BE SURE TO GET DEALER FEES IN WRITING BEFORE ORDERING

blue92lx

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I hate doing all caps rage subject lines, but this is important. After putting in my order three weeks ago I started seeing in forums and on Reddit about people getting their cars delivered and then finding out the dealer used hidden fees to markup the price of the car. So after reading that I called my dealership and sales person and asked for the fees in writing. While waiting I called three more dealerships, one of them had a standard $500 doc/dealership fee. OK I can handle that, one of them had an $899 "Pre-Delivery Fee" which is BS, and another $299 fee. I skipped them. The third has literally no fees and no markup on MSRP. So after not hearing from my dealership I emailed again to the sales rep that if I don't get the fees by the end of the day I'm cancelling my order. He replied back he understands and will get on the manager about it again. Still nothing. So I emailed to cancel my order, he says I have to do it through Ford, Ford says I have to do it through the dealership, I emailed back to the sales rep I need it cancelled and now I'm waiting again.

In the meantime I've put in a new order losing three weeks time because Ford said once the order is associated with a dealership they can't move it to a new dealership.

So in summary, get it in writing in an email (to hold them responsible months later when you get the car) what their fees are before putting in your order and skip the lost time I'm experiencing in the wait and also on the phone trying to fix this issue.
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blue92lx

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Dealerships is a major obstacle to Ford success with the new cars. They need to solve that problem quickly before the competition steals their customers.
Fortunately for them all of their competition does the same thing except Tesla, and I personally wouldn't buy a Tesla for the convenience of the sales process. On the flip side, I wish all dealerships would turn into delivery centers with large service centers for repairs. Tesla's big issue is not enough service centers which is their headache, with Ford there are more than enough per city to easily service the vehicles, but the dealership experience of buying a car is always a headache.
 

VaderMachE

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Fortunately for them all of their competition does the same thing except Tesla, and I personally wouldn't buy a Tesla for the convenience of the sales process. On the flip side, I wish all dealerships would turn into delivery centers with large service centers for repairs. Tesla's big issue is not enough service centers which is their headache, with Ford there are more than enough per city to easily service the vehicles, but the dealership experience of buying a car is always a headache.
Could not have said it better!?
 

OlyPen

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Fortunately for them all of their competition does the same thing except Tesla, and I personally wouldn't buy a Tesla for the convenience of the sales process. On the flip side, I wish all dealerships would turn into delivery centers with large service centers for repairs. Tesla's big issue is not enough service centers which is their headache, with Ford there are more than enough per city to easily service the vehicles, but the dealership experience of buying a car is always a headache.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a...ice customers better by fostering competition.

Because Auto dealers have better political lobbying skills. Imagine what the dealer experience would be like if they put those efforts into creating a great customer experience?
 


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blue92lx

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I'm a little confused on this one. I put in my reservation on Ford.com a few weeks ago, the dealership picked it up and that's it. I never got a four digit order number or anything like that from the dealership. But for some reason I still can't transfer it to another dealer, when I called Ford support he said because it's already associated with the dealer they can't move it to someone else.

So I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm past a generic reservation, I have the eight digit order number in my Ford Pass account, but I don't have the official four digit order number that is associated with a VIN.

It was confusing for sure, but the order has been refunded (just got the email an hour ago) and the new dealer has no fees at all (Amazing find, the only one in the entire area with no fees) AND they aren't doing a deposit anymore. He said they're getting so many orders that they know if any of them cancel then the car will sell right away. So they don't really care about taking a deposit at this point.

Car dealer is Mullinax Ford in Kissimee, FL if anyone is in the area.
 
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blue92lx

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That's what stage I was in too. Ford support said I couldn't move it which surprised me. Luckily I'm not months into waiting for mine so cancelling wasn't a huge deal, but still sucks.

The sales guy at the new dealership was asking if I had a four digit order number which is when it gets associated to a VIN. He said when you get that four digit number that's when it can't be transferred, so if you have to go through this then maybe give it more time for them to check. I just wanted to be done with the old dealership, and to be honest I didn't expect them to cancel the order so fast since I had been asking them for a week to send me their charges.
 

macchiaz-o

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A reservation is a rough place in line without final confirmation of options like paint color, trim level. It requires a deposit placed from you to Ford. And yes, customer service can help you reassign a reservation to a different dealer.

An order is between you and a specific dealer, for an agreed upon selling price, with finalized color, trim, etc. The deposit on an order is held by a dealer, and subject to the dealer's terms (which you hopefully confirmed in writing before placing said order). Even when ford.com is where you went to place an order, it is still an agreement and deposit between you and the dealer.

This is all clearly spelled out in the disclosures presented during the online reservation and order workflows. (At least it was when I went through this.) However, if you place an order (or reservation) directly at the dealership, where they enter it into the system on your behalf, then you'll just see paperwork that is dealer provided and not from Ford.

Probably most people participating here on the forum that are waiting for their vehicles are in the order system, not the reservation one. Reservations were only needed up until the ordering process was ready to start. Anyone still holding onto a reservation is likely still on the fence, or forgot about it.
 

BMT1071

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That's a hard question to give one answer. The 'dealer selling price' you see on your order page should be the price they sell you the car for. A small number of dealers have been reported to put ADM on top of that, but that seems to be rare. Fees and dealer adds can jack the price up pretty quickly though. If the dealer accepts X Plan that will cap the doc fee at $100, but I don't think that automatically protects you from an expensive add package. Hence the recommendation to get everything in writing prior to placing your order.
 

macchiaz-o

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I agree people shouldn't be getting surprised with ADM fees and such that they didn't originally agree to. I don't think it's happening much. (I've only seen a small number of complaints here.) In at least one case, the buyer wasn't paying attention to the "difference from MSRP" that's displayed while going through the order workflow.

I'm actually surprised it isn't happening much more than we've seen!

Anyway, beyond the pricing you agreed to while placing the order, there are plenty of other ways the seller can try to increase profits. Some of these things could be ironed out between you and the seller now while you wait for the car. Others you can just begin planning for.

"Documentary" or similar fees, wherein you're paying a fee but not getting a tangible benefit -- these vary by region and might be regulated in your area. As @BMT1071 mentioned, if you were using x-plan for the purchase, this would be limited to $100. Otherwise, it could be as high as maybe $800 or so depending on the dealer.

Add on packages like a Desert Protection Package that includes tint film, "nitrogen" filled tires (78% of the air we breathe is nitrogen), and a coat of spray on wax ("paint protection").

Lower value for your trade in -- nothing you can do about this one so far in advance, but you should consider alternatives like selling it elsewhere for instance.

Extended service plans.

Maintenance plans.

Accessories.

Increased interest rates on loans/leases (above and beyond rates determined by your risk factors). This is another area where you can be prepared with alternative options in case you need/want them.
 
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blue92lx

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Yeah like BMT1071 was saying it's the dealer fees that aren't listed on the ford.com ordering process. I found this out too late after putting in my order. The dealer I put my first order into had a 'mandatory' paint protection fee of $1600, which is clearly them adding a markup on the car that Ford can't dispute. A lot of dealers are doing this right now because they know if they do a straight markup on MSRP people are contacting Ford and Ford corporate is telling them to remove it. So now they're hiding the markup in bullshit fees once you're signing the paperwork.

Really the only thing you can do is contact the dealer that has your order and ask them to email you a list of fees due at signing. If they have a regular document fee for like $250-500 that's not too bad, if they have anything other than that I'd have them remove it and put it in writing in an email that it won't be charged, or look for another dealer.

The only things that are literally mandatory are tax, tag, title, MSRP. Everything else is an add-on like macchiaz-o mentioned, or something like a document fee which honestly a lot of dealers will reduce or remove the document fee if it's a high price one.

But Tint, maintenance plans, extended warranties, etc., should all be optional and you should be able to say no to all of them at signing.
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