Dealer sold my reserved car

[nvabill]

Yes... must be nice to have a job where you can do that...

It was, I'm retired now, lol, seriously though, sorry you lost you car, hope you get some resolution to the matter.

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[TGIF]

I’m so sorry this happened to you. Stories like this made me a bit paranoid so I followed my car obsessively the last few weeks. I called the morning it arrived to arrange delivery. Fortunately my dealer (Stivers in Waukee, IA) was totally straight with me and it was probably wasted effort. I feel really bad for your experience.

 

[Zach@granger]

Sharing my experience about a local shady dealership (Putnam Ford of San Mateo, CA).

I ordered a Mustang Mach-E online on 8/17/21, placed a $500 deposit, and assigned the car to a local dealership. I was told on 4/26/22 afternoon that the car had arrived. The salesperson and manager told me it would be fine to pick it up on 4/29 afternoon. They said they would NOT honor Ford's price protection policy, despite telling me months earlier that they would try to, so I would need to pay $2000 more than the initial order price from 2021. I asked if I could sign paperwork on 4/29 and take receipt of the car, and the salesperson and manager said that would be fine. Instead, I was sent a contract via email on 4/27 which did not include my initial deposit. They did not provide a corrected contract when asked. I did not sign this. I spoke with the owner on the morning of 4/29 who threatened to cancel my order, but also said he would have his staff look into the situation and reach out to me. When I did not hear back I started calling the dealership to let them know I was coming over, but nobody would pick up the phone. I was finally able to reach someone in the afternoon, when I was told that nobody could handle the paperwork that day, and also the car was no longer on the lot. I was told on 4/30 they had actually sold the car to someone else on 4/29 in the morning.

I know these cars are in high demand but this feels totally crazy to me. They wanted to charge me more than the expected price. They threatened to sell the car if I didn't pick it up ASAP, and ended up selling it before 72 hours had elapsed, without my consent or knowledge. They also ghosted me so that they could sell the car to someone else. The deposit and reservation and order seem totally worthless.

The owner doesn't seem to think he did anything wrong, and he is currently offering to sell me a future vehicle with usual dealer markup (LOL)

I left some bad reviews online, and I opened a complaint with Ford corporate but they said they could take up to 30 days to get a response from the dealer.

This is super frustrating for you. Especially after these long waits for a vehicle to be produced. Certainly frustrating staring down the process to start all over again.

 

[jonkMACHE]

Write up everything with as much detail as you can and send it to every EV/Auto website and blog you can, especially the Tesla-stan ones. Blow the story up.

As much as I love my Mach-E and appreciate Ford going all-in on EVs, they need the bad publicity to make them start cleaning up these messes the dealerships are making for them. This is not the first time this has happened and they're not going to start taking serious action until a wider audience becomes aware of this being a possibility on a car someone waited 6-14 months for.

Reading a story like this before I placed my order would have made me completely reconsider my order.

Agreed. I had a great dealership experience so I can’t complain, but had this of happened to me I would have flipped my lid.

 

[RedStallion]

I wonder what would have happened if Ford increased MSRP by, say 20%, across the board. Would the dealerships still be able to pull all those dirty tricks? I think not.
The problem is that the current prices are too low which created significant disbalance between demand and supply, and that put the dealerships in the driver seat trying to benefit from the situation. It would be strange if they didn't try to. If the prices were high enough to cool off the demand substantially, the dealers would be kissing your tokus to make a deal.

 

[ARK]

I wonder what would have happened if Ford increased MSRP by, say 20%, across the board. Would the dealerships still be able to pull all those dirty tricks? I think not.
The problem is that the current prices are too low which created significant disbalance between demand and supply, and that put the dealerships in the driver seat trying to benefit from the situation. It would be strange if they didn't try to. If the prices were high enough to cool off the demand substantially, the dealers would be kissing your tokus to make a deal.

I agree completely, but many people would gladly pay $15,000 more for this vehicle if it came from Ford and was the ‘official’ price, as opposed paying a dealer $5,000 more in ADM if they knew some people were not paying anything over.

 

[pmd]

The main problem is Ford Motor Company set this way of purchasing cars in motion with the perception that the purchaser "feels" that they locked in a price at the time of placing an order.

IMO, if Ford is proactive I would suggest that they change the way the ordering process takes shape so to speak.

Just imagine if you ordered something from Amazon thinking that you locked in a price when ordering and when the package arrived you needed to cough up 10% more to retain said purchase because you didn't officially "sign anything" at time of ordering? I realize that fine print is the kicker but it may also be the decider of going else where in the future when you feel robbed.

In the end, Ford has the ultimate leverage and if these shenanigans continue with a few dealerships that Ford sells to, this could sway many customers (including me) to never deal with Ford again. If Ford doesn't think this can happen, just remind them of the late 70's and early 80's when many said F off to the big 3 and left for greener pastures across the pond. They began to wake up when that happened and hopefully they can learn from past mistakes.

I agree with your assessment. By reserving and giving deposit online Ford made it appear that my primary relationship is with them. IMO, Ford wanted to mimic Tesla and came up with this half-baked cake.

Another complaint I have with Ford is price protection. They could have easily done PCO like they did during model conversion and taken the dealer out of the equation.

Great car, worst buying experience primarily because of the dealer. Ford is ruining their brand. Many dealers think this is their last opportunity to make money, so they care less about the brand.

Waiting to experience my eventual buying experience. If it does not go well, Ford will be my last choice in the future.

 

[pmd]

I fully realize that the "model" that Amazon does and Ford are different.

That was exactly my point. ?

Back in the good ole' days, once you negotiated a price when buying a car, believe it or not that is what you ended up paying for it out the door.

Now, the Dealerships add on crap that some people buy and get totally ripped off because they think this is baked in and non-negotiable. Many are very misleading and confusing and you get that funny feeling in the pit of your stomach that you were taken advantage of.

You didn't need to do this in the past, but every time I buy a vehicle I clearly state "out the door price". They come back with processing fee's and I clearly say that you need to add this in to the total price that we are speaking of. No hidden fees, upfront out the door price so we both understand where we stand. They don't like this aggressive approach but that is what you need to do to these "kind".

Because of past abuses of Dealership practices, for the life of me I don't understand why people would defend these "models". I would guess more than 50% of the Dealerships are terrible on a good day and down and outright rotten on bad days. Jus' sayin'.....................?

IMO dealer network works when supply is more than demand. This keeps them in check. Once that breaks down some dealers are like a "kid in a candy shop", with no parental controls.

The business of a dealership is to take inventory from the manufacturer and the profits they make are from the capital invested. In the current environment, this function is not needed as most cars are pre-reserved. I bet dealers are making more money per car than Ford, pathetic.

 

[Mach1E]

IMO dealer network works when supply is more than demand. This keeps them in check. Once that breaks down some dealers are like a "kid in a candy shop", with no parental controls.

The business of a dealership is to take inventory from the manufacturer and the profits they make are from the capital invested. In the current environment, this function is not needed as most cars are pre-reserved. I bet dealers are making more money per car than Ford, pathetic.

Not sure who is making more profit per vehicle right now. Dealers have had 2 years of record profits, but the manufacturers have had good years too!

Only a few years ago Ford had thousands of dollars in manufacturer rebates on cars. Heck, in 2015 my dad got $11,500 of an F150.

Rebates come out of Ford’s profits, not the dealers.

 

[Socalsp3]

How we post what think of this dealer on their yelp page and not just here? It would save people grief and maybe discourage other dealerships from this practice. I posted mine already

 

[jlauro]

How we post what think of this dealer on their yelp page and not just here? It would save people grief and maybe discourage other dealerships from this practice. I posted mine already

IMHO, not a good idea to do besides for the OP.

 

[Socalsp3]

IMHO, not a good idea to do besides for the OP.

The sharing of consumer experience is what yelp is for

 

[Reign of Ravens]

I wonder what would have happened if Ford increased MSRP by, say 20%, across the board. Would the dealerships still be able to pull all those dirty tricks? I think not.
The problem is that the current prices are too low which created significant disbalance between demand and supply, and that put the dealerships in the driver seat trying to benefit from the situation. It would be strange if they didn't try to. If the prices were high enough to cool off the demand substantially, the dealers would be kissing your tokus to make a deal.

You might be interested to read about Mercedes dealerships adding massive ADM on vehicles costing $100,000+. I'd say it shoots down the idea that this is purely due to prices being too low, unless you think $100,000 is too low a price for some of Mercedes' models.

 

[mkhuffman]

The sharing of consumer experience is what yelp is for

It is for sharing YOUR experience, not others. If it didn't happen to you, you should not leave a negative post.

 

[mkhuffman]

You might be interested to read about Mercedes dealerships adding massive ADM on vehicles costing $100,000+. I'd say it shoots down the idea that this is purely due to prices being too low, unless you think $100,000 is too low a price for some of Mercedes' models.

If people are willing to pay more for something by definition the price is too low.

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