[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by k_nitin_r

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.

The dealer is pressurising the customer for a cancelation and not vice-versa.

Customer is God - Ford should understand this and not built is customers to cancel the car. Ford is in a feeling that they are doing a favour by this step of theirs but won't there be a negative effect at some point of time for their company and the EcoSport?

Anurag.

[JayPrashanth]

Originally Posted by keralshobhit

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.

I'm appalled to see how the American automaker is handling the booking process of the EcoSport. The truth is: if a company wants to control the kind of interactions that dealers have with buyers, it does have various means of doing so. A car is often the second largest purchase in a person's lifetime and the process ought to be enjoyable.

By allowing the dealers to tamper with the buying experience, Ford really has lost the plot here. Negative word flies real fast and the EcoSport could turn into a Figo after the initial euphoria. As a Ford owner, why will I buy an EcoSport if the dealer/brand treats me badly? I'd rather have my money going to some other dealer/brand which makes my buying experience enjoyable.

Now, about the sales rep pressurizing you to cancel your booking is to allot your car to some other person, at a premium that may go into his pocket. This is an old trick at dealerships.

When the XUV500 was launched in 2011, Mahindra also faced a similar glut in bookings. They handled the whole scene much better than Ford. Also, Mr Anand Mahindra, through Twitter, stepped in on many instances to stop dealers from overcharging for "quick deliveries".

Cheers,

Jay

[JayKis]

Just starting this as a new thread because I feel that others can learn about how to go about the cancellation. And i think this should be applicable to all the brand of cars as well.

There seem to be five different process associated with before you make the payment.

a) Booking the car
b) Dealer placing the order for the car
c) VIN being allotted to the car
d) Dealer making a payment for the car
e) The vehicle reaching the dealer’s garage.

I think all the people who have booked an ecosport and want to cancel it would fall into any of the following categories.
1) You have booked a vehicle and just want to cancel it due to the long waiting time
2) You have booked a vehicle and waited for quite a long time (more than 2/3 months) and there is no delivery in sight.
3) You have booked a vehicle and the vehicle VIN has been allotted to you but you still want to cancel because Ford has increased the price/reduced the equipment.
4) You have booked a vehicle and the vehicle VIN has been allotted to you and the vehicle has reached the dealers garage but you still want to cancel because Ford has increased the price or you are not happy with the colour/equipment.
5) You have booked a vehicle and the vehicle VIN has been allotted to you and the vehicle has reached the dealers garage and the dealer was holding for you but you still want to cancel because of your own personal reasons.

You could ask for a full refund plus interest in the case of Points 1 and 2.
You could ask for a refund for points 3 and 4.
You would have to bear the cancellation charges for point 5 unless there is change in terms and conditions.

Please allow me the ordeal of sharing my story here. Mine is a Point 5 case and i still wanted my full refund since i believed that Ford has changed the terms and conditions at their will.

Sequence of events

June 26 - Booked a kinetic Blue Ecoboost Titanium (opt) model on June 26th, the day the car was launched.

Aug 24 - The dealer told me on August last week that your car might come in the next 8 days.

Sep 3- The dealer called up to say that the vehicle has reached the garage ,so please give the necessary documents and part payment.

Sep 5- The documents were submitted but I insisted I see the car before making the part payment and after much persuasion got the VIN number from the dealer. The vehicle was at the dealer’s service centre rather than the showroom so it was not possible to view it.

Sep 6- The price was hiked on Sep 6th. On calling up the dealer in the morning, the dealer feigned igornance and said there is no official circulars on price rise. On going to the dealership on Sep 6th evening, the tune had changed and the price hike would be applicable.

The dealer said that the price applicable at the time of registration would apply. On checking with a friend who had just got his car delivered he said the invoice price is the one that matters and not the price at the time of the registration. I asked the dealer to raise the invoice on Sep6th, so as to get a price protection. The dealer outrightly refused and was rude to an extent. So I said I would like to cancel and would need a full refund to which the showroom manager agreed.

Sep 14 – Went to submit the booking receipt for cancellation and the dealer said that there would be cancellation charges.

Sep 17-Mailed the ford customer care regarding the cancellation charges.

From: YYYY
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 11:54 PM
To: Customer, Care (.)
Cc:
Subject: Cancellation Charges on Booking

Hi,
My name is XXX and had booked an Ecosport (Ecoboost,Titanium Optional, Kinetic Blue) on Jun 26th, right on the day the ecosport was launched in India. The booking amount was INR 50000. The dealer in concern was Talera Ford, Yerwada, Pune, Maharashtra.

On September 3rd the dealer received the vehicle at their garage. (VIN Number ending DG48989 as per dealer) and inspite of my commitment for full payment on Sep 6th, the dealer refused to entertain the same and raise an invoice on the same day so as to avoid the price hike. Hence this left me with the option of paying the hiked price of the ecosport or to cancel my booking.

I hence chose to cancel it. The dealer then informed me that a cancellation charge of INR 3000 would be levied on the booking.

I personally think this is a bad practice since the original terms of the price as signed with the dealer has changed and the customer is very well within his rights to demand a full refund of his booking amount.

Hence would like to know if Ford is responsible for this cancellation levy on customers or is a dealer practise so that i can follow it up with suitable authorities regarding the same.

Thanks
JayKis


Sep 18/19 – Daily follow up with the customer care to find the status. Internal inquiry being carried out.

Sep 20 – The ford customer care informs me that I would be eligible for a full refund. Went to the dealers showroom to cancel it and the showroom manager says he has to speak to his GM about the cancellation charges and will let know.

Sep 21- Goes to the dealer’s showroom again and he says that the cancellation charges are applicable.

Sep 23/24/25 – Daily inquiry with Ford customer care on the sudden change of events. Insisted on written email from ford that the full refund cannot be done.

Sep 26 – Email received from ford.
Subject: FW: financial
To: JayKis
Cc: "B, Ganeshram (.)" <bganeshr@ford.com>, "Meena, A (A.)" <ameena@ford.com>, "jimmy@taleraauto.com" <jimmy@taleraauto.com>, "smsales@taleraauto.com" <smsales@taleraauto.com>

Dear Sir,

We are in receipt of your mail and noted down the contents. We again wish to retraite that necessary clarifications have been provided to your good self during our discussion on phone. However we wish to clarify you through this mail is that with regard to financials policies of the dealership, we regret to inform you that we would not be in a position to intervene, we kindly request you to visit our dealership and complete the payment formalities and take the delivery of the car.

We apologize if we have not been able to meet your expectations.

Trust your understanding in this regard. Please feel free to contact us/ Mr. JIMMY sales manager conduct no: 9881494940 our dealership for any further assistance.

Assuring you of our best services and continuous support at all times.


Thanks & Regards,
N.KUMAR
FIL-Customer Relations
Toll Free No 1800-425-2500 BSNL/MTNL 6000-2500 Add STD code of your state capital.


Sep 26 – Replies back to the email and including all those marked in CC
From: Jaykis
Sent: 26 September 2013 17:47
To: Kumar, N (N.)
Cc: B, Ganeshram (.); Meena, A (A.); jimmy@taleraauto.com; smsales@taleraauto.com
Subject: Re: FW: financial

HI Kumar,

Since you have not explained the contents of the discussion let me please explain the same..

1) The dealer received the vehicle on Sep 3.
2) The dealer was not ready to accept a full payment for the vehicle on Sep 6 and raise an invoice immediately to protect the customer from a price hike.
3) The dealer does not follow his word of Sep 6th that the cancellation charges wont be applicable when the customer actually goes to cancel it at a later date.
4) The ford customer care does an internal enquiry whose outcome states that the dealer received the vehicle after making the full payment of exshowroom and since it has been allotted to the customer by sep 3 and the customer if he cancels should bear the 3000 cancellation cost.

If the dealer has received the car at the previous price, why didnt he allot it to the customer at the same price? If the terms of the price has changed isnt it fair that the customer shouldnt be charged a cancellation fee?

I still believe that the dealer was out to make a quick buck (unless u can prove it) and cheat me in this case and now i know that ford is complicit (again unless u can prove it) in this as well.

Thanks
JayKis

Sep 26- Gets a email from the sales manager of Talera Auto.
From: <jimmy@taleraauto.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 8:31 PM
Subject: RE: FW: financial
To: Jaykis "Kumar, N (N.)" <nkumar22@ford.com>
Cc: "B, Ganeshram (.)" <bganeshr@ford.com>, "Meena, A (A.)" <ameena@ford.com>, smsales@taleraauto.com, custmail@ford.com, "Shah, Ruchik (.)" <sruchik@ford.com>, "Johari, Aakalp (A.)" <ajohari1@ford.com>


The facts available at dealership totally differ from customer’s version.

1) Vehicle (VIN) was allotted to this customer on 21st August 2013. On 23rd August, customer was informed of the allotment and was requested to complete payment or to submit the required loan documents.
2) From 23rd August till 4th September despite multiple reminders, no payment or no documents submitted.
3) On 5th September the de-allotment communication SMS ( still available in Nitesh Jha’s cell with date of sending, reading:- “ Good Morning Sir. Plz give me today cash or all documents otherwise car will be free. Thx”) goes out. No payment till EOD and car gets re-allotted to the next customer in the waiting list.
4) After 2 days, on 7th September, after learning about the price hike, customer meets the sales manager with a cheque and demands to bill the car at old rate ! Since there was no car available to this customer any longer, the question of billing was out and manager explains that he will have to wait for the next car at the new rate.
5) Customer decides to cancel the booking and since the car was kept allotted (for 15 days) without any attempt to pay, dealership conveyed of the cancellation charges as per the terms & conditions on the booking documents.

Regards
Jimmy.


Sep 26 - Email reply to the Sales Manager

From: Jaykis
Date: Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 10:28 PM
Subject: Re: FW: financial
To: "jimmy@taleraauto.com" <jimmy@taleraauto.com>
Cc: "Kumar, N (N.)" <nkumar22@ford.com>, "B, Ganeshram (.)" <bganeshr@ford.com>, "Meena, A (A.)" <ameena@ford.com>, "smsales@taleraauto.com" <smsales@taleraauto.com>, custmail@ford.com, "Shah, Ruchik (.)" <sruchik@ford.com>, "Johari, Aakalp (A.)" <ajohari1@ford.com>


Now thats what i would call a really bloated version.

1) Vehicle VIN alloted to customer on 21st Aug? - Cmon gimme a break! I got the vehicle VIN on Sep 5th after submitting my documents. VIN alloted to customer means the customer should be of the informed about that. Not that ki "Sir aap ke gaadi aane waala hai"!

2) The customer was informed that the vehicle is available at the dealers garage on Sep 3rd. The customer wanted to see the car as well which was not available at the dealers but his service centre in wagholi. Have you ever any customer paying w/o seeing his vehicle in the first place?

3) I have proof of message on my mobile send to Nitish that "I will come in the evening and give you the docs and the cheque on 5th of Sep" (even before the price rise) at 10.40 am and did submit it on 5th.

4) The docs were submitted on 5th evening not 7th. That means there is only a difference of 2 days between the car arriving at your dealer's place and the customer submitting the docs. The customer had infact called up the dealer on 6th morning to inquire about the price rise and the dealer feigned ignorance. But when the customer went to the dealership on 6th evening it was that price rise is there. Now thats what i would call day light robbery in the first place. The customer then informed by showroom manager Asif that he would cancel the booking and was promised that the "Entire booking amount would be refunded". Now why on earth would anyone say that and go back on his word?The manager never said that they would allocate me a new car and it was plain evident that i would get the same car.

5) Your entire theory of holding the car for 15 days sound pretty bogus as it differs from Mr.Asif's version that he had held it only for 7 days.

6) Would like to add that -The dealer's intention was to cheat as all along he was saying that the vehicle price prevailing on the day of registration will prevail rather than the invoice date. I have friends who have bought the vehicle so donot give me that crap.

I would need to see some hard proofs about the vehicle with the same VIN number being received at your dealership and the dealer holding it for 15 days -the invoice being generated for the same.


So Jimmy, would advice you against falsifying your claims and show some hard proof.

Thanks,
JayKis

Sep 27 – Gets a call from the dealer that the entire booking amount would be refunded. Gets acall from the presidents desk too but I insisted they email me. So she send me an email.
From: President's desk, From (.) <write2md@ford.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 3:07 PM
Subject: Reply from Ford India
To: Jaykis
Cc: "Kumar, N (N.)" <nkumar22@ford.com>

Dear Sir ,
This mail is in continuation to our earlier correspondence and telecom discussion regarding the concern you had raised with us. We sincerely hope we had provided necessary clarifications related to the concerns you had raised with us.
First up we apologies on behalf of our dealership for lapses and would initiate necessary corrective action to provide prompt and quality service in future. We understand how disappointing it can be when your expectations are not met with. We take your valuable feedback on a constructive note and have cascade it to our service department along with our regional service team to ensure that our processes that are in place are in the right direction.
Further we understand from our dealership that they have processed the refund of Rs.50000/- advance amount that was collected from you, we kindly request you to visit dealership and collect the same . We would also like to reiterate we do value your feedback. We take all feedback posted here very seriously and constantly endeavour to use the same from such forums to learn more from our customers. Thank you for your valuable time to communicate with us.

Pls feel free to contact us/ Jimmy Sales GM @ 9881494940 for any further assistance in future .
Thanks & Regards
Meena Aravind
Maanger -Customer Relations,
Toll Free No 1800-425-2500 BSNL/MTNL 6000-2500 Add STD code of your state capital

Moral of the Story: The overall experience with the dealership was good till they got greedy. The overall experience with Ford customer care was good thou I had to followup a lot and insist on everything on email.

They still havent replied to the email means thou.

[CARDEEP]

Hi @JayKis

Your story is similar to mine, except the commodity & seller bought was different (I bought Galaxy S4 from Tradus listing). Hard fought fight with facts, & legal threat can always bring these cheats down.

Not only I got full refund like you, but all the additional charges were refunded to me. I am surprised at the attitude of these middlemen, who are hell bent on making profit at the cost of ignorant customers. At every step they will try to cheat you, but, since (& also I) had preserved all the proofs, we could prove them wrong.

Congratulations .

[AWD]

I had highlighted the fact of Ford dealers acting extremely greedy in main Eco-Sport thread. I was in touch with the dealer 3-4 months prior to the launch of the vehicle. On the day of the launch, went to book the vehicle with check-book in hand.

The dealers attitude had turned around drastically & I was told of a similar 3000/- booking cancellation charges, no immunity from price rise/increase, mandatory accessories worth 30-40k with the vehicle, Insurance from the dealer itself. For a company like doing this, I was furious. Well Maruti did the same & got away but that's Maruti & has been doing so for ages. Now stopped though, not because they will but because they had to due to sales declining.

I immediately got in touch with Ford-India & received almost similar responses. I was also told that 3000/- as booking cancellation charges is dealers will. On other queries too I did not receive a satisfactory response & could make out that if booked, the dealer would try his best to spoil the party & the company would not really help the matters. Therefore foreseeing the tumultuous times ahead, decided against booking the vehicle. A decision I never regretted.

[san2]

IMO, Ford could have refunded the entire amount earlier
not only does it give the manufacturer a bad name, the problems faced by an individual due to greedy dealers results in them losing out on many other prospective clients
hope Ford learns from the Duster experience

[longhorn]

To be frank, its our own SUV madness that creates these greedy dealers. Why would any self respecting soul go and beg / bribe the dealer to get their vehicles faster. If they don't respect you, walk out. It's not cow manure that you are giving them, its your hard earned money, and quite a bit at that. A sedan will always have better road dynamics than an SUV. They pollute lesser. Unless you need to go on bad/track/no roads, a sedan will suffice. It will ride and handle better and give more comfort to travel in.

[ecosport]

Originally Posted by JayKis

[left]Just starting this as a new thread because I feel that others can learn about how to go about the cancellation. And i think this should be applicable to all the brand of cars as well.

A few points.

I don't understand why the post that started as a cancellation advice post turned into something different. I think, you should open a new thread under the dealership review section.

It is difficult to ascertain who is at fault here. Ford had hiked prices effective Sep 6, but made this known to public (including dealers) on Sep 5. So they knew about the hike, but chose not to let you know. But I don't think the dealer would benefit from the hike. I guess the hiked price goes to the manufacturer. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong.

The dealer need not necessary tell you the VIN no when the car is allocated. The regular folks does not care about VINs.

Booking amount is handled by the dealer, so Ford has little control over how the dealer handles it. Also Ford does not get the cancellation fee. But Ford could have handled the whole affair better by keeping the dealers in tight leash.

[selfdrive]

Would Ford have:
- reduced the prices if the dollar went down instead of up? This is similar to the situation when IT companies were asking their labourers to work on weekends to cover for a weak dollar. We dont see them giving weekdays off with a strong dollar. Linking it to a base price and hedging of contracts is too much detail, but this existed earlier too!
- increased the price if there were no advance bookings for the Ecosport. Excess demand breeds not only higher prices but also arrogance

For every successful launch (Figo), Ford has a debacle in the form of the new Fiesta. Similarly, for this Ecosport, they will have something else bite them back. What goes around usually comes around. It will do their brand equity a lot more damage than what they will earn from the miniscule cancellation charges that they have levied. Which if I understand goes anyway to the dealer.

[JayKis]

Originally Posted by ecosport

A few points.

I don't understand why the post that started as a cancellation advice post turned into something different. I think, you should open a new thread under the dealership review section.

It is difficult to ascertain who is at fault here.

Well I did start this as new thread but this was put into this thread by the moderators.

You would need to read the post fully to find who is at fault here.

[highonwheelz]

Originally Posted by ecosport

But I don't think the dealer would benefit from the hike. I guess the hiked price goes to the manufacturer. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong.

You are correct here. Let me explain what happens out of my experience.

The company keeps track of whatever happens in a dealership through an internal dealer management software. Out of which (apart from many other things) invoices are generated for a customer. Now on the day the company hikes the price, it will automatically take the current stock of the dealer and issue a supplementary invoice to the dealer for the difference in prices for all the unbilled cars. In such a situation, there is little that the dealer could do. Even asking him to issue a backdated invoice is not possible because of the dealer management software I was talking about (not to mention that asking a dealer to do that questions your ethics as a customer) So if there is anyone to be blamed here, it is the company and not the dealership, at least when it comes to protection from price hike.

Now coming to the cancellation charges. Even though I am not a big fan of it and have been charged for a cancellation myself, let me explain why I can see the rationale in it. These cancellation charges have been a product of our own actions. When a car has a long waiting period. What people do is go make a booking at every dealership in town with the intention that they would buy it from the dealer who is the first to offer him the car. This may seem fine for the customer. However, all the dealerships would have placed an order for his car with his specification. Sometimes being a colour which not many prefer. Looking at the inflated number of bookings, the company would plan production for more than what is actually required. And be left with extra stock and production capacity, causing losses for dealers and vendors who are all Indian and not american. Hence this charge which the dealership levies is not to earn an income from the same but to make sure that they only get serious bookings and not casual bookings.

[JayKis]

Originally Posted by highonwheelz

You are correct here. Let me explain what happens out of my experience.

The company keeps track of whatever happens in a dealership through an internal dealer management software. Out of which (apart from many other things) invoices are generated for a customer. Now on the day the company hikes the price, it will automatically take the current stock of the dealer and issue a supplementary invoice to the dealer for the difference in prices for all the unbilled cars.

These cancellation charges have been a product of our own actions. When a car has a long waiting period. What people do is go make a booking at every dealership in town with the intention that they would buy it from the dealer who is the first to offer him the car. This may seem fine for the customer.

but to make sure that they only get serious bookings and not casual bookings.

Thanks for a different perspective. The chink in the armour would be that the dealer has already made the payment for the car. My question would be why would the dealer want to pay more for the car when he has already paid for the same? Just like a customer who has had his invoice raised on Sep 5th, why would he ever pay a hiked price?

The cancellation charges is a good deterrent towards unwanted bookings but it is highly biased towards the dealer/company. No receipt for the booking amount mentions the price prevailing. If the terms and conditions do change why does the customer have to pay a cancellation?

My experience with ford has been better than the dealer. The dealer plainly told me that people who take loans and insurance from them would get the first preference. That means there would have been several people in the booking hierarchy that would have been by passed by the dealer had they chosen a different route.
The heights dealers go to convince you that is also worth a mention thou.
1) The first year insurance is mandated by Ford -You cannot get it from outside!!
2) If you take a loan from us, your vehicle will be delivered faster.
3) The colour you have booked is a rare one. We can give you other colours immediately

The overcharging for the insurance itself was a mighty 8000 for an ecoboost titanium optional.

Ford has a nice car. They gave the dealers a free hand and it would be an understatement to say that the dealers have shat on the car. This has made the overall experience a miserable one for most of the customers resulting in long waiting times, under the table dealings, over priced insurance etal.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by JayKis

The heights dealers go to convince you that is also worth a mention thou.
1) The first year insurance is mandated by Ford -You cannot get it from outside!!
2) If you take a loan from us, your vehicle will be delivered faster.

Well, they will prioritise people from whom they can make more money. if you intend to buy some (probably overpriced) accessories you can tell them beforehand. It may help you in prioritising your booking.

Originally Posted by JayKis

3) The colour you have booked is a rare one. We can give you other colours immediately

Yes of course they can. The other colour is always directly related to cancelled bookings.

Originally Posted by JayKis

Ford has a nice car. They gave the dealers a free hand and it would be an understatement to say that the dealers have shat on the car.

Just imagine how many used Ecosports would be up for sale in the next few years. At the end of the day, it looks like used Ecosports will compete with a newer refresh (if done somewhere down the line!)

[highonwheelz]

Originally Posted by JayKis

My question would be why would the dealer want to pay more for the car when he has already paid for the same? Just like a customer who has had his invoice raised on Sep 5th, why would he ever pay a hiked price?

Your argument there is severely flawed to say the least. That's not how things work in the automobile industry, my friend. The dealer doesn't "want" to pay more for a car. He is MADE to, by the company with a supplementary invoice. There is little the dealer can do about it. As a dealer or distributor for any product for that matter, one cannot dictate terms to the company. Hence, what i wanted to say was that an increase in prices only benefits the company and not the dealer.

[ecosport]

Originally Posted by JayKis

Well I did start this as new thread but this was put into this thread by the moderators.

You would need to read the post fully to find who is at fault here.

I tried to be subtle, but as I can see often it does not work. I did read your whole post, and in fact regretted spending time on it since it turned out different than what I expected after reading the heading. Dealer reviews should go into dealership review section. For the rest of the stuff, I see that others have answered.