I'm out - the cancellations thread

[spice]

I cancelled today , enough grim reading and enough delays , good luck to the remainers I hope you enjoy your cars .

 

[Beady]

Still waiting on a response from Lotus on last week's back tracking on my available options. I am trying to defer until Base info is published then decide First Edition vs Base Edition or wait for GT. But after Lotus initially agreed to this, they have now said I have to cancel and place a new deposit at the back of the queue for one or other route when the Base book opens.

So I wanted to "pop out" rather than go "out" or "out out", but Lotus are telling me I have to go "out" and in the process are potentially forcing me to go "out out"

In the meantime they have unilaterally cancelled my order and re-deposited. The car built to my original spec has been classed as "orphaned" (horrible term), ie a physical car that has not been committed to prior to completion of checkout.

I'm aware of at least one person this week being offered a car with what looks like the same spec as mine. Wonder if anyone on here has been offered it? Hethel Yellow, Touring, Full Black Pack, Black leather interior, DC wheels, black calipers, privacy glass delete, tracker and Homelink.

Madness ! (From Lotus)

 

[Leonard]

Madness ! (From Lotus)

Yes and no

They have obviously taken the stance that it's too much admin internally to make changes to the order book based on model ordered, even at the expense of possibly losing those orders.

Something that should again have been specced in at the beginning of their new order process to allow more customer flexibility and retention but wasn't.

 

[Beady]

Yes and no

They have obviously taken the stance that it's too much admin internally to make changes to the order book based on model ordered, even at the expense of possibly losing those orders.

Something that should again have been specced in at the beginning of their new order process to allow more customer flexibility and retention but wasn't.

Offer the car to somebody else down the line and the simply swap the places in the queue between between the 2 buyers. Not rocket science.

 

[Leonard]

Offer the car to somebody else down the line and the simply swap the places in the queue between between the 2 buyers. Not rocket science.

Yup that's what they are doing.

But they don't have facility to/or have purposely chosen not to then reinstate you in a new position for the model of your choosing.

To be fair you can imagine that this could cause some chaos with production scheduling and parts ordering depending on the number of order amendments.

Other brands allow it though so you would think it could have been implemented to catch some drop out of FE customers to a yet to be opened Base order book.

 

[BeHappy]

Still waiting on a response from Lotus on last week's back tracking on my available options. I am trying to defer until Base info is published then decide First Edition vs Base Edition or wait for GT. But after Lotus initially agreed to this, they have now said I have to cancel and place a new deposit at the back of the queue for one or other route when the Base book opens.

So I wanted to "pop out" rather than go "out" or "out out", but Lotus are telling me I have to go "out" and in the process are potentially forcing me to go "out out"

In the meantime they have unilaterally cancelled my order and re-deposited. The car built to my original spec has been classed as "orphaned" (horrible term), ie a physical car that has not been committed to prior to completion of checkout.

I'm aware of at least one person this week being offered a car with what looks like the same spec as mine. Wonder if anyone on here has been offered it? Hethel Yellow, Touring, Full Black Pack, Black leather interior, DC wheels, black calipers, privacy glass delete, tracker and Homelink.

If cars are becoming harder to rehome maybe they should pop on website cars available looking for lovin home . My Nimbus orphan was offered to a June Seneca buyer but alas turned down.

 

[Tonyshepp]

Yup that's what they are doing.

But they don't have facility to/or have purposely chosen not to then reinstate you in a new position for the model of your choosing.

To be fair you can imagine that this could cause some chaos with production scheduling and parts ordering depending on the number of order amendments.

Other brands allow it though so you would think it could have been implemented to catch some drop out of FE customers to a yet to be opened Base order book.

If you work out the permutations on the build of an Emira, colour, wheels, calipers, seat, suspension, black pack, steering wheel, privacy glass et it runs into thousands of build iterations - no wonder they have trouble with the orphaned car.

 

[Pops68]

That was a funny movie!! "Road Hog", not the name of the Laurel n Hardy flick but one of 3 vignettes in the story. Worth looking up..

 

[kitkat]

If you work out the permutations on the build of an Emira, colour, wheels, calipers, seat, suspension, black pack, steering wheel, privacy glass et it runs into thousands of build iterations - no wonder they have trouble with the orphaned car.

Absolutely, but if they got a better sense of what people would or wouldn't budge on, I'm guessing it's more like a couple hundred configurations.

I'm guessing FE people won't budge on:
- Chassis
- Transmission
- Dark or Lighter wheels (reducing wheels down to ones with silver vs all black)
- Color
- Interior leather color or alcantara

I'm guessing quite a few would budge on black pack, alcantara stitching, caliper color, tracker, privacy glass etc.

 

[JPSpecial]

Honestly shocking what has happened to Tom E who was originally at the front of the queue and has done more to communicate what is going on with the car than anyone at Lotus. You have every right to feel aggrieved.

 

[Magicman]

Absolutely, but if they got a better sense of what people would or wouldn't budge on, I'm guessing it's more like a couple hundred configurations.

I'm guessing FE people won't budge on:
- Chassis
- Transmission
- Dark or Lighter wheels (reducing wheels down to ones with silver vs all black)
- Color
- Interior leather color or alcantara

I'm guessing quite a few would budge on black pack, alcantara stitching, caliper color, tracker, privacy glass etc.

Wheels might not be a game changer, colour change to black or silver is a cheaper option to change after purchase than wrapping the black bits I would think. Guess if a customer was set on DC wheels that would be different

 

[Nova]

Honestly shocking what has happened to Tom E who was originally at the front of the queue and has done more to communicate what is going on with the car than anyone at Lotus. You have every right to feel aggrieved.

It feels like they thought they'd be able to offer some flexibility - might have felt immense market pressure in the UK to offer such flexibility considering the fact that the UK buyers are early production "test subjects". One of the perks would be the ability to drive the cars and adjust their specs without being diverted all the way back to the very end of the line. They are finding this very difficult to manage and are therefore giving pushback to those who are wanting to avail themselves of this promised flexibility.

 

[Leonard]

Honestly shocking what has happened to Tom E who was originally at the front of the queue and has done more to communicate what is going on with the car than anyone at Lotus. You have every right to feel aggrieved.

To be fair (no offence Tom) at least they seem to be towing one line now.
I'd be slightly aggrieved if Lotus changed their mind yet again and let folk push their deposit back to other models after saying categorically they wouldn't.

 

[Pugwash]

I had understood that one doesn’t get a check out email until the car is rolling off the production line. The up to 30 days is then for sorting out PDI, finance etc and scheduling the delivery date. So if you don’t check out once you have received the email then Lotus have a car sat there not being paid for. I guess there comes a point when if you don’t check out after a period of time, Lotus have to move on as they have a car to sell.
I don’t suppose many people get to that point and dont proceed.
Having said that, Lotus do not appear to be meeting the 30 day period due to significant backlogs in PDI for reasons unknown.

 

[Leonard]

I had understood that one doesn’t get a check out email until the car is rolling off the production line. The up to 30 days is then for sorting out PDI, finance etc and scheduling the delivery date. So if you don’t check out once you have received the email then Lotus have a car sat there not being paid for. I guess there comes a point when if you don’t check out after a period of time, Lotus have to move on as they have a car to sell.
I don’t suppose many people get to that point and dont proceed.
Having said that, Lotus do not appear to be meeting the 30 day period due to significant backlogs in PDI for reasons unknown.

Just that lack of comms again isnt it.

Folk could be relying on that 30 day window to sell their current car etc and then end up with no car for X amount of time.

Admittedly a small number running as their only car but still

 

[donskibeat]

I had understood that one doesn’t get a check out email until the car is rolling off the production line.

This unfortunately can't be correct though as I got my checkout email on 22 December and the factory would have been in Christmas shutdown at that time so nothing would have been rolling off the production line. Time will tell if it is true or not, would expect to hear soon re payment or arranging collection date if so. Hopefully as I am doing part-ex with Lotus and they valued my car as part of the checkout process so if this goes on longer than 30 days not sure what will happen with that valuation which I am obviously basing all my costings on when sorting the balance of payments etc.

 

[Captain.Kirk]

Actually she’s in Canada building c8 DCTs

And doing a fine job, eh!

 

[spice]

That was a funny movie!! "Road Hog", not the name of the Laurel n Hardy flick but one of 3 vignettes in the story. Worth looking up..

Clip from Perfect Day

 

[Captain.Kirk]

To be fair (no offence Tom) at least they seem to be towing one line now.
I'd be slightly aggrieved if Lotus changed their mind yet again and let folk push their deposit back to other models after saying categorically they wouldn't.

I’ve never owned a Lotus so the Emira will (maybe) be my first. I’ve heard driving a Lotus is a raw, visceral and wild experience. So maybe it’s only fitting that Lotus has taken this same route to deal with both it’s customer base and dealer network. If I get nothing more out of my Lotus journey than to experience the passion of this forum’s members then that will suffice. I solute you all on your dedication to the Lotus brand. I only hope Lotus will reciprocate and realize that it’s you people that are truly “the Lotus drivers”.

 

[TomE]

I had understood that one doesn’t get a check out email until the car is rolling off the production line. The up to 30 days is then for sorting out PDI, finance etc and scheduling the delivery date. So if you don’t check out once you have received the email then Lotus have a car sat there not being paid for. I guess there comes a point when if you don’t check out after a period of time, Lotus have to move on as they have a car to sell.
I don’t suppose many people get to that point and dont proceed.
Having said that, Lotus do not appear to be meeting the 30 day period due to significant backlogs in PDI for reasons unknown.

There doesn’t appear to be a set point in the production process where they issue the checkout email. Some had it when car not in build, some when in build and some when built.

But yes, there is a time limit on the checkout window and that’s understandable. It’s notionally two weeks but you can ask for more time if there’s a clear reason.

In my case, when they messed up the test drive bookings I asked them what would happen if i got my checkout email before I’d driven. They said I’d be able to extend the checkout window. I got confirmation of what my options would be about spec changes, deferral etc.

Then when I got my checkout email I agree with Lotus the window would remain open until after my test drive. In fact they then extended it from 18 Dec to 5 Jan because of all the to and fro about them changing tack on what I was allowed to do regarding changes.