Balanced Out, no Ford for you!

[Buyer2021]

I ordered a PB from a small town dealer at 3K below MSRP on 2/1. Blend date was 8/10 and it's been on chip hold since. How does dealer allocation come into play getting a truck built? I've seen several members on here receive their truck, or their truck is built and shipped that ordered after 2/1.

Allocation bears on a dealer being able to submit your order to Ford - without an allocation your order is simply held by the dealer pending an open allocation and that 'dealer queue' is totally theirs to control (either they submit in the order they receive them or they abuse certain customers and submit based on some internal criteria / 'favoritism' when they get an open allocation).

A really underhanded dealer may take your order knowing full-well they won't have an allocation for it for a very long time - they want you to think you are then locked into doing business with them. It's up to each customer to ask the necessary questions and then judge the veracity of the answers before 'getting into bed' with a dealer.

Upon the dealer submitting your order as evidenced by you receiving an Order Confirmation email direct from Ford, the 'allocation' has no more role or bearing on build - everything from there to delivery is a function of Ford's ability to gather all of the parts and actually assemble your truck, then arrange logistics for delivery to the dealer.

On Ford's end all of that is generally done in 'as received' sequence, but even the most apparently innocuous small difference in specs or order confirmation date / time / sequence can make a huge difference between the build / delivery sequence of trucks after Order Confirmation because of things like parts availability from the erratic supply-chain. You can rest assured (or not) that Ford has every incentive to deliver every vehicle to the customer as quickly as they possibly can - no or delayed delivery means no or delayed revenue for Ford.

Yes, as evidenced by the OP's situation, in spite of all good intentions and incentives sometimes that entire 'system' yields 'no joy'. And yeah, that sucks mightily for all involved, it's a total lose-lose outcome for everyone.

Bottom line, after Order Confirmation that's all outside of your and your dealer's control, all anyone can do is 'track' after the order is confirmed by Ford.

Good Luck!

Sponsored

 

[FrankThompson]

I got lucky with the F150 PB. What's funny is both times when I went to the same Ford dealer I did so without the intention of actually buying that day. Both times I left with a new truck. When I went in was was to see about putting a reserve on a F150 that was in transit but not due in for another two weeks. They just happened to get the PB it in late the night before, and had not even been through initial inspection yet. When it came up that they had it, not only did it have all the options I was wanting but was surprised they would honor my X-Plan pricing on it when most of the other dealerships declined unless I ordered it from them.

The only things I wasn't too jazzed about at first on the PB were the color and not having the sport appearance pack. Since then the Oxford White has really grown on me and no sport appearance package is fixable.

Similar to me. I actually wasn't even going to buy. I got a nail in the tire of my '17 and while they fixed it I was walking the lot and saw the PB sitting there. Didn't even buy it. Waited 3 weeks and called and they said they still had it if I wanted it. They were under MSRP and when I found out x-plan was under their price, they said they would honor that. they only asked if they could use it as a demo at a local festival and I agreed. It took me about 2 months to get the truck I just stumbled on at the lot (this was Feb->April timeline).

Note also that my wife hasn't really been all that happy that I got it (though she also got a new car). That was until we were out of power for 4 days last week from the hurricane and she saw how much gas we saved by using the truck and how nice it was to just be able to back it up to the house and run a couple of extension cords (truck used an est. 7.5 gallons vs 40-50 with the gas generator).

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Similar to me. I actually wasn't even going to buy. I got a nail in the tire of my '17 and while they fixed it I was walking the lot and saw the PB sitting there. Didn't even buy it. Waited 3 weeks and called and they said they still had it if I wanted it. They were under MSRP and when I found out x-plan was under their price, they said they would honor that. they only asked if they could use it as a demo at a local festival and I agreed. It took me about 2 months to get the truck I just stumbled on at the lot (this was Feb->April timeline).

Note also that my wife hasn't really been all that happy that I got it (though she also got a new car). That was until we were out of power for 4 days last week from the hurricane and she saw how much gas we saved by using the truck and how nice it was to just be able to back it up to the house and run a couple of extension cords (truck used an est. 7.5 gallons vs 40-50 with the gas generator).

Glad you and yours are OK down there. That's amazing on the difference in fuel usage. Mine actually told me to get it when told her about it. (She was in Norway at the time) She didn't realize just how good the onboard power was until this Saturday. Lost power for 6 hours due to a blown transformer at the end of the street. Instead of hooking up the big genny I connected the truck to the house and it powered everything including the AC (with Easy Start). At first she thought the lights had come back on cause she didn't hear the generator kick on. Then was amazed when I told her it was the truck running the house. Best investment I have ever made.

 

[Atlee]

.... and for those who make it through the brutal purchase-gauntlet you IMO accurately describe, heaven forbid they then find themselves in need of repair service, warranty or otherwise .

All too often it seems that after-purchase support, both dealer and independent, is now cursed with the same obstacles that make the purchase experience brutal (supply, logistics, and labor shortages, etc).

Methinks that in many situations that's even more brutal, with more significant and unavoidable angst and disruption of daily life, than the purchase-phase trials.

Sure, I'm thrilled with the remarkable advances in vehicles over the last 65 years, but somehow we seem to have recently taken a few steps backwards in regard to some really important aspects of the whole vehicle ownership experience ....

And if anyone here thinks dealing with auto service departments is tough, I can assure you, RV service departs make dealing with auto service departments childs play.

It can be weeks to get an appointment to diagnose what's wrong. Then it will be many more weeks be fore you are scheduled to have the problem corrected.

 

[Snakebitten]

So true!
Except there's almost nothing on my RV(s) that I can't fix myself.

My Powerboost?
Ummmmmm. Nope. I don't have a clue.

 

[Atlee]

So true!
Except there's almost nothing on my RV(s) that I can't fix myself.

My Powerboost?
Ummmmmm. Nope. I don't have a clue.

Unfortunately, there is very little I can fix. I've never been super handy with tools, didn't take after my Dad. However, now I have so many aches in joints, it hard for me to get up and down easily.

 

[Buyer2021]

So true!
Except there's almost nothing on my RV(s) that I can't fix myself.

My Powerboost?
Ummmmmm. Nope. I don't have a clue.

Ditto on the RV stuff.

Insofar s the Gen 14 F150, I'll extend the "don't have a clue" to the vast majority of the systems on all of 'em regardless of the powertrain option!

 

[lacartus]

Ironically (or per customer retention algorithms), the day after Koons canceled my order, Ford *finally* sent me a Personal Cash Offer of $2000. Too bad they can't build me a truck. LOL

 

[869]

So frustrating!

 

[towpro]

https://mustang.org/member-services/x-plan/

also if you work for a bigger company they might have an agreement with ford for xplan available to you as well.

 

[tbinmd]

Ford ended the X-plan program for stock holders on 6/1/22. So that method is out now.

Sponsored