[jeanb1]

I just wanted to let you ALL know that I have suffered my last humiliation from GM/Buick and on Saturday, August 11, after waiting 4 months and 2 days, I have CANCELLED my order placed April 9th[/color]!

You see, I sent out a letter to Rick Wagoner, Chairman of GM and this past Friday received a call from
a woman - probably a team of them who call disgruntled customers who call or write letters to the head honchos.

In essence she told me that my car was being built the week of August 20th (GM had not picked up the order til then!) and that I should wait UP TO A MONTH for delivery!!! That would have brought it to the END OF SEPTEMBER!!! That would have been about 5 1/2 months! OUTRAGEOUS !!!!

When asked about the "conquest cash" that would be over on 9/4, she told me that that is not under her control and then she mentioned something to the effect that when I receive the car, perhaps they could work something out for me and through the process they would be in touch with my dealer after giving my "case" a number.

Well, after thinking overnight about it and talking with a friend, I decided to CANCEL.

I am now going for a loaded 2007 Chrysler Town and Country with $4000 off; I will be paying WAY less than I would have paid for my Enclave. True, it's not the AWD and DOUBLE sunroof, but there are other extras that are great!

Oh I would have loved the Enclave, even at the CX level that I ordered, but enough is enough!!! For my order to have been "kicked out" for so long.....

I will never buy GM after what they put me through! I will not forget this, and everyone - friends, family, coworkers, etc. - after hearing what I had to go through, don't have too good an impression of GM!

GM MAYBE YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE....THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT A CUSTOMER!!!!! :angryfire: :angryfire:[/color]

I'm afraid I must say goodby to all the nice people on this forum.....and good luck and enjoy your car, to those waiting almost as long as I did!

 

[gshields]

I really feel for you and can not blame you one bit for your decision. I just wish you had made it sooner so the agony of the wait would have been before now. I call a 4 month wait much more than patience. I wonder if you had written your letter two months ago, what would the outcome have been.

I doubt that even the executives blame you either as not one of them would have lasted this long. I can assure you I won't either. It has been one month today my order was put in. Being a very long and loyal GM client, I'd hate to leave, but if I do, I also won't return. Although I believe this is one of GM's best built and conceived autos, this is a very competitive market with many other very good cars to choose from.

I sincerely hope your new Town and Country will be so nice you won't ever look back.

Take care and good luck!

 

[mrbuick]

jeanb1
I am sorry to hear about your troubles.
Good luck with your Chrysler. I owned a Caravan once and it was the first and LAST Chrysler I will ever buy.

 

[muljo]

Expectations and perceptions are everything and unfortunately our expectations have been shattered and the perception is that GM really dsoes not care about their customers.

I honestly really do not mind waiting for the exact car I want, built the way I want it, but be honest and upfront with me and offer some forward progression and an easy way for me to track the status.

I have to concur with MRBUICK though on Chrylsers, I just sold my '03 T&C and will never look back.

 

[ticner58]

Can't blame her. The thought is crossing my mind everyday. She paid the penalty because of the dealer she chose to do business with. Small dealer, low allotments. Some dealers probably disguised "sold" orders in the past on hard to get vehicles. So GM went to the allotment system. Small deallers will someday be a thing of the past antway. Just the way that GM wants it. Their GMSPO, (Service Parts Operation) did the same thing a few years ago. Killed of all of the smaller warehouse distributors. They even went as far as declaring territories that you had to stay within when selling. For Jeanb1, this is a very unhappy ending! Sad thing is, it probably won't be the last.

 

[desgnconcpts]

I just wanted to let you ALL know that I have suffered my last humiliation from GM/Buick and on Saturday, August 11, after waiting 4 months and 2 days, I have CANCELLED my order placed April 9th[/color]!

In essence she told me that my car was being built the week of August 20th (GM had not picked up the order til then!) and that I should wait UP TO A MONTH for delivery!!! That would have brought it to the END OF SEPTEMBER!!! That would have been about 5 1/2 months! OUTRAGEOUS !!!!

When asked about the "conquest cash" that would be over on 9/4, she told me that that is not under her control and then she mentioned something to the effect that when I receive the car, perhaps they could work something out for me and through the process they would be in touch with my dealer after giving my "case" a number.

Well, after thinking overnight about it and talking with a friend, I decided to CANCEL.

I will never buy GM after what they put me through! I will not forget this, and everyone - friends, family, coworkers, etc. - after hearing what I had to go through, don't have too good an impression of GM!

jeanb1,
I am so sorry to hear this news and wish you the very best of luck. I hope Don (and maybe some other Buick/GM folks are reading this) -- pass this amongst your team members and remember jeandb1's last line: "I will never buy GM after what they put me through."

This is NOT what any of you want to do to a customer. Until I joined this forum and finally decided on the Enclave and started seeing that people were already waiting in line (this was the end of June timeframe that I really noticed this), I started doing research into the world of GM ordering. Only through this forum and my own research did I find out what a game it was and still, I had only pieces of the information.

No customer should ever be made to go through this charade just to purchase product -- because when that happens, you end up pi$$ing off lots of folks in the process and really lose whatever goodwill your great product might capture in the market.

osli had a great post last night -- I seconded it with my vote.
Don't penalize us, your customers, for issues YOU have with your dealers -- with product mix and with their location.
But essentially, that's what this system has done. Being in sales, I can very much understand a dealer's view -- from both sides: if they are a big dealer with lots of sales, they likely feel that they should get more Enclaves because after all, you may not have given them the "Best" product mix and yet they still sold a ton of product.

If a small dealer, they could also turn around and say -- hey Buick -- crappy product mix.
Not many want the Lucerne or Lacrosse in our market, and the Rendezvous, Rainier and Terrazza are "lame duck" vehicles with last year in production that not many want either.
Give us product people want (THE ENCLAVE) and we will also sell a ton.

With Osli's idea of going to whatever dealer you want -- negotiate the price -- and then the order is put in based on date/time ordered (maybe "normalized" for time zone issues, etc), and then once on that list, you sort through based on style, options ordered, color, etc. This way, the only complaint we could have is that you didn't plan enough ahead for certain options (like the Luxury Option that is still holding up a lot of vehicles) -- and then we'd all be in the same boat.

This way, no one gets screwed over because they happened to pick Dealer A because they got a better price or it was closer to home or work or because they love their service department or whatever other reasons there might be. This would force dealers to compete NOT BASED ON WHAT PRODUCTS AND HOW QUICKLY THEY CAN GET THEM -- because the playing field in this scenario is leveled for everyone -- it would be BASED UPON CUSTOMER-FOCUSED ITEMS THAT WILL KEEP CUSTOMERS COMING BACK -- things that are all too often forgotten. It's not just price, it's how the dealership treats you overall, it's the little extras a dealer may provide (free car washes, free inspection every year, wireless internet available in the dealership while you wait for service, loaner vehicles) -- all this stuff builds your brand, builds your customer base and builds BRAND LOYALTY.

Some just don't get it. I know, having talked to an "insider" at the Lansing plant -- that you guys CARE, but in many respects, are powerless over these decisions which will end up affecting everyone there, from plant execs to workers on the line. Take this suggestion and run with it; make some changes now that will help all of us -- because we didn't know when we placed an order that a dealer might have to wait a LONG time before getting our order accepted, while others that have ordered after us are getting build dates and getting their Enclaves.

Don't make us pay the price for not knowing how the dealer order game works -- because if you continue on this path, there will be many more jeanb1's out there and you may never get us back.

 

[norm13]

I have to say that honestly the thought has crossed my mind a number of times - and now as I read these threads another pattern seems to be emerging in terms of the information being given dealers and passed on to the customers. It seems that a good number of us who ordered early in the process now have been told our vehicles will be built August 20th - this is what I was informed of two weeks ago - this just seems fishy that now all of us who have been waiting are being told the same information - :blob: I am getting to the point where my patience is running very thin - I have been a loyal Buick customer for many years, and have been hoping for the Buick brand to be saved and prosper - I thought that the Enclave was the beginning, but now I am not so sure - why are we being treated this way, - lack of information and communication, then seeming to pass the buck, then disinformation, - please GM get it right and take care of the people who do care whether or not you survive - I ordered in May, it is now August - will I be writing again in December????????? :banghead:

 

[osli]

Amen. I've been a Mercedes owner since I started driving, and have really only considered the likes of BMW, Acura, Lexus, and maybe Cadillac as viable alternatives. I think domestic cars have been getting much better in design and build quality in the past decade, and I have been keeping an eye on them.

The Enclave is the first one that really convinced me that it was the best alternative out there, when going head to head with what the likes of Audi, Mercedes, and Lexus offer. Quite an accomplishment.

But I had no idea the ordering system/game was as screwed up as it is. Regardless of how nice the vehicles are, many customers just won't tolerate this mess and will stay foreign forever. This experience will make me domestic shy for a decade to come, and if I wind up another two months down the road and find myself in jeanb1's shoes they will certainly have lost this Enclave sale as well.

 

[ccaats]

The Lamdbas are a VERY high demand product that have only been out for a few months!!! My brother just "patiently" waited SIX MONTHS for his special ordered BMW X5 - a vehicle which has been around for several years. Why do some people continue to "imply" that you can special order a foreign car and get it in just a few weeks? Most foreign cars show lead times of 16 weeks OR LONGER for ALL vehicles and none of them are in as high demand as the lambdas. I can understand the frustration with "dealer misinformation", but there are salespeople who have no morals or integrity who work for ALL manufacturers, not just GM.

 

[Rosita2001]

I guess you are right, ccaats. I never inquired about the timeline on ANY other car, foreign or domestic...

 

[dwhsd]

Good point. Do you all recall the wait times on the Honda Odyssey when it first came out? It was quite a game. The Prius was the same way.

 

[coopermine]

I think the point is that they were told 6-8 weeks at the time of order, and the order has not even been picked up after 16 weeks! that is after double the max time they were told.

In case of odyssey you were told the wait was 6 months upfront, and it was up to you to wait that long or not and the vehicle was there with in that period. Like jeanb1 decided to wait for 6 to 8 weeks originally.

If for some difficulties, GM could not produce the vehicle as originally estimated then it is the duty of GM and the dealership to give a hard date to the customer that it will be ready by this date, and the delay is due to .........
The problem is that no one is taking the blame and worst no one know when the order will be completed. It really sucks, this is not the way to do the business, this is not the way to beat Toyota, heck you can't even compete with Kia doing business like this.

I like the way Toyota handled the launch of 2008 Highlander. I went to a few dealerships to see the vehicle and pickup the brochure, Neither one had the vehicle on the floor nor the brochure. Then I came across the ad on the internet that it will be launched on July 18th. A week from July 18th I started getting calls from the dealers I visited that they have the brochures, I can come pick it up anytime. One of the dealers said that there are 257 vehicles parked at the seaport waiting for Toyota's OK to be released. On July 19th I received calls from all 4 dealers that they have the vehicle on the floor and ready for test drive whenever I like to come.

When I went for the test drive, the dealer had at least one vehicle FOR EACH model offered, i.e, the base, sport and limited. To me that is the way to handle a product launch from start to finish, on the other hand, I have seen the highlander Ads online, on print and on TV at least 20 times more than Enclaves.

 

[buickguy]

But do you really want a Highlander?

Ordering an Enclave and settling on a Highlander is like ordering lobster at a restaurant and the waiter brings you fishsticks!

 

[coopermine]

But do you really want a Highlander?

Ordering an Enclave and settling on a Highlander is like ordering lobster at a restaurant and the waiter brings you fishsticks!

If they can't CATCH the lobster before I lose my appetite then I would go with the fishsticks.

 

[AlanD]

I ordered mine on June 29th and was told 8-10 weeks...so mid-September. Today I am suppose to call and be given a build date of late August. This all fits with the 10 week time frame. I did go to a large dealership who claimed they get more builds per month than a smaller dealer so let's see what happens.

 

[zman]

If they can't CATCH the lobster before I lose my appetite then I would go with the fishsticks.

:rofl: A man's got to eat.

 

[worldbob]

Not sure why anyone would wait as long as some of you for an order..... I know exacly what I was looking for and what I wanted to pay. I sent an email to the nearest 4 dealerships and asked them to send me an email when one arrived. Two weeks later and a 60 mile drive I had one in my driveway. I've had it for two months and 6000 miles now. Couldn't be happier.....

Why wait? Why Order? Can someone tell me why? Might be different areas of the country?

My neighbor placed an order for an Enclave a month before I picked mine up. I had no idea he was also looking. He still does not have one.....

FYI: My salesman told me Buick has not had a waiting list since 1958, not sure if he was joking or not..... but that might explain it????

 

[mrbuick]

Probably not 1958, as that was a recession year and Buick sales were down.
That was the year of the chrome-laden land yachts (I happen to like them).
I think the salesman made his point that it has been MANY years since there was a waiting list for a Buick.

 

[ticner58]

Why wait? Why Order? Can someone tell me why? Might be different areas of the country?

It's called Loyalty. Something there isn't much of anymore. Dealer has purchased product from me for over 32 years. It would be a slap in the face, to them, to go somewhere else. Beside's, I still have a house payment to make and I know who really makes it for me.

 

[mrbuick]

It's called Loyalty. Something there isn't much of anymore. Dealer has purchased product from me for over 32 years. It would be a slap in the face, to them, to go somewhere else. Beside's, I still have a house payment to make and I know who really makes it for me.

As I well know, my customers pay my salary, even though the check comes from my employer.
Loyalty....unfortunately, most people don't know what it is, TOO BAD.