Maverick Ordering Experience

[Delzona]

As many of you know I have been very vocal about the fact my July 5th order still hasn't received a build date yet. Week after week I've been passed over for one reason or another, yet week after week I've seen others who ordered weeks or even months after I did receive build dates. Of course many of those who received dates have different orders than I do. However, it's the orders with the exact same items, XLT Hybrid, Lux package (now with DIBL), 360 and rear sliding window, it's those orders that give me grief. As a reminder ordering for the Maverick opened in June so there are many who ordered ahead of me that also haven't received a build date yet either. I've reached out to @Ford Motor Company here on the MTC to ask for help. It took just over 2 weeks to receive a reply from them. They stated they opened a case with the New Vehicle Support Team (NVST) and gave me a case number. That was on Feb 2nd and I still haven't heard from the NVST nor do I have anyway to contact them and find out more information. Another MTC member remined me that someone on MTC had reached out to Ford upper management about their experience and was contact by the office of the Chief Customer Experience Officer, Elena Ford. That member related their experience and received a build date a week later. Did writing to Chief Customer Experience Officer help? There's no way to tell.
Anyway, I decide that I would take my gripes about my experience and share them with the top of Ford's Customer relations. I wrote a long email to each of the people I've listed below explaining what I expected when I ordered my Maverick and what I have actually experienced in the 7+ months that I have been waiting. I wrote an slightly different letter to each person spelling out my thoughts on the allocation system currently being used and how it appears to reward certain dealerships over others, regardless of when the order was placed. I do not expect to hear back from any of the people I wrote to, nor do I expect to magically receive a build date. I wrote because I felt I needed to express my displeasure with a system that I was unaware when I placed my order and having since becoming aware of it realize how faulty and biased it is. I am hoping in someway to my letters reach the people I sent them to and they will take the time to look into the current system and make changes for the positive.

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[WannaMav]

Not criticizing you in any way (my own wait has been only slightly less than yours and I empathize with your frustration), but want to point out there are a variety of perspectives.

A wait of 7 months, yes, is one of those (and a perfectly valid gripe).

But also, even at the time orders first opened up in June, it was expected that production would not get underway until mid-September, so that could be construed as a wait of 5 months.

Too, not receiving OKTB hybrid go-ahead until late November provided little incentive to produce vehicles on any scale that they conceivably might never be able to sell had there been major concerns impeding OKTB approval. That could be looked at as a 3 month wait from the time of OKTB until now.

Not being an apologist for Ford here (the whole process has been a fustercluck), just attempting to point out what any response from their point of view may turn out to be.

 

[Enchalada]

Ordering and delivery by far is the first hurdle. Then comes the ridiculous dealer ADM most people will have to deal with..

 

[Bad Actor]

I'll say it again. If Ford intends to build all the Mavericks they have orders for, then it seems FIFO would piss off a lot less people. Sticking to allocations and then juggling constraints causes long wait times for some. In the end, allocations aren't really going to matter, it's just some dealers will get their orders earlier, but all dealers would get all their orders built.

 

[LowLeadAV]

Not really interested in the criticism you may receive here @Delzona good job. Customer relations means they need to hear from the customers

 

[Dooma99]

Very disappointed at Ford. They made all this hype about something they could not dilever. It is a typical American company tactics. If it failed, wait a year or two and the American people will forget then build another hype.

 

[maningr]

Well stated and well deserved by the ford Exec's @Delzona. As others have said, whether there is action or not, Ford needs to read/hear these experiences of the their customers. I pray they aren't falling on deaf ears as, without customers, the company will fail. I really do believe it's time to take a look at the Dealership model. At one time it was a necessity. Now I believe it's a hindrance to Ford. The ADM that has been prevalent with the Maverick/Bronco is a black eye for Ford. While it seems as if it is being accepted because of the market, and Ford exec's have stated their "Dissapproval" it is still happening. A Dealership, to the customer, is a direct extension of Ford Corporate. So what happens at the dealership, happens to Ford (But in this case, Ford only gets the negative result.)

There needs to really be honesty and reality coming from the Hermosillo plant. Looking over the order tracking spreadsheet (and yes, I know it's not complete due to non participation) paints a grim picture. As of the last build scheduling, the tracker shows about 30% of orders have received build dates or received mav's. That puts us at mid april (April 18 Build Week). This encompasses 6 months of production, and leaves 6 months of production for MY22 Mav's. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Ford is going to have to double production to satisfy all the MY22 orders between April and October. Coupled with the Chip issues, this is a tall task. Long story short, as it sits, 1 in 2 remaining orders without build dates, have the possibility of not getting a MY22 Maverick and this will clog up the MY23 orders. The saving grace for MY23 is that there probably won't be the volume of orders that there were in MY22.

Don't expect this to go away anytime soon.

 

[Big_T]

Very disappointed at Ford. They made all this hype about something they could not dilever. It is a typical American company tactics. If it failed, wait a year or two and American people will forget then puild another hype.

I've been following the Maverick since early last year and I have not seen anything I would call "hype" by Ford so I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say Ford made all this hype. But then I see you just joined the forum to make this post.

Be that as it may, I'm with you @Delzona . I was not happy with my 7 month wait and I sure would not be happy in your situation. It would be great if you heard back from someone at Ford.

 

[skadizzle]

The allocation system works fine for dealer ordered Mavericks and it should remain that way, but there's no reason customer ordered Mavericks should be done that way. If a customer puts in an order, it should be a sale. It's not a vehicle that will be waiting on the lot four months for someone to buy so Ford shouldn't be worried on how many sales a dealer has, because the customer ones are already sold, so to speak.

 

[Uncle Ed]

Thank you for your actions, much needed. I too would have done my order differently if I had this information in the beginning. Thanks MTC and Delzona for being a light in the darkness.

 

[Dooma99]

I've been following the Maverick since early last year and I have not seen anything I would call "hype" by Ford so I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say Ford made all this hype. But then I see you just joined the forum to make this post.

Be that as it may, I'm with you @Delzona . I was not happy with my 7 month wait and I sure would not be happy in your situation. It would be great if you heard back from someone at Ford.

I've been following the Maverick since early last year and I have not seen anything I would call "hype" by Ford so I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say Ford made all this hype. But then I see you just joined the forum to make this post.

Be that as it may, I'm with you @Delzona . I was not happy with my 7 month wait and I sure would not be happy in your situation. It would be great if you heard back from someone at Ford.

First, I did not join the forum just to make this post. Second, it does not take a genius to know marketing strategies. Since the Maverick news came out last year, you can see the positive news, comments, clubs and reviews about this truck. This did not come from nowhere. There must be a good marketing engine behind it. It is basic marketing 101 my friend and it is fine. I am talking from a consumer point of view. Making people wait for months for their order with no updates. This is not a good long term strategy.

 

[NJ Pinelands]

Delzona, One other person it wouldn’t hurt to contact is Tim Bartz,the Ford Video guy. Even though you didn’t buy it from him, he likely knows people. He MAY be able to forward it or give you some other names. Somebody here must know his email. I think on his Tuesday videos, they have it on the screen. Can’t hurt to give him a try.

 

[jeffrol48197]

During my surveys from Ford about my purchase, I have emphasized the communication with the customer being very important, especially when you tell them you will stay in contact with them, throughout the process - it cannot be hard to set up a form message to send out at 60, 120, 180 day intervals...I want this system to work well, and, with some tweaking and learning, I still think it can...I hope you guys enjoy your Mavericks as much as I am enjoying mine.

 

[Delzona]

Not criticizing you in any way (my own wait has been only slightly less than yours and I empathize with your frustration), but want to point out there are a variety of perspectives.

A wait of 7 months, yes, is one of those (and a perfectly valid gripe).

But also, even at the time orders first opened up in June, it was expected that production would not get underway until mid-September, so that could be construed as a wait of 5 months.

Too, not receiving OKTB hybrid go-ahead until late November provided little incentive to produce vehicles on any scale that they conceivably might never be able to sell had there been major concerns impeding OKTB approval. That could be looked at as a 3 month wait from the time of OKTB until now.

Not being an apologist for Ford here (the whole process has been a fustercluck), just attempting to point out what any response from their point of view may turn out to be.

I appreciate your response and Ford's response could very well be along the lines of what you said. When looking at delivery from a calendar POV it hasn't been too long since OKTB was given. My point of writing was to express my frustration that as a customer Ford has done a very disappointing job of communicating with us. During the time of waiting for the OKTB we never heard anything about the reasons why the hybrid wasn't receiving it's EPA rating. Ford didn't have to tell us the exact problem, however, they could have contacted us to let us know they're working on the problem instead we received a $50 FITS kit and an email saying two different things. The real issue that I wrote is that all this time their allocation system has been going along randomly giving out build dates with no rhyme or reason. Later, it was determined, by people smarter than me, that the allocations are based on pass sales of dealerships, which wasn't related us when placing our order. So now those of us who placed orders with smaller dealerships are being penalized for it. I'm just point out to Ford Customer Experience that this is leaving a bad experience for a lot people. MTC has just over 11k members and the allocations according to my observations is a big problem and I think Ford needs to hear about it. Will I make a difference, only Ford can determine that.

 

[JamestownND!]

Well stated and well deserved by the ford Exec's @Delzona. As others have said, whether there is action or not, Ford needs to read/hear these experiences of the their customers. I pray they aren't falling on deaf ears as, without customers, the company will fail. I really do believe it's time to take a look at the Dealership model. At one time it was a necessity. Now I believe it's a hindrance to Ford. The ADM that has been prevalent with the Maverick/Bronco is a black eye for Ford. While it seems as if it is being accepted because of the market, and Ford exec's have stated their "Dissapproval" it is still happening. A Dealership, to the customer, is a direct extension of Ford Corporate. So what happens at the dealership, happens to Ford (But in this case, Ford only gets the negative result.)

There needs to really be honesty and reality coming from the Hermosillo plant. Looking over the order tracking spreadsheet (and yes, I know it's not complete due to non participation) paints a grim picture. As of the last build scheduling, the tracker shows about 30% of orders have received build dates or received mav's. That puts us at mid april (April 18 Build Week). This encompasses 6 months of production, and leaves 6 months of production for MY22 Mav's. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Ford is going to have to double production to satisfy all the MY22 orders between April and October. Coupled with the Chip issues, this is a tall task. Long story short, as it sits, 1 in 2 remaining orders without build dates, have the possibility of not getting a MY22 Maverick and this will clog up the MY23 orders. The saving grace for MY23 is that there probably won't be the volume of orders that there were in MY22.

Don't expect this to go away anytime soon.

Well said!

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