At the outset apologies for being a party pooper for Eco Sport fans, especially since Ecosport as a sub 10 lakh SUV has been a raging success, setting the cash registers ringing for Ford.
After a lot of debate I thought of going in for Ecosport a week ago. I was forewarned by a couple of my friends that the company is not taking on any fresh bookings, the average wait for Ecosport being 9 - 12 months & so I could forget about test drives.
I still wanted to give my luck an outside chance. Requested for a test drive on line about 5 days ago.
Pleasantly surprised to get a call on 4 Nov 2013 by a customer care executive very patiently telling me about the SUV, besides informing me that a Pune dealer would fix a test drive in the next 48 hours.
I couldn’t believe my ears. In another minute I did get a SMS too with the dealers name - Mr Shubhangi, Planet Ford, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune, mobile number - 99229 11008. Great going. After waiting for 2 days expecting a call of sorts to fix up a test drive, I thought of calling up Mr Shubhangi today, 6 Nov 2013.
I was told very curtly by a lady on calling up this number that Planet Ford is closed till 7 Nov 2013 for Diwali. Besides I was informed they do not entertain any requests for test drives or bookings. She had no answer when it was likely to restart. I was asked to get in touch with some other dealer. I hung up thereafter as I told the gracious lady, that instead of she facilitating a test drive / booking from that dealer she was asking me to do the spade work!
Strange.
Fully appreciate & understand that Ford is unable to keep up with the humongous demand for an excellent product like Ecosport as production has lagged behind .
*So Ford India has closed all bookings, does not entertain requests for test drives, etc, etc.
At the very least be upfront about this - mention it on your web site that all bookings & or test drives are suspended upto whatever dates you foresee that the supply constraint of Ecosport would remain.** A customer would not waste time on such futile attempts.
I always associated Ford with being customer friendly & being matter of fact in their dealings. An American multinational with a shoddy customer service - unthinkable. Probably all multinationals transform in a similar fashion while dealing with customers in third world countries. Ford cannot be an exception when their product flies off the shelf in no time.
Just thought of sharing my feedback.