[TSIched'Out]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

All manufacturers have a PR team that project an image of the brand. These practices are what affect the brand image and inturn the product. As you can see the news has spread like wildfire and noone is saying any good things. Negative brand publicity.

...... Instead their act of high handedness has resulted in negative publicity.

Hyundai too increased the car prices but made those effective from 1st October. The important thing to notice is that they have excluded the recently launched i10 Grand from the price hike. Ford India's PR team should take a leaf or two from Hyundai about how to manage brand equity.

Originally Posted by Prafful_Rathod

Generally it does not always happen so. Most of the manufacturer take periodic reasonable price hikes of say for eg. once in a quarter if there is reasonable demand for their products otherwise this period may extend. This gives them a window to cover up for increase in input cost and any other fluctuations to an extent. All the major players in India have by now high localisation on most of their brands. So currency volatility effect is relatively lower compared to other industries like tourism. Also in this highly price competitive market, the supply chain management has gathered more importance in Auto industry then ever before, rate negotiation for raw materials is more intense. Hence the extent of price hike (23K - 43K) just because of currency fluctuation is something not easily justifiable. It would have been more prudent for Ford to say that the launch price was just introductory price or limited period price and now this is the actual price.

Japanese have taught us "Kaizen" which is now followed rigorously by all auto makers in India. Translated, all vendors are now required to reduce their prices by 3-5% every year. Moreover, auto makers get pricing from vendors in lots of "1000-5000", "5001-10000" with each incremental lot resulting in lower per unit price. Considering that Ford is swamped with EcoSport bookings and hence may get better prices from their vendors, it should have kept the prices at the same level if not reduced. But that would have been "unprecedented" step just like everyone in Ford is saying that they received "unprecedented" demand for EcoSport and hence unprecedented delivery delays.

Originally Posted by k_ajay

it's surprising only Ford is being brought up for debate.

The intention behind the fine print "Specifications and Features are subject to change without notice" is to keep innovating and adding incremental features in the cars. It is disgusting to take advantage of this disclaimer and strip down some important features from a variant and make it inferior than the previously available one. Even if they have to, at least give protection to the people who have already booked one or give them chance to cancel without any penalty.

[puchoo]

Probably not so soon , they will wait to see whether it is stable or if there are more fluctuations and then decide what to do.

Originally Posted by JayKis

Now that the Rupee is back to 61 will ford reduce the prices for the ecosport?

[Prafful_Rathod]

Reducing the price is never going to happen, unless you are repositioning the brand, which in turn happens generally if your brand is not doing too well or not as well as the company would have liked. None of these seems to be the possibility at this stage for Ecosport.

[ecosport]

Originally Posted by TSIched'Out

Hyundai too increased the car prices but made those effective from 1st October. The important thing to notice is that they have excluded the recently launched i10 Grand from the price hike. Ford India's PR team should take a leaf or two from Hyundai about how to manage brand equity.

If the Grand receives 30K bookings in 10 days, they sure are going to hike the prices. Ford is not the first manufacturer to take advantage of demand, and is not going to be the last.

Even if they have to, at least give protection to the people who have already booked one or give them chance to cancel without any penalty.

I too think that they should have given some price protection to those who pre-booked, but if you come to think about it, it is not practical. They would still leave the others disgruntled.

[sourabhzen]

Originally Posted by k_ajay

A lot of manufacturers have gone this route before so it's surprising only Ford is being brought up for debate. And almost every car dealer's pricing sheet and booking form mentions clearly prices at the time of delivery will prevail. If that isn't acceptable or legal, it should be brought up prior to booking or even without it, rather than when closer to or waiting for taking delivery.

I thinks its legal; but to me it shall not be acceptable. Reason being the promises Ford made on timely delivery, appropriate inventory prior to launch are not kept. In fact it shows greed on the company's part.

Raising the price would have been acceptable if they were not charging cancellation fee.

[D'Artagnan]

Originally Posted by TSIched'Out

Japanese have taught us "Kaizen" which is now followed rigorously by all auto makers in India. Translated, all vendors are now required to reduce their prices by 3-5% every year.

Kaizen is never followed in India. For e.g the swift, most popular car has had an increase in its price and has never had a price revision that came down. I just can't think of an example (automotive only) in which the pricing of products have come down over a period of time, but prices going down yearly would be a good practice if followed.

Originally Posted by puchoo

Probably not so soon , they will wait to see whether it is stable or if there are more fluctuations and then decide what to do.

Has it ever happened before that a price increase has been revised and put back to its former or even lesser price? Don't mean to sound offensive but I'm just curious.

[k_ajay]

Originally Posted by TSIched'Out

The intention behind the fine print "Specifications and Features are subject to change without notice" is to keep innovating and adding incremental features in the cars. It is disgusting to take advantage of this disclaimer and strip down some important features from a variant and make it inferior than the previously available one. Even if they have to, at least give protection to the people who have already booked one or give them chance to cancel without any penalty.

Agreed about the cutting of feature and its the same sentiment i've echoed on my post. Kindly check again. What can be fought with Ford is that cancellation should NOT be charged by the dealer for Titanium variants, because the decision is based on the cancellation of the feature(s). But it's anyone's guess whether it will be fought or not. Even on this thread, we're making noise here but people will silently upgrade to Titanium Option, for lack of better competition. Very few folks will cancel due to 2 features being removed. Ford did the ugly thing here with this specific scenario, I agree.

Originally Posted by sourabhzen

I thinks its legal; but to me it shall not be acceptable. Reason being the promises Ford made on timely delivery, appropriate inventory prior to launch are not kept. In fact it shows greed on the company's part.

Raising the price would have been acceptable if they were not charging cancellation fee.

You're mistaken. The cancellation charge is not levied by Ford. It is levied by the dealers. Manufacturers never take bookings from us directly and so they do not charge a cancellation fee. The dealer bears the risk of ordering for vehicles and he pays the manufacturer. So the dealer is off-setting this risk of ordering for the prospective customer, by levying a cancellation fee, which one has to pay if he changes his/her mind and chooses to cancel. In EcoSport scenario, given the volume of orders I'll accept it's cheap to still exploit the disclaimer as it's better for the dealer to manage orders if someone cancels, but they're still legally covered by levying it. And when a customer books, he should take into considerations these clauses and disclaimers. If it's not acceptable, we shouldn't go ahead. Simple!

[Red Color Lover]

Dollar has slumped, markets are at a new high, come on Ford India undo some of the damage you have done

[keralshobhit]

Well its time to share my story, have already booked Ford Eco Sport Titanium (O) in Aug'13. Today Delhi Ford called up and told that your car will not be delivered before Feb ‘14 and if you want to cancel the booking you wont be charged the cancelation fees plus interest will be paid on 50K. I was a little surprised in the sense that the rep was more inclined on cancelation than saving customer. Is there a catch? Am I missing something?
I have few questions now.
1. Although its been an amazing move from Ford regarding the cancelation fees and interest being paid, but why was the rep so keen to get the booking cancelled-" So are you cancelling it?" seems like they want us to cancel it.
2. Will they allow transferring the booking to someone else name?
3. I wanted a Mahindra Getaway actually, but ended up booking it due to fussy Mahindra network.

Suggestion and advices are welcome.

PS: He mentioned price is already increased by 35K and expect another increase in November again.

[HighwayBuddha]

Originally Posted by keralshobhit

Well its time to share my story,

I seriously think he is trying to get your car over to someone else. Quite spooky. Check with Ford.

[shashank.nk]

Originally Posted by keralshobhit

PS: He mentioned price is already increased by 35K and expect another increase in November again.

What Another one so soon ? Was this guy sure about it or was he simply trying to scare you into cancelling

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by keralshobhit

1. Although its been an amazing move from Ford regarding the cancelation fees and interest being paid, but why was the rep so keen to get the booking cancelled-" So are you cancelling it?" seems like they want us to cancel it.

They are not able to meet the demand for this car. They have to get the number of bookings down may be but this way of dealing by the rep is not accepted.

Cancel the booking and take the money with interest what Ford is paying you. Go to another dealer and try to book. If you get the same attitude wash your hands off and choose another car. If the SA is ready to transfer this booking to another dealer who is ready to give you the car then do the transfer.

Anurag.

[D'Artagnan]

Originally Posted by keralshobhit

Well its time to share my story, have already booked Ford Eco Sport Titanium (O) in Aug'13. PS: He mentioned price is already increased by 35K and expect another increase in November again.

Originally Posted by shashank.nk

What Another one so soon ? Was this guy sure about it or was he simply trying to scare you into cancelling

Originally Posted by a4anurag

They are not able to meet the demand for this car. They have to get the number of bookings down may be but this way of dealing by the rep is not accepted. Cancel the booking and take the money with interest what Ford is paying you. Go to another dealer and try to book. If you get the same attitude wash your hands off and choose another car. If the SA is ready to transfer this booking to another dealer who is ready to give you the car then do the transfer. Anurag.

Another price increase shocker indeed! Shouldn't they be reducing or giving discounts for the upcoming Diwali season.

Suggestion go do a td of Renault duster it might be a good option now.

I'd second with anurags suggestion of taking your booking to another dealer.

[HillMan]

What Ford did was a marketing gimmick which went wrong because of the huge booking. I dont believe it has anything to do with the rupee fall. The rupee fall projection was already in place when Ford announced the prices.

Ford wanted to launch EcoSport with a bang and create a ripple in the market. Which they did. But the bookings went out of hand. They might have expected a marginal numbers to book initially and then raise the price for the rest.

It is common practice for every manufacturer to launch their products at a lower price then increase later. Even the Maruthi 800 was launched similarly. Thats because there is the fear of unknown among buyers and the price is the only pull.

I would like to appreciate Tatas for that. The Nano from launch to delivery had its own challenges and losses, but Tata kept its promise of giving away some 3000 cars for Rs.1L even though they were taking a hit.

The latest entrant Renault Duster passed on price protection even though they are new to the Indian market, yet to establish their individual brand.

But what Ford did is wrong. They are not new to Indian market. They are an established brand and have own manufacturing facilities for long. Still Ford fails to deliver. It delivers the profitable models and is busy with exports, while rest of the lot wait for their dream machine.

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by keralshobhit

Delhi Ford called up and told that car will not be delivered before Feb ‘14 and if want to cancel the booking wont be charged the cancelation fees plus interest will be paid on 50K.

On a positive note, at least the dealer is willing to return the full booking amount, and that too with interest. Initial reports were that a cancellation fee would be applicable.

Originally Posted by a4anurag

this way of dealing by the rep is not accepted.

We have to commend them for being willing to return the booking amount. With the way things run in India, dealers are known to exploit customers especially if it is for a small amount because most people know that it will cost them more in fuel and lawyer fee in filing a lawsuit when compared to the booking amount.

BTW, I recall Varun Motors and RKS Saboo in Hyderabad used to charge 10-15% of the vehicle price as the booking amount (though in recent years, even Rs.1-5k is acceptable for them), whereas Mithra Motors used to charge 90% of the vehicle price as the booking amount. With the 90%, they're likely to be more tempted to take advantage of delays to earn interest.