[Frankenbike]

OK, so I visited a dealer and made my pre-order today. He didn't seem to have any info on what he needed to do to make sure the car was registered in a way that qualifies me for the Go-Pro.

In fact, none of the dealers I talked to had any idea what to do. The dealers in my area were all complaining about the fact that there seems to be far more info on the net, than what they seem to be getting from Ford.

Does anyone have the info a dealer would need to dot all the "i"s and cross all the "t"s?

If this is covered in another thread, please point me to it. I couldn't find it with a search.

Thanks!

 

[oaxa]

OK, so I visited a dealer and made my pre-order today. He didn't seem to have any info on what he needed to do to make sure the car was registered in a way that qualifies me for the Go-Pro.

In fact, none of the dealers I talked to had any idea what to do. The dealers in my area were all complaining about the fact that there seems to be far more info on the net, than what they seem to be getting from Ford.

Does anyone have the info a dealer would need to dot all the "i"s and cross all the "t"s?

If this is covered in another thread, please point me to it. I couldn't find it with a search.

Thanks!

So you finally got a cooperating dealer. Who's the lucky guy?
Edit
Saw that you posted in the Positive Dealer Experience Thread

 

[jthj]

The sales guy im going through has a similar issue trying to get info from ford. I think this is just the Fords a giant company problems.


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[Frankenbike]

I'm beginning to think that the emails and info are sent to sales managers, who really don't give a damn about some car that will go on their sales figures in three months. So he (or she) doesn't forward them to all the salesmen, because he (or she) wants the sales staff to concentrate their sales efforts on what's on the lot right now.

And then forgets about it completely. There must be some web address that only salesmen can log into where they can get all the info, forms etc.

Seriously, everyone I've talked to says they haven't heard anything about the GoPro promotion.

So you finally got a cooperating dealer. Who's the lucky guy?
Edit
Saw that you posted in the Positive Dealer Experience Thread

On the way home, I was telling my wife I planned to post that first thing when I got home. Turned out to be the second thing, because as I was about to write it I got a call from Thomas at Ed Butts Ford, who also seemed as motivated to get a new customer as I expected all dealers to be.

 

[ATX Eric]

Send an e-mail to Brent at Ford corporate (order headquarters or something the like) after the dealer has had time to process the order. That'll solve it. I went through the same thing. My saleswoman and the sales managers knew nothing, and reacted to my questioning almost as if I had suddenly become mute and they were unable to hear me. It was as if there was complete silence before they moved on to talking about something else.

Can't say I blame them completely. In their heads, it probably registers as something like, "Great. Another promotion that corporate didn't tell us about." Or, "Bet I missed that memo along with the eight-hundred others they sent last month."



Either way, do a search for Brent and you'll find the e-mail. If you don't/can't, I'll dig it up for you here when I get the chance.

 

[dwmckay]

oops!

The dealer has to go to the Incentives and Contests (or Contests and Incentives) web site to register your order. My dealer also had to send Ford a copy of the order with my signature, and a copy of my driver's license to confirm it was a retail order and not for dealer stock. The email address at Ford is "[email protected]".
Good luck!

 

[Frankenbike]

Ford should really have made it easy for us by giving us a form to fill out that could be completed by the dealer and scanned or something with the information for the dealer to follow. The salespeeps I've talked to who've worked for other dealers say the disconnect between car dealers and manufacturers is pretty epic, and one of them who's a Mustang owner himself, says he sometimes gets his info from the Mustang forums to follow up on with the factory, because Ford goes through dealer chain of command, and his sales manager is an old school dude who doesn't even read his email half the time and just deletes all the "program" info Ford sends, because he can't tell the junk and empty hype from stuff that is necessary.

I'd think the whole thing was bizarre if we hadn't had some level of the same types of problems with my car and my wife's PT Cruiser when we bought those. In her case, it was $2K off if she financed, in mine there was a Zero% APR or $1000 cash back. Neither of the dealers were familiar with the promotion, even though it was being advertised on TV! For my wife's PT, the guy hauls out that month's 2 inch thick, three ring binder of company communications before he found it.

 

[ATX Eric]

dwmckay has your e-mail up there ^.

And yes. Ford would've made it very easy for dealers that way, too, and put the onus on the customer to get their free swag.

Your post about the company comm folder confirms my suspicions a few posts up. Its a classic giant company problem. Its like anything you see over and over again. It loses meaning. And its worse when probably only 10% of those comms pertain to anything specifically necessary to his dealership. Sadly, I'm sure there are a few self-important folks in IC that think there's not excuse for not reading the materials they create.

Large companies are insane with this stuff. Its why it turns out to be easier (and possible cheaper) to just hire an outside consultant to handle problems that really amount to KISS.

Anyway...my rant is done. And its not like there aren't disadvantages to working for small companies, too. Ask me about a British boutique sportscar manufacturer I had dealings with sometime over a beer.

 

[Americarsftw]

It seems like Lisa has volunteered this information many times. If a dealership really did their research on the ST I would think they would have had this figured out in time for when preorder banks opened on 5/1.

Why would they bother to do this? They wouldn't because the car isn't on their lot and they would rather sell you what they have now then make an order.

The sales guy im going through has a similar issue trying to get info from ford. I think this is just the Fords a giant company problems.


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[Frankenbike]

Not to delve too far into this, but my sister worked for Ford for ten years before moving back to California to work for Toyota. She said at that time, that Ford had over 40 levels of management, and she was in the 20s by the time she left. Even if they've got half that, it is amazingly easy to see how communications can get screwed up.

You'd think that when you click the link to send your info to the dealer, they'd get the build you made, and all the necessary links and forms and instructions on how to proceed. That way, they only have to know what's relevant when they need to.

Then again, that wouldn't do the salesman at one dealership I was at. He had a monochrome amber CRT on his desk, and was running a text only system like DOS or 80s era Unix.

 

[ATX Eric]

Right, but its a two-way street. The dealership shouldn't be expected to know every single date/promotion/new product spec/etc. months in advance without any help. The manufacturers sometimes put enough undue pressure on franchises as it is and there is often a strained relationship there.

Should sales reps be up-to-date on product coming down the line? Yes. Do they always have the time to learn those? Maybe. Should they know about a pre-order special for only 1,000 cars? I can't fault them for not knowing or caring, quite frankly, as they do have other work to do.

Now...if they don't play nice AFTER they are informed of such a thing, then that's a different animal entirely.

edit: In response to Amercars.

 

[jthj]

I think part of the problem at my dealership is the sales guy isn't doing this. He has to go through the sales manager who no doubt has a lot of other stuff to do. *sigh*


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[Rev.Hammer]

Are ya talking to the 'internet/fleet sales guy'? The rest are gonna be tarded to a fair degree...

 

[jthj]

I got their internet guy. But he didn't put in my order. The sales manager did. Or so I'm told.


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[sk8parker94]

I just missed the cut off for the go pro's :S

 

[PiSigma]

I just missed the cut off for the go pro's :S

Really? Did a dealer tell you that? Cut off was 8/20/2012 or 1000 orders and I don't think Ford has reached 1000 pre-orders yet.....

 

[Chip]

Last I heard there was only 500 and change GoPros' accounted for. I'd check into it.

 

[ATX Eric]

Interesting. Sorry to hear it. Sounds like they've either reached a date cutoff or have reached the 1K orders. Did you get an e-mail from HQ?

 

[jthj]

I still haven't heard from HQ with a confirm. I ordered on 6/29. I know people have ordered later and got in. So frustrated right now.


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[oaxa]

I still haven't heard from HQ with a confirm. I ordered on 6/29. I know people have ordered later and got in. So frustrated right now.


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Yes F*** what the dealer says, post this on the ST Facebook page.
You'll most likely get a response form Lisa