I ordered my truck from Jeff thursday night and yesterday while at work I thought it would be a good idea to post an ongoing evaluation.
My career is in quality and I belive that while it is the responsibilty of the supplier to satisfy the customer, the customer is obligated to provide feedback.
So now that I'm more than halfway through the process, a little catching up...(this sounds like it will be a long post so I apologize in advance)
I found FTE by accident when I first started researching a new truck and made contact with Jeff via e-mail about middle of January when the rumblings of a FTE purchase program started showing up in some threads. His dealership is about 30min from where I live but I did not meet him in person until thursday night.
At the same time I was in contact with two other Ford dealerships and a GMC dealer.

Ford dealer #1 was fell out of serious contention the first time I sat down with a salesman. The first two questions he asked me were, "How much do you want to spend?" and "What monthly payment were you looking for?" I never asked for a price quote because I sensed a long, difficult negotiation.

Ford dealer #2 was great to deal with. About 3 miles from my house and they are a truck dealer..no cars on the lot. The first question the salesman asked me was, "Do you need any information?". He let me talk for a while then apologized for not having a new crew cab in stock at the moment and offered to let me drive a used '03 with 20,000 miles on it. Of course I drove it..let's get an idea how a new one will drive a year or two down the road. I left and e-mailed a quote request to him and his price was a little higher than Jeff's but he matched it and delivery would be the same...so far so good. "Will you guarantee the current rebate?" "No." hmmmm... "I will probably go to another dealer if you don't." LOL..Give him credit, he tried to hard to make a negative answer sound good but it didn't.

GMC dealer was fair to ok to deal with, but I liked the Ford trucks better.

Ford dealer #3 (Jeff) gave a qoute via e-mail and the stated "$250 below invoice was very close to the invoice of kbb, carsdirect, and the ford website averaged. (Edmund's crashes a lot on my browser for some reason) So the bottom line...good enough for me. I set an appointment via e-mail and visited thursday. The visit was very comfortable. All questions were answered to my satisfaction. There was no pressure or gimmicks. There were no cubicles for the sales peeps and the owner is at an open desk along with everbody else in the middle of the showroom...I haven't seen that before (she didn't leave until about 7pm). I would rate the visit as comfortable as or better than the visit to a Saturn dealership back in 96. I would rate knowledge of product excellent, and concern for the customer very good. So bottom line..I placed the order. Jeff told me delivery would be in about 5-7 weeks and I'll have an order confirmation by the end of next week.

My evaluation so far...good.

 

update... I received an e-mail from Jeff yesterday. I have a VIN# now and a build date for the week of 4/26. He also stated that the eta at the dealership would be the week of 5/3. This puts the delivery within the 5-7 week time frame I was told in March. So far so good.

btw...my truck

F-350 XLT CC SWB SRW 4x4
V10 auto
Camper package
heated tow mirrors
chrome cab steps
cab lights
3.73 limited slip diff

 

Seeing that my truck was due in this week I called Van Bortel to see if they could find a better interest rate than the one offered by our credit union. The fella taking the credit app told me that my truck was just delivered. I am hoping to be able to pick it up tomorrow. If not I'll have to wait until next week as I am taking the Ball and Chain to NYC for our 10th anniversary.

 

I'll be going down to Van Bortel this afternoon. They were able to find a very competative interest rate (better than my wife's credit union) so financing will go through them. So far looking good. If everything is in order on the truck, I'll take it today.

 

Your ongoing report has a lot of info in it.. Thanks for Posting it.. Usually all we read are the negative comments about the dealer.. I wish I lived that close to VB Ford, I'd probably have one on order as well..

Let us know how everything turned out when you picked up the truck..

Russ


P.S. Congrats on your new truck

 

I did pick up the truck tonite. There were no suprises or problems. A minor issue with some marks on the paint (from the tie downs maybe?) was taken care of on the spot. The rest of the truck was immaculate. The fit and finish was very good. The weather stripping looked a little mismatched on the top of passenger side front door but it seems to be firmly inplace so I'm not bothered by that. No complaints with the drive home either. My youngest daughter started working on the interior right away. Fingerprints and lip smacks all over the rear windows now .
Jeff did a great job and the overall buying experience was excellent. I am happy with the price I paid and the financing. I am hoping for a fun and problem free 8-10 years with this truck. Thanks Jeff,

Dan

 

Now for the bad news:

Did you have a tough time getting into your GARAGE tonight? Guess what I have sitting on my desk? The lot guy found your garage door opener when he parked the trade-in. I would have phoned, but your wife would have answered and then- well, after the "lien release" story, I figured, why give her any more "ammo" than she needs? Let me know what you want to do- I can drop it off somewhere if you need, and then I can pick up the extra key to the trade, if that's OK.

Thanks again for your business, and those really kind words you said to Kitty- I never get tired of hearing that!

Jeff

 

LOL!! Didn't have to worry about that! Truck don't fit in the garage! I'll e-mail you......