:dancing: WooHoo! Well, we finally ordered today and are so excited. CXL AWD, Red Jewel, Cocoa/Cashmere, Luxury, Drivers Conf, Sunroof, Trailering, Entertainment #4 and Chrome Wheels. Let me tell you about our interesting experience.
I had talked to the first Buick salesman we had met with at the nearest Buick dealership in Hoover about a month ago to confirm that they would honor supplier pricing on a special order. He was a "nice" older man, and I felt comfortable with his honesty, although I was a little concerned by his "lack of knowledge" of the vehicle and possibly of the ordering system. He had indicated they would honor GMS pricing on an order and required a (non-refundable) $1000 deposit, which I wasn't thrilled about. We got away MUCH later than we wanted to today and took all 4 kids and headed straight to this dealership (a Buick ONLY dealership for GM co-housed with a Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dealership). I was wanting to get a straight answer as to their allotments and hopefully place our order. Well, we drove up at 5 PM and there were 3 salesman outside delivering vehicles to new customers. We walked up to the door and it was locked! I turned around to the nearest salesman and said "closed, at 5 PM on a Saturday?!?!" He responded that 8 hours is more than enough time to work and blew me off. I made the comment to him and the other salesmen around that we had intended to possibly special order an Enclave today, but guess we wouldn't be able to now. NO ONE made any effort to get our contact information, ask any questions, or express ANY interest whatsoever to gain our business or follow up with us next week. I couldn't help but remember the comments on here of how clueless Buick dealerships are going to RUIN this home-run for GM. We were completely ignored, so.....off we went.
I then called the next closest Buick dealership (a multi-car dealership in downtown Birmingham with Buick/Pontiac/GMC/Chevrolet, as well as Nissan, Saab and Jaguar) and they were open to 6PM. We drove in at 5:20 PM and were greeted by the receptionist who said they were "short handed" on the Buick side, but called for a salesman. We were greeted promptly by a salesman from the Nissan side of the dealership and immediately our experience changed. He explained to us that his boss, the general manager of the Nissan side, had just taken over as manager of the Buick/Pontiac/GMC side of the business. I immediately began inquiring about their "available allotments" and what I new about the VOMS system and codes and he didn't seemed at all intimidated by my knowledge. He checked with the manager and indicated that they would predict a 90 day turnaround from order to delivery (12 weeks) and that they would be able to get my order into GM (at code 2000) on the 1st ordering day of September (4th). Their deposit was only $500 and fully refundable with no questions, so I was beginning to feel much better. I explained to him that I would expect a printout of the GM VOMS the 1st week of September showing our order at code 2000, and he indicated that would be no problem. We gave him our GMS pricing printout and he made a copy of it and our GMS authorization code. They are to enter our order in their system on Monday and send us a printout of our order to sign and confirm in writing the GMS pricing. I will take them our deposit check then. Before we walked out, the salesman came back to me and said that his boss had indicated to him that they received word from their GM rep last week that they should be getting some additional allocation slots and so it was very possible they could get my order to code 2000 earlier than the first of September. This corresponded exactly to what I had heard on this board, and since I hadn't even mentioned it to them, I was glad to hear "confirmation" from them of what I had heard here. I feel confident that due to their status as a large volume GM dealer in downtown Birmingham, that we will have the best chance of getting into the GM VOMS as soon as possible with this dealer. I also feel that with their experience from the Nissan side, they probably will be MUCH better "communicators" than the "old guard" at that smaller Buick only dealership. I always believe that things happen for a reason, and I feel very happy with our decision to order from this dealership (Jim Burke Automotive in Birmingham). I will keep everyone informed of our progress!