[jesserayjames]

Originally Posted by Speedy1975

Scott, firstly sorry in advance if this comes across as unsympathetic, but dealers are a real PITA and once they have your money it's like pulling teeth to get any info. Out of 4 in my area, only one has been even remotely helpful. The others are just simply worthless quite frankly, and sadly are turning customers away from GM with their lack of information, misinformation, and shady practices (i.e. over MSRP pricing). I thank God for the internet so that I can do my own research and know what the deal is before I step foot into a dealer's showroom. I have learned dealers are independent franchises, but GM should really re-evaluate how they sell their vehicles in this day and age. I'm not saying any other car manufacturer's dealers are any better, but you work for GM so I'm focusing on them in this discussion. Buying a car should be a fun and exciting experience. Unfortunately all too often that's not the case, with the buying experience turning into an exercise in futility, frustration, and aggravation.

Having said that.....

I work in IT, so maybe I'm over simplifying things since I don't know what type of back end order system GM uses but....

Folks here are ordering a 2010 car sight unseen and paying a premium at this point to own one of these vehicles, albeit a very nice one. Surely GM could have something setup to follow online the status of the vehicle. The order number and order status are tied together in some fashion at GM. Having a web front end with a simple "type in your order number" and it spits out the order status with a list of order status definitions shouldn't be THAT difficult to implement. The data could easily be scrubbed for any personal info outside of the order number to avoid any issues with personally identifiable information.

This would do three things....it would keep a customer who has had enough faith in GM to drop $30K+ on a car they've most likely never seen in person in the loop on their order, as well as give them a sense of being a part of the program as a whole further boosting that sense of loyalty and camaraderie with GM. It would keep the customer from having to deal with less than helpful dealership staff. It would keep anyone at GM from having to answer a phone all day long to answer ordering questions.

Again, maybe you guys don't have internal IT folks who can make this happen, or maybe security is too much of a concern, but it sure makes sense from a customer perspective.

Just my 2 cents.

I wholly agree with what you just said.