4/11/22 build week chat

[awaters]

Opened chat with ford this morning - Primary status is still in production "Pending update" no holds present of any kind as of now. They literally just forgot about our cars and they're sitting in the parking lot gathering water spots waiting to be remember and prepped for shipping.

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[FarSide]

Uh oh, I was really hoping we didn’t need to invoke Dante and the gates of hell but here we are. Agree that this is discouraging and might lead me to call the Norfolk Southern automated phone line much less often, perhaps only 10 times a day now. Whew.

Norfolk says that I am at the Auto Ramp in New Jersey. I assume this is Newark? And that’s the end of train rides? What more would Norfolk be telling you at this point?

This is all so stupid. After all the wait times throughout this entire process; our cars are built and hauled from another country and halfway across the U.S. Money is ready to exchange hands. Someone (ultimately Ford’s responsibility) can’t get cars delivered nearby. Dealers can’t send their flatbeds to pickup cars; they want to finalize the deal too?

 

[rlarsen5000]

After a long Norfolk Southern rail journey on the famous "Screamin' Eel" express from KC to NJ— through the placid plains of Illinois and Indiana, the empty widget depots of Ohio, past the hardscrabble rail towns of Pennsylvania—I have finally joined you fellas in the Pit of Despair, aka Newark's Doremus Auto Terminal. It feels a bit anticlimactic to reach the end of a journey only to... wait some more. But then this has been the story of the MME thus far, a kind of Sisyphean fable of near-attainment. I wish you Godspeed in your languishing. May United Road find some drivers (anyone? anyone?) and pick up our ponies.

 

[Yottawatt]

My parents' California RT 1 has been at the local Buffalo Railyard since Saturday evening. They could get a call at any moment that their car made the 15min journey to the dealership.

 

[darshanp]

I was supposed to receive my car by today. Car was shipped on 4/26. I checked with ford today and now they are saying ETA is 7/2-7/8. No email from ford about that. Dealer told me yesterday that car could be here today. Not sure whom to believe at this point. It is frustrating to know that we can track almost anything in this day and age but can't pinpoint car location correctly. Ford surely knows how to kill customer excitement little by little.

Has it happened with anyone else that ETA changed on last day of previous ETA.

 

[PNWJustin]

I was supposed to receive my car by today. Car was shipped on 4/26. I checked with ford today and now they are saying ETA is 7/2-7/8. No email from ford about that. Dealer told me yesterday that car could be here today. Not sure whom to believe at this point. It is frustrating to know that we can track almost anything in this day and age but can't pinpoint car location correctly. Ford surely knows how to kill customer excitement little by little.

Has it happened with anyone else that ETA changed on last day of previous ETA.

Is your updated date reflecting in the tracker?

 

[darshanp]

Is your updated date reflecting in the tracker?

Unfortunately no. Ford tracker doesn't show any dates. it just says shipped.

 

[PNWJustin]

Unfortunately no. Ford tracker doesn't show any dates. it just says shipped.

Ahh, bummer.

When I log into my Ford account, I can see the reservation. It's in Bainville, MT as of today (According to BNSF).

My screen still shows the same original arrival window. 6/8-6/14. It's got about another 1k miles via train then 90 miles via truck.

 

[darshanp]

Ahh, bummer.

When I log into my Ford account, I can see the reservation. It's in Bainville, MT as of today (According to BNSF).

My screen still shows the same original arrival window. 6/8-6/14. It's got about another 1k miles via train then 90 miles via truck.

Hopefully you receive it on time. In my case Ford chat told me vehicle is in Kansas so distance wise I am in similar boat. ~1k miles to Florida then 100 miles on truck but they moved my ETA by one month for that. It is very frustrating experience tracking this car.

 

[NewGuy]

After a long Norfolk Southern rail journey on the famous "Screamin' Eel" express from KC to NJ— through the placid plains of Illinois and Indiana, the empty widget depots of Ohio, past the hardscrabble rail towns of Pennsylvania—I have finally joined you fellas in the Pit of Despair, aka Newark's Doremus Auto Terminal. It feels a bit anticlimactic to reach the end of a journey only to... wait some more. But then this has been the story of the MME thus far, a kind of Sisyphean fable of near-attainment. I wish you Godspeed in your languishing. May United Road find some drivers (anyone? anyone?) and pick up our ponies.

Wait up…I should be there soon. Just crossed through Allentown and then Bethlehem. Could even be in NJ at this point.

 

[RMoore]

Something has changed: although the Norfolk Southern automated line still spits back something like RLO'd Newark NJ (I have no idea what the first few words are, it's a bit garbled), and it's been that same message for several days, I did check the United Road link and it now shows my car as Pending Pickup, rather than "Invalid" which it has said for many days. I have to think that's progress. From conversations with @NJ_MachE, his car got to his dealer in NJ about 4 days after that.

 

[awaters]

Something has changed: although the Norfolk Southern automated line still spits back something like RLO'd Newark NJ (I have no idea what the first few words are, it's a bit garbled), and it's been that same message for several days, I did check the United Road link and it now shows my car as Pending Pickup, rather than "Invalid" which it has said for many days. I have to think that's progress. From conversations with @NJ_MachE, his car got to his dealer in NJ about 4 days after that.

How long has it been since you got the shipped notice? I've lost track at this point. Is it still within the window of their original estimate?

 

[NJ_MachE]

Something has changed: although the Norfolk Southern automated line still spits back something like RLO'd Newark NJ (I have no idea what the first few words are, it's a bit garbled), and it's been that same message for several days, I did check the United Road link and it now shows my car as Pending Pickup, rather than "Invalid" which it has said for many days. I have to think that's progress. From conversations with @NJ_MachE, his car got to his dealer in NJ about 4 days after that.

Yeah that's definitely a positive development-- that seems like a pretty vague NS message but I don't think it would switch to "Pending Pickup" in United Road until it was actually off the railcar/in the lot. It was probably in a status of "Inactive" before.

The main thing to check on with United Road now is for an estimated delivery date to be added to your VIN's status. Word of warning that that update doesn't seem very consistent-- some VIN's get an estimated delivery date assigned days in advance, others (like mine) were assigned just the night before. And it seems like in some cases, the car is delivered without ever being assigned an estimated delivery date. If you do see an estimated delivery date assigned, check back the day of and you might get lucky and get to see your VIN "in route" (even trackable on a map) and then "delivered" if you obsessively check the United Road site.

 

[RMoore]

Yeah that's definitely a positive development-- that seems like a pretty vague NS message but I don't think it would switch to "Pending Pickup" in United Road until it was actually off the railcar/in the lot. It was probably in a status of "Inactive" before.

The main thing to check on with United Road now is for an estimated delivery date to be added to your VIN's status. Word of warning that that update doesn't seem very consistent-- some VIN's get an estimated delivery date assigned days in advance, others (like mine) were assigned just the night before. And it seems like in some cases, the car is delivered without ever being assigned an estimated delivery date. If you do see an estimated delivery date assigned, check back the day of and you might get lucky and get to see your VIN "in route" (even trackable on a map) and then "delivered" if you obsessively check the United Road site.

Yes I meant to say “Inactive” not “invalid.” Thanks for the tip about the estimated delivery date. I will of course now refresh that page on my phone far too frequently.

 

[RMoore]

Yes I meant to say “Inactive” not “invalid.” Thanks for the tip about the estimated delivery date. I will of course now refresh that page on my phone far too frequently.

Well, just checked United Road again and it now says estimated delivery tomorrow!

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