Is Ford Messing Around with your Order?

[EdNewcomer]

Hi Everyone!

Maybe I'm overreacting or overly suspicious of car dealers but I thought I'd check in with other people who have placed orders and see if anyone is having a dodgy experience with their dealer. Also, I'm hoping someone at Ford is reading this and can weigh in on my experience and reaffirm for me (us) the deadline for finalizing an order without losing my place in line. My assigned dealer is South Bay Ford in the Los Angeles area.

Here's some background and I'll end with what feels like some shenanigans by my local Ford dealer and a question:

I placed my deposit early in the process and was receiving emails from Ford for awhile, including a lot of unwanted Ford marketing emails unrelated to the Bronco. I asked to only receive emails about my Bronco order. In early January, I received a phone call from a salesman at South Bay Ford excitedly congratulating me for being among the first 100 reservations at South Bay. He was eager for me to finalize my order and initially said that I could get my Bronco this year, until I told him that I probably wanted the 6 cyl., at which point he told me I'd probably get a 2022 model next year. I explained that I hadn't made my final decisions but would build it online and then finalize the order. He cautioned me that I had only until Jan 31 to finalize. I asked him to call me during the last week of January. He never called. Meanwhile, I checked in with this Forum and was reassured that the deadline for finalizing orders wasn't until March. So, I didn't really worry about it.

Last Saturday, I stopped in at South Bay to see if they had any models of any vehicle in Cactus Grey. They did and it's awesome. It looks grey in photos but definitely more sage green (to my eyes) in person. Anyway, a salesman talked to me and I told him I was on the list for the Bronco and I told him some of the above story. He took my name and said someone would get back to me.

This afternoon I got a call from another salesman asking me "what kind of car are you interested in?" Obviously, that opening line didn't make me feel very confident that the Bronco orders were under control at South Bay. I reexplained my experience so far. He then claimed that my email account was "blocked" and only I can unblock it. I didn't understand this because I don't even know how to block people using my email service. He then urged me to finalize my build and said that I could lose my place as his dealership has only been allotted 130 Bronco deliveries. I told him that I thought I had until March to finalize my order and that my deposit held my place. He said, "Not necessarily."

So far, my dealings with South Bay have felt typically 'car dealer-like' and it's turning me off just a bit. I've mostly settled on what options and package I want on my new Bronco but I don't like feeling rushed and I want to make sure that my finances are all lined up and that I've really chosen the best options for me to live with for the foreseeable future. (This is my retirement present to myself so it's going to be my car for a long time.)

What's been everyone else's experience with the orders and your contact with your assigned dealer?

Thanks, as always, for your thoughts and input.

Ed

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[Ryuk]

I would suggest you change dealers

Customers may reach out to Ford Customer Support at (800) 334-4375 for assistance in updating their dealer selection. In changing dealers, there will be no impact to a customer's reservation ID, vehicle details, or the associated timestamp.

 

[Used2jeep]

Hi Everyone!

Maybe I'm overreacting or overly suspicious of car dealers but I thought I'd check in with other people who have placed orders and see if anyone is having a dodgy experience with their dealer. Also, I'm hoping someone at Ford is reading this and can weigh in on my experience and reaffirm for me (us) the deadline for finalizing an order without losing my place in line. My assigned dealer is South Bay Ford in the Los Angeles area.

Here's some background and I'll end with what feels like some shenanigans by my local Ford dealer and a question:

I placed my deposit early in the process and was receiving emails from Ford for awhile, including a lot of unwanted Ford marketing emails unrelated to the Bronco. I asked to only receive emails about my Bronco order. In early January, I received a phone call from a salesman at South Bay Ford excitedly congratulating me for being among the first 100 reservations at South Bay. He was eager for me to finalize my order and initially said that I could get my Bronco this year, until I told him that I probably wanted the 6 cyl., at which point he told me I'd probably get a 2022 model next year. I explained that I hadn't made my final decisions but would build it online and then finalize the order. He cautioned me that I had only until Jan 31 to finalize. I asked him to call me during the last week of January. He never called. Meanwhile, I checked in with this Forum and was reassured that the deadline for finalizing orders wasn't until March. So, I didn't really worry about it.

Last Saturday, I stopped in at South Bay to see if they had any models of any vehicle in Cactus Grey. They did and it's awesome. It looks grey in photos but definitely more sage green (to my eyes) in person. Anyway, a salesman talked to me and I told him I was on the list for the Bronco and I told him some of the above story. He took my name and said someone would get back to me.

This afternoon I got a call from another salesman asking me "what kind of car are you interested in?" Obviously, that opening line didn't make me feel very confident that the Bronco orders were under control at South Bay. I reexplained my experience so far. He then claimed that my email account was "blocked" and only I can unblock it. I didn't understand this because I don't even know how to block people using my email service. He then urged me to finalize my build and said that I could lose my place as his dealership has only been allotted 130 Bronco deliveries. I told him that I thought I had until March to finalize my order and that my deposit held my place. He said, "Not necessarily."

So far, my dealings with South Bay have felt typically 'car dealer-like' and it's turning me off just a bit. I've mostly settled on what options and package I want on my new Bronco but I don't like feeling rushed and I want to make sure that my finances are all lined up and that I've really chosen the best options for me to live with for the foreseeable future. (This is my retirement present to myself so it's going to be my car for a long time.)

What's been everyone else's experience with the orders and your contact with your assigned dealer?

Thanks, as always, for your thoughts and input.

Ed

I am lacking on my geography but maybe @EricAtKearnyMesaFord might be able to assist. Have no clue of that is near you or not.

 

[Lifeliberty]

My dealing was straight forward. Have reservation. Received call. Emailed order. Done.

I'm sure i could have waited, but i had a plan. you can put in an order and change it, you already put deposit down(unless you'retalkining res deposit, that means nothing other than you got a res) .

They just want to get you in the computer it sounds like. If you don't have a relationship with them, then they will seem like pretty typical turn and burn dealers

Let them know you want to talk to someone that had their short together or you will walk. Start shopping dealers. You should only be talking to one person, typically their bronco specialist if they have one, or one salesman if they don't. Almost sounds like you are on their call list for new potential customers.

I think i shopped 5 dealerships before settling on one, and all the others were good(except the first one closest to me provided by Ford website...i bailed quick after some email exchanges), just the one i decided on is in-state and someone i know introduced me to the salesman.
You get to learn pretty quick which ones have their short together

 

[tyrobronco]

Keep in mind dealerships can place the orders in anyway they choose.

While it seems strange that a dealership would not want to put in all 400 or so reservations and not just the 130 they were allotted in 2021, they may choose to take the first 130 that come in and commit and not submit #131 and on.

My dealer was only allotted 18 Broncos. It did not matter on their end when we reserved. They picked the 18 they wanted to submit.

I am expecting the reservation date to matter when Ford sets up the production run, but who knows? Dealerships can assign different priority numbers, too. My dealership made it a priority to get a Bronco in for a guy who buys his fleet vehicles from them even though is reservation was nowhere near July.

We'll see what happens this summer...

 

[EvlNvrDys]

Keep in mind dealerships can place the orders in anyway they choose.

While it seems strange that a dealership would not want to put in all 400 or so reservations and not just the 130 they were allotted in 2021, they may choose to take the first 130 that come in and commit and not submit #131 and on.

My dealer was only allotted 18 Broncos. It did not matter on their end when we reserved. They picked the 18 they wanted to submit.

I am expecting the reservation date to matter when Ford sets up the production run, but who knows? Dealerships can assign different priority numbers, too. My dealership made it a priority to get a Bronco in for a guy who buys his fleet vehicles from them even though is reservation was nowhere near July.

We'll see what happens this summer...

That's all fine and good.... But aren't the allocations that dealers were given a few weeks back just preliminary allocations?

And from there, based on converted orders by March cutoff, allocations will be refactored?

At least that is how I took it, but what do I know?

Anyways, with that said, for your dealer to only take the orders of for their original 18 allocations, would they be shooting themselves in the foot?
1. It won't get them additional allocations.
2. If allocations are re-figured based on conversions, they actually lose allocations. Which at that point I'd laugh my ass off.

Anyways, that's kind of how I assumed it was going down. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Used2jeep]

That's all fine and good.... But aren't the allocations that dealers were given a few weeks back just preliminary allocations?

And from there, based on converted orders by March cutoff, allocations will be refactored?

At least that is how I took it, but what do I know?

Anyways, with that said, for your dealer to only take the orders of for their original 18 allocations, would they be shooting themselves in the foot?
1. It won't get them additional allocations.
2. If allocations are re-figured based on conversions, they actually lose allocations. Which at that point I'd laugh my ass off.

Anyways, that's kind of how I assumed it was going down. Maybe I'm wrong.

Assuming that the particular dealer has had the process explained to them correctly.

 

[peta8368]

Keep in mind dealerships can place the orders in anyway they choose.

While it seems strange that a dealership would not want to put in all 400 or so reservations and not just the 130 they were allotted in 2021, they may choose to take the first 130 that come in and commit and not submit #131 and on.

Pretty sure that's not going to end well for that dealer. Eric@KearyMesa has shared that after discussing with Ford on this topic, if the dealership only submits what they believe to be the number of allocations, they are going to get a much lower number come actual allocation time. The original estimated allocation was x% of that dealer's reservation. And if they only submit that number of orders, their actual allocation will be re-calculated based on converted orders, and end up giving them the same x% of CONVERTED orders. I can't remember what that x% was exactly, I vaguely remember it was around 1/3 of orders before 9/18.

In other words, that dealership probably have around 400 reservations timestamped before 9/18, hence the prelim allocation of 130. If they only convert 130, they will end up with an actual allocation of around 45.

Peter

 

[ZackDanger]

Keep in mind dealerships can place the orders in anyway they choose.

While it seems strange that a dealership would not want to put in all 400 or so reservations and not just the 130 they were allotted in 2021, they may choose to take the first 130 that come in and commit and not submit #131 and on.

My dealer was only allotted 18 Broncos. It did not matter on their end when we reserved. They picked the 18 they wanted to submit.

I am expecting the reservation date to matter when Ford sets up the production run, but who knows? Dealerships can assign different priority numbers, too. My dealership made it a priority to get a Bronco in for a guy who buys his fleet vehicles from them even though is reservation was nowhere near July.

We'll see what happens this summer...

Well, they’re going to be in for some difficult conversations when they realize that by only converting the 18, their allocation will drop to only a handful, and even the majority of those 18 people won’t get theirs until MY22

 

[AcesandEights]

You just have an uneducated dealer. It's not necessarily a bad thing, well, I guess it is, but consider how many of us on the forums keep repeating stuff that is inaccurate until we find out what is accurate. You just need to make sure your dealer contact understands your experience needs to change, that they need to educate themselves, as you have enough information to move to a dealer that has been educated.

 

[zfischer]

My dealer contacted me today to say "you can't have a cactus grey black diamond--you need to pick ONE color." So, yeah, for some reason, dealers do not feel the need to do even the smallest amount of research into one Ford's most significant current launches and in-demand vehicles.

 

[kodiakisland]

My dealer contacted me today to say "you can't have a cactus grey black diamond--you need to pick ONE color." So, yeah, for some reason, dealers do not feel the need to do even the smallest amount of research into one Ford's most significant current launches and in-demand vehicles.

That would have been a fun conversation.

 

[tyrobronco]

Assuming that the particular dealer has had the process explained to them correctly.

That, I think, is one huge issue.

You have dealerships that have been using a certain known system and then Ford comes up with this 'new plan'. So you have people making decisions applying what they knew about how the system has always worked into this new format.

I don't envy them at all.

 

[Pistol Pete]

I had my reservation turned into an order without me doing it. I was about to go through the process and finalizing my build spec. when I got an email from Ford with the spec of a Bronco order that I didn't place, didn't want and knew nothing about. The dealer claims it wasn't them and blames Ford. Ford customer services says it wasn't them. Anybody know who or how this could have happened?

 

[Headsong]

I cannot understand why so many of you work with unhelpful dealers. Get another one. Price isn't everything.

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