I know there are Ford employees who are members of F150online, but do you think there are Ford employees who, as part of their job, monitor such forums for customer feedback on the new F150?

 

no

 

yes, definately.

 

They listen when you send that survey in after your first warranty repair...... Thats for damn sure....

 

I'm not sure I'd be so quick to drop a blanket "no" answer. I'll bet - at least informally anyway - that there are people from Ford who do watch online forums to see what's going on in their customers' worlds. They'd be crazy not to.

 

Yep. They watch. Trust me.

-RP-

 

Yes, for sure. I work for a Ford supplier and was on the launch team for the P221. They listen and in some case make suggestions for changes.

 

Please expand on why you would say "no."

I definitely think they monitor these forums. Think about it. They are willing to pay us $75 every year to come to a showing of new cars to get our opinions. (At least I get invited every year) You don't think their willing to log on and get our opinions for free? Puleeeez!

Believe it or not, these companies are trying to please their customers. The best way to do this it to give the customer what they want. It results in more sales for the company in the long run. Look at the Nissan Titan, do you think Nissan just built what the design team wanted to build or maybe perhaps they logged onto the internet and read a bunch of forums to see what most people liked and disliked about their trucks? You bet they did! I'm not saying the features of the Titan were all invented on the Internet, but it definitely gave Nissan some ideas to role with.

Forums are a godsend for the car companies. Basically they get people that are already interested in cars/trucks, to tell what they like and dislike about certain cars/trucks. What more could the manufacturer's ask for?!?!

 

WE WANT OUR LIGHTNING ! ! !



I hope they see that.

 

Hmmm...I seem to remember a fellow who painted the inner parts of his 04' Lariat rims arizona beige. I thought it was a great idea and voila....the 05' Lariats have the rims painted the same way I wonder if they (Ford) got the idea from this forum

Scott

 

Forums are a double-edged sword for the manufacturers. Do they monitor this site for customer feedback? Absolutely they do. Back in the day of our email discussion list, long before the forums were installed, we had a running list of improvements between the 1997 & 1998 model that were, in part, attributed to our email discussions.

But this type of site also creates a more knowledgable and educated consumer, which results in a greater and faster flow of information, which results in more owners potentially bringing vehicles in for inspection and service, which translates into a greater under-warranty repair costs. It also puts a larger audience with like-problems together to facilitate things like class-action lawsuits (which we don't allow on this site, by the way). They dislike that.

 

bitch bitch bitch about lack of power and next thing you read... they are developing the Hurricane.


For the record, I don't think the Hurricane is dead... it might be a trick (like fudging the tow ratings until product launch to top Nissan)

 

They'd be crazy not too...

 

Of course they read these forums, just check out my signature that should tell you all you need to know.
Trev

 

I think a better question would be ”do dealers monitor these forums” Sadly I believe the answer is no, or yes but they could, for the most part, not really give a damn what the customer has to say.

It truly seems to be, and this is most likely true for all makes of vehicles, that the majority of dealers look at an individual in two different fashions.

The first one is ”We love you and adore you, here let me open the door for you, what can we do for you, blah, blah, blah” This is while trying to make the sale and getting your hard earned money.

The second fashion, is after the sale, like the morning after (kind of like, will you respect me in the morning?) NO!!!!

Seriously, after the sale many, not all, but a good many dealers act like your nothing but a major pain in the butt with an attitude of get out of my face unless you have some cash.

God forbid you have to take something in for a warranty repair because I know personally dealers HATE that, more so the technicians that have times that are much LESS then required to do a job CORRECTLY AND PROPERLY, so what I do to INSURE or help to INSURE my vehicle is taken care of PROPERLY is to ALWAYS tip the service technician and tell him/her DO NOT RUSH on repairing my vehicle and then give them from $20 to $100 to take their time and do it correctly.

They have to make a living and if they follow many of the times Ford allows them to do repairs they are NOT going to make a very good living so they disregard that time, because it is not adequate, they rush or take shortcuts.

How would you like to work for 8 hours a day and only get paid for say 4 hours of work for doing your job correctly?

IF Ford is listening you need to STOP making the dealer the middle man of YOUR problems and own up to them because your creating a lot of stress and discontent between your customers and their dealers and you ARE losing customers because of it. It’s not right for the customer and its NOT right for the dealer…

Can you hear me now?