Scheduling?

[77Highboy]

Novice user here....how do I get the following to someone at Ford, Levine, et al, who may actually care / respond?


Gentlemen, with all due respect, how is it that at this stage of the program, many of us who faithfully reserved early (July of 2020), paid the res. fee, converted to order, paid the dealer order deposit, and have waited patiently for over a year, can get absolutely no information from either Ford or our respective dealers as to when we might hope to see a scheduling email for our builds?

In my case, adding to the frustration, I've been very concerned about allocations to the dealership to which I was assigned ...mind you, not of my choosing, but rather assigned by the Ford reservation system based solely on my zip code. With no info from my assigned dealer, I recently requested a change to a dealership who seems to do a much higher volume, offering a much better price, now going on a month ago. At the time, I was told by the very polite Ford representative that my request was under review and I could expect a response by email within 10 business days. A few weeks ago I contacted Ford again to see if there was any movement, and again the very professional Ford representative indicated my request was "still under review" and that I should maybe check back again around mid December.

I of course realize I am among probably tens of thousands of others in the same sea of frustration. In my case, I'm actually not in a huge hurry, I have other modes of transportation. But here's my point....this really cannot be this hard for a longstanding and leading manufacturer such as Ford.....the reservation system was originally portrayed and widely announced as a means to essentially take a number and stand in line. Given its vast resources, systems, planning tools, etc, potential customers like me should be able to receive a reasonable estimate of when their truck may be built and delivered....no expectation of a hard and fast date; a range would be fine. And, most of us would expect there to be scheduling variables such as component supply chain, configuration spec'd, what is planned to be built roughly when, etc.

Instead, its a black hole....which by the way is defined as a source of negative energy. Feedback like this goes in, little to nothing seems to come out. Only anecdotes and tips like "drop this or that feature, move ahead in line", or, move to a dealer who may get more allocations, or "IDK, I had no res, I just placed an order and in a few weeks got a build date"..... I'd call it all "chaos marketing", like if that is even a "thing".

Here's my question: is it the case, that at some point in the hopefully near future, that Ford will indeed resolve supply chain matters, ignore dealer allocation formulas, and simply build and ship the product per the reservation sequence converted to confirmed orders? The logical (and frankly only acceptable) answer is "yes, absolutely, and you can expect that to happen in (sometime in Q1, 2022??)".

In the mean time, I will continue to watch, read, twist in the wind, and wait....BTW...just for fun (and a distraction from my frustration), I put my name in the queue for the Rivian R1T....also off the charts cool and potential game changer....years away for sure, but it will at least be interesting to compare notes on the process...customer experience, manufacturer transparency, level of communications, and production execution. Oh yeah, and delivery date also!

Thanks for your time.

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[Compta38]

short answer is Ford is run by morons.

 

[jehines3]

Novice user here....how do I get the following to someone at Ford, Levine, et al, who may actually care / respond?


Gentlemen, with all due respect, how is it that at this stage of the program, many of us who faithfully reserved early (July of 2020), paid the res. fee, converted to order, paid the dealer order deposit, and have waited patiently for over a year, can get absolutely no information from either Ford or our respective dealers as to when we might hope to see a scheduling email for our builds?

In my case, adding to the frustration, I've been very concerned about allocations to the dealership to which I was assigned ...mind you, not of my choosing, but rather assigned by the Ford reservation system based solely on my zip code. With no info from my assigned dealer, I recently requested a change to a dealership who seems to do a much higher volume, offering a much better price, now going on a month ago. At the time, I was told by the very polite Ford representative that my request was under review and I could expect a response by email within 10 business days. A few weeks ago I contacted Ford again to see if there was any movement, and again the very professional Ford representative indicated my request was "still under review" and that I should maybe check back again around mid December.

I of course realize I am among probably tens of thousands of others in the same sea of frustration. In my case, I'm actually not in a huge hurry, I have other modes of transportation. But here's my point....this really cannot be this hard for a longstanding and leading manufacturer such as Ford.....the reservation system was originally portrayed and widely announced as a means to essentially take a number and stand in line. Given its vast resources, systems, planning tools, etc, potential customers like me should be able to receive a reasonable estimate of when their truck may be built and delivered....no expectation of a hard and fast date; a range would be fine. And, most of us would expect there to be scheduling variables such as component supply chain, configuration spec'd, what is planned to be built roughly when, etc.

Instead, its a black hole....which by the way is defined as a source of negative energy. Feedback like this goes in, little to nothing seems to come out. Only anecdotes and tips like "drop this or that feature, move ahead in line", or, move to a dealer who may get more allocations, or "IDK, I had no res, I just placed an order and in a few weeks got a build date"..... I'd call it all "chaos marketing", like if that is even a "thing".

Here's my question: is it the case, that at some point in the hopefully near future, that Ford will indeed resolve supply chain matters, ignore dealer allocation formulas, and simply build and ship the product per the reservation sequence converted to confirmed orders? The logical (and frankly only acceptable) answer is "yes, absolutely, and you can expect that to happen in (sometime in Q1, 2022??)".

In the mean time, I will continue to watch, read, twist in the wind, and wait....BTW...just for fun (and a distraction from my frustration), I put my name in the queue for the Rivian R1T....also off the charts cool and potential game changer....years away for sure, but it will at least be interesting to compare notes on the process...customer experience, manufacturer transparency, level of communications, and production execution. Oh yeah, and delivery date also!

Thanks for your time.

I feel like you and I speak the same language. Well written.

BTW. Today according to their website, If you order a Tesla model 3, expected delivery is July 2022. If you move up to the model 3 Performance, it’s February 2022.

Ford wants to move to this type of order system. They are over a century older than Tesla. Change is hard.

 

[Bronco Hank]

Novice user here....how do I get the following to someone at Ford, Levine, et al, who may actually care / respond?


Gentlemen, with all due respect, how is it that at this stage of the program, many of us who faithfully reserved early (July of 2020), paid the res. fee, converted to order, paid the dealer order deposit, and have waited patiently for over a year, can get absolutely no information from either Ford or our respective dealers as to when we might hope to see a scheduling email for our builds?

In my case, adding to the frustration, I've been very concerned about allocations to the dealership to which I was assigned ...mind you, not of my choosing, but rather assigned by the Ford reservation system based solely on my zip code. With no info from my assigned dealer, I recently requested a change to a dealership who seems to do a much higher volume, offering a much better price, now going on a month ago. At the time, I was told by the very polite Ford representative that my request was under review and I could expect a response by email within 10 business days. A few weeks ago I contacted Ford again to see if there was any movement, and again the very professional Ford representative indicated my request was "still under review" and that I should maybe check back again around mid December.

I of course realize I am among probably tens of thousands of others in the same sea of frustration. In my case, I'm actually not in a huge hurry, I have other modes of transportation. But here's my point....this really cannot be this hard for a longstanding and leading manufacturer such as Ford.....the reservation system was originally portrayed and widely announced as a means to essentially take a number and stand in line. Given its vast resources, systems, planning tools, etc, potential customers like me should be able to receive a reasonable estimate of when their truck may be built and delivered....no expectation of a hard and fast date; a range would be fine. And, most of us would expect there to be scheduling variables such as component supply chain, configuration spec'd, what is planned to be built roughly when, etc.

Instead, its a black hole....which by the way is defined as a source of negative energy. Feedback like this goes in, little to nothing seems to come out. Only anecdotes and tips like "drop this or that feature, move ahead in line", or, move to a dealer who may get more allocations, or "IDK, I had no res, I just placed an order and in a few weeks got a build date"..... I'd call it all "chaos marketing", like if that is even a "thing".

Here's my question: is it the case, that at some point in the hopefully near future, that Ford will indeed resolve supply chain matters, ignore dealer allocation formulas, and simply build and ship the product per the reservation sequence converted to confirmed orders? The logical (and frankly only acceptable) answer is "yes, absolutely, and you can expect that to happen in (sometime in Q1, 2022??)".

In the mean time, I will continue to watch, read, twist in the wind, and wait....BTW...just for fun (and a distraction from my frustration), I put my name in the queue for the Rivian R1T....also off the charts cool and potential game changer....years away for sure, but it will at least be interesting to compare notes on the process...customer experience, manufacturer transparency, level of communications, and production execution. Oh yeah, and delivery date also!

Thanks for your time.

My sentiments exactly. I don’t mind playing the waiting game and I can be patient (or learn to be) but it’s the lack of communication and zero understanding of where I am even at in line. I call/text my dealer, they don’t know anything, call Ford same answer, nothing. I guess it’ll happen someday, right?

 

[babraunagel]

Novice user here....how do I get the following to someone at Ford, Levine, et al, who may actually care / respond?


Gentlemen, with all due respect, how is it that at this stage of the program, many of us who faithfully reserved early (July of 2020), paid the res. fee, converted to order, paid the dealer order deposit, and have waited patiently for over a year, can get absolutely no information from either Ford or our respective dealers as to when we might hope to see a scheduling email for our builds?

In my case, adding to the frustration, I've been very concerned about allocations to the dealership to which I was assigned ...mind you, not of my choosing, but rather assigned by the Ford reservation system based solely on my zip code. With no info from my assigned dealer, I recently requested a change to a dealership who seems to do a much higher volume, offering a much better price, now going on a month ago. At the time, I was told by the very polite Ford representative that my request was under review and I could expect a response by email within 10 business days. A few weeks ago I contacted Ford again to see if there was any movement, and again the very professional Ford representative indicated my request was "still under review" and that I should maybe check back again around mid December.

I of course realize I am among probably tens of thousands of others in the same sea of frustration. In my case, I'm actually not in a huge hurry, I have other modes of transportation. But here's my point....this really cannot be this hard for a longstanding and leading manufacturer such as Ford.....the reservation system was originally portrayed and widely announced as a means to essentially take a number and stand in line. Given its vast resources, systems, planning tools, etc, potential customers like me should be able to receive a reasonable estimate of when their truck may be built and delivered....no expectation of a hard and fast date; a range would be fine. And, most of us would expect there to be scheduling variables such as component supply chain, configuration spec'd, what is planned to be built roughly when, etc.

Instead, its a black hole....which by the way is defined as a source of negative energy. Feedback like this goes in, little to nothing seems to come out. Only anecdotes and tips like "drop this or that feature, move ahead in line", or, move to a dealer who may get more allocations, or "IDK, I had no res, I just placed an order and in a few weeks got a build date"..... I'd call it all "chaos marketing", like if that is even a "thing".

Here's my question: is it the case, that at some point in the hopefully near future, that Ford will indeed resolve supply chain matters, ignore dealer allocation formulas, and simply build and ship the product per the reservation sequence converted to confirmed orders? The logical (and frankly only acceptable) answer is "yes, absolutely, and you can expect that to happen in (sometime in Q1, 2022??)".

In the mean time, I will continue to watch, read, twist in the wind, and wait....BTW...just for fun (and a distraction from my frustration), I put my name in the queue for the Rivian R1T....also off the charts cool and potential game changer....years away for sure, but it will at least be interesting to compare notes on the process...customer experience, manufacturer transparency, level of communications, and production execution. Oh yeah, and delivery date also!

Thanks for your time.

And, it is frustrating to see individuals with late reservations and no reservations get VINS, build dates and Broncos... many of which have commodities widely reported as being constrained. I have seen two builds identical to mine be built and delivered to owners. One owner did not even have a reservation (ordered 11-21) and the other one had a late August 2020 reservation. Here i Sit with an early July 14 2020 reservation and no VIN, no build date, no delivery date, no Bronco. No communication from Ford. This is not a commodity issue. This is the result of Ford changing the reservation system they announced to us in July of 2020 mid-stream to placate dealerships. Ford will pay a price for hurting (ex)loyal customers.

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