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

[OUR72GTO]

I'LL HAVE SOME OF WHAT HE SAID.

[Hylton]

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.

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...)....

I'm not talking about our ability to look at order info. That was pretty neat but what I find shocking is the lack of accurate knowledge that salesmen seem to have about the Camaro. This tells me that salesmen are probably the same way about every product they sell - they do not make the effort necessary to learn about what they are selling and learn the strengths and weaknesses of the competition. Does that require a lot of homework on the part of a salesman? You're damn right it does! It should still be done because the less they know, the less they will sell. It's very basic but true.

[DDustiNN]

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.........

I can assure you, from experience, that customers who do this are incredibly annoying, and this does not make your product arrive faster. The dealer is only a middle-man between you and GM. Once the order is placed, it is out of his hands and no amount of pestering will speed up the process. People like this are the reason I'm glad I don't deal with customers anymore

/rant

[themossman]

Originally Posted by Speedy1975

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.

it boils down to time and money... I'm sure IT at GM is stretched pretty thin at this point and this would certainly be defined as 'non-revenue generating' activity and get shoveled to the bottom of the project list which all us IT guys know is the equivalent of a 'maybe later' from a parent to a child.

Easy technically - yes
Easy politically - doubt it

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by DDustiNN

I can assure you, from experience, that customers who do this are incredibly annoying, and this does not make your product arrive faster. The dealer is only a middle-man between you and GM. Once the order is placed, it is out of his hands and no amount of pestering will speed up the process. People like this are the reason I'm glad I don't deal with customers anymore

/rant

Customer service brings in repeat customers and by word of mouth new customers...Your attitude drives people away...

In these times shouldn't dealers be doing everything they can to keep their customers happy? on more than one occasion I have kept someone from going to a dealer because how badly I have been treated there, or I have sent people to dealerships to buy cars because of good service.

You my friend could learn some things...

[playhard67]

classic example of He said, she said"

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.........

Originally Posted by DDustiNN

I can assure you, from experience, that customers who do this are incredibly annoying, and this does not make your product arrive faster. The dealer is only a middle-man between you and GM. Once the order is placed, it is out of his hands and no amount of pestering will speed up the process. People like this are the reason I'm glad I don't deal with customers anymore

/rant

What are we...the buyer to do?
I agree, we should be able to know what the status is of our cars and when we can expect them in a reasonable manner. Maybe not today when there's still five weeks before production begins, but when we get the car from the dealer that our order will be picked up...then we should be able to check the status. And, the GM 800 number is worthless.

I agree with Speedy vvv

Originally Posted by Speedy1975

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.

Just my 2 cents.

[DDustiNN]

Originally Posted by playhard67

classic example of He said, she said"





What are we...the buyer to do?
I agree, we should be able to know what the status is of our cars and when we can expect them in a reasonable manner. Maybe not today when there's still five weeks before production begins, but when we get the car from the dealer that our order will be picked up...then we should be able to check the status. And, the GM 800 number is worthless.

I agree with Speedy vvv

just wait, and trust the "we'll call you" line. you can still ask for status updates from time to time, but doing so every day is just obnoxious... that's all i was saying

also, i do agree that an order status website would be perfect. that would make it much easier for everyone, as long as it was clear... no ambiguous status codes

[dbotsfordtat]

Dealers getting bashed alot on this thread so let me inject some positive energy, Beardmore Chevrolet in Bellevue, Nebraska has gone above and beyond for me. They have been up to speed with everything I've learned here and they have really gone the extra mile when I've needed help. I try to remember these guy's have to feed their families selling cars in this crap economy, thats got to be scary.

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by dbotsfordtat

Dealers getting bashed alot on this thread so let me inject some positive energy, Beardmore Chevrolet in Bellevue, Nebraska has gone above and beyond for me. They have been up to speed with everything I've learned here and they have really gone the extra mile when I've needed help. I try to remember these guy's have to feed their families selling cars in this crap economy, thats got to be scary.

I agree that they have to feed their families, but you also have to agree calling customers annoying just because they are concerned about their order and would like to keep informed is no way to treat someone that is going to pay to feed their family.

Customers come back to places where the salespeople and management make customers feel like they WANT to help the customer instead of all I want is your money and quit bothering me attitude. That is how some of these guys come across....
There is a reason I have bought 6 Saturns from the same dealership.. it's because they take time to listen to the customer and get the information they ask for.
You do that and you will have more customers than you knew were out there.

[Bell040]

+1

Maybe its a southern thing.

[GTAHVIT]

Originally Posted by diddiyo

that sounds wrong!

you know what I meant.

[Rodrunner]

In an attempt to put this in perspective, what percentage of GM cars sold, say in a typical year, are direct factory orders? Right now there is an abundance of those type of "sold, pre-orders", so we see a need for an order status internet link. But I don't see it being worth GM's investment in personnel and money to provide that for such a short introductory period of time as this.

[dbotsfordtat]

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

I agree that they have to feed their families, but you also have to agree calling customers annoying just because they are concerned about their order and would like to keep informed is no way to treat someone that is going to pay to feed their family. Customers come back to places where the salespeople and management make customers feel like they WANT to help the customer instead of all I want is your money and quit bothering me attitude. That is how some of these guys come across....There is a reason I have bought 6 Saturns from the same dealership.. it's because they take time to listen to the customer and get the information they ask for. You do that and you will have more customers than you knew were out there.

True, thats why I said Beardmore Chevrolet, they have never done me like that. I just wanted to say something nice about them today to balance out this thread, but I totally understand your point.

[RallyFever]

Originally Posted by Croathlete

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.

I hate to be a "nay sayer" here, but if ABL was functional, they'd be telling everyone! They advertised something a year ago that they are know having issues "perfecting". The hold out is ridiculous. Orders will soon be placed into production and the consumer still doesn't have the truth on what they are buying.

ABL probably is not a deal breaker for most of us, but with cars being built in 4 weeks, they should know whther or not they are offering the option.

Purely ridiculous!