corvettedreamin

OK, so I went to the dealer last Saturday and put a deposit down and spec'd out my new Mustang. Yesterday he tells me that the factory only accepts orders certain times of the month and that my order will actually go in next Tuesday.

I have NO idea if this is THIS dealer, all dealers, or what the case is but basically my money was put down and my order will take 10 days to get put into the system. Is that typical? In this time of automation, it seems like if you get an order you place the order and the process begins. (This Internet thing is gonna catch on... I'm sure of it!) Waiting to "accept" an order seems a little off to me. Can anyone she any light?

David Young

My dealer put my order in, right then and there while i watched.

Your dealer 'might have' a special day they submit orders. I don't think its a factory thing.

I placed my order to the factory on a Wed.

DontShoot

Think I remember someone else posting that there was only one person for their dealership that entered retail orders, and that person was only in once a week or so. Not a great way to do business, in my book, but then what do I know?

I was able to submit my order any time I wanted. It was deciding what I wanted that took the longest time. Good luck with your car!

b_btrick

I think it may also be the way he has 'ordered' it.
As I understand it, there are two ways to 'order' a car.
The first is the way most think about it, go to the dealer and he/she places an order for the car spec'd out the way you want it.
The other is to simply use one of the monthly inventory slots and configure one of the cars being ordered as lot inventory the way you want your car.
The first way can be ordered any time, the second way can only be put in during the time the dealer would normally place their lot order (this is how my dealer put in my order, not sure if it got here any quicker this way, its just the way he explained doing it).

Five Oh Brian

I order all the Mustangs for our dealership. I can order any day of the week, any time. However, Ford only pulls orders once a week. Perhaps that's what your dealer was alluding to.

corvettedreamin

I thought you might have some insight, Brian. Thanks to everyone else too for sharing your experiences.

My issue is that if they do them once a week, what happened to LAST Tuesday?

Needless to say, I"m counting every day until it arrives and unnecessary waits are not my idea of fun.

corvettedreamin

UPDATE:

So my car is supposed to be ordered this week, Tuesday -- 10 days after I put a deposit down. I hear nothing. So I follow up and ask the salesman for some information about the order. The day passes with no response. I follow up again last night with a cc to the General Sales Manager. At 11:00 AM today I get a response that, in a nutshell, said, "we don't hear anything unless there's a problem."

I am very close to canceling this order with this dealer due to breach of contract. They have my money and can not substantiate a factory order date, build date, or delivery date. Communication has been nil except where prompted by me repeatedly (and I don't "bother" people -- I just ask for periodic updates.)

I'm even beginning to question (again) whether the Ford "family" is for me and I've owned seven Fords since 1994.

Bert

sounds like a dealer problem to me, and I don't think you even need to cite "breach of contract" to cancel, you simply cancel and ask for your deposit back

unfortunately, that will set you back even more than you already are, time-wise

corvettedreamin

Not if they haven't actually ordered it. (Which I suspect may be the case -- I'm just not sure why beyond incompetence.)

Jeffski

I placed an order (with my dealer) on March 12th. Only last week did they provide me with a VIN#. They had not heard from Ford as to build/delivery date. I don't know how soon to expect that info, but how long can it take if my VIN has been created.

m4reapr

haven't heard anything?
those northern VA dealerships are some of the biggest volume dealers in the country
i went in to a smaller dealership, Crouse Ford in Taneytown, MD on 3/30, a tuesday morning around 10am and spec'd the car out
4/02 at around 12:20 the salesman called me with a VIN

just sitting back and waiting now

corvettedreamin

Well that just adds to my frustration but I'm glad some folks are having positive experiences.

Karpro

Ask them for a copy of the DORA. If they can produce that for you it means they have ordered the car. You aren't, in most cases, going to have a serial number, build date or delivery date yet. For the majority of the country they haven't even started scheduling retail sold order cars yet. I am guessing what they mean by saying they won't hear anything unless there is a problem is that it will just sit in the order bank, unscheduled, for a while unless there is some kind of commodity issue (like the IUP back in 2005). If there is a commodity issue then they get notification from Ford, other than that it just sits in the order bank.

Have a little patience. It is a 2011 model car that has just gone in to production and hasn't even started to ship yet don't get too upset yet. I have been taking orders since the order bank opened and none of them have been scheduled yet. They will start scheduling them and you'll end up owning the best performance car value in the narket today but it isn't going to happen in a couple of weeks.

On the other hand if they haven't ordered the car at all, get your deposit back and move on to a better dealer.

eci

Guys, Ford the Company sucks. You may like their cars, but they SUCK, S U C K as far as customer orientation is concerned. You just have to endure this when dealing with them and their dealer network. Hopefully the car makes up for it. Customer service has never been anywhere close to a priority for Ford. It shows at every level of the Company.

DontShoot

+1.

I haven't heard anything about VIN #'s or build dates on my car. I ordered from Jeff. Does this mean he's not trustworthy and I want my money back? Nope. It means I have to be patient, and that in the end it will all be worth it.

yugoboss

They will phone you when the car is in, they wan't to sell you the car as much as you wan't it.
All this talk about dora'a and vins, my God! I have ordered all 3 of my new vehicles and just had to wait,
then one day, ring ring ring ring, oh your car is here!

FordBlueHeart

Its not Ford, its all manufacturers that deal this way. They expect their customers to show some patience. Too bad we live in the world of NOW. I do think they should all improve on customer service, especially related to orders.
One thing that I remember from working in the biz for over 10 years, is that customers only remember what they want to hear. Like when I told them there order would take 8-10 weeks, but sometimes they come in quicker. They always show up around week 6 complaining that it wasn't there yet!

corvettedreamin

My issue is that I ordered on 4/3 (date of the buyer's order) and then was told it wouldn't go into the factory until 4/13. I gave them a deposit. Why they sat on it for 10 days before ordering it escapes me but whatever. So I figured based on my PATIENCE, they'd happily give me the DORA once the order was in and I'd happily wait until the car got serialized, built, and delivered.

Today I asked for some kind of evidence that the car had been ordered when they said it would (now 4/13) and I got back a "random" order number. Obviously it didn't look like a real order number and my concerns were raised again. I was told that was their order number, not the factory order number. OK, so how do I know it was ever ordered at the factory? I'm not one to throw hundreds of dollars out the window (let alone thousands) on an empty promise. Sorry. Yugoboss might be but I'm not.

I agree with Yugoboss in that I'm sure they'd like to sell "one more" and make the easy holdback plus some on it. I'm just confounded by the opaqueness of this transaction.

Paul has a good point and I did ask for the DORA. The salesman basically said he'd ask the inventory manager if they had "anything else" to give me. That email came at the end of the day. Guess who's out tomorrow? Yep, the salesman.

I'm a very patient person when I know progress being made. Where I become impatient is when I feel like I'm getting nothing for my patience. If my boss came to me hanging around the water cooler because my computer was "busy" and I told him to "just be patient" . . . I'd probably get fired. I think most people like to know WHY they're being patient. What's the status? What's the next step? When can we expect it to be completed? Are there any issues toward meeting that expected completion date?

Sorry for the rant but when I started this everything was sunshine and rainbows when I was interested in ordering but once I filled out the buyer's order and put down the deposit, you could hear a pin drop in the dialogue the dealer was providing.

And yes, the easy answer is to simply cancel the order and go somewhere else. I'm inclined to do that BUT I'd also like to give them the benefit of the doubt that everything is in place as promised and it's just a severe lack of communication and customer focus that's created this perception I have.

Source

If you aren't happy get your deposit back and go elsewhere. I had the same thing happen to me. I got my deposit back and ordered at a different dealer. A week later I had a VIN and build date (which I wasnt expecting). I'm not saying that it'll happen the same way for you if you move, but it's your money. Why not just do what you think is right? Go to a few different dealers if you can and see who will tend to your needs better. Or order from Jeff, a couple on here have and he has gone above and beyond for them.

Karpro

I have to disagree a little with this at least regarding this conversation. Ford should have very little to do with the customer service end of this process. They have a dealer network for a reason. We are here to deal with the customer and any problems that may arise with the car or the customer. Ford's job is to build a great product, which they are finally doing. They are currently producing a Mustang with a completely new powertrain from the ground up. They are producing them and testing them to make sure they are as close to perfect before releasing them to the public. If that means delaying an ESTIMATED delivery time for a week, a couple of weeks or a month so be it. Get the product right before you ship it, period. If you are not getting the follow up from your dealer that you are looking for that is your dealers fault not Ford's. That being said there really isn't much the dealer has to tell you right now. The orders are in the order bank, they will all get built soon and everyone will get there cars.