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What gets me is we (Corvette Forum Members) hear about events in the works (whether they be fact or fiction), but when you call the Corvette Concierge or the Dealership you get:
What gets me is we (Corvette Forum Members) hear about events in the works (whether they be fact or fiction), but when you call the Corvette Concierge or the Dealership you get:
Off topic, but brings back wonderful memories. "I know nothing!" One of the greatest lines and delivery ever!
So people are dying and businesses are going under and now, by the grace of God, he can quit worrying about a sports car order. Based on his member date to the CF, he has been around since before the reveal. That said, how is it he is so clueless? Why didn't he find out at time of deposit exactly how many allocations his dealer was getting, where he was in line, check in with the dealer on event code 4,5, or 6 MONTHS ago to check status? If he placed a deposit 8 months ago that puts it in October during the strike and EVERYONE knew it will push the schedule out and had no idea how much. You would think a MBA would have a little more business sense than what he's shown. The whole world shuts down for months and GM may not be able to produce all the cars they originally planned, well slap my knee, I sure wish I had me one of them thar MBAs so I could have seen that coming. I'm sorry, if anyone is at fault it's the dealer for not giving him updates or being more honest about where he is in the allocation line. So now he's out, it gets back to what an older colleague of mine used to say, the time is going to go by whether you do something with it or not. Six months will go by and every time he sees a C8 go by he can grit his teeth because he bailed out and that car could have been his.
The failure is your dealer, not Chevy or GM. You have a contract with a dealer, not with Chevy. It sounds like your order never got past 1100 which means your dealer did not have an allocation to assign your order to. You are not Chevy's customer, you are the dealer's customer.
If GM can’t answer the question then why would you even believe what a dealer says? The dealer does not sound like the problem, and it’s pretty obvious that the OP had already tried to get the answer from the dealer.
Saying that he is not GMs customer just confirms what the OP said....GM does not care enough about the customer to intervene when the dealer fails at providing answers. This is not like dealing with Walmart. Car dealers are franchised dealers, not just resellers of many products.
Did you try mentioning to them you have an MBA from a previous century? Perhaps that would have motivated them to provide you the real answer.
As the buyer of a new, ground-up redesign, 1984 Corvette in March 1984 I'm getting deja-vu from all the hand-wringing over the C8.
Cancelling the order on a first-year GM anything, much less a total re-design, is a late act of reason, logic and wisdom. Wiser still is to never have placed the order.
But I am thoroughly enjoying this rhyming moment in history. The LT3 is literally keeping me in stitches.
Folks like to point to the UAW strike and the pandemic. They also conveniently like to overlook the fact that a significant part of the delay is from fixing first-year design issues on the assembly line.
I'm done beta-testing for GM. Doesn't take an MBA to know it is not cost effective.
So people are dying and businesses are going under and now, by the grace of God, he can quit worrying about a sports car order. Based on his member date to the CF, he has been around since before the reveal. That said, how is it he is so clueless? Why didn't he find out at time of deposit exactly how many allocations his dealer was getting, where he was in line, check in with the dealer on event code 4,5, or 6 MONTHS ago to check status? If he placed a deposit 8 months ago that puts it in October during the strike and EVERYONE knew it will push the schedule out and had no idea how much. You would think a MBA would have a little more business sense than what he's shown. The whole world shuts down for months and GM may not be able to produce all the cars they originally planned, well slap my knee, I sure wish I had me one of them thar MBAs so I could have seen that coming. I'm sorry, if anyone is at fault it's the dealer for not giving him updates or being more honest about where he is in the allocation line. So now he's out, it gets back to what an older colleague of mine used to say, the time is going to go by whether you do something with it or not. Six months will go by and every time he sees a C8 go by he can grit his teeth because he bailed out and that car could have been his.
ahh yes, the old “blame the customer” game of not knowing what he doesn’t know. In this case, knowing how many allocations the dealer had six months ago is not even a fair statement. Everything changed when factory startup was delayed due to the strike, then the Pandemic. He just wanted to know now what the status is NOW.
Off topic, but brings back wonderful memories. "I know nothing!" One of the greatest lines and delivery ever!
That series is running again and it's fun watching!
SIDEBAR
When we formed a leveraged buyout from a company that was part of Linde Division of UCC, we also got the facilities in Canada and Germany. The person who was to be President of the German company stayed with the Industrial gas business and my old boss, who had managed businesses in the UK and the European businesses for his Division, made a great decision, we had two "Managing Directors." One manufacturing and one sales/marketing. We managed the few conflicts with a Board. The Sales/Marketing guy sounded just like Schultz!
Recall being with him at a Mecedes Benz plant where he was negotiating an order for ~100 expensive welders. He asked the welding engineer if he’d prefer them painted the color the plant used for some other production equipment. The answer was great. When we left I asked why he asked about the paint and that his counterpart, Carl, would not be happy! He said in a perfect Schultz voice, “You say nothing to Carl” I know my competitor (a large corporate welding equipment manufacturer, MG) will not offer to paint their colors! Great guy, - got that order and increased sales 3-fold in the 4 years until we sold the business!
If you are somewhat aware of the things going on at GM and the world, you should know things are a bit of a mess right now. You would have gotten a 2020 or 2021 Vette. The fact that you cannot bring yourself to wait until it is made is your issue. An experienced Vette lover understands the situation and will wait it out.
My head is about to explode reading these responses. Once again, he just wanted to know the current status of the order and when, based upon current conditions, he could expect it. Why is that such an unreasonable thing to ask when buying an $80,000 vehicle that you ordered six plus months ago?
This is how you show a car - sorry only spent a few minutes on the emphasis - It should be the focus, not the background. I've never been a fan of this vintage of vehicles, especially not flames or chopping! JUST my opinion - respect those that do and the effort required - another case of Vanilla and Chocolate ice cream. However this one I can appreciate. Its subtlety and peekaboo options like the exhaust and especially the flames! Very tastefully done - not in your face. However, for what his may have cost or be worth, I will be getting a C8!
NEVER, NEVER AGAIN. I have an MBA (from UC Berkeley). We did case studies on all sorts of businesses.
This company is not trying to get its Sales effort right. I shudder to think what the ownership experience might be like.
At a time when GM and Chevrolet most need sales, I cannot get a straight answer to an order I placed, with a large deposit, 8 months ago..
With around 35 million people unemployed, GM isn't the only company that doesn't have a clear picture of the future. I too have an MBA degree but not from UC Berlkey and I also am thinking of cancelling my order. My reasons are totally different and deal with timing. I do not understand GM's plight and they may be responsible for not communicating further but they really do not know what to do and the consequences of doing it. They desperately need cash inflow and want to go forward as much as we do. Yes, better communication would be helpful but constant corrections and updates may do more harm than good..
Chevrolet's failure, for months, to properly communicate to loyal customers, who have been placed in a position where they do not know the status of their orders of cars (which are amongst the most expensive vehicles that GM sells) is a good part of the reason for the frustration that we are experiencing. It has failed in its duty to communicate.
OP, did your case studies in school also include the effects of an unprecedented global pandemic's effect on modern businesses?
I would love to know what businesses (especially as complex as auto manufacturers and during a brand new product launch) are operating 100% smoothly and perfectly right now during this pandemic.
Especially when dealing with a union that actively works against the interests of the company, and makes any timelines/schedules ambiguous right now...
Last edited by ArmchairArchitect; 05-22-2020 at 02:27 PM.
Clearly GM and Chevy are not “sales” organizations or companies by their inability to communicate timely or well to their “ultimate buyer, you and I” putting down the $60-100k for their product.
They believe their customer are the dealers not us. They miss the fact that dealers are not great “sales” organizations or highly communicative with updates either. So you have situations described in this thread.
Ask yourself this basic question, if your business had 40,000 orders averaging $65,000 or so each, could you not ensure a better experience to the end buyer than the one highlighted time and time again on this forum. During a shut down like this one I would be ensuring my customers felt informed and still excited about that car they ordered!
GM is severely lacking in customer communication. Being proactive with communication during these strange days we are living in should not have been a hard thing for this company. They certainly have a lot of PR folks. It all flows from the top, (Mary) down and apparently the book on customer relations was misplaced. Blaming bad communication on the Pandemic is BS. Folks can get all defensive of GM, but GM failed miserably on the PR front when they could have shined. Airlines have taken a real beating and I get updates from Delta and others stating what they are doing and providing timelines. Good communication and shows that they are trying to keep both employees and customers informed. Nothing from GM. Good leadership looks at the big picture. Apparently customers are not part of GM's big picture.
05-22-2020, 08:24 AM
Based on his member date to the CF, he has been around since before the reveal. That said, how is it he is so clueless? Why didn't he find out at time of deposit exactly how many allocations his dealer was getting, where he was in line, check in with the dealer on event code 4,5, or 6 MONTHS ago to check status? If he placed a deposit 8 months ago that puts it in October during the strike and EVERYONE knew it will push the schedule out and had no idea how much. You would think a MBA would have a little more business sense than what he's shown. The whole world shuts down for months and GM may not be able to produce all the cars they originally planned, well slap my knee, I sure wish I had me one of them thar MBAs so I could have seen that coming. 
That series is running again and it's fun watching!
