[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by blacksport

Does this issue even warrant a thread?

The company have a supply limitation (for whatever reason). So they are encouraging buyers to consider their other cars. Who does not do that?

A company with decent management.

A company with decent respect for it's customers. A company that recognises that treating customers well is also profitable in the long run.

A company that cares about its own survival in the market.

People, don't make excuses for Ford. This is a ridiculous situation. No excuses.

[Lalvaz]

Indeed, Ford's monthly dispatch figures for the EcoSport are declining, while the MD has been promising to expedite deliveries. Thats clearly unethical.

Well, I think its a fantastic opportunity for customers to vote with their money and move on to other brands. The Duster/Terrano/Scorpio etc... are not that bad, although its a bit of a stretch, plus there's the Auto Expo to look forward to for new launches.

No point holding on to a booking that does not seem to translate into a delivery anytime soon. If Ford does not want your business, take it elsewhere. Then they'll wake up.

[rdhawan15]

Originally Posted by Lalvaz

No point holding on to a booking that does not seem to translate into a delivery anytime soon. If Ford does not want your business, take it elsewhere. Then they'll wake up.

Do they really care about the Indian customer who had booked the Ecosport in the first place? Their actions suggest that they don't.

And, if they do, it is a fact that the Indian customer stands second to the ones in South Africa or other countries where Ecosport is being exported to.

The best bet in such a case is to cancel, and move on to the next best option. There is no guarantee that Ford will not increase the prices 6 months down the line; so people who are willing to wait for a year may need to accept a potential hike over the next 6-12 months from Ford.

[GTO]

Ford has managed the entire EcoSport exercise terribly.

- First, Ford India MD goes on record to say they're prepared for the launch and customers won't have to suffer long waiting periods. Well, that ended up as a disaster.

- Then, they launched the EcoSport at a great price. Seeing the response, they hike the price not one, but TWICE. As if the bad press & negativity from the first hike wasn't enough...

- EcoSport supplies in India continue to dwindle. Wait periods get longer, but factory dispatches get smaller! The Figo was also a success and Ford managed to ship between 6k - 8k units. Why are they ruining it for potential EcoSport owners who have already paid a deposit? Where the heck is the price protection that Renault offered Duster owners? Why is the delivery date a moving target for so many customers?

Fact is, Ford just doesn't seem to get the pricing right. With the new Fiesta, they went too high (corrected later) and the EcoSport, they think they priced it too low (unfortunately, corrected now).

I find it hard to believe that Ford has messed up the one big opportunity they've had. An irony really; The EcoSport is as good a car, as the business strategy backing it is poor.

[vikrantj]

A marketing and sales idea to Renault/Nissan.

Open up a stall outside every Ford showroom in major cities. Highlight in bold italics that a Duster/Terrano can be made available with no/acceptable wait time and your choice of colours with price protection till delivary. They can add whatever other freebies they can conjour up.

Every person entering that showroom comes out dejected , every customer who has gone to cancel his booking will grab at this opportunity. Well say that on the spot booking Rs 3000 they lost at Ecosport booking will be refunded.

After that see how the sales graph tilt.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by vikrantj

A marketing and sales idea to Renault/Nissan.

Open up a stall outside every Ford showroom in major cities. Highlight in bold italics that a Duster/Terrano can be made available with no/acceptable wait time and your choice of colours with price protection till delivary. They can add whatever other freebies they can conjour up...

Difficult thing I would say! Duster also went thru the same sh*t during it's prime and now stand as an outdated, non-VFM, spartan, low quality car in comparison to the Ecosport, at the current price.

It would be extremely difficult for a potential consumer to buy the Duster over Ecosport for that kind of cash, unless they are hell bent on a "SUV" factor over everything else.

[vinya_jag]

Did I hear, Ford was offering a booking change to any other ford car? Do we get to transfer the booking amount to another car?
Then I would have booked the New Fiesta instead.
It is exactly the Ecosport, albeit a different avatar.
And, believe me, it does not hurt to be seen in a white Ford Fiesta.
You might even get some discounts on this car.

But, I agree, to keep people waiting for so long, is not too ethical.
I guess, since the Rupee is weak, Ford is trying to make more money by exporting more, than selling here.
I guess, that way it is more profitable for any car manufacturer.

[Apple]

Originally Posted by zenren

Just curious, what is the expected delivery date that Ford has promised for you?

Also, as someone has quoted below, will you still hold on to the booking if the expected delivery date is mid-2015?

I booked Trend TDCi variant on 21st October and the waiting period then was 4-5 months. But on 4th December upgraded my booking to Titanium TDCi and the waiting period was 8 months, but effectively my wait time would be 7 months. So I'm guessing some where around June or July 2014 my order will be delivered. By that time many new models will be announced and I'm eyeing specifically for these:
1. Ford Fiesta 2014
2. Honda Jazz

I'll definitely not wait till mid 2015, I'll need a car some time around June/July.

[S_U_N]

Originally Posted by mi2n

I felt, that Ford showrooms should stop displaying the Eco-sport, as in its presence and as rightly pointed out earlier, the other Ford offerings look lack-lusture. Here, Ford lost an impulsive Figo buyer due to the displayed Eco-sport.

I see nothing wrong if they display one of their products. I am also glad that the sales advisor clearly told you that the waiting period is very long so as to dissuade you from considering that car.
Where the sales advisor failed is getting your attention back to Figo, which you were interested in, in the first place.
So perhaps the handling was not up to the mark (but that is not Ford's fault really).

Now, coming to the waiting period, the un-ethical part I believe is to promise a customer something and then not deliver it. So, if someone is given 4 months waiting, he/she should get the delivery on that date.

If you cannot honor your word, and instead send those cars to export (as claimed above), then that is where you start hitting your head on the axe.

But, thankfully now-a-days, there are plenty of choices in the Indian market. So go ahead and buy another car

A mass-cancellation of 2000 in one day across the country is enough for the management to sit up and take notice. How about that?

[eq24]

Originally Posted by zenren

Its got a lot to do with the Japanese and American heritage in value system of these companies. I've interacted with people from different countries across the globe as part of my work and one thing I really like about the Japanese are their commitment to honour their promises - something a lot of Americans seems to care about only if they had promised in writing and a lawsuit might come up in case they don't honour their promise.

Spot on. I remember on the 26th of june, when me and my father went to book the car, although the experience was OK, it was nothing spectacular. We were denied own insurance and were forced to take the stupid add on package. Still we complied. Our booking confirmation was a bill book page torn and written on then handed over to us, all with an expression of Ford doing us a favour by selling us a car.

Fast forward to last week when we booked the new Honda city as the eco sport was cancelled due to lack of space and the cheeky price rise and loss of features. Not only were we allowed to take own insurance everything else was also optional. Then we were given a proper book mentioning all our details and info about the car booked. This book also had a computer generated receipt and all the other information about our rights, various things about Honda and the car. We were also told that booking would not get any penalties on cancellations. And fair enough as deliveries of Petrol hadn't started exact date was not given but tentative was mentioned.

Now that is how a booking is done and did I mention that they let me TD all I wanted so I could check the ground clearance whereas in Ford it was, half a kilometre and then Next.

Really great experience at Honda, honestly now I understand why Japanese cars are revered everywhere.

[scopriobharath]

Make Hay while the sun shines.

To me - in a price sensitive country like India where 499/- seems lucrative whereas 500/- is not, i fully support ford here. If a model is a hit, there is no harm in increase prices and milk the customer. This is a common scenario be it our neighbourhood sandwhich wala or a big company like reliance. I have NOT seen business reducing or keeping the price steady in spite of huge demand. Fortuner, Innova, Scorpio all are a proof to that.

If I am in Marketing and Sales, my hike depends on the number of EcoSports sold. I would definetly play the dirty game of keeping the price low initially and then increasing it. This is just an attempt to draw people into the showroom and then create a "permanent first impression" of a low price. this impression is difficult to erase with a 1 lac increase in price too.

What is wrong is "pre-booking" customers should be offered price protection. This is ethics. Ford would not do the same thing in US/UK/Australia and other developed countries where customer protection laws are strong. It can do it in india because there is no protection law and it would take 10-15 years for that one in a million consumer court customer. People with Mafia or Political or Police contacts can always get an ecosport in 1 hour notice.

The Govt should step in here and issue a notice to stop exports till the local demand is met. Let us keep in mind that even the govt is loosing sales tax, service tax, VAT, Bribe, Road tax and indirect sales like fuel, toll, sunfilm, stickers, ICE, detailing and other running costs.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

The Govt should step in here and issue a notice to stop exports till the local demand is met. Let us keep in mind that even the govt is loosing sales tax, service tax, VAT, Bribe, Road tax and indirect sales like fuel, toll, sunfilm, stickers, ICE, detailing and other running costs.

Don't know what can be said about such statements - reflects the statist attitude of too many of us (unless I missed the sarcasm).

If you go in to book a car, understand the terms of the booking (delivery times, cancellation penalties, price protection etc.) before you book. If you don't get a satisfactory reply, do not book. There us nothing wrong with a profit maximising company doing what it chooses - it has no obligation to sell cars to Indians if it makes more money through exports. In fact, the only thing the government should be pressured to do is to reduce the ridiculous customs duties on imported cars, and give Indian consumers the benefit of choice.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Don't know what can be said about such statements - reflects the statist attitude of too many of us (unless I missed the sarcasm). If you go in to book a car, understand the terms of the booking (delivery times, cancellation penalties, price protection etc.) before you book. If you don't get a satisfactory reply, do not book. There us nothing wrong with a profit maximising company doing what it chooses - it has no obligation to sell cars to Indians if it makes more money through exports. In fact, the only thing the government should be pressured to do is to reduce the ridiculous customs duties on imported cars, and give Indian consumers the benefit of choice.

Sorry mate. I am not an affected party but I want to say that Ford's ruthless profiteering on this product borders on 'sharp practice'. I do not appreciate that level of greed, whichever way you or anyone else wants to take it. 'Statist', I believe you said. I would rather that it is considered as 'consumer protection from super-sized-avarice'!

[zenren]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

The Govt should step in here and issue a notice to stop exports till the local demand is met. Let us keep in mind that even the govt is loosing sales tax, service tax, VAT, Bribe, Road tax and indirect sales like fuel, toll, sunfilm, stickers, ICE, detailing and other running costs.

Think of it in a different way. These raw materials should never have been imported to India in the first place. Ford should have got it to some other factory in a different country like Philippines and then built the car and exported it to other countries from there. What would you/Indian government do in that case?

Government should still be thankful to Ford for creating the employment opportunity in India by building the cars needed for other countries in India and giving duties to the government for the raw materials imported and used in the manufacturing.

Its a totally different matter regarding how Ford prioritises the domestic and export numbers from the vehicles manufactured in India when viewed from the angle of a domestic customer. As a self-respecting customer base, we have every right to boycott Ford cars in domestic market even when their export numbers slow down at some point in future. All this can only happen with a strong Rupee which is easier said than done for the immediate future. As long as Rupee is weak, you'll see everyone keen on exports but when it gets stronger, they would be better off with domestic market.

I don't think government has any say in this since cars are not an essential commodity as far as the government is concerned. If it were, the policies would have compensated the companies for their losses and also mandated against hoarding/black-market laws.

[scopriobharath]

Originally Posted by zenren

I don't think government has any say in this since cars are not an essential commodity as far as the government is concerned. If it were, the policies would have compensated the companies for their losses and also mandated against hoarding/black-market laws.

Car is NOT an essential comodity, but the tax paying indian should be treated as one. I pay 60% of my salary as direct and indirect tax (dont have a choice). Govt should give me some strong consumer protection laws in return