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Shipping ETA - TBD


expresspotato

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Yes - Woltz & Wind Ford, Inc. 3FA6P0LU3DR144562

 

Curious when the dealer contacted you to suggest a re-order ?

 

Just yesterday. I sent my loan check back today. Have to do it all over again. I have no problems with this. Just hoping my old one holds out without costing me more in repairs.

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Not knowing the internals (it sounds like you have some insight there) - I suspect that it may be partly due to varying changes in status.

For example, I was told around the 15th of October that I could expect it around the end of the month. Probably based on the build date and 14 or so days of transit. Then that changed. Whether it went "TBD" or changed to a different value I don't know - nor do we know how many times it might have changed in the interim.

 

For example, I don't know if dealers get an "alert" message when a delivery date goes from a real date value to "TBD". If not (and I suspect not), then someone has to manually go look it up. If the status went to TBD 10 minutes after they saw an ETA of, say, 10/31/2012, they might not look until the 31st came and went with no delivery.

 

Again - pure guesswork on my part.

 

Another factor is that some of the hold group is starting to ship to dealers (or so it appears) - so they want to give customers an option. Of course, having said that and thought about it, you'd think that the dealer would just do the reorder - give you whichever one comes in first - and accept the 'later' one for their inventory. It's not like these things are likely to sit very long on a lot somewhere.....

 

20/20 hindsight - it's great isn't it ? :);)

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Sounds like somebody sent a nationwide alert out - since that's when I was contacted, too.

 

If you don't mind my asking, what did the dealer say for an ETA on the re-order ? I'm trying to judge whether I should go that route....

 

He didn't give an eta or promise anything but hoped it would be before years end. But we also talked about it usually taking at least 3 weeks to ship. There aren't much more than that left in the year.

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For example, I don't know if dealers get an "alert" message when a delivery date goes from a real date value to "TBD". If not (and I suspect not), then someone has to manually go look it up. If the status went to TBD 10 minutes after they saw an ETA of, say, 10/31/2012, they might not look until the 31st came and went with no delivery.

 

OK this is purely anecdotal on my part, just from observing several dealerships over the years - every time I have ever been there on a weekday before 6PM, there are between 3-6 salesman on the showroom floor and almost every one are standing there BS'ing with each other, or staring out the window waiting for the next 'up' -- when I take this simple observation, along with the fact of noting how long it takes to run a visibility report (based on time intervals of cyberdman's posts in the morning), it is not that difficult or time-consuming of a task to complete, so a salesman should be checking on these when not staring out the window, ESPECIALLY when a given model is experiencing delays and the salesman has one or more anxious customers wondering about their retail orders! Or maybe the sales manager (if he/she is the only one with the keys to the kingdom) should check status on all pending retail orders and update the respective salesman accordingly. I'm sure some dealerships already do this regularly (my salesman called me a few years ago after 3 weeks with "hey guess what you have a VIN and scheduled build date!"), but based on comments that I see from others it sounds like this is a place where many dealers have room for improvement.

Edited by jeff_h
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Just got the call from my dealer. A factory rep was in the dealership today and told him that my car (built Nov. 6) would not 'released' until end of December. She told him it would be quicker for me to order a new one and they would prioritize it and it should be here by mid December.

 

Bummer.

 

On the plus side, I decided to upgrade to the 18" painted wheels from the standard 17's.

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I talked to my dealer tonight (at the Fusion event) and he confirmed that my build date has been pushed back to the week of 11/26. He said that all he knew was there was a quality issue that they were sorting out but they wouldn't tell him what it was. He also said they'd have no problem ordering me a Titanium if I wanted one, but he had no idea if it would take longer or not. The best I can get is $29,700 after taxes/fees and that's with no options (I'd have to ditch the Ruby Red, probably go back to the Sterling Gray). I might do it if I can get my wife on board.

 

In the mean time it's frustrating. I'd probably just stick with the SE if I could have it in the next week or two, but with the delays I have too much time to think....

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In the mean time it's frustrating. I'd probably just stick with the SE if I could have it in the next week or two, but with the delays I have too much time to think....

 

Same boat I was in, and my build date on the original order is week of Dec 3rd, figured there's a chance my Titanium order will get built during first or second week of January and so I was willing to wait that long (however at the time I changed order to Titanium my build was still unscheduled)... and I definitely want the Ruby Red, have had the Sterling Gray for 3 years and am ready for a nice change.

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I recently talked with Ford Customer Service about my car since my dealership have not been telling me much. They told me my car was headed back to the factory (Hermosillo, I imagine). They told me that they do not know why this is and would contact me by tomorrow. Hopefully, I will get a solid answer back from them. Luckily, my dealership is currently letting me loan one of their SE 2013 Fusion. Very nice. I hope to get it by mid January since I will be moving to Florida. I will be a nervous wreck if I don't hear anything back before then!

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Luckily, my dealership is currently letting me loan one of their SE 2013 Fusion. Very nice. I hope to get it by mid January since I will be moving to Florida. I will be a nervous wreck if I don't hear anything back before then!

 

Nice that the dealer is letting you borrow one of their others... you mentioned Florida, where are you now? My Dad is one of the old guys that does dealer exchange (DX) when a customer wants vehicle X and it's located a few hundred miles away, off he goes to trade out vehicles from one dealer to another. I wonder if you are already gone could they send it down/over to you?

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Frankly, I'm concerned. I can't think of what kind of screw up would cause cars to be delayed until the end of December. In addition I'm not sure I even want a car that has been shuttled around the country several times. I placed my order on 8/30 so I'm at 11 weeks today with no idea when the car will be delivered. This whole saga is leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth and I agree with expresspotato that this Ford experience has been a bad one. I was looking at a Ford Escape for my daughter and now I'm thinking do I want to give close to 60K of my money to a company that has botched two high profile launches in a row. I wonder if I'm just asking for trouble. I'm on the ledge.

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Yea I agree with you about the whole process just worries me if/when I get my car there still wont be issues with it. I have a unique situation where instead of placing an acutal order, the dealer (a friend of a friend) ordered one as a regular retail order based on my specification. I know my car was built on 9/23 but dealer still has yet to give me any timetable except that the initial ETA way back when was 10/8. I asked him today if he could find me a similar car from another dealer because my current car is on its last leg, needs new tires etc..and im tired of waiting. But I am still waiting to hear back.

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Nice that the dealer is letting you borrow one of their others... you mentioned Florida, where are you now? My Dad is one of the old guys that does dealer exchange (DX) when a customer wants vehicle X and it's located a few hundred miles away, off he goes to trade out vehicles from one dealer to another. I wonder if you are already gone could they send it down/over to you?

Nebraska...I bought the car already since they told me it was suppose to come in the week of Oct 22nd! We were thinking about that if the car doesn't arrive by then. They better do something like that since it is not my fault it is delayed!
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Akirby, I'd agree with you but what kind of snafu takes weeks to fix and causes cars to have to be shipped off-site and then returned to the factory in Hermosillo. I'm sitting here wracking my brain trying to imagine a scenario that could cause this and I'm not having much luck. It concerns me that I'm going to buy a compromised vehicle with who knows what issues. Throughout this debacle very little information has been forthcoming from either Ford or the dealers. I'm not blaming Ford for trying to keep this under wraps but folks are looking to spend 30K plus and this lack of information on what is going on and when we can expect to take delivery is very frustrating. And to top it off, it now appears that folks who ordered after many of us are going to receive their cars before we do. It takes Ford about a day to build a Fusion from scratch so telling people that they need to wait 6-8 additional weeks for their vehicle really rubs me the wrong way. I'm off on vacation tomorrow so I think I'm going to take a trip to my dealer and see what he has to say.

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Akirby, I'd agree with you but what kind of snafu takes weeks to fix and causes cars to have to be shipped off-site and then returned to the factory in Hermosillo. I'm sitting here wracking my brain trying to imagine a scenario that could cause this and I'm not having much luck. It concerns me that I'm going to buy a compromised vehicle with who knows what issues. Throughout this debacle very little information has been forthcoming from either Ford or the dealers. I'm not blaming Ford for trying to keep this under wraps but folks are looking to spend 30K plus and this lack of information on what is going on and when we can expect to take delivery is very frustrating. And to top it off, it now appears that folks who ordered after many of us are going to receive their cars before we do. It takes Ford about a day to build a Fusion from scratch so telling people that they need to wait 6-8 additional weeks for their vehicle really rubs me the wrong way. I'm off on vacation tomorrow so I think I'm going to take a trip to my dealer and see what he has to say.

 

They're not fixing one vehicle - they're fixing thousands. That's why it can take weeks. They're also building new vehicles while they're fixing the old ones and they only have so much capacity in Mexico. I believe Ford instructed dealers to reorder retail vehicles that were affected - check with your dealer.

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