Well, somebody finally ticked Dianne off to the point that she's decided to swear off using the Yahoo Prius-2G forum. Her last posting is here: http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Prius-...2G/message/3162 Well, she's still here (for now) and will always be welcome. Some people just don't get it. :cussing:
I'm sorta in the middle ground on this thing. I think the people who harrassed her over the last 48 hours were asses, their comments were ill considered, and I can't blame Di for being majorly PO'd at them. I also appreciate the incredible pressures she'd under from her many Prius buyers/prosepctive buyers in this era of very low supply with high demand and her very unexpected inability to meet those demands--I'm sure the stress is extraordinary. OTOH, what's the point of her last post and leaving the group. So many more of the participants appreciate her, respect her, give their business to her solely b/c of her participartion in the group and the respect gained thereby. A couple opinionated A-holes come by, she cries fowl and jumps ships with "I'll never come back here"--as if the entire group or that forum is at fault. Di's a bright gal, I think she'll cool down and hopefully return. Her contributions here and at the YG are quite valuable. But there's a danger in elevating someone to a status above the rest of us, it makes them a target for just the kinds of attacks she recieved. And if you're not able to take those attacks (for whatever reason) then it's a bad place for you to be up on that pedestal. I hope she'll take some personal time, get away from everything Prius (maybe even this board) for a bit, recharge the batteries, make some fine adjustments to the attitude, and come back in a more moderate roll and with a tougher suit of armor.
I don't have much to say about Dianne, but I do want to add a comment about Toyota. Many dealers have 100 or more people on a waiting list for a Prius...with the numbers delivered in the SIX MONTHS since rollout, I see no short term hope of many for getting their cars. Should Toyota be holding $500 to $1000 for long periods of time? If buyers were told up front that there would be a six month or more wait, would most of them consider alternatives to their purchase....should Toyota by this time not be more knowledgeable about what is going on and communicating to consumers? The above frustrations are what sparks (probably misdirected) anger at dealers and their sales representatives, though the dealers aren't taking actions to change or improve the process...either through their regional distributors or Toyota NA.
The problem with that is that it's not Toyota holding your $500-$1,000. It's the dealers themselves. So the anger isn't neccessarily being misdirected toward the dealers. However, I will say that Dianne is one of very few dealers on this board who is regularly willing to lay their head on the chop block in order to educate the public and her prospective customers about wait times, price increases, etc. The other dealers simply lurk and come here to post that they have a Prius for sale for $7,000 over MSRP. Unfortunately this is a side-effect of putting yourself out on the front lines as she does. It's good to see she doesn't take crap like that over here. This is another reason why I have been so impressed with the PriusChat memberbase - we all enjoy spirited debate and banter amongst one another, but there has been very little personal attacking. I'm not sure if that's because we cater to a different crowd here at PriusChat or what. I think the YGs seem to be more for the "average Joe" who comes in off the Internet street and stops at the first place he finds.
I agree with Evan. I hope she takes some time to cool off and rejoin when she's in a calmer mood. Anyone who has been in the front line of anything knows they are often the target of attack. Leadership and achievement are in her blood. Linda
What surprises me is that Dianne, with all her work, ever had time for the Y! groups in the first place. A large volume of postings combined with a format that makes following a thread difficult and the one-message-per-page format (unless you want your in-box flooded) makes them overly time-consuming. I much prefer the BBS format here. Threads are identified, threads with unread msgs are flagged, and one page includes many msgs, saving hours of time. (Thanks Danny!) As for obnoxious posters, that's the price of an open forum, and gets worse with larger numbers of participants. It's sad when it drives away good people.
Well Yahoo's loss is PriusChat's gain! Dianne is an asset wherever she decides to go. It's just a shame that she had to endure those attacks from that very vocal, inconsiderate minority over there at Yahoo. I only read part of it but you just wonder why people send out things that attack others in a really senseless way. She's really a caring Prius enthusiast who somehow manages to find the time to keep the rest of us informed on a lot somewhat insider dealer stuff. We should all be very grateful to her and others like her. for their unselfish contributions. Lets all be vigilant and not let the same kind of attacks happen here. Keep up the good work Dianne...you are very much appreciated!
Why thanks guys (and gals?) ... I'll surely be here. Everyone here is damn respectful and even better -- FUNNY! That said, the Yahoo list members emailing me with their thoughts and friendliness has me sad, but there has to be a line drawn. I have time to be there. I certainly have time to be anywhere I want to be, but I will not MAKE the time to be somewhere there is unneccessary nastiness. I guess if the 2G folks want to know what I have to say, they will also have to make the time to read here to see what that might be, cause it will have to go both ways. I have told a few of the moderators what my boundary is for returning, but no one seems to want to meet it, so c'est la vie! Thanks everyone! Di
re the comment about dealerships holding our deposits, Dianne (from whom i bought my glorious car) took my check, and as she told me, she never deposited the check! just held it. classy, i'd say.
I ordered a Prius in Nov (delivered yesterday), found the 2G board in Dec, and have been watching for several months and learned a lot. I began monitoring this board more recently and agree with the comments above. It would be nice if some of the other major contributors would come to this board ... with their reference files. It would make life easier for those of us with limited time for surfing. I think those doing the grousing at 2G are the ones with too much time on their hands and should be ... what's the word ..."shunned?" Non-response is the best way to drive someone away.
I was a member of the original groups -- the classics group -- and joined in late 2000 or 2001, as these things go. When the new 2004 group started, I also joined there. The populatiry of this car grew from a few "cultists" like me in 2000 for the 2001 models to what it is today. I did not suddenly join and decide it was not worth my while. I have BEEN in those same trenches for YEARS... and many times, being the only person with any answers to some very important questions. And, when I could special order them, I got them faster than many other dealers.... and even better -- when the cars went mainstream, and were allocated to dealers based on prior sales, I was in heaven -- I got pretty much whatever I wanted and then some, so my pricing was always awesome! Just a tad over invoice when times were great, and even sticker on NAV cars when they were scarce and other wanted markups. When it was time to make the 2004 intros, I had a car a few months prior to the other dealerships because I have a friend in development (a very important friend on the tech side) who brought me a red car waaaaaaaaaaaay back in early August and I snapped as many pics as I could. When the TRAC/demo cars were released on October 17th, that same day he brought me his own personal car as well so I had two to show. That was how I managed to develop such early orders and so many of them! Now, I am merely trying to fill them all with such limited allocations, and still do the rest of my job as well as I need to. If I posted my entire work description here, there are MANY who would read it and say "OMG, you do all that!?" and not even realize what it all means. Look, I miss the groups too. I miss many of the fine people there -- people I have answered questions for and people I have joked with and folks who are so damn smart and savvy, it's amazing to me that I was part of it all for so long. It just took a turn for the worse and I can only do what I feel is best for me, and my son, and my workplace. When it got too personal, the nasty crap, I just had to go. There was no other way at the time to work things. :> But, that said, well, I am here! I like Danny's format and I can find what I missed reading so easily too. Hey thanks for the sweet words this morning. Di
As a Sales & Inventory Manager I've learned sooooo much from Dianne on various forums around the cyber landscape. Quite often I'd be ready to post something that I had just found out, then learn that she had covered it well in advance of me. The Yahoo group format can be very mind-numbing for a huge group with heavy posting volume - I like this set up much better. I know how crazy my days can get, and I like retreating to the forums for a mental health break. Our store is much smaller than Carson, and the upper midwest is certainly a different world from California (and other parts of the country), so I always try to keep that perspective when reading and posting.
