[ecosport]

Ford won't provide any price protection because bookings were being handled by the dealers. There is no concrete way for Ford to find out who booked before the launch or hike. If they leave it to the dealers to decide then it would open new avenues of malpractice for the dealers.

BTW, there is no cancellation fee according to Ford. If the dealer demands a cancellation fee, please contact Ford and get a word from them.

It is not just Ford who is hiking prices now, and for people who booked because of the old VFM pricing, they are giving you an option to cancel with no losses from your side. Well except the opportunity you lost with the 50K.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Demanding a cancellation fee in a scenario of this kind is simply cheap and niggardly behaviour on the part of that big American MultiNational. Doubtless some miserable mud-blood, third-class scum-bag bean-counter creature in Ford would have hatched this evil plot in some god and devil forsaken boardroom, to the ultimate filling of their coffers and the detriment of the poor Indian buying public!

Boy, I couldn't believe I saw 5 stars below your name.

[RS_DEL]

This is not about legalese. It is an accepted norm of all commercial dealings that when we sign on the dotted line we are assumed to have read all the terms and conditions governing the transaction.

If one of the terms is that the vendor has the right to revise his price, then that is perfectly legitimate and ethical in my book.

Yes, as a customer it will cause me heart burn, but I did sign on the dotted line and that is final. Such bookings also accept the customer's right to cancel. So that is an option one can exercise, should one find such price increments unwarranted or unethical.

ps: As @shankar.balan rightly points out if the vendor does implement a price increase, then the right of a customer to exercise his option to cancel with out a cancellation charge needs to be respected. Levying a cancellation charge in such cases where the vendor has increased the selling price, while legal, is not quite in good taste to put it mildly.

[GunMo]

Originally Posted by ecosport

Ford won't provide any price protection because bookings were being handled by the dealers. There is no concrete way for Ford to find out who booked before the launch or hike. If they leave it to the dealers to decide then it would open new avenues of malpractice for the dealers.

BTW, there is no cancellation fee according to Ford.

Oh boy, I didn't know that Ford dealers are petty shop owners and they write down in chit papers whenever a customer is doing a per-booking! Well, in these days of even govt. files go missing, anything can happen in our country!!

BTW, if there's no cancellation fee, then that's news. According to many who have cancelled, it was very much there.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by ecosport

Boy, I couldn't believe I saw 5 stars below your name.

These choice epithets used are merely that and by no stretch can be considered as foul language.
The word 'niggardly' is merely another euphemism for miserly or cheap. The other words are mere descriptives.
However, they carry the message through as I hoped they would without having to resort to bad mannered outright abuse...

[latentpotential]

It was always a risk, a well known one too, that for bookings that are stretching a few months, in an uncertain economy, for a vehicle that has too good to believe prices, if you are not in the initial lots, you WILL be treated as you are being treated now. In the words of someone "all your bases belong to us"

[Superleggera]

I voted for unfair practice.

The need to honor the prevaling price on the day the booking amount is paid.

[a4anurag]

I understand that the dollar and rupee condition but it is unfair. Manufacturers are here to make money and we customers are here to save money. So this issue is never going to end.

Ford should have exempted customers who booked initially.

Anurag

[BMW-X5]

Mod Note : There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the forum experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use spell-checkers.

[deetjohn]

We knew this were to happen sooner or later when the EcoSport got launched at those super VFM prices right? I think what is causing the heartburn is the fact that the hike is very abrupt and not small. But, this is not surprising looking at how USD has strengthened relative to the Rupee. That was a substantial increase and I am sure the car makers are among the worst hit. Wait for the prices to go up all around pretty soon. A pretty weak market is what is delaying the inevitable.

So, I don't think its right to single out Ford here. Everyone does it and it sure feels bad for the customer. I felt the same when Maruti increased the price when we were waiting for our Swift after booking.

I think, automobile manufacturing works in such a way that either you make a substantial amount of money or you bleed. And you need to make a lot of money when the sun shines to cover those huge investments, R&D spend and market failures.

And is Ford really diverting a significant portion of their production to exports? I thought it was just 500 units to the UK. Where else are they exporting to?

Here is the new pricing: Ford EcoSport prices hiked

[Mad Max]

The rupee falling is just ONE factor in this. The others are mostly greed, market manipulation, export profit booking and unethical business practices.

Ford Ecosport is supposed to be a highly localized product (at least 80%), isn't it? So, when the rupee falls, it doesn't mean that what is being produced INSIDE India is going to react the same way the equity market does, right? If that's the case, the next time the Sensex crosses 25K and the rupee comes back to 55Rs/$ (crossfingers), can we assume Ford (and other companies) will drop their prices proportionately? Doubt that. Even if its not a localized product, price corrections need be carefully thought out. Its like clipping the wings before the bird can fly.

Second, when a car manufacturer takes money on booking a vehicle, the only ethical thing for them to do is cancellation charges (due to internal processing and product work). It's not right for the company to take a large amount of money, build the product, sell it to another country and then penalize the local customer stating that the parts cost / production costs have gone up. Profits need to be made ethically and Ford has completely shoved a Ecosport sized foot up their customers' butts. Shameful, indeed.

In addition, when a company advertises a product with a price range, it should not be revised within a specific period of time. There should be a lock-in period for all existing customers who have purchased the product and are awaiting delivery. The government needs to look at the applicable laws or even amend our current laws to protect us. If I was a tech provider to Ford and built their internal electronic systems, and the day before I am supposed to deliver my final code to Ford, I ring them up and tell them "really sorry, rupee has gone up.. so now, you pay me 25% extra and we'll call it a deal".. I am not sure how Ford would react.

And finally, greed. When car manufacturers bring in new vehicles, people pretty much queue up round the block to buy the vehicle. We treat even regular run-of-the-mill manufacturers as premium companies here. The power goes to their head, they see all this money people are willing to shell out for nothing in return and no wonder, they start thinking of how to keep that game going on for extended period. Think about this - conservative booking - 10000 numbers - each pays 50000 Rs. Total 50,00,00,000. That's 50 easy crores. Throwing money into a depreciating asset - we as Indians need to be more careful about how we spend our money. We have a lot to learn from our parents in terms of savings and spending. When I went to Elite Ford, the nonchalance of the sales guy "sir.. just give 50k and go.. its ok.. we'll give it to you in 4 months.. i promise, sir" .. really? Please be careful not to fuel the greed of these companies. You and I need to be more responsible. You've seen the internet slang "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY", right? That's what exactly happened here.

Sorry for the long post / rant. I just find it saddening / amusing sometimes that people go ahead and throw money on a product they obsess with and then worry about not getting it on time and cost increases.

[KPS]

There is a saying which goes "What may appear unfair to some will seem fair to others". The price hike was anticipated by most at the time of booking. The hope for price protection caused rush in the initial pre-launch bookings.

The quantum of price high looks unfair but one must understand the there has been a huge increase in input cost with rupee depreciation, high interest cost, higher wages etc. Hence the quantum of hike by Ford must have been well thought out due to the long term implications. From a Treasury/Finance perspective things are frankly not looking too good.

One must understand that Ford does not have a very strong product mix in India and the other models except for Figo have very low volumes. Hence, Ford has been operating on a very thin line with respect to its profitability. From a long term commitment of Ford to bring in better and newer technology, this price rise could be important. Ford may be making money on Ecosport but this price hike could be cutting the losses of the other product lines.

In life it is very difficult to be impartial to all. Believe me, if you meet a Ecosport owner today his first reaction would be with the happiness "thank god, I escaped the price hike". Do you think his happiness of escaping the price hike would translate into sympathizing with those who didn't ? May be a few moments, but the memory of beating the price will last longer.

There a powerful Chinese proverb " Your belief in injustice and tragedy is a reflection of your ignorance. What the Caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly"

So if you are one of the unfortunate ones to have have lost in this race for delivery, I feel sorry for you, but at best you need to reassess whether you still want to buy this car or not.

Cheers

KPS

[diffsoft]

At the risk of putting my of my fellow BHPians off, I do not think this is an unfair practice. I want to make a case below so that we do not vent anger at the wrong subject.

The booking conditions stated that prices are subject to change. This is the case with any car booked as was the case with Ertiga for me. It can be a fair expectation if the car maker already has a readily produced car in inventory. But if they do not have the booked car in their inventory, then they will have to bear the risk of input price fluctuations. In an environment where input prices are volatile, regulatory enronment is volatile, currency is volatile such an expectation is misplaced. Dollar has fallen by 20% since the beginning of April 2013, they cannot be hedged indefinitely, contracts with vendors have built input cost price rises and even if there is 100 % localisation, the vendors will have import component and credit has gotten expensive.

One can fret, fume and get angry over a misplaced expectation, but it reminds me of the captain of a ship steering it at night and saw some light at a distance and requested that it change course. When it didn't he fumed that it will not be his ship that will move and marched straight ahead. Only much later he was told that the light came from a lighthouse.

Cheers,

P.S I have book an Ecosport myself and also a victim of this rise

[shinuak]

We need to follow our PM's and Fin Min's mantra of
"Don't buy gold and the price will come down "
"Don't buy petrol and the price will come down "
Similarly
Don't buy ecosport, the price will come down. Austerity is thy name , lol. Let there be en masse cancellations and see what ford does.

On a serious note, I believe the cancellation fee could have been waived since they would have already earned some interest on it. By the way the booking amount goes to the dealer and not Ford , right ?

[eq24]

I can understand why people are disgruntled but come on with the dollar price rise what do you expect.

And to those who are bringing up the 80% localisation. Ford has brought it up to 80% but their vendors might still be buying things from abroad.
A simple example , a single camera CCTV setup I had inquired for home in January was around 19000, today it is 24000. What to do, the company is Indian but most components are imported.

Ford could have at least given 50 50 arrangement and win the loyalty of many but the truth is most of these companies are not run by enthusiastic people who want to create an ever lasting brand. They are run by fly by night MBA's who are just using this rung to put a sparkle on their CV and move on to the next higher pay check. Their biggest care is profits and margins and personal glory, customer can go to hell for all they care.

[urajkumar]

This is a difficult question but my final answer is "yes"

If i was one of the customers who prebooked and still didn't get it, I would have been devastated but thankfully I have taken delivery of the car already. It is not fair to customers who pre-booked the car without even taking a test drive and Ford should give price protection to customers who booked till August(Incidentally Renault gave price protection to customers who booked it till August) at least. Is it the customers fault that Ford could not manufacture the cars on time?

While I agree that margin pressure must be high considering the rupee -dollar fluctuation but nonetheless it was the ford MD who said we are giving a VFM cost only because we balance it due to our export volumes which earn us good returns as compensation. So what happened to that logic now?

It is unfair that with so much localization, local parts being used, with 30000 odd indian customers still waiting, Ford is exporting large number of vehicles (albeit with more features etc) to make more profits! While I understand ford is not a NGO & has to make profit but at least it should respect customers who booked it earlier and honor its commitments!

Come on ford - Be fair!