yes, and this is where I blame Ford. They didn't foresee dealers doing what they did. Ford didn't account for a dealer in middle america that normally sells like 10 Ford's a year to have 1500 orders.Ford in 2020: Trust the reservation system process, we'll build reservations before dealer stock. We love our reservation holders and you can definitely choose whichever one of our 3000+ dealers you like!
Ford through 2020 and 2021: We love our reservation holders. Hey media, look we have over 150k+ reservations! Here's hammocks and stickers for our valued reservation holders. Hang in there!
Ford last week: Okay yeah reservations were cool but you should have known that we have obligations to our largest dealers and we're enforcing an allocation system. Your reservation is nice but we're giving your exact build to this giant dealer to sell on their lot first because your specific dealership isn't as high value of a dealership to us. You should have known this and you should violently kill yourself for not knowing this. Dealers who can't even come close to matching our name match policy are forgiven and we're relaxing that rule despite other dealers hitting 100% name match. Stay pumped!
You can see why people are upset.
Right. And 99% (if not more) will be.“All reservations will be filled before stock production begins “ - Ford
Kudos to Fords engineers, marketing and development for developing vehicles that consumers want. A big thumbs down to procurement, operations and management for failing to adapt to changing conditions, the rollout and inconsistent policies which have spurned consumers.This is a brand new model. Production issues aside, it looks like they got the Bronco right. The launch is what has been the problem.
Ford had nearly 200k people lined up to order one. Considering that the Bronco is a sweet ride, Ford should have seen all of these buyers as key BRAND AMBASSADORS. They are the most enthusiastic people out there, many of whom reserved the Bronco long before touching or driving one. And now they've waited for well over a year because they are so committed to the Bronco. Ford should be doing everything possible to ensure that, whatever goes wrong, these people don't feel like they are being screwed.
I can mostly give Ford a pass for the production issues. 2020-2021 is very a weird time in manufacturing. What is completely in Ford's control though is how they communicate with customers and how they treat reservation holders. And quite frankly, those have been abysmal. Anyone who thinks Ford has done okay in those areas has very low standards.
There you go again thinking it's just one dealership...yes, and this is where I blame Ford. They didn't foresee dealers doing what they did. Ford didn't account for a dealer in middle america that normally sells like 10 Ford's a year to have 1500 orders.
but it's only a few dealerships that exploited the loophole.
For the 3000+ other dealerships, they'll fill all their orders. It's just the ones that exploited the loophole that are getting hurt by this. and that's such a tiny percentage when you account for all orders.
I don't know why Ford is cutting them off... but there has to be a reason for it. Mostly likely it's because Ford isn't about to change their ways of doing things bc of a few.
you probably should've kept reading my post then...They simply created a program based on what Ford said.
Why blame Ford? They've gone back on their word. Pretty simple.
I see people say this a lot in reference to the new allocation formula, but Ford sent everyone an email June 25th reneging on this. So this isn't something new.“All reservations will be filled before stock production begins “ - Ford
Copied from another site.......
I think one of the (many) things I've learned through this process is Ford isn't selling you or me a vehicle. They are selling vehicles to dealers. What Ford allowed people to do was make a reservation, which in practical terms is meaningless. The $100 wasn't even between you and Ford. It was paid to the dealer. Then Ford let dealers convert those reservations into orders, but those orders are between Ford and the dealer. They, Ford, really have nothing to do with you as the customer.
So, what's the difference if the allocation method alienates you the customer. In the end,dealers are going to sell every Bronco they are allocated and they don't lose at all, anything. They have made as many orders as they could, and in the hopes it would increase their allocation. That too has nothing to do with the customer. In the absence of a customer, every dealer would order as many Broncos as they could sell, which is what some dealers have done.
In the end, the customer isn't really a customer at all. They are a sale, and it doesn't matter if it is you or it is the next you in line. Ford and every other dealer is trying in whatever way they can to increase sales. Ford has provided dealers with Broncos based on whatever works for Ford and dealers, because you are not the customer in that scenario, the dealer is, and the dealer will sell every Bronco they can get to whoever is next in line (which has nothing to do with reservation time stamp, nothing to do with who ordered what, and nothing to do with you).
We were all duped into thinking our reservation was some sort of position for us, standing in line, in order, in a queue of sorts. It wasn't. It was a promise, not by Ford to sell you a Bronco, but by you and I, to become a sale at a later date, determined by Ford.
It wasn't a loophole. It was a written plan and an allocation formula to back it up. At the end of the day we're talking about 1100 orders from @Zach@Granger and 400 orders from @DealerInsider and no idea how many from @StephensAutoCenter. Let's guess another 1000. So take away the orders likely to be fulfilled next year and you've got 2k broncos left. Ford is really willing to screw 2000 people in order to make 25 dealers happy? 2023 going forward this is a non-issue if they fulfil their original promises, or at least their intentions behind those promises (i understand dealer stock softies are going to get built before ordered hardtops, but anything short of that is horshit)Did they? Did those dealers call Ford or their Ford rep and run their model by them? Maybe then Ford would've said no, that's not going to work for us.
yes, Ford said something and didn't account for loophole seeking dealerships. That's on them. But shouldn't the dealerships have done their due diligence before making promises they can't keep?
True, but there's still some jujitsu here. "We can't solely produce customer orders because of lack of hardtops" in June vs. "We can't solely produce customer orders because of a new formula we invented to keep our big dealers happy" in 2022.I see people say this a lot in reference to the new allocation formula, but Ford sent everyone an email June 25th reneging on this. So this isn't something new.
They've been laying the foundation for their heel turn for quite a while nowTrue, but there's still some jujitsu here. "We can't solely produce customer orders because of lack of hardtops" in June vs. "We can't solely produce customer orders because of a new formula we invented to keep our big dealers happy" in 2022.