Selling wait-list spots

I would cancel because it cost you nothing to add your name to the list... but then, our capitalist system is all about making money.

 

I didn't mean sell it for a profit, just transfer it to someone who has been having bad luck. But I guess you're right. I knew it instinctively, I guess.

 

Manny was exactly the situation I have been thinking of. It would be a shame to give up 4 months of waiting list, but I also feel for all the suckers who got on the list just after me...

 

One thing to keep in mind...

Some dealers won't go down the list if someone backs out. Instead they will sell it (a lot of times over MSRP)
:roll:

Ryan

 

..and some of us...

..and some of us have been asked and badgered to do this "take me off but put this person in my place" thing and refuse quickly without a 2nd thought. That would be me. I think it's unfair to do. There are a lot of people waiting a long time, and if you get a car yourself elsewhere, then you have relinquished your place in line for one PERIOD, and the next person moves up and everyone moves a notch higher.

Taking cuts in line - even for relatives - is not allowed in my fleet line. I admit, I have told this to people and been argued with at length in some cases to the point where I lack the impetus to return the phone calls and emails to them or the poor fools they wanted in their spot in line. (I call that "time out" at home for my son... do not know what it is here when people will not take NO for an answer) ... anyway, if you are in my fleet line, ain't no one taking cuts here on my department's units.

Dianne

 

i agree with Dianne

it should be obvious that all dealerships are not created equal for some reason or another. so each dealership serves its community and just as we all got on a list and waited our turn, so should everyone.

if you get your car, your place on other lists should simply go to the next person on that list. that is the only real fair thing to do.

after all, anyone who has spent even a little amount of time at these forums knows that they have a better chance at getting a car quicker by being on multiple lists or better yet some select lists in certain areas of the country.

you should not have the power to decide who is next because you dont have the knowledge to make an imformed decision based on a waiting list that includes nearly the entire country.

you have your car, now let others get their car by the means they have afforded themselves. be it one list like me or several like many others.

 

Getting your car and giving up your other waiting list spots

I was told by my dealer, and by the friendly Toyota factory rep who came down from San Francisco twice to do presentations at Sunnyvale Toyota, that Toyota is now keeping a master list of people who are waiting for a Prius.

I can't remember if this was supposed to cover the whole US or just California, but Toyota wanted to be able to weed out duplicate names to get a better feel for how many actual people are waiting for the cars.

Dianne, does this sound right to you, or are things different in your experience?

Cheers,
/Gordon

 

It might come as a surprise, but there are people still waiting for cars who were placed on lists months before you.

 

You probably do not have any actual right to sell, or even transfer, your spot on a waiting list. A dealer makes a list of who wants a car, and it's the dealer's list. You may have a contractual agreement with the dealer to sell you a car in the order you arrived, and the right to drop off the list, but your place on the list is not "yours" to sell or give to someone else.

An analogous situation: I worked as a volunteer at a house of hospitality where we served the homeless. We had 12 beds, provided on a first-come first-served basis. When a bed opened up it went to the guy who'd been waiting the longest, and he could stay a month. But the decision of who got the beds was ours, not theirs, and nobody could "give" a bed to someone else. It was, after all, our house.

A reputable dealer will do as Dianne and refuse your request to transfer your spot in the line. But there might not be anything to prevent your buying a car from each of those other dealers and selling it yourself. Unethical, in my opinion, but probably legal.

 

Re: Getting your car and giving up your other waiting list s

The "master list" is so they can send out apology letters about the wait and stay in touch since we cannot do this at dealership level anymore. They may have a master list, but they only have name and address and phone # -- they have no clue what package or color you want, so it's merely a "contact" list and nothing more. :|