New Scheduling Emails system -- will now be sent once vehicle gets a scheduled build day

[dbmurray]

@Ford Motor Company

When you keep changing the WAY your already convoluted process of communicating with customers works, more customers get confused and subsequently annoyed.

Random emails that something "changed" on my order when nothing had actually changed, for example...only to learn that every customer who still had an oustanding order received an email about a "change."

Watching the email inbox on Thursdays, for example, only to learn that some Thursdays you can't figure out (or forgot) how email works is another example.

Not being able to accurately reflect inventory on Ford.com or on dealer websites is another point of concern. I get a notification within a few minutes when I get a delivery from Amazon for a $5 bag of chewing gum, but you can't accurately show inventory on items that cost tens of thousands of dollars. An already sold Maverick I saw at a dealership in January, for example, didn't show up as being "in stock" on their website until two weeks later when it was already long gone!!

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[Vols44]

@Ford Motor Company Please put the the emails back to the way they were, I don't think anyone was complaining about getting too much information.

@Ford Motor Company PR person, The irony of the post I quoted cannot be emphasized enough. Your post history has the best of intentions and needs more of the concrete facts and information that @fordvideoguy provides multiple times a week.

There is a reason Long McArthur has 581 Maverick orders, is the top selling Maverick dealer in the region, Top three in F-150's and talks about keeping a few new vehicles on the lot for customers to see and test drive before they place an order otherwise their selling vehicles so quickly that the car carriers cannot keep them adequately stocked.

Recognize Tim and all he's done for the MTC, countless (and growing) LM & Ford buyers, YT subscribers and the elevation of the brand visibility in the crazy, current and future automobile industry.

 

[n0maverick]

• At 45:10, Tim mentioned that pretty much all of the unscheduled June/July orders for his dealership were orders with Luxury package & CP-360. He further stated that it seemed to be the Lux package more than the CP-360 that was holding things up. He believes that their smaller number of allocations this month was due to other dealers having more "buildable" orders (i.e., fewer constrained items).
• 
  
• Finally, he mentioned at 1:02:56 that although it seems that Ford isn't always going by the "first in first out" method, the real driver was constraints, He notes that a lot of the Hybrids arriving at L-M lately are ones that do not have the Lux package and the CP-360, suggesting again that the Lux package is a real hold-up.

It seemed more like Ford more evenly allocated this month to get some movement from smaller dealers. I know as an XLT Lux Hybrid order I was happy to be finally scheduled being at a smaller dealer in the same region as Granger and Long McAurthor. Thank you, Ford...for finally listening.

 

[Mspi]

I watched the whole thing this morning. Here's a summary of the Maverick stuff of interest that I noted:

• Just in case some folks are unaware, this week's allocations are all still for March allocations. This is always based on what month the Monday was in (in this case, 3/28, so March).
• At 27:48 in the video, Tim discussed the issue of no "your build has been scheduled" emails going out the past two weeks (and noted the irony of this happening after the mass email that everyone got). He did indeed say he'd reached out to someone at Ford, who initially said as far as they knew emails would still be going out, but was going to check into it and get back to him.
• At 45:10, Tim mentioned that pretty much all of the unscheduled June/July orders for his dealership were orders with Luxury package & CP-360. He further stated that it seemed to be the Lux package more than the CP-360 that was holding things up. He believes that their smaller number of allocations this month was due to other dealers having more "buildable" orders (i.e., fewer constrained items).
• At 52:27 he talks a bit about the likelihood of First Editions being scheduled soon, and also mentions that the preview process can jump around a bit. For example, on Tuesday of last week, their 8 remaining allocations showed that all 8 were FEs being previewed, but then by Wednesday, there were 8 different orders in preview.
• Finally, he mentioned at 1:02:56 that although it seems that Ford isn't always going by the "first in first out" method, the real driver was constraints, He notes that a lot of the Hybrids arriving at L-M lately are ones that do not have the Lux package and the CP-360, suggesting again that the Lux package is a real hold-up.

All in all, another excellent informative video by @fordvideoguy ...although I will say a bit depressing for a late Oct Hybrid XLT Lux CP-360 order like me. On the bright side, if I *do* get rolled over to MY23, maybe Ford will have taken Tim's advice and added a split rear seat by then...

Thanks for the summary update didnt have time to watch the Video yet - I just try to forget I even ordered a Maverick so that maybe one day I will get a SUPRISE your Maverick has moved to production lol...

 

[theway-yay-ting]

It seemed more like Ford more evenly allocated this month to get some movement from smaller dealers. I know as an XLT Lux Hybrid order I was happy to be finally scheduled being at a smaller dealer in the same region as Granger and Long McAurthor. Thank you, Ford...for finally listening.

As Tim mentioned, in all likelihood the real reason you got scheduled is all his remaining unscheduled June/July orders have both Lux and CP-360, whereas your order did not. Congrats on getting a build date - that's a crazy long wait!

 

[RebellaE]

Sooooo what's going to fill my Thursdays now? Will I actually have to be productive at work instead of constantly refreshing the weekly thread and my email?

Its going to be waiting on hold with Maverick customer service or chat to see if you have a VIN. Because those of us in the know are not going to wait an extra 2-4 weeks to get any order updates, especially with the possibility of rolling to MY23.

 

[theway-yay-ting]

Its going to be waiting on hold with Maverick customer service or chat to see if you have a VIN. because those if us in the know are not going to wait an extra 2-4 weeks to get any order updates, especially with the possibility of rolling to MY23.

If Ford sticks to this new plan of only emailing when you have a literal build DAY instead of a build week, you're not talking just another 2-4 weeks. Right now, they are averaging 8 weeks from notification week to build week. IIRC, the build DAY email only comes out a week or so prior to the actual day, so (assuming no delays/changes in scheduled build week, and those have been frequent of late) we'll all be looking at ~7 weeks additional of no communication from Ford corporate about the status of our orders.

 

[dale]

Oh! this is really great scheduling, NOT. Waiting every week since June for an order to be built is bad enough. Now you say, "wait for me to tell you what day it will be built". Consider an email saying March 1 "your build week is May 12th". On the new system you won't get an email until May 1st. That could be a 6-to-8-week delay in receiving any info from Ford. With all the orders frozen it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out a better info and scheduling system. Get a programmer from the IT department to help. What a sorry bunch!!!!!!

 

[46weasel]

Recommend reverting to previous email process because my crystal ball quit working and new one is on backorder. I don't mind deleting excess email. If new process is retained, please provide date the last emails go out so I know when I should start looking elsewhere for new truck.

 

[The Weatherman]

I heard from the Maverick Brand Manager and found out that they changed when the scheduling emails are sent.

Old system: You received an email as soon as your vehicle received a VIN and scheduled build week. As well as an email if the build week changed or was moved.

New system: You receive an email once your vehicle gets a scheduled build day. Which probably happens about 1-2 weeks out from your build day. Ford was finding that because orders were moving around, they wanted to avoid inundating customers with vehicle scheduled emails. So you may have a build week and vin and not know it until it gets a "Schedule to Day" status.

I voiced my feedback (as a order holder myself) to him. Feel free to tag @FordMotorCompany and voice your opinion. Only way things change is with feedback.

Updated with latest video:

@fordvideoguy
Thank you for the update.

I appreciate you!

 

[coherent]

I too would prefer more emails than less.
But hey Ford... Why with available modern internet and tracking systems can't the customer simply go to a web site and put in his name, order code dealer code etc and see the current status that the customer service rep looks at when we call. We understand that things can change. Why make folks who are waiting months wait for an email from Ford or a call from their dealer or even worse have to go through the process of calling customer service or using the chat to check current status of their order/build? Seems like a simple online solution would be best for all concerned and greatly reduce customer service workload and customer anxiety! After all it's not secret information if we can call and ask the status.

 

[Vols44]

I watched the whole thing this morning. Here's a summary of the Maverick stuff of interest that I noted:

• Just in case some folks are unaware, this week's allocations are all still for March allocations. This is always based on what month the Monday was in (in this case, 3/28, so March).
• At 27:48 in the video, Tim discussed the issue of no "your build has been scheduled" emails going out the past two weeks (and noted the irony of this happening after the mass email that everyone got). He did indeed say he'd reached out to someone at Ford, who initially said as far as they knew emails would still be going out, but was going to check into it and get back to him.
• At 45:10, Tim mentioned that pretty much all of the unscheduled June/July orders for his dealership were orders with Luxury package & CP-360. He further stated that it seemed to be the Lux package more than the CP-360 that was holding things up. He believes that their smaller number of allocations this month was due to other dealers having more "buildable" orders (i.e., fewer constrained items).
• At 52:27 he talks a bit about the likelihood of First Editions being scheduled soon, and also mentions that the preview process can jump around a bit. For example, on Tuesday of last week, their 8 remaining allocations showed that all 8 were FEs being previewed, but then by Wednesday, there were 8 different orders in preview.
• Finally, he mentioned at 1:02:56 that although it seems that Ford isn't always going by the "first in first out" method, the real driver was constraints, He notes that a lot of the Hybrids arriving at L-M lately are ones that do not have the Lux package and the CP-360, suggesting again that the Lux package is a real hold-up.

All in all, another excellent informative video by @fordvideoguy ...although I will say a bit depressing for a late Oct Hybrid XLT Lux CP-360 order like me. On the bright side, if I *do* get rolled over to MY23, maybe Ford will have taken Tim's advice and added a split rear seat by then...

I'd like to add the key takeaways that jumped off my screen during E33. The main topic if part constraints getting worse pertains to multiple models. None are critical of direct safety components, most are with monetary compensation and Ford's suppliers are the source of the problem.

An additional June/July delay are the packages and options required for an FE and the fact that FE's for Jun, Jul, Aug are still a top priority to schedule by the end of April. That means June through August Lariat Lux orders will wait on FE's with similar months.

DIO's will prevent a truck from a trip to the (off site) body company and the elongated wait til those bed accessories become available and are installed.

Based on the shortened MY22 Bronco order window and staggered Lightening reservation and invite processes, the MY23 Maverick window will be as unpredictably short as the final number of unscheduled MY22 orders, commodities on hand versus JIT inventory.

I know I missed a truck load full of additional information during @fordvideoguy 's introduction, Is it true?, main topic and informative Q&A. @fordvideoguy communicates with the masses, gets quantitative feedback from the Brand Manager and disperses better information than 99% of auto industry representatives I've ever seen or heard.

 

[Dirtball]

@Ford Motor Company Go back to the Emails for build weeks every Thursday! Why leave customers in the dark for more time? We want MORE communication, not less!

 

[19mustang65]

Sooooo what's going to fill my Thursdays now? Will I actually have to be productive at work instead of constantly refreshing the weekly thread and my email?

 

[StephanWolf]

@Ford Motor Company

Please re-instate the original email notification system. I have not been calling the call center support every week, because I knew that if I didn't receive my email then I was not selected for a build. You probably noticed an uptick in update requests the past Thursday and Friday. If you don't change back, you better make plans to have your call center well staffed because we will all be calling/chatting each week to check on our status.

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