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2,153 Posts
First of all, congratulations to every forum member (especially the old-timers) who got their names in the mix for one of the first 1,000. I truly am happy for you all, and wouldn't take one away from any of you if I could. Not even the guy who got two. You and your mother should hang on to those cars. Do you really want to snub your own mother to make some stranger on this forum happy? This rant is in no way directed at anyone who got in yesterday, be it from luck or whatever other factors there were in play.
:rant: My beef is with the program itsself. I never liked the idea to begin with. The server problems were just the floaters in the sespool (as opposed to icing on the cake).
The biggest problem, as I see it, with the program from the beginning has been its potential to $h*t on enthusiasts who have had good-faith deposits on the books with their dealers for months. Even before the whole first 1,000 scheme was cooked up.
Sure enough, that's exactly what happened to several of us. Why could there not have been provisions for those who have been so enamored with the car that they were willing to plunk down their hard-earned cash with any dealer who would take it? As Latin Venom (among others) has so eloquently pointed out several times, we are the people GM would want to get these cars to first! Word-of-mouth advertising is the best advertising you could dream of. Potential customers get good information from trusted sources, and best of all, it's free!
Instead, they've left some of those most excited about the car with a sour taste in our mouths.
Hindsight is 20/20, but who didn't see this coming? I'm pretty much just venting, here, and I can't really offer a good solution. All I can say is it would have been easier to get the Exxon Valdez captain into some AA classes than it was to clean up the massive oil spill.
I guess if I look at from their perspective, this program was a major success, and they know that most of the folks in my situation will pony up for the car anyway. Maybe the money they made off the buzz is more than they will lose as a result of the fallout and bad PR they will receive. Really, even if this gets bad press, it's still going to be good for sales and keeping the buzz going. What can the press say? The servers crashed because of the overwhelming response of 5,000 people vying for 1,000 cars. Think articles about that won't create more curiosity about the car? Think again! :rant:
As the esteemed Forrest Gump would say:
"That's all I have to say about that" (don't freakin' tell me life is like a box of chocolates!!)
:rant: My beef is with the program itsself. I never liked the idea to begin with. The server problems were just the floaters in the sespool (as opposed to icing on the cake).
The biggest problem, as I see it, with the program from the beginning has been its potential to $h*t on enthusiasts who have had good-faith deposits on the books with their dealers for months. Even before the whole first 1,000 scheme was cooked up.
Sure enough, that's exactly what happened to several of us. Why could there not have been provisions for those who have been so enamored with the car that they were willing to plunk down their hard-earned cash with any dealer who would take it? As Latin Venom (among others) has so eloquently pointed out several times, we are the people GM would want to get these cars to first! Word-of-mouth advertising is the best advertising you could dream of. Potential customers get good information from trusted sources, and best of all, it's free!
Instead, they've left some of those most excited about the car with a sour taste in our mouths.
Hindsight is 20/20, but who didn't see this coming? I'm pretty much just venting, here, and I can't really offer a good solution. All I can say is it would have been easier to get the Exxon Valdez captain into some AA classes than it was to clean up the massive oil spill.
I guess if I look at from their perspective, this program was a major success, and they know that most of the folks in my situation will pony up for the car anyway. Maybe the money they made off the buzz is more than they will lose as a result of the fallout and bad PR they will receive. Really, even if this gets bad press, it's still going to be good for sales and keeping the buzz going. What can the press say? The servers crashed because of the overwhelming response of 5,000 people vying for 1,000 cars. Think articles about that won't create more curiosity about the car? Think again! :rant:
As the esteemed Forrest Gump would say:
"That's all I have to say about that" (don't freakin' tell me life is like a box of chocolates!!)