If people back out of reservations, are dealers free to sell their unused allocation to anyone ?

[Dads_bronze_bronco]

It is an insane cushion!

After caving to big dealers who were already screwing Ford buyers, they come and give us a second swift kick in the fuzzy dice at 20%!

Ford should have required a $1000 deposit for order conversion with signed commitment from the reservation holder including the WBDO build (even do it all electronically). Then, they could set the penalties starting at 5% without a signed affidavit from the customer about why they backed out.

Dealers who complained about so many reserving with a competing dealer who has promised better service and pricing aren't going to magically offer better customer service.

On Topic:
Yes, but they will be penalized if it goes over 20% of the dealer's finalized--post March 19th--allocation.

So... 70,000 MY21s and 20% or 14,000 of them will be marked up and go to someone who didn't reserve one. Thanks Ford!

This is why you order a 7MT. Shenanigans are less likely...

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[Cousin Eddie]

A couple of things I'd like to add to this thread...

1. My dealer pointed out at least 4 employees of the dealership who had 2 reservations each. The intent was to place orders and then once the vehicle came in, reject delivery. Then the dealership has Broncos on hand to sell retail. This was before the 20% rule came out from Ford. My guess and hope is that those orders they know won't go to the name on the reservation will be the last orders submitted on 3/19 after they determine if they are under the 20% rule. I don't see this as slimy. Dealers are there to make money and they would be staying under the thresholds of being penalized by Ford.

2. The dealer required a large down payment that was not non-refundable but did identify there would be some costs associated with backing out. Personally, I didn't care as I have been planning on buying a Bronco since it was rumored to be coming. The high down payment protects the dealer from someone backing out.

3. I have a signed, dated contract that protects me from any dealer markup the dealer might decide to impose at delivery of the Bronco. (This would be a chitty move by the dealer).

Until you commit and are able to lock in with a contract, you will always have some risk that you will not get what you want or might get screwed over with a price increase from a crappy dealer.

 

[BlueBronco]

Man, I didn't realize I needed to put my tin foil hat on before wading into this thread. As far as dealership "fake cancelling" a converted reservation order to obtain dealer stock, you are forgetting:

1. Ford is supposed to contact buyer before build is scheduled to give update on items leading to a possible delay
2. The order will still show under a person's account as ordered and will progress through the stages
3. The original reservation holder will receive updates via email as their order progresses

Sure, some dealers are unscrupulous and will go to most any means to make an extra buck but they are not super villans. If one thinks their dealer is out to screw them they need to change dealerships. Plenty of threads on how to do so before or after the reservation has been converted.

And while I do think the 20% is to big of a threshold it is a slippery slope to navigate. Ford didn't just randomly pick that number. I am sure some research went into it based on previous ordering cancellation ratios. So, does a dealer gamble and have their employees order 5%, 10%? And if I am not mistaken, that threshold is applied monthly to dealership delivered Broncos and not to the whole allocation. So that's another variable to navigate. Now, you are trying to stay below 2 out of 10 Broncos instead of 20 out of 100 which seems much more difficult.

Geez, that was much longer than I intended and I don't want to sound like a dealership apologist but people are giving them way to much credit.

 

[DealerInsider]

@DealerInsider have you seen a solution for this?

Call the CRC 800# and transfer to a dealer you trust...Mike Levine said there will a resolution with converted order transfers by 3/19

 

[Palerider]

Which customer service number did you call?

This sounds like the answer you get when the wrong people pick up.

(somebody have the doc from Ford that outlines what to do when this happens? If I can find it I’ll edit this post)

::EDIT::

I see Dealerinsider has replied to Palerider in another thread.

Short of the long of it: Ford doesn’t want these situations... so they’re working on fixing them. I would say not all hope is lost.

We have spoken to Ford Support 3 times. Whoever answers the phone will transfer you to the Bronco specialist. My son spoke to the manager of the dealer while the Ford Support specialist was on the line (3-way call). Dealer manager says they will look into it to placate Ford support. I spoke to the manager; he hem-hawed all around about this and that, but ultimately declined to change it back. The gist of the situation is that dealers are independent businesses, and Ford cannot make them change the order back to a reservation.

So Ford is trying to figure how to manually override the dealers, but apparently struggling to do so. The solution posted elsewhere is not a solution; to my knowledge, no hijacked reservation holder has had their order changed backed to a reservation (I am not talking about the honest dealer mistakes; those dealers will acknowledge they made a mistake and easily change the order back to a reservation). I am talking about the deliberate hijacks, where the dealer has no intention of reverting the order back to a reservation.

If someone has had their hijacked reservation changed back, please stand forward and speak. I have said previously the easy solution for Ford is to tell the dealer to put back the reservations, or lose their franchise, but that would be too simple.

 

[Palerider]

Man, I didn't realize I needed to put my tin foil hat on before wading into this thread. As far as dealership "fake cancelling" a converted reservation order to obtain dealer stock, you are forgetting:

1. Ford is supposed to contact buyer before build is scheduled to give update on items leading to a possible delay
2. The order will still show under a person's account as ordered and will progress through the stages
3. The original reservation holder will receive updates via email as their order progresses

Sure, some dealers are unscrupulous and will go to most any means to make an extra buck but they are not super villans. If one thinks their dealer is out to screw them they need to change dealerships. Plenty of threads on how to do so before or after the reservation has been converted.

And while I do think the 20% is to big of a threshold it is a slippery slope to navigate. Ford didn't just randomly pick that number. I am sure some research went into it based on previous ordering cancellation ratios. So, does a dealer gamble and have their employees order 5%, 10%? And if I am not mistaken, that threshold is applied monthly to dealership delivered Broncos and not to the whole allocation. So that's another variable to navigate. Now, you are trying to stay below 2 out of 10 Broncos instead of 20 out of 100 which seems much more difficult.

Geez, that was much longer than I intended and I don't want to sound like a dealership apologist but people are giving them way to much credit.

"Sure, some dealers are unscrupulous and will go to most any means to make an extra buck but they are not super villans. If one thinks their dealer is out to screw them they need to change dealerships. Plenty of threads on how to do so before or after the reservation has been converted".

See my other posts. Cannot change dealer once that dealer has your order that you did not consent to. There is no post, to my knowledge, of a dealer hijacked reservation being changed back from the order to a reservation. (hijacked reservation is deliberate by the dealer, not talking about the dealers who didn't understand the process and just converted reservations to orders on Jan 21; those dealers will put you back reservation status).

Some dealers are smart and unscrupulous. Smart dealers are not going to charge down payments (except the original $100), because they want that Bronco on their lot. A down payment makes it more likely the buyer will follow through. These dealers aren't concerned about the buyer picking up the order on delivery. So any way they can make it easier for a reservation holder to get that order done and delivered--they win. If the buyer picks up--they win. If the buyer doesn't pick it up--they win.

If a dealer has 330 reservations and 100 orders and is allocated 30%, then they get ~100 Broncos delivered; the dealer can put 20 of those on their lot before the Ford penalty kicks in. What nefarious dealer wouldn't do that? Everyone believes that only reservation holders will get Broncos; you will see Ford dealers with Broncos on their lots for sale from day one--at MSRP + ADM + market adjustment.

 

[Palerider]

"Sure, some dealers are unscrupulous and will go to most any means to make an extra buck but they are not super villans. If one thinks their dealer is out to screw them they need to change dealerships. Plenty of threads on how to do so before or after the reservation has been converted".

See my other posts. Cannot change dealer once that dealer has your order that you did not consent to. There is no post, to my knowledge, of a dealer hijacked reservation being changed back from the order to a reservation. (hijacked reservation is deliberate by the dealer, not talking about the dealers who didn't understand the process and just converted reservations to orders on Jan 21; those dealers will put you back reservation status).

Some dealers are smart and unscrupulous. Smart dealers are not going to charge down payments (except the original $100), because they want that Bronco on their lot. A down payment makes it more likely the buyer will follow through. These dealers aren't concerned about the buyer picking up the order on delivery. So any way they can make it easier for a reservation holder to get that order done and delivered--they win. If the buyer picks up--they win. If the buyer doesn't pick it up--they win.

If a dealer has 330 reservations and 100 orders and is allocated 30%, then they get ~100 Broncos delivered; the dealer can put 20 of those on their lot before the Ford penalty kicks in. What nefarious dealer wouldn't do that? Everyone believes that only reservation holders will get Broncos; you will see Ford dealers with Broncos on their lots for sale from day one--at MSRP + ADM + market adjustment.

Well, I guess our situation is not unique. On the Mach E forum, dbsb3233 posted his Mach E reservation was converted to an order without his consent (7/20/20 Reservation Automatically Converted to Order Overnite), but it appears this was an honest dealer mistake and they fixed it. At least Ford was aware of the issue of dealers converting without consent last summer.

 

[cmcbronco]

first time poster but have been following for a while now....

just to give you guys my story on ordering. When I went to convert My order a couple weeks ago I asked as many questions as I could.

My dealer said they are converting all reservations to order even if the reservation holder no longer wants one. They are cutting them a check personally from the dealer. They also said they will be marking them up 10k.

I told them they are going to have some pissed off reservation holders if they know someone can walk up and buy one off the lot before people who have been waiting a year plus.

they then told me they would try to move me up to an earlier cancelled reservation if they could and would keep me updated when they found out. Not sure how difficult that would be to accomplish but I’m assuming it’s not easy.

Interested to see what will happen...only time will tell lol

 

[North7]

first time poster but have been following for a while now....

just to give you guys my story on ordering. When I went to convert My order a couple weeks ago I asked as many questions as I could.

My dealer said they are converting all reservations to order even if the reservation holder no longer wants one. They are cutting them a check personally from the dealer. They also said they will be marking them up 10k.

I told them they are going to have some pissed off reservation holders if they know someone can walk up and buy one off the lot before people who have been waiting a year plus.

they then told me they would try to move me up to an earlier cancelled reservation if they could and would keep me updated when they found out. Not sure how difficult that would be to accomplish but I’m assuming it’s not easy.

Interested to see what will happen...only time will tell lol

What dealer is this please?

 

[sjp]

first time poster but have been following for a while now....

just to give you guys my story on ordering. When I went to convert My order a couple weeks ago I asked as many questions as I could.

My dealer said they are converting all reservations to order even if the reservation holder no longer wants one. They are cutting them a check personally from the dealer. They also said they will be marking them up 10k.

I told them they are going to have some pissed off reservation holders if they know someone can walk up and buy one off the lot before people who have been waiting a year plus.

they then told me they would try to move me up to an earlier cancelled reservation if they could and would keep me updated when they found out. Not sure how difficult that would be to accomplish but I’m assuming it’s not easy.

Interested to see what will happen...only time will tell lol

And this is why we're seeing that 80% conversion rate across the board. Who's surprised?

By the way, only one dealer that I know of has publicly stated that they will not be hanging onto cancelled reservations. Some guy in Iowa. Hoping there are more dealerships out there like that or we could all be waiting a very long time for our Broncos while every other rich yahoo in town is getting them early - and without a reservation.

I'm sure plenty of people think I'm just being cynical, or that I'm an alarmist, but if Ford doesn't step in and squash this they're going to have a lot of (even more) pissed off customers on their hands.

@cmcbronco thanks for sharing your story.

 

[North7]

And this is why we're seeing that 80% conversion rate across the board. Who's surprised?

By the way, only one dealer that I know of has publicly stated that they will not be hanging onto cancelled reservations. Some guy in Iowa. Hoping there are more dealerships out there like that or we could all be waiting a very long time for our Broncos while every other rich yahoo in town is getting them early - and without a reservation.

I'm sure plenty of people think I'm just being cynical, or that I'm an alarmist, but if Ford doesn't step in and squash this they're going to have a lot of (even more) pissed off customers on their hands.

@cmcbronco thanks for sharing your story.

@sjp your not a cynic or an alarmist, you a realist. I think you have uncovered why Ford is so confident in the 70% conversion rate. Dealers have enough latitude to make that happen.

 

[Cheshire]

No. There will be no dealer stock until all converted reservations, MY21 and MY22 are fulfilled. And Ford is still taking reservations. You probably won't see a stock unit on a dealer lot for sale until 2023. Ford will shuffle allocations around until all convert reservations are fulfilled.

Ford has only said that there will be no dealer stock for MY21. MY22 has not been announced yet. I would bet that there will be dealer stock in MY22 for dealers in high competitive sales areas and that have high volume Ford sales.

 

[North7]

Ford has only said that there will be no dealer stock for MY21. MY22 has not been announced yet. I would bet that there will be dealer stock in MY22 for dealers in high competitive sales areas and that have high volume Ford sales.

At the same time, Ford said no dealer stock until all reservations are delivered.

 

[Used2jeep]

At the same time, Ford said no dealer stock until all reservations are delivered.

On several occasions too.

 

[Efthreeoh]

It is an insane cushion!

After caving to big dealers who were already screwing Ford buyers, they come and give us a second swift kick in the fuzzy dice at 20%!

Ford should have required a $1000 deposit for order conversion with signed commitment from the reservation holder including the WBDO build (even do it all electronically). Then, they could set the penalties starting at 5% without a signed affidavit from the customer about why they backed out.

Dealers who complained about so many reserving with a competing dealer who has promised better service and pricing aren't going to magically offer better customer service.

On Topic:
Yes, but they will be penalized if it goes over 20% of the dealer's finalized--post March 19th--allocation.

So... 70,000 MY21s and 20% or 14,000 of them will be marked up and go to someone who didn't reserve one. Thanks Ford!

Well, 20% seems a like a large cushion until your small dealership has single digit allocations. Anything under 10 units means just one order can turn into a cancellation. That's why I'll have to pay a $500 non-refundable down payment. If I was Ford, I'd take that burden off the small dealerships. Hold one or two $45K Bronco for months as un-sellable stock would be painful for smaller dealers.

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