My friend worked with a broker (not from LH, I don’t think) to get a 2024 Raptor R allocation at a dealership in California. This is the same dealership where he purchased his last Raptor a few years ago. He ordered it exactly how he wanted, received status emails during the build process, and was expecting to have it delivered this week. Instead, he was told that the owner of the dealership decided he liked it and is keeping it for themselves. WTF!?!
What would you do if you were him?
Did Ford do that thing where they put your friend’s name on the window sticker since it was a custom build? Looks like this Ford dealership has lost a customer for life, and possibly the entire Ford brand as well.
Unfortunately Ford Corporate doesn’t actually have the ability to force a dealership to do anything. Their “name matching” policy on custom orders never hit 100%, it topped out around 80%. So that means 1 in 5 custom orders weren’t actually making it to the original buyer.
https://www.carsdirect.com/deals-articles/ford-order-name-match-policy-is-getting-more-strict
Your friend can still call up Ford Corporate and lay into the dealership (effectively bashing them without a hit to their formal CSI survey).
And maybe your friend can wait outside the showroom and hand out business cards to every customer who takes delivery of a new Ford at that showroom. Basically offering to complete their CSI survey for them and leave 3/10 on each one since this dealership sucks.
I’m not sure if they put his name on the window sticker. This dealer has definitely lost him as a customer. I figured there wasn’t much that can be done other than calling Ford Corporate. Just such a shitty situation.
Goto the dealership. Find the parked Raptor. Do what cats do to assert dominance. See if the owner still wants to keep it then.
Jokes apart, thats terrible advice and your friend maybe liable for damages. Fun thought exercise though
The dealer has first choice to sell EVEN if it is a custom order, just like your friend can cancel his custom order and get his deposit back (in CA).
Is your friend in the military? The news feeds went crazy about a dealer who sold a soldier’s preordered dodge demon and FCA was shamed into getting him another one.
Urination without representation
I’m sure he’s furious but I would take emotion out of it and not storm off. Ideally, they get a new custom order prioritized for him, and he can work out some sort of compensation either as a discount, or free maintenance etc. If they say no then you hit them with the bad reviews etc.
Could be a good angle if there is any sort of (sensational) leverage.
He’s not military. I completely understand they can do what they want but what a horrible way to treat a repeat customer.
Blast them on Yelp is really all you can do. Or ask for a new Raptor at a cheaper price since they did him dirty
Yeah, I think we (his friends) care more than he does lol. I appreciate the advice, maybe he can reach out and ask for a better price on another one. I already found him an identical truck at the same markup.
Its one person and his/her ego. If the owner decided he loves it more, than screw the repeat customer. Thats how life works…
But unless they prioritze with something else, absolutely light them on fire with reviews
In addition to Ford Corporate I would raise hell with the broker since I’m sure that they didn’t get them this allocation for nothing. At the very least they should get whatever broker fee and deposit refunded to them unless there’s some other ways the parties want to make it right. Otherwise, I would do whatever I could to ensure that this is the last Raptor allocation that dealer ever gets.
Why do you care more than he does?
It was kind of a joke. It does piss me off that they would do that and I came here to see what might be done about it. But I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Within 12 hours I was able to find the same truck at a different dealer for the same markup. Now he can decide what he wants to do.
Ohmigod, this should totally be printed on a LH t-shirt. 
Ok that’s pretty good…
People are still paying markups for these?
$25K was the lowest I found. One wanted $60K over.
Prob Cali specific and we all know most people aren’t willing to travel to save money even if it works out to 300/400 per hour driving of savings LOL