Mach-E VLOG
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Patrick
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2020
- Threads
- 118
- Messages
- 1,614
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- 6,537
- Location
- Oceanside, CA
- Website
- machevlog.com
- Vehicles
- Mach-E GT PE - Grabber Blue - Blucifer Twocifer
That's infuriating. As others have said, try to escalate the issue by contacting the dealership management or someone at Ford.Ok so I’ll share my experience, I just left a few minutes ago.
I live about 40 miles from the dealership I ended up selecting due to them promising to not do any ridiculous ADM charge ups.
I contact the dealership Friday and confirm that I have a reservation and would like to come in to test drive since my vehicle is scheduled to be built in a few days. The sales rep is friendly,asks me what time I’d like to come in, we set a time, I receive a text confirming.
Today, I arrive on time for my appointment, and the receptionist sends someone over to take my ID. I wait a few minutes after handing over my ID and the rep returns and tells me I won’t be able to do a test drive “because they don’t have any cars available/ the person I spoke to must have been misinformed “. I explain that’s odd, since they confirmed before setting the appointment and clarify I drove 40 MILES today explicitly for this test drive. I remind him I’ve already reserved a car. He apologizes, a bit nonchalant/passively. I grit my teeth and leave.
As I’m heading to my car guess what I see...a couple pulling out in a grey mach-e. I decide to wait and see if they return because “maybe they just purchased theirs and are happily driving theirs home”. While I wait I call another dealership to see if they have any available to test drive and they confirm they do. As I’m getting ready to leave for the other dealership I notice the couple has returned. I stop for a second to chat them up — low and behold they just wrapped up a test drive! We exchange a few pleasantries about our mutual enthusiasm about the car and I head back into the dealership.
A salesman asks as I enter if he can help me with anything l, and I let him know that I’d love to test drive the mach-e out front if there aren’t any other folks on the waiting list. He says sure, comes back with another gentleman who confirms I’m on the list. I chat with this gentleman for a bit, but get the sense he’s sizing me up a bit...which seems odd since I’ve again mentioned in passing I already reserved my model, I’m just interested in test driving before it’s actually delivered. I entertain him a bit, sure why not talk the shape of the EV industry and show just how obsessively I’ve been researching EVs for years.
A few minutes later another guy comes up and gives a whole “I’m sorry no one is available today to assist you with a test drive today” but that I’m welcome to take a look inside. I decline, noting I’m pretty familiar with the interior after poring over photos, reviews and videos for months and made the trip to get a feel for how the car drives and promptly leave. By this point this whole charade has went on almost an hour past when the scheduled test drive. I calmly left, reiterating it’s really bad customer service to deny someone who’s already paid the ability to test drive when you’ve confirmed it (I didn’t even mention letting other people test drive with little to no explanation)
I’d like to not assume anything but for reference the couple who I literally saw leave and return for a test drive during my reserved time was White. I’m a Black man, who honestly is glad my wife wasn’t with me because the entire experience was enraging/humiliating and she likely would have discouraged me from even bothering with Ford at all...and honestly depending on if I can change my reservation to another dealership or have a satisfactory explanation — may just decide to get something else altogether.
The only scenarios I can assume are:
a) these were some weird racist discriminatory assholes
b) they’re trying to block reservation holders from driving Mach-E’s fearing they’ll cancel (which seems unlikely since they won’t have a problem marking up and selling for even more)
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