Broker orders cancelled by Skoda UK

[philpix]

You don't have read it. If you were caught up in this fiasco you might have a different take on it.

[Tony R]

I still don't understand why people are blaming Skoda. This thread needs to be closed. It's like listening to a line of people smashing their heads against the wall.

 

It has taken you a long time to make a posting,18 pages in fact at this point in time, apart from which you do not give any explanation as to why you think Skoda are  blameless, and in that respect you seem very much in a minority.

[firebits]

Skoda brought their customers into a commercial dispute between them and one of their suppliers.

The End

[Tony R]

Skoda brought their customers into a commercial dispute between them and one of their suppliers.

The End

 

      And shafted the customers, for whom they have shown no consideration or respect, disgusting, especially bearing in mind it is the customers   are the ones who  keep them in business.

[expostmanpat]

Right you own a company that makes and sells widgets to the public for £10 each and from that you make a net profit of 50p a widget. A larger commercial user of widgets comes along and says they want to buy 1000 widgets guarenteeing you widget production ahead of your rivals but they will only pay £9.51 per widget. You agree to this deal to keep your factory and workers in full production and to showcase your product, however you stipulate to the buyer that the widgets are not for resale. A few weeks into production and supplying the widgets you notice a drop off in widget sales and find an advert in the paper offering your widgets for a sale price of £9.55. What would you do? Skoda are not to blame.

[SurreyJohn]

Right you own a company that makes and sells widgets to the public for £10 each and from that you make a net profit of 50p a widget. A larger commercial user of widgets comes along and says they want to buy 1000 widgets guarenteeing you widget production ahead of your rivals but they will only pay £9.51 per widget. You agree to this deal to keep your factory and workers in full production and to showcase your product, however you stipulate to the buyer that the widgets are not for resale. A few weeks into production and supplying the widgets you notice a drop off in widget sales and find an advert in the paper offering your widgets for a sale price of £9.55. What would you do? Skoda are not to blame.

Everyone understands this principle, which works when you are chasing sales, or have stock to shift.

It doesn't explain why anyone would offer 20-30% discount on a product that there is a 6 month waiting list for.

Skoda aren't to blame, but we're stupid not to have suspended or reduced the discounts until their backlog cleared. I guess they chose to play a 1980s game when fleet and private was seperate, not an Internet era game when a few clicks allowed each side access to the cheapest.

Clearly the world has moved on, if they are that worried by brokers, or deals outside franchise, why not simply add an option to the configurator, I would like to buy, please offer best price button. Then send it to all franchise dealers and let them bid carwow style.

[expostmanpat]

Everyone understands this principle, which works when you are chasing sales, or have stock to shift.

It doesn't explain why anyone would offer 20-30% discount on a product that there is a 6 month waiting list for.

Skoda aren't to blame, but we're stupid not to have suspended or reduced the discounts until their backlog cleared. I guess they chose to play a 1980s game when fleet and private was seperate, not an Internet era game when a few clicks allowed each side access to the cheapest.

Clearly the world has moved on, if they are that worried by brokers, or deals outside franchise, why not simply add an option to the configurator, I would like to buy, please offer best price button. Then send it to all franchise dealers and let them bid carwow style.

It's not that simple though is it, the 6 month waiting list is contributed to by the increased fleet orders, suspending fleet discount when there was a backlog would more than likely result in fleet buyers staying away. etc etc Most modern car manufacturers will operate just in time practices with only bread and butter models heading to stock piles if any at all. 

 

Everyone knows that ordering from DtD for eg involves the dealer gambling that as the sole provider to the broker they will have such increaesed sales as to hit bonus targets month on month and make a similar profit from shifting 50 cars as they would 10 in normal sales for eg. NCD who were undercutting DtD by a fair margin were obviously sourcing vehicles from an even more nefarious route, now whether Skoda have pulled the plug on the dealers fleet allocation or whether NCD haven't had enough orders placed in a given time period to make a profitable batch for the dealer I am not sure as been determined. 

 

Obviously people who have missed out are upset, or maybe jealous of the ones that got a deal but imo they can hardly blame Skoda, indeed if it was of skodas doing then I would imagine skoda would disappear from all broker sites. 

[Danny 57]

The waiting list have been quite long for many years (I waited 17 weeks for mine four years ago and that was quite good) way before NCD had their "trouble".

[ColinD]

Clearly the world has moved on, if they are that worried by brokers, or deals outside franchise, why not simply add an option to the configurator, I would like to buy, please offer best price button. Then send it to all franchise dealers and let them bid carwow style.

 

I proposed a similar system to a dealer around 3/4 years ago. Actually more advanced than 'carwow' and subtly different to the one you suggested, i.e. I adapted the word ALL to an intelligent selection, they laughed me out of the building. I closed the project down till about 6 months ago. The most basic elements are in place today and from the feedback, prices are great. 

 

Roughly surmised, carwow emailed, said we do great from you (website) conversion wise ( click to sale ), please promote more we'll pay you per sale. Now I hate this kind of setup as it's so hard to figure out did she didn't he. But I did, over 3000 referrals, not one brought a car apparently, not one in three months from great to nil, my spidey senses told me otherwise. So I've cancelled it and called the dealers myself to offer what I was told would not work...  you know what , some believe it will, some don't, yet supply carwow /me stares at phone handset in disbelief...  I've gone from depressed about it all to moderately happy. However, and I've got to declare the broker flank really dented a lot of our confidences. Rightly the supporting dealers knew how it was done but refused to join in or comment on the how. 

 

I found myself asking was the structure of retail dead? Just as the high st., is the dealer par sae on notice?

We had a family bus of 90+ years fold, our main business line competitors were JJB, tiny startup, sports direct, some US company toys r us; thank you town planners, and the internet hadn't even begun to think retail commerce. I'm very aware what a race to the bottom in margin does along with the drop in quality service. It kills independents and dents the ability to offer the extra mile of customer service.

 

Gladly seeing independents flourish again as real specialists, using the power of the web to be agile and out know the big warehouse guys now... good! See my past posts about where I think motor retail is going. Also got laughed out of another dealership when I shared that... that one I can forgive, but mark my words.

 

Please don't get me wrong, motor manufacturers have more than enough spare cash, diverted research *cough* budgets, over charging rich markets and deserve to be held to account on pricing.

 

From what I know, it's the supplying dealer and <brokerA>,  they agree a price. The supplying dealer has to pay for the car from the importer, what they pay might be based on the class of order. I suspect the class of order is reserved for a class of customer, of which this was some, let's say confusion...

 

Lead times vary based on an allocation/quota. I'm not 100% on how the quota works ( probably related to past performance ).  But if you go over you essentially incur longer wait times. That is everyone should get a fair ( calculated ) slice of the build capacity. So as I understand it, there is an element of queue jumping, but you might have to find the worst dealer to do it.... They did it with the yeti, under-estimated demand, it will happen again as brand 'desirability' rises. Don't forget no new customer, seeing a advert oing into a dealer will know anything about this... unless they read a lot of our posts...

 

Black and white, some clause was clearly broken between one of the many parties. PR wise, customer care wise the ball was not passed and subsequently dropped. Neither supplying dealer, broker, or skoda have offered any comment. That alone speaks of the legal eagles who must be soaring above. Everyone has a view, and black and white it seems logical what has happened. Sadly we also have greys and real people, customers. I've been told by skoda previously, see my opening paragraph as I approached them first in feasibility research. Paraphrasing: "Each dealer is an independent business or group, free to conduct business as they want, with whom they want. So long as terms of agreements are adhered to, skoda the importer agency under that name in my reading can do little."  Also I'd have to call each one, good luck, they would not help

 

Look at the current offers, it's clear superb has gone better than expected and the current offers reflect that, they are trying to stem demand. In case you missed it, no 0% on the superb :( But it's known to change during a quarter.

[Gizmo]

The waiting list have been quite long for many years (I waited 17 weeks for mine four years ago and that was quite good) way before NCD had their "trouble".

 

+1

 

I ordered my MKII Superb estate when they 1st launched it... that took 26 weeks, my current S3 took less than half that time.

 

I still maintain SUK knew all about what was going on but as with any new model they needed them on the streets ASAP for publicity, so turned a blind eye. we will of course never really know if this is true or not, but the fact that the lead times have gone up since owners have taken delivery proves that orders for the S3 have increased.

[Danny 57]

+1

 

I ordered my MKII Superb estate when they 1st launched it... that took 26 weeks, my current S3 took less than half that time.

 

I still maintain SUK knew all about what was going on but as with any new model they needed them on the streets ASAP for publicity, so turned a blind eye. we will of course never really know if this is true or not, but the fact that the lead times have gone up since owners have taken delivery proves that orders for the S3 have increased.

 

 

And +1 to you sir, especially for your last paragraph.

[Oldgits]

I'm still in conversation with SUK (Kate) and whenever I mention NCDs ongoing involvement with the sale of Skodas she tells me they are "pre registered" but it clearly states on the NCD website in bright red capital letters and I quote "PLEASE NOTE OUR VEHICLES ARE FIRST REGISTERED TO YOU NOT PRE REGISTERED"

[Tony R]

Has this matter all died a death now, everyone satisfied re their  treatment by the Broker or Skoda UK ? as I see N C D are well back in business with the Superb 111's . So the  " dispute " between Skoda and N C D  seem to have been settled?.

[Oldgits]

Has this matter all died a death now, everyone satisfied re their  treatment by the Broker or Skoda UK ? as I see N C D are well back in business with the Superb 111's . So the  " dispute " between Skoda and N C D  seem to have been settled?.

Not sure we will ever know the truth of the matter, all that distress for many prospective customers only for NCD to halt the sale of Superbs for a few weeks albeit they went back on sale with a reduced discount.

I done alright out of it with a package worth nearly £1k as a gesture of goodwill from SUK. The joke of it is, Simpsons will most probably have trouble shifting so many of these cancelled orders and end up selling for a similar discount to what NCD originally offered.