes is really what the dealer can change. If they have a high-value customer, they can give their order a 10 code, while every else gets a 19 code. This makes it likely that the customer with a 10 code will have their vehicle built before a 19 code. However, this does NOT guarantee that a 10 order will be built before a 19 order. My dealer has all of their FE orders set to 10 with everything else set to 19. They have received two vehicles so far, neither of which were FE and both of which were set to priority 19.

A dealer can also sell abandoned orders. That is… orders that were manufactured and delivered to the dealer, but for whatever reason the customer never took it home. Usually when this happens it is because the customer failed their credit check and never got approved for a loan. But occasionally it happens for whatever other random reason you can think of... customer moves to a different state, customer just decides they want a different vehicle, who knows.

Thanks for the update. This is a great summary of the priority code info.

 

[WatchYourSix]

According to Ford customer service, it doesn't matter what priority code between 10-19 a dealer sets, the system will still pull buildable orders based on reservation time stamp. That's what they said, at least...

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