Did my dealer convert my reservation to an order without telling me?

[southbroadway]

I made a reservation at my local dealership on Thursday 3/4. Emailed over my specs same day and have not heard back from them yet. Logged into my ford account and see "in-store order" "order date 3/5" and an order number. Never talked about any numbers with my dealership. Did they place an order without my permission? I realize I have an extremely late reservation date but the principle of it puts a bad taste in my mouth considering I was planning on tweaking my build and potentially transferring to another dealership. I thought I was supposed to talk numbers BEFORE the order is placed? There might be additional hoops to jump through now to get everything straightened out. Can someone help me make sense of this? I am not very car savvy.

Sponsored

 

[ZackDanger]

Yes. Your dealer “converted” your reservation into an order without your consent.

You are not the first nor the last person to experience this. Literally hundreds of pages about this very situation on this forum.

Short answer: If you’re otherwise happy working with the dealer, and willing to overlook their action, it’s a trivial matter for them to modify your order if they didn’t submit it correctly or you want to changed things. Easiest thing to do at this point would be to sit down, agree on price, and have them provide you the printout of the order so you know it’s exactly what you want.

Longer answer: If you would like to switch dealers because you want a different one, or you have a better deal elsewhere, you can... but it involves Ford customer service and coordinating with corporate to make a new reservation and getting your reservation timestamp transferred by hand. People have been working to get that to happen for months and things have finally started moving. It seems like Ford has figured out how to accomplish this on their end reliably and things are moving faster.

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...on-on-hold-with-ford-customer-care-now.11466/

 

[southbroadway]

Yes. Your dealer “converted” your reservation into an order without your consent.

You are not the first nor the last person to experience this. Literally hundreds of pages about this very situation on this forum.

Short answer: If you’re otherwise happy working with the dealer, and willing to overlook their action, it’s a trivial matter for them to modify your order if they didn’t submit it correctly. Easiest thing to do would be to sit down, agree on price, and have them provide you the printout of the order so you know it’s exactly what you want.

Longer answer: If you would like to switch dealers you can, but it involves Ford customer service and coordinating with corporate to make a new reservation and getting your reservation timestamp transferred by hand. People have been working to get that to happen for months and things have finally started moving. It seems like Ford has figured out how to accomplish this on their end reliably and things are moving faster.

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...on-on-hold-with-ford-customer-care-now.11466/

Thanks for this info! Do you think it's worth it to get my timestamp transferred over rather than just make a new one? Like I said the initial reservation was only a few days ago I can't imagine it would make much of a difference at this point.

 

[ZackDanger]

Thanks for this info! Do you think it's worth it to get my timestamp transferred over rather than just make a new one? Like I said the initial reservation was only a few days ago I can't imagine it would make much of a difference at this point.

From what we’ve seen it takes for Ford to transfer converted orders... I would absolutely just make a new reservation (with a different dealer) if I were you. Either the dealer you want to buy from or one you speak to who understands not to convert it until you talk price (and also so you can move it if you want).

Because your original reservation is now an order, it can only be cancelled by the dealer that converted it. I would call them up, let them know how unhappy you are.

You can then either:

1. Demand they cancel your order so you can get your $100 back or you’re speaking to your lawyer or,

2. Use this as leverage to negotiate a deal for them to keep you as a customer.

Your reservation is so late you’re easily looking at a 2022 model year (MY22) Bronco, and we’re not exactly sure yet how dealer stock will work that far out, but you should remind the dealer that this is *your* reserved Bronco and *your* money to take where *you* want. I.E., if you walk away with your reservation it’s not actually a Bronco sitting on their lot they can just sell to someone else... it’s already your Bronco. You have both things in this deal, the money and the Bronco to sell.

Does that make sense?

Good luck!

 

[Drex]

So you tagged then with your reservation, sent them the build you wanted. Was there any text along with the build (or just sent a pdf.) maybe along the lines of 'this is what I want to order'? I don't think it is necessarily unreasonable for the dealer to assume your actually wanted them to order it. Did you specifically ask them about pricing in whatever limited contact you had with them? It might be that the majority don't talk pricing before ordering, so if you said nothing but 'here is my build', then I would opine you gave implicit permission to order.

 

[southbroadway]

So you tagged then with your reservation, sent them the build you wanted. Was there any text along with the build (or just sent a pdf.) maybe along the lines of 'this is what I want to order'? I don't think it is necessarily unreasonable for the dealer to assume your actually wanted them to order it. Did you specifically ask them about pricing in whatever limited contact you had with them? It might be that the majority don't talk pricing before ordering, so if you said nothing but 'here is my build', then I would opine you gave implicit permission to order.

I could definitely see how there could be some miss communications. The conversation went basically like this, I first called them and asked if they're doing MSRP they said "I think so but I'm not sure".
Then we switch to email (same rep). They said to send over my specs and they can submit everything for me. I then ask if I can come in and look at some sample colors of the paint on different vehicles/swatches and that I am still finalizing some details. They tell me there is no way to see the paint colors (which is weird since they paint rapid red, velocity blue etc on other vehicles but anyway). I send them my build order and hear nothing back. The word "order" was never said by me or them.

This dealer also told me late summer arrival for my vehicle multiple times so they are either clueless or trying to get over on me. My reservation was only a few days ago so I'm guaranteed a MY22 at this point. I think it's relevant to mention I am a young 20s woman.

In hindsight, I should have been more clear that I wanted to discuss numbers before they submitted the final order but I am still learning about all of this crazy process.

My logic is if we don't discuss numbers until the car is on their lot, nothing is stopping them from hiking up the price 3k, I decline the car and am out $100 and the car. They get a bronco on their lot that will sell that day for a huge profit.

 

[Drex]

Definitely discuss numbers now, they said send them your build and they would submit it for you. That is exactly what you did and what they did. I think you should give them the benefit of the doubt, get a verified price in writing, if they won't do that, or you don't like the price, then ask them to turn it back into a reservation and go someplace else (talk to other dealers about pricing so you are ready to transfer if needed). It doesn't sound nefarious at all to me.

 

[Frankie]

From what we’ve seen it takes for Ford to transfer converted orders... I would absolutely just make a new reservation (with a different dealer) if I were you. Either the dealer you want to buy from or one you speak to who understands not to convert it until you talk price (and also so you can move it if you want).

Because your original reservation is now an order, it can only be cancelled by the dealer that converted it. I would call them up, let them know how unhappy you are.

You can then either:

1. Demand they cancel your order so you can get your $100 back or you’re speaking to your lawyer or,

2. Use this as leverage to negotiate a deal for them to keep you as a customer.

Your reservation is so late you’re easily looking at a 2022 model year (MY22) Bronco, and we’re not exactly sure yet how dealer stock will work that far out, but you should remind the dealer that this is *your* reserved Bronco and *your* money to take where *you* want. I.E., if you walk away with your reservation it’s not actually a Bronco sitting on their lot they can just sell to someone else... it’s already your Bronco. You have both things in this deal, the money and the Bronco to sell.

Does that make sense?

Good luck!

Can you give me the name of your lawyer that works for a cut of $100?

No dealer is taking legal threats over $100 seriously and if they're scummy enough to convert the order without your consent they may very well be scummy enough to just keep your $100 and tell you to eff off.

 

[ZackDanger]

Can you give me the name of your lawyer that works for a cut of $100?

No dealer is taking legal threats over $100 seriously and if they're scummy enough to convert the order without your consent they may very well be scummy enough to just keep your $100 and tell you to eff off.

Larceny, even if only for $100, is a crime.

If you don’t feel like bluffing that you have a lawyer on retainer so going after them will cost you nothing and only bring you joy, you can always threaten reporting them to whatever your state’s consumer protection division is (typically under the Attorney General’s office).

Dude. Obviously taking a dealership to court is going to cost someone way more than the $100... but that doesn’t make it okay for them to literally steal your money.

Furthermore it’s not worth it for the dealership to deal with all the headaches you could bring when the alternative for them is to just cut you a check for your $100 they’re sitting on and get rid of you.

No one, under any circumstance, should just walk away from their $100.

 

[southbroadway]

Figured I'd provide an update since the story gets better...
I called up my dealership full expecting to cancel with them and switch (mostly because there were dealers close to my area offering below invoice). This dealer did not want to discuss numbers with me and kept saying "we think we'll price them at MSRP but we aren't sure". I told them that that I couldn't allow them to order my car without prices since there is nothing stopping them from charging me 5k in ADM fees when it hits the lot. They didn't want me to switch and said they'd work on matching a 3% below invoice offer from another dealer.

I got an email from a sales manager confirming that they'd do 3% below invoice. When I asked for documentation of the deal in writing they backed out and said they couldn't do the deal. I was PISSED and I'm pretty sure that sales manager faced repercussions for being so quick to offer me a deal and then taking it back lol. Anyway, they ended up giving me all my paperwork once I physically went into the dealership. The general sales manager straightened everything out for me and let it slip that they are hoping most people don't buy the cars when they come in (duh).

Everything just seemed like an oversight, they aren't making much more than a few hundred bucks off of me and I think they are sick of bronco orders.

The reason I stuck with them is that they are my local dealer and will give me free oil changes/tire rotations/car washes for life. They were very easy to work with once I physically went into the dealership. In all honesty, it seems most people are not negotiating enough with their dealers. I have zero car buying experience and my out-the-door price was $1200 above MSRP after tax/title/doc fee.

 

[Frankie]

Larceny, even if only for $100, is a crime.

If you don’t feel like bluffing that you have a lawyer on retainer so going after them will cost you nothing and only bring you joy, you can always threaten reporting them to whatever your state’s consumer protection division is (typically under the Attorney General’s office).

Dude. Obviously taking a dealership to court is going to cost someone way more than the $100... but that doesn’t make it okay for them to literally steal your money.

Furthermore it’s not worth it for the dealership to deal with all the headaches you could bring when the alternative for them is to just cut you a check for your $100 they’re sitting on and get rid of you.

No one, under any circumstance, should just walk away from their $100.

If you call the cops they're going to say it's a civil matter (and they're almost certainly right, read what you agreed to when you made the reservation).
If you call a lawyer they're going to laugh at you.

I didn't say it was okay, I said they're probably going to get away with it.

 

[andrusoid]

I made a reservation at my local dealership on Thursday 3/4. Emailed over my specs same day and have not heard back from them yet. Logged into my ford account and see "in-store order" "order date 3/5" and an order number. Never talked about any numbers with my dealership. Did they place an order without my permission? I realize I have an extremely late reservation date but the principle of it puts a bad taste in my mouth considering I was planning on tweaking my build and potentially transferring to another dealership. I thought I was supposed to talk numbers BEFORE the order is placed? There might be additional hoops to jump through now to get everything straightened out. Can someone help me make sense of this? I am not very car savvy.

Call Ford and report them. 800-334-4375. You can also tweet @mrlevine, Director of Customer Communications for North America.

Sponsored