Thoughts on the deleted 'order info. and consensus"......

[UCF w00t]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

wellllllllllllllllllllllllll...............I suppose I COULD tell ya.....



........but then you'd get a visit from 'my buddy' as shown below.......

That's a price I'm willing to pay.

[Silver Streak]

Completely understand, thanks for setting that straight for us!

[josh1147]

Fbodfather,

Thanks for doing what you do so well!! Keep fighting the good fight and let us know when you need a "rallying effort".

Obviously you've witnessed first hand several times how the "passion" can be controlled here! (Just dangle that ABL 'carrot' out there and 3/4 of the board will be putty in your hands, esp WOOT)

[jmcbeth]

Scott,

The information you have shared with us is unprecedented and greatly, greatly appreciated. I am not a big fan of Sarbanes-Oxley, but I AM a big fan of information privacy. Thanks for keeping us straight. Now get back to work making our dream cars!

Best,

John

[Croathlete]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

wellllllllllllllllllllllllll...............I suppose I COULD tell ya.....



........but then you'd get a visit from 'my buddy' as shown below.......

I don't know why, but just from reading this post I have a gut feeling that ABL is working and they really want to surprise us.

[GTAHVIT]

Whew!

Scott,

Thanks very much for helping shed light on this. We all truly value GM's participation here. Which is an important part of why this is such a good enthusiast site.

Thank you, Sir, for the insight.



It's safe to come out now, right?

[diddiyo]

Originally Posted by gtahvit

It's safe to come out now, right?

that sounds wrong!

[ravensjeff]

My job at work is heavily involved in company proprietary information. It's one of the tings that gives us a competitive advantage- something every company needs to understand in this day and age.

I will use FBod's advice and have the dealer send me a status via email. To me, it's the least they could do. It's not like dealerships are crawling with customers- why not help out a current one?

[Bell040]

Originally Posted by ravensjeff

It's not like dealerships are crawling with customers- why not help out a current one?

Because they have your money now. You are a guaranteed sell in their eyes.

I would have much preferred to buy directly from GM online and cut out the middle man.

[fbodfather]

Originally Posted by Hylton

One thing I've learned about while being so involved with everyone on this site is how STUPID and IDIOTIC many dealerships are. How they are making money or selling cars is beyond me. It's been a real eye opener and you guys (GM) had better whip the dealership network back into shape.

are our dealers perfect? No.

Are other manufacturers' dealers perfect? It could be argued with data in black and white that they're worse! (go look at JD power Sales and service satisfaction data...)

There has to be discipline in the system. But I can tell you that there are some of you out there that would call the number every day.........and that's counterproductive.

I don't know of another manufacturer that has a site where you can check the status.........and even if you could, the response would confuse you even more.

I can see it now: "....FBODFATHER -- what the &$#) does "system 3400" mean??????"

Your dealer can check the status of your Camaro -- but you need to go into the dealership in person -- and ask nicely -- (...lose the 'tude....) and do it every once in a while -- showing up every day isn't going to get the car built any faster and will just annoy you and the dealer.........

[themossman]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

(go read the entire Sarbanes-Oxley act...)(warning -- it's long -- and quite startling when you realize what it says...and what was put into law --)

(and I -- for the most part -- heartily agree with the premise of the law...)

You can keep your ambient lighting...I want a coin holder full of quarters and a SOX manual in the glove box....otherwise I'm not buying the car!

I immediately realized the 'user' was really someone else (I'll refrain from speculating) and admire your restraint from tracking them down and dealing a more severe blow... The 'ghost' user clearly knew what they were doing could lead to trouble...regardless of their pure intentions.

I died a little when mine didn't show at '3000'...but I'm sure I'll feel a little better when it does. This is like waiting for Christmas but not knowing what the date of Christmas is going to be!

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

Your dealer can check the status of your Camaro -- but you need to go into the dealership in person -- and ask nicely -- (...lose the 'tude....) and do it every once in a while -- showing up every day isn't going to get the car built any faster and will just annoy you and the dealer.........

Like I said, I did, and they gave me the old brushoff, "don't worry your car is going to be built" line.
When I got my Sky the dealer was very informative and kept me up to date with everything. I guess I was just spoiled by the Saturn way of doing business. I sure hope GM decides to keep them around..

[SoFlaZ]

Darn, I wish I could have read it before it was deleted! Not like it would help me at all since i'm not ordering yet. The whole ordering process seems so overly complicated with all of these order numbers, allocations, who is getting what 1st or 2nd(V6 vs V8), crooked dealers, etc. I could go on all day. I stopped paying attention a while ago to it lol.

Fbodfather, I have nothing but RESPECT for you!

[Speedy1975]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

are our dealers perfect? No.

Are other manufacturers' dealers perfect? It could be argued with data in black and white that they're worse! (go look at JD power Sales and service satisfaction data...)

There has to be discipline in the system. But I can tell you that there are some of you out there that would call the number every day.........and that's counterproductive.

I don't know of another manufacturer that has a site where you can check the status.........and even if you could, the response would confuse you even more.

I can see it now: "....FBODFATHER -- what the &$#) does "system 3400" mean??????"

Your dealer can check the status of your Camaro -- but you need to go into the dealership in person -- and ask nicely -- (...lose the 'tude....) and do it every once in a while -- showing up every day isn't going to get the car built any faster and will just annoy you and the dealer.........

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.