[[email protected]]

Well....it has finally happened. Overnight Ford has moved all of our 'Unscheduled - Clean' orders to 'Unscheduled - Balanced Out' status. That will end any 2022 unscheduled Transits to be built. Now we just need to know what is going to happen with price protection (if any at all) and if there is any build priority for 2022 orders that were not scheduled.

I have been telling our customers to request a build out of their 2023 order and make any changes needed. We may hold off submitting those 2023 orders until Ford gives us direction on the other mentioned questions above. Once we know more details on the 2022 to 2023 transition, I will continue to place a forum thread for those changes.

 

[RegularGuy]

Well....it has finally happened. Overnight Ford has moved all of our 'Unscheduled - Clean' orders to 'Unscheduled - Balanced Out' status. That will end any 2022 unscheduled Transits to be built. Now we just need to know what is going to happen with price protection (if any at all) and if there is any build priority for 2022 orders that were not scheduled.

I have been telling our customers to request a build out of their 2023 order and make any changes needed. We may hold off submitting those 2023 orders until Ford gives us direction on the other mentioned questions above. Once we know more details on the 2022 to 2023 transition, I will continue to place a forum thread for those changes.

Thank you very much for staying on top of this, and for providing the updates to all the people anxiously waiting for the vans.

 

[mikeg]

Thank you for the heads up.

I sent you an email about my 2023 order to the [email protected] email. 🤞 you get some direction soon about Ford’s decision on priority. Price protection would be nice as well.

 

[CrewVanManInfo]

As I stated in #1 above, waiting for information on those 2 questions. I am sure now that the decision has been made, those other 2 will follow soon.

 

[mikeg]

Thanks! I’ll be calling Ford today asking those same questions. 😃

 

[TWinKC]

Wow, an epic F-ck You from Ford to everyone who was promised a vehicle when their order was accepted. During this process, I did not get a single piece of communication from Ford or from my dealer, unless I contacted them first. Not an email confirming my order, no VIN, no updates, not a phone call, nothing. If I wasn't trolling this forum looking for clues, I would've just never found out any of this information. This has been the single worst customer experience of my lifetime. I'm beyond disgusted.

Calling the customer helpline will get you nowhere. They regurgitate a script and offer zero customer support and direct you back to your dealer. When I call the dealer, they have no information they're willing to share either. Both the dealer and Ford customer service refuses to answer questions about price protection or line priority for customers who had a model year '22 balanced out. Fun stuff.

Now how do class action lawsuits work again?

 

[CrewVanManInfo]

Wow, an epic F-ck You from Ford to everyone who was promised a vehicle when their order was accepted. During this process, I did not get a single piece of communication from Ford or from my dealer, unless I contacted them first. Not an email confirming my order, no VIN, no updates, not a phone call, nothing. If I wasn't trolling this forum looking for clues, I would've just never found out any of this information. This has been the single worst customer experience of my lifetime. I'm beyond disgusted.

Calling the customer helpline will get you nowhere. They regurgitate a script and offer zero customer support and direct you back to your dealer. When I call the dealer, they have no information they're willing to share either. Both the dealer and Ford customer service refuses to answer questions about price protection or line priority for customers who had a model year '22 balanced out. Fun stuff.

Now how do class action lawsuits work again?

www.hbsslaw.com is where you might look for further information.

 

[TWinKC]

www.hbsslaw.com is where you might look for further information.

Emailed them, thank you. Will report back here if I hear anything.

 

[Ranger Robin]

Emailed them, thank you. Will report back here if I hear anything.

It's worth the effort, even getting the law firm to contact Ford sometimes gets the attention of higher ups. Sorry about your and everyone else's vans. Hoping they offer My 22 pricing to you all.

 

[RBull3321]

Emailed them, thank you. Will report back here if I hear anything.

No one can deny that Ford did a miserable job at communicating with customers who had 2022 orders of all models. I know, I was one of them, but lucky enough that somehow I received my 2022 Transit about 3 months ago.

What I'm not comprehending, is any breach of contract with Ford for canceling any or all orders made by their dealer network. When one signs a Sales Agreement it's with a dealership, not Ford. Dealerships are independently owned businesses, so a Sales Agreement does not put any legal responsibility on Ford to deliver the product to the dealer who resells it to you. Often in sales agreements, you will see fine print stating that the seller is not responsible for "delays" or other consequential losses.
Unfortunately, I don't see any avenue for legal recourse for being balanced out in 2022.

What I would focus on is getting Ford to follow through with a "Private Offer" to bring the purchase price of a 2023 in line with the 2022. It seems as though Ford is already doing this on other models; Maverick, Bronco, etc. so there is a precedence for that compensation to others with canceled orders. I'd be calling Ford and telling them you are willing to wait a bit longer and get a 2023, but you are not willing to pay the extraordinary price increase that is 10x more than what the 2021-2022 increase was, and further, that you are aware that Ford has already made Private Offers to others on different models who had their orders balanced out and delayed. My assumption is based on what Ford is saying is that they want to get back to the regularly programmed schedule of building the next model year beginning in August, and not what happened last year building 2021's into December. That said I suspect 2023 Transit production will ramp up quickly in late August / early September.

 

[JKD]

I contacted HBSSLAW as well. Whether I have legal recourse is something I need a lawyer to determine. In addition, I am continuing to apply pressure on Ford from as many angles as possible to get them to provide price protection and build priority.

 

[TWinKC]

Often in sales agreements, you will see fine print stating that the seller is not responsible for "delays" or other consequential losses.
Unfortunately, I don't see any avenue for legal recourse for being balanced out in 2022.

What I would focus on is getting Ford to follow through with a "Private Offer" to bring the purchase price of a 2023 in line with the 2022. It seems as though Ford is already doing this on other models; Maverick, Bronco, etc. so there is a precedence for that compensation to others with canceled orders. I'd be calling Ford and telling them you are willing to wait a bit longer and get a 2023, but you are not willing to pay the extraordinary price increase that is 10x more than what the 2021-2022 increase was, and further than you are aware that Ford has already made Private Offers to others.

The only thing I signed was a one sheet with my buildout listed. There was no fine print but yes, I understand what you're saying here.

Re: the private offer, Ford helpline told me to contact my dealer, who told me they have heard nothing from Ford on this.

 

[RBull3321]

Whether I have legal recourse is something I need a lawyer to determine.

Reading the written contract spells it out, if you have a written sales agreement you can read that, if not you have a handshake agreement and a small deposit which is refundable from your dealer, but which also means zero legal recourse of liability on Ford's part.

 

[PDX19]

Well....it has finally happened. Overnight Ford has moved all of our 'Unscheduled - Clean' orders to 'Unscheduled - Balanced Out' status. That will end any 2022 unscheduled Transits to be built. Now we just need to know what is going to happen with price protection (if any at all) and if there is any build priority for 2022 orders that were not scheduled.

I have been telling our customers to request a build out of their 2023 order and make any changes needed. We may hold off submitting those 2023 orders until Ford gives us direction on the other mentioned questions above. Once we know more details on the 2022 to 2023 transition, I will continue to place a forum thread for those changes.

Yes, made my weekly call to Ford this morning and was told my October order was balanced out yesterday. Then called my dealer who unfortunately seemed a bit clueless about what to do.

 

[tcnkla]

Thank you for sharing. We received an unsolicited email message from our dealer this morning, to let us know that while our order was still showing unscheduled-clean status (maybe his update was yesterday before the balance out action?), that it was likely to be so soon and that our order would be converted to an order for the new model year. My husband wrote back that we are unhappy with Ford's poor customer service in terms of how they have handled the orders and the complete lack of meaningful communication, and that while there is a slim possibility we might change our minds, we are done with it for now. I hope that FMC will offer price protection and priority scheduling to all those who have orders in the system. I understand that the logistics of building multiple configurations does reduce the importance of order date, but feel really bad for those who have been waiting longer than we have to be disappointed again.

 

[docwhite]

Well....it has finally happened. Overnight Ford has moved all of our 'Unscheduled - Clean' orders to 'Unscheduled - Balanced Out' status. That will end any 2022 unscheduled Transits to be built. Now we just need to know what is going to happen with price protection (if any at all) and if there is any build priority for 2022 orders that were not scheduled.

I have been telling our customers to request a build out of their 2023 order and make any changes needed. We may hold off submitting those 2023 orders until Ford gives us direction on the other mentioned questions above. Once we know more details on the 2022 to 2023 transition, I will continue to place a forum thread for those changes.

I can confirm that Ford is NOT price protecting Government orders, despite saying, in November, that they would. Re-entered orders will get priority scheduling, but the cut-off for replacement orders is July 22.

This is for government orders only.

 

[absolutelybaby]

Well....it has finally happened. Overnight Ford has moved all of our 'Unscheduled - Clean' orders to 'Unscheduled - Balanced Out' status. That will end any 2022 unscheduled Transits to be built. Now we just need to know what is going to happen with price protection (if any at all) and if there is any build priority for 2022 orders that were not scheduled.

I have been telling our customers to request a build out of their 2023 order and make any changes needed. We may hold off submitting those 2023 orders until Ford gives us direction on the other mentioned questions above. Once we know more details on the 2022 to 2023 transition, I will continue to place a forum thread for those changes.

I chatted with Ford about my 2022 Ford transit order made in January but was just picked up and entered into the system waiting for the production week whenever that is.. There is no Vin assigned to this at all yet anyway

 

[CrewVanManInfo]

I contacted HBSSLAW as well. Whether I have legal recourse is something I need a lawyer to determine. In addition, I am continuing to apply pressure on Ford from as many angles as possible to get them to provide price protection and build priority.

I can tell you....get enough forum members to call the firm and collectively you may have enough in emails from Ford that they can present to them and get some things done. Just the threat of a lawsuit got a few people on their 2021 Transit from $500 to $1000 on just a mistake Ford made in a picture and bad information.

 

[MrCash]

No one can deny that Ford did a miserable job at communicating with customers who had 2022 orders of all models. I know, I was one of them, but lucky enough that somehow I received my 2022 Transit about 3 months ago.

What I'm not comprehending, is any breach of contract with Ford for canceling any or all orders made by their dealer network. When one signs a Sales Agreement it's with a dealership, not Ford. Dealerships are independently owned businesses, so a Sales Agreement does not put any legal responsibility on Ford to deliver the product to the dealer who resells it to you. Often in sales agreements, you will see fine print stating that the seller is not responsible for "delays" or other consequential losses.
Unfortunately, I don't see any avenue for legal recourse for being balanced out in 2022.

You are making the argument that Ford's attorneys would make: we couldn't build out all orders from our dealers due to supply chain shortages beyond our control so we did the best we could and your contract was with the dealer and only the dealer has legal recourse against Ford (and no dealership in their mind would sue the hand that feeds them).

However, the plaintiff argument would be that Ford pierced the separation when they emailed you an order confirmation. They basically entered into a contract to sell you a 2022, which they breached, and there's nothing stopping them from honoring that agreement when parts becomes available, they have a legal obligation to fulfill contracts even if it means they do so less profitably (but still making money), and a model year does not grant a contract expiration.

There is no other example in a retail or distribution environment where a company promises to make a product specifically for a consumer that they then sell to someone to sell to the end customer. With appliances, furniture, computers, smartphones, fitness equipment, etc you can order from the manufacturer, order from a retailer, or buy off the shelf, but never would you build your refrigerator and order it from Home Depot yet Whirlpool sends you an order confirmation and then decides they can't build your refrigerator because they can crank out other models more profitably even though they order later and then they cancel your order because they're getting ready to build next year's orders despite it basically being the same refrigerator.

 

[Mclovin16]

Ford pulled a bait and switch. They offered a product a customer could special order for a given price then refused to provide the product unless the customer pays significantly more for said item upon delivery.

Probably not illegal, but definitely unethical.