Flaw in Fords allocation system?

[Mag Maverick]

Man Jerry I'm so sorry I know the way I fell with my order in the beginning of August I just don't know what to say with you order like 6 or 7 weeks before me it just so wrong and Ford does not give a Dam about you or me . They did the same thing on the bronco ,the Maverick and now the lighting . to me it says one thing Ford don't give a damn about their customers they only care about making a dollar and taking care of their shareholders. I could say a lot more but I won't but I will apologize for Ford to you Jerry for how bad they are treating you I hope to stay in touch with you and maybe get together one day maybe in 2024 or 2025 when we both get our Mavericks

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[Champ]

Update to that we have received 41 this week alone.

As long as any vehicle you received, that is identical to my orders, and was ordered before mine were confirmed as accepted by Ford, then I am very happy for those buyers. But if they are getting one, in front of me or anyone else who placed a confirmed order before those buyers did, then I am disgusted with Ford's system, as should everyone be. Allocations be damned! Jumping the line in America has never been acceptable. Yes we believed we were in a Ford queue, not a dealers!

 

[Mag Maverick]

As long as any vehicle you received, that is identical to my orders, and was ordered before mine were confirmed as accepted by Ford, then I am very happy for those buyers. But if they are getting one, in front of me or anyone else who placed a confirmed order before those buyers did, then I am disgusted with Ford's system, as should everyone be. Allocations be damned! Jumping the line in America has never been acceptable. Yes we believed we were in a Ford queue, not a dealers!

I agree 100 % you're in line at the Super Bowl you paid $6,000 for your ticket all of a sudden bunch of these people come and go right in front of you and then the person that a ticket stand says I'm sorry we're all sold out you can come next year for free to the Superbowl. Also how many of you have been bumped off of a flight and missed your daughters wedding or your mother's last breath. I could keep on going but you get the idea thats what Ford is doing and it is a bunch of bullshit and one last thing there's a hell of a lot more of mom and pop Ford dealerships then big Ford dealerships I wonder what the number is of how many vehicles all the mom and pop dealers sell a year and what the number of the big dealerships is at the end of the year just think if all the mom-and-pop dealers said screw you Ford we're shutting the doors 5500 Ford dealerships throughout United States I know for a fact there are a lot more smaller towns and cities that have small Ford dealerships I would truly love to know what the numbers are at the end of the year Big versus SMALL just remember David and Goliath and Israel remember how small Nissan and Toyota just my thoughts.

 

[Vols44]

I just watched the members only YT video @fordvideoguy recorded on the LM lot and gained even more Maverick, Bronco and dealership insight.

The invaluable experience enables me to appreciate what he does for Ford and how quickly and efficiently things transpire at LM.

I'm not Irish, but feel just as lucky to have ordered through them.

With 41 arrivals LM is well on it's way to receive all 80 of it's Maverick's by the end of the month.

 

[Vols44]

No I beg to differ he said about a Maverick getting built that should not have all the accessories or some of them missing to jump in front of someone that has an earlier order but he did not say anything at all about the same exact vehicle being built or getting a built date in front of others that have their ordered before them and it has happened a lot you can look and see the people that have the same exact order in but other people a month two months past their order date get the same damn truck built.

I know the Regional Scheduler asks dealers for certain builds each week. Naturally the specifics differ for each region four times a month. Allocations, becoming a priority 2 and previews are based on what commodities are available.

I'd like to see CP360 saved for my XLT hybrid build, but understand that waiting is part of the process. I don't have access to the big picture and completely empathize with the frustrated June orders.

 

[Jimmer]

I ordered an xlt ecoboost in November and I originally had the Lux package but was removed about a month after. No other constraints. When I ordered at the time the general consensus that I saw from other orders was that the turnaround time was about 3-5 months for an ecoboost since they had less supply chain issues and now 5 months is looking like a best case scenario. I would have hoped to at least gotten a build date 4 months in

It took 7 months for me to receive build date on a hybrid lariat lux

 

[Loffredom]

It took 7 months for me to receive build date on a hybrid lariat lux

The hybrids have had production issues since the beginning but the ecoboosts seemed to be rolling along pretty well until the last few months

 

[Chuck Norris]

I don’t think it matters much either a small dealer or large volume dealer, if you order from a large volume dealer who may get a lot more vehicles a month, you are also in the back of the line with that dealer because of the the volume a head of you. The dealer I ordered from had over 400 orders ahead of me, even if they get 20 to 40 vehicles a month it’s still a long wait, they told me they had months where they only got one vehicle.

 

[TNBubba]

The DEALER allocation system works as it is intended to achieve in the allocation of product between its wholesale point of sales based on Dealer previous volumes. That logic is for floor plan support not for a customer order process. The "coding" of orders between floor plan units and true customer retail orders works as well. What does need to happen is an allocation system to be a true "first in order is first out order of retail customer orders regardless of Dealer source of the order. That is what we the retail orders want from Ford. Good luck to us all in getting it.

 

[Naranjita]

I don’t think it matters much either a small dealer or large volume dealer, if you order from a large volume dealer who may get a lot more vehicles a month, you are also in the back of the line with that dealer because of the the volume a head of you. The dealer I ordered from had over 400 orders ahead of me, even if they get 20 to 40 vehicles a month it’s still a long wait, they told me they had months where they only got one vehicle.

This is very true. I have even seen Long McArthur customer complaints about waiting. Because LM also has placed orders at a rate greater than their allocations. It's all about ratio, orders to allocations. We want a dealer in that sweet spot. But that's just impossible to know in advance.

 

[Champ]

You really can't fail with balanced administrative concepts. Their exploratory research points to systemised reciprocal paradigm shifts. The consultants recommend facilitating organisational consulting.

 

[Naranjita]

You really can't fail with balanced administrative concepts. Their exploratory research points to systemised reciprocal paradigm shifts. The consultants recommend facilitating organisational consulting.

 

[Dun4791]

This is very true. I have even seen Long McArthur customer complaints about waiting. Because LM also has placed orders at a rate greater than their allocations. It's all about ratio, orders to allocations. We want a dealer in that sweet spot. But that's just impossible to know in advance.

It wouldn’t be if Ford would have been forthcoming when you ordered.

 

[Dun4791]

You really can't fail with balanced administrative concepts. Their exploratory research points to systemised reciprocal paradigm shifts. The consultants recommend facilitating organisational consulting.

…

 

[Espeer]

Exc

Don't flame me, but this is the allocation model in a nut shell. I'm not defending it, really. Just explaining it. But this is why...

Normal Every Day Selling Fords:

• Low Volume Dealer sells 1 Ford a Day.
• High Volume Dealer sells 15 Fords a Day.

All Day Long. Every day. If Ford made $1000 per transaction, Low Volume Dealer makes Ford $365k a year. High Volume Dealer makes Ford nearly $5.5M.

But it can get much more askew than that. What if the Low Volume Dealer sells more cars that have less margin? Maybe their margin average is $1000, but the High Volume Dealer sells lots of expensive SUV's and trucks. Maybe their average is $2500 for Ford? Maybe it is comparing $365K to $13.7M a year?

So, if there was no allocation model, in a normal year they would still after a year be a ratio difference of 15:1 between the low volume and high volume dealers in total sales. Just letting the chips fall where they may.

Popular model comes along. It's constrained in the number of units it will produce the first year. A Low Volume Dealer may be able to quadruple their normal sales volume due to that popular model. The High Volume dealer would see anything less than a 15:1 ratio as cutting into their sales. And that would be true.

They have been there, year over year, producing high numbers of sales for Ford. And now, when something popular comes along, they are supposed to live with less than what they normally receive? Meanwhile, low volume dealers get a sudden windfall, but the high volume dealers, are supposed to fund their windfalls.

The allocation system is designed to keep things in check, that dealers can't suddenly just take constrained and popular vehicles at a much higher quantity than normal. It's a stop gap to keep the field fair for dealers.

And you have to ask yourself, "Why does a dealer do such low volume and have a low allocation?" In many instances it is because they provide poor customer service, have bad reputations, overcharge or have ridiculous ADM's or shistery business practices. Do we really want a greedy high ADM low volume dealer getting a much higher ratio of Broncos and Mavericks? Each one there will be at the expense of another dealer with better business practices. If it was first come, first served, they are much more likely to put in fake ID names and get a larger share. Or turn on their customers and demand ADM on retail orders that were not disclosed. If you can't get more units than your allocation, it doesn't matter how many orders you put in...illegitimate or otherwise.

I'm sure there are lots of small dealers who are professional and price fairly, but they are small. And they will get popular Fords in roughly the same quantity they always sell Fords.

High volume dealers sells lots of cars. They generally are good dealers with good reputations and reasonable prices. That's why they are a high volume dealer. You can't force mass numbers of people to purchase a great quantity of vehicles.

If only 50,000 Mavericks end up being produced, the allocation system is designed to make sure that they are awarded out to dealers at roughly the same rates that they normally purchase vehicles. The only way to game the system is to sell more vehicles. That's what Granger was doing selling their Mavericks at low prices. To change their ratios and get more future allocations.

This process, though the fairest for dealers, is not fair to a customer. A customer would probably happily go to another dealer if they knew the end result for them would be different. Customers want to be treated fairly and similarly. In a dealer stock situation, customers wouldn't be harmed by the allocation process. They would go to the low volume dealer lot and see little to no inventory and move on to other lots until they found what they were looking for.

But in a retail order model, the allocation system does not work for customers. Because the low volume dealer is not injured that they are getting vehicles in roughly the same quantity ratio they always have. Their final sales numbers will end up similar at the end of the year. But all those extra customers they ordered vehicles from beyond their normal allocation are stranded.

The way I see it, they need to either...

• Modify the allocation system on the order end. Instead of scheduling allocations, make order allocations. The low volume dealer can schedule their 1:15 share (or whatever it actually is). Then they have to tell customers they are out of order allocations for the month when they want to place an order beyond their monthly allocation. Then the customer can decide to look elsewhere for a dealer with order allocations, or go on a waiting list, or check back in next month. In this method, everyone who gets an order in will be scheduled in a month or two. Customer is in control, and not subject to an undeterminable and prolonged order/waiting process.
• Or scrap the allocation system all together. But something will need to be done to protect the high volume dealers from having their inventory raided on popular models. A first come first served system will just cause all the dealers to commit funny business to try to get a greater share for themselves. The only way to game the system now is to sell more (and all the time).

Ford does need to do something though. This is just killing the customers. Who did nothing wrong except want to buy a Ford. I'm sure Ford never thought this kind of information would ever get out there and understood by the public. But it is.

I know people that won't buy Chevys, or Fords, or Dodges, or Volvos, or whatever, and they say it's because something minor or obscure that happened to them 30-40 years ago. Or sometimes they do not even remember why. But they are still holding a grudge.

I've seen some of them in these forums. They will be hating Ford 40 years from now. And they may not even remember why.

Ford, do something for the customer! You can't win here. But you certainly can lose!

Excellent post and great suggestions on practical fixes.

Order, rather than build allocations is such an obvious solution. New orders could be re-distributed monthly if not all were taken at the high volume dealers.

One other possibility - just give customers the info on the ordering webpage: list all the local dealers a along with their number of orders and current allocation. Then we could have all the info they need to make an informed choice on who we order from. Do I want to save $1500 or get it a couple of months earlier?

Either method keeps the system in-place, but makes big improvements to the customer experience.

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