Poll: Why doesn't Ford communicate with their customers about missed promisses

[RSF]

I am baffled as to why Ford does not explain why they have missed the mark on the rollout of BC 1.4 Many of us bought the subscription to BC with the understanding 1.4 would be released by the end of 2023. Of course none of us want a release with bugs, but why wouldn't they just let us know what is going on rather than have all of the speculation and ridicule thrown at them across many different platforms. A simple post from Ford could alleviate so much of this, instead they choose to alienate so many. Why is this?

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[azerik]

If they admitted it everyone would know. It'd be all over the news, not just here and Electrek.

At this point really only a few of the MME owners actually know BC 1.4 is 'on the way' but isn't there, the charge port may or may not melt, the battery may or may not heat the entire garage, the charge rate is or is not derated, the car is or is not in the middle of the dash.

I think they firmly go off the saying of "It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than open it and dispel all doubt."

 

[Ghost Ryder]

In Ford's defense, they said that they will release it "soon." Some of us assume (and you know what that mean) that it was to be release in 2023.

 

[RSF]

In Ford's defense, they said that they will release it "soon." Some of us assume (and you know what that mean) that it was to be release in 2023.

You are right 'soon' is perfectly vague. But, we know Ford sees these posts, a three sentence statement from them could settle everything and thin out the posts on the forum.

 

[Blue highway]

In Ford's defense, they said that they will release it "soon." Some of us assume (and you know what that mean) that it was to be release in 2023.

I'm sympathetic to what Ford is doing with the software updates... bad as it is it's better than everyone but Tesla...

... but in defense of reality... "soon" in the context of software releases doesn't mean a year or more.

 

[Ghost Ryder]

You are right 'soon' is perfectly vague. But, we know Ford sees these posts, a three sentence statement from them could settle everything and thin out the posts on the forum.

What do you want them to say? That they have their best software guys working on it and will release it.... soon?

 

[hack-e]

I've said it before, but with as much engineering resources it's taking to get this one major update out the door, I imagine it's the last major update for this first gen fleet of Mach-E's. I'd love to be wrong, but I'm just saying. You'd like to think if they can get this out then maybe they've learned everything they need to in order to do it again, but I'm not sure considering how many unexpected issues they ran into.

 

[Ghost Ryder]

I'm sympathetic to what Ford is doing with the software updates... bad as it is it's better than everyone but Tesla...

... but in defense of reality... "soon" in the context of software releases doesn't mean a year or more.

I don't know about that. Rivian does a pretty good job with updating their software.

Having had the car for 2 years now, I find that the updates breaks more things than it fixes.

 

[YunniorO]

What irritates me though is the lack of communication. I never expected Ford to perfect the OTA process with the first gen MME, but like how hard is it to just send an email communicating that there are issues and they’re working on it?

Also the few times we actually did get communication, we had to find it on a forum post, no emails and no notices in the FordPass app like they did when they initially set expectations that we would see it by end of summer.

I probably wouldn’t care as much if this wasn’t a subscription feature that ford is charging more for than any other subscription I pay for.

Lastly, I’m sure Fords excuse for it is that we wouldn’t understand, but that’s bs. Nobody is going to complain about being informed even if they don’t understand it all. Most of us would probably flock here and have someone explain it to us in toddler terms anyways.

I don’t blame Ford engineers either. They’re probably not given the proper resources they need.

 

[BMT1071]

Generally speaking, large corporations do everything they can to avoid airing their dirty laundry. They aren't going to give specific reasons unless they absolutely have to. If they even generically admit they have "issues" it gives the competition ammunition to criticize and/or market against them.

Edit to add that this in no way means I am happy about it or giving Ford a pass. Just that I understand why from a business perspective.

 

[YunniorO]

Generally speaking, large corporations do everything they can to avoid airing their dirty laundry. They aren't going to give specific reasons unless they absolutely have to. If they even generically admit they have "issues" it gives the competition ammunition to criticize and/or market against them.

Could it really be any worse than the criticism they’re already getting for missing their expected release by almost half a year? We all already know there’s issues, I feel like they really can’t do any more damage than what’s already done.

 

[DYohn]

Much ado about nothing. Get a life, people.

 

[BMT1071]

Could it really be any worse than the criticism they’re already getting for missing their expected release by almost half a year? We all already know there’s issues, I feel like they really can’t do any more damage than what’s already done.

Like @azerik said above, I have only seen complaints here on the forum. Nothing from the news outlets that would surely jump all over an admission.

 

[BMT1071]

Much ado about nothing. Get a life, people.

For the most part, I agree with you. I'm not going to rehash all of the points/arguments from a few months ago, but I still stand by my position, which is 'don't make announcements if you are unable to deliver'.

 

[azerik]

In Ford's defense, they said that they will release it "soon." Some of us assume (and you know what that mean) that it was to be release in 2023.

Says a company that's been based on model years pretty much from day one. Not sure why they con't wrap their heads around the fact that most current owners won't been owners, soon, either.
If Soon, is 2 years, the avg car is dumped every 3 years. The avg MME probably every 1.5 years. (I'm basing that 1.5 years off milage and what I see in the market(s))

Having had the car for 2 years now, I find that the updates breaks more things than it fixes.

That's directly related to the quality of developers and complexity of said system. They made it more complex than it needed to be by skimping on developing the framework to make it work. Now it's a swift kick to the nuts every time they try to push an update. If they arn't currently working on a way to get out of this sandpit of a deployment they're going to pay dearly later and stop doing updates. It'll go back to taking it into the dealer, who will probably find a way to charge for it.

Could it really be any worse than the criticism they’re already getting for missing their expected release by almost half a year? We all already know there’s issues, I feel like they really can’t do any more damage than what’s already done.

Nope. Hardly anyone knows. That's why I threaten the X mutiny. Until there's a uprising and it is public enough to hurt sales (more..) they won't even bat an eye. So long as the majority of BUYERS don't know. They give a lot less shits about current owners. If the public stops wanting to purchase said vehicles then actions will actually happen to start to fix it.

That's really part of the reason Tesla is destroying the others with brand loyalty. Sure you hear about T's Autopilot killing people, but it's not proven enough for the gen pop to stop buying. And those that do hear about it and take it to heart either don't use it or never bothered to buy into the hype most likely.

If there isn't sweeping changes to bring these FoMoCo EV's into unison very quickly the 2 year old car will no longer get updates. Mark my words. They'll start putting in disclaimers about hardware limits rather than waste the time trying to get HF lane changes to work in ''21s/22's".

I learned with drones, buy it for what it has today, not what they promise tomorrow. I have scrapped many a device due to promises. That was direct to manuaf. though. Ford has an even bigger problem of incorrectly informed dealers, that line of communications needs fixed as well. Perhaps if they do stop pushing updates they should have a BOT that can look the car up by vin and tell the owner if it can get X feature. If sometime down the road that feature could make it in to the owners car after being told no, maybe they send a reply text or email and EXACTLY how to get it. Not some BS "make sure auto updates are on nightly, car locked, battery charged, plugged in and a sacrifice left in the frunk."

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