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Pontiac refuses to give me time stamp info...

2K views 19 replies 13 participants last post by  Andrew Jackson 
#1 ·
I really need some direction on this one guys... I have sent countless emails and spent hours on the phone. My order was the first at the dealership. According to the salesperson, the order went through within the first 35 minutes. However, I am not getting one of the first 1000. According to Pontiac's "rules" of the EOP, every order is assigned a trackable time stamp. I have demanded this info from Pontiac. They continue to play dumb. What is a person to do when a big corporation thumbs its nose at the consumer?
 
#2 ·
Getting the time stamp isn't going to help you, if you made the first 1000 you or your dealer would know it. There were people that got in prior to 2:41 and did not get an order for one reason or another. It was chaos that day.

Dealer can see the status of all their first 1000 orders in the solstice1000.com site (dealer login).
 
#3 ·
I hear you, same thing happened to me. Time Stamp of 2:37:02. MCEB is right, it was chaos that fateful day...but I do think my dealer screwed up.

Therapy helps...but trust me, you are not alone. Many of us were on the dealers doorstep ready on April 15th...it even cost me a dozen donuts....and the real good ones too (fritters, bearclaws, etc.)

All for a regular allocation (EOP, but not the First 1,000). Oh well, we'll see how I feel when it is delivered in November!

RadRiv
 
#6 ·
PubliusE said:
I noticed a few people like yourself that have First 1000 member. Why the tag if you are regular allocation? :confused:


That designation only relates to this websites' first 1,000 members...has nothing to do with the first 1,000 cars.

OK, now stop reminding me that I'm not one of the blessed! I need more therapy!

RadRiv
 
#7 ·
RADRIV said:
That designation only relates to this websites' first 1,000 members...has nothing to do with the first 1,000 cars.

OK, now stop reminding me that I'm not one of the blessed! I need more therapy!

RadRiv
Speaking of which MODERATORS....
What number was I? What is my time stamp? How far did I miss First 1000 by? LOL
 
#8 ·
Sol Cruisin said:
Speaking of which MODERATORS....
What number was I? What is my time stamp? How far did I miss First 1000 by? LOL
You are #1358 if I'm not mistaken
 
#11 ·
tannman said:
Regardless of whether the time 'helps me' or not, is it not my right to know?
Every order that went through to at least waitlisted as well as pending would have generated an input time that would have printed out on the verification page that the dealer should have given you a copy of on 4/15. If the dealer did not get far enough through the process then the order may never have gone through. Why a dealer would quit the process before getting verification ( and yes at my dealer the program seemed to freeze at that point but they continued forward and gave me a printout) is a complicated question for the dealer,not for Pontiac. Even the next day the dealer should have been able to log in with the second verification number and see all the data. Here's the root question, did the dealer actually sign up or just go through the motions for you.
 
#12 ·
Well, most people here were lucky enough to get the information if they requested it ... I got a printout that showed my status once I was in. But no, I don't think there's anything that would indicate we have a "right to know". The information is kept on a dealer-only website and it's not considered public information.
 
#13 ·
Definately receiving the first allocated car to my dealership. Salesperson states that he sat and kept submitting info until it went through. Neither the dealership nor Pontiac will give me any more info. Either the salesperson is covering up the fact that he really didn't get it through within the first 35 minutes or he actually did and Pontiac doesn't want to explain why I'm not receiving one of the EOP cars.
 
#14 ·
tannman said:
Neither the dealership nor Pontiac will give me any more info. Either the salesperson is covering up the fact that he really didn't get it through within the first 35 minutes or he actually did and Pontiac doesn't want to explain why I'm not receiving one of the EOP cars.
According the site operations manual, when an order was accepted it would produce a confirmation page with time stamp and reference number that could be printed out. It also says a simular thing should have happened with cars that were wait listed, but dosen't show a sample. Others have posted their time stamp from wait listed orders, so they must have received a print out from their dealers. It appears that your dealer dosen't have either for you.

The EOP Headquarters was not allowed to give out wait list position, so it is possible that it was extended to even giving out the time stamp. If wait listed properly, you would have received one or two emails from Pontiac. Have you received them?

Pontiac has stepped up to the plate and reached out and contacted those that the system may have misplayed. There are several members that didn't get orders becuase of a lack of complete confirmation number. Pontiac contacted those people and offered cars to be built after the 1000 First 1000 Exclusive Retail Order Solstices. Pontiac also contacted dealers that were effected by a problem with Zip Code recognition. This group was also offered spots in the second batch of cars built. So it appears that Pontiac hasn't been afraid to admit errors and correct.


All things considered and based on your posts, it would appear a issue with the dealer.
 
#15 · (Edited)
Dealer may think he got through but doesn't mean he did. Tell him to look in solstice1000.com. All the his dealer's orders that made it (or went on the waitlist) are there. If you are not there you never made it through into GM's system.

As someone said the timestamp was given by the system at the point where the order ended, if he really never got though to the end of order then there is no time stamp.
 
#16 ·
Here was my correspondence from GM

I have a Time Stamp of 2:39:37. Having the time stamp before the cutoff means nothing to GM. Here is part of the letter the sent me with a pretty lame explaination:


"Dear Mr. XXXXXXXXX

Thank you for contacting the Pontiac Customer Assistance Center. I appreciate you taking the time to write us in regards to your Pontiac Solstice inquiry.

I sincerely apologize for any confusion that you have experienced with the Solstice Promotion. Pontiac is not able to account for individual circumstances. There could be many possible reasons outside of Pontiac's control for this. The possibilities could include, but are not limited to the following. It could be as simple as difference in what time the computer used was set to. My co-workers computer is slightly off from my time stamp by a minute. Furthermore, I was at my neighbors house and I noticed his computer was 15 minutes off from the current time. Dealers from different parts of the U.S. could have widely to slight varying times and thus time stamps. Also, if the processing for an application that received a "first thousand" Solstice took longer, then the end time stamp may be different from a shorter request even if it was started after the first. Remember, these are just possible reasons and should not be confused with an all inclusive list.

Again, Pontiac can not account for individual circumstances. Please understand that in offers with limited quantities, some customers will inevitably be left out and it is nothing personal. I hope you understand that it does not reflect our appreciation of you as a customer. I apologize that you were not one of the "first thousand" and that I would not be able to alter the promotion or assist you in getting one of these vehicles. There will be more Pontiac Solstices available for order, but they will not be one of the "first thousand" that were for this promotion. Please see your Sales department for details. However, I am glad that you contacted us to let us know how you feel. Your input is an important part of our mission to continuously improve our ability to satisfy our customers.

Please don't hesitate to contact Pontiac again if you need further assistance...." :brentil:


Helloooo Pontiac: I need a small, vibrant, top-down two seater. I really don't have to be one of the first 1,000... if you could see your way to maybe slip me a litle turbo under the hood.
 
#17 ·
I'm not clear on which time stamp you have...

gregodav said:
I have a Time Stamp of 2:39:37
Tannman, we haven't really discussed whether or not yours is an EOP intake time stamp from the solstice1000.com web site, or a VOM entry time stamp.

Is it possible your dealer was like many others confused by which system they were supposed to interact with?

What does your paperwork look like, and have you visited your dealership and looked upon their computer screen's with your own eyes? It would help us to help you understand what happened if we knew just a bit more.
 
#18 ·
What might have happened to your order... (warning, LONG LONG post)

Tannman,

On April 15, there were three "order" systems which were completely swamped starting at 14:00 Eastern:
  1. The AutoBook tool
  2. The VOM (Vehicle Order Management System)
  3. The solstice1000.com EOP dealer registration web site
There have been many many folks who related that their dealer didn't fully understand the process.

A long while back, at the request of Solsticeman, I wrote a FAQ which covered the question link to: FAQ: How do I know if I got one of the 1st 1000? (Checklist & other info) It bears reading. It will answer many of your questions, and provide some additional information that you may not have thought of.

Here's the way it was supposed to work:
  1. Customer registers on apprentice web site and gets a registration number starting on April 14th.
  2. Customer takes registration number to dealer on April 15th.
  3. Dealer logs into the solstice1000.com web site at 14:00 Eastern using the account name and password they were FAXed from EOP Head Quarters.
  4. Dealer enters customer's registration number into the solstice1000.com web site.
  5. Dealer sees a page saying "conditionally complete" OR "Pending" with a confirmation number on the screen.
  6. Dealer prints the confirmation page
  7. Dealer then goes back and enters registration number for the next customer.
  8. Some time before April 24, Dealer returns to solstice1000.com with a VOM number for customer and associates the VOM number with the 1st 1000 registration number for any conditionally complete or pending customer.
If instead of seeing "conditionally complete" or "Pending", the dealer sees "wait list", then the supply of the 1st 1000 cars has been exhausted and the customer is wait listed.

NOW, don't under stand me so fast! I believe that in your case, things did NOT go as shown above. At the dealership that I went to, most of the other salesmen were confused, and were also trying to enter AutoBook and/or VOM orders during that time. Those systems were also swamped, because many dealers didn't understand that the only time critical step was the registration number entry into the "solstice1000.com" web site. The VOM and AutoBook systems cleared up at about 14:30 and I believe that your dealer simply put a VOM order in for you, completing that step at 14:35 and sitting back thinking all was well.

Now, your dealer may still be able to log into the solstice1000.com web site and check your status. You'll probably find that if you did indeed register on the Apprentice web site (www.pontiac.com/apprentice) on April 14th that your status will show as "registered" when your dealer enters your registration number, but I'm not even sure that the site will let you do any query against the database anymore anyway.

The meaning of the statuses is as follows:
  • "Registered": customer visited www.pontiac.com/apprentice and enter address, phone, and driver's license last 4 digits.
  • "Waitlisted": customer visited dealer between April 15 at 14:00 eastern and April 24 18:00 Pacific and dealer entered the registration number into the solstice 1000.com web site, and at the time that this entry was made, no remaining 1st 1000 units were available.
  • "Pending" or "Conditionally Complete": customer id was entered, and one of the 1st 1000 units has been assigned pending verification of eligibility.
  • "Confirmed": all confirmation processes and verification of eligibility have been performed by the Early Order Program Headquarters, customer will receive a 1st 1000 unit.
  • "Disqualified": during the eligibility verification process, the customer was disqualified by having a member of his family or a person residing in his house eligible for the GMS discount (in effect, a family member or house mate is a GM employee), or failing to meet other requirements as set down by the terms of the First 1000 Exclusive Retail Orders portion of the Early Order Program.
The point is that neither Pontiac nor the Early Order Program Headquarters can check your time stamp for you.

Sigh....

Now, let's look at where we go from here:

You probably have a VOM order in the system by this point (you probably had a VOM in the system on April 15th). What becomes more important now is to watch for the status of your VOM order to go to code 3000 and later to code 3300. For more information on this, see: link to: Target Production Week Survey. Don't vote in the poll until you've visited your dealer and seen your code 3300 Target Production Week date. The poll is not supposed to be for guesses, desires, or wishful thinking. ;)

YOU WILL GET A SOLSTICE!
You said it yourself, you are your dealer's first order, and now, you need to find out from your dealer how many units your dealer has for his/her first 4 month allocation.

Sorry that your dealer seems not to have sufficiently understood the process. :( The same thing happened to many of the folks on this forum. :brentil: But, take heart! You will get a Solstice, now you can work on fretting about when.
 
#19 ·
gregodav said:
It could be as simple as difference in what time the computer used was set to. My co-workers computer is slightly off from my time stamp by a minute. Furthermore, I was at my neighbors house and I noticed his computer was 15 minutes off from the current time. Dealers from different parts of the U.S. could have widely to slight varying times and thus time stamps.
This is also a logical explanation of what happened based on other accounts of inconsistent timestamps. There are at least a couple of people who mentioned they got a car after the generally accepted 2:42 cutoff and a number of others like you who got in before that time, but were waitlisted. There were many discussions about it back around Sol-Day. That absolutely should never have happened and GM should have been using a single centralized time source, but it is a possibility.

One more bit of evidence that would make me think that could be the case is found in two of my confirmation printouts from the dealer. The day I first registered for the first 1000 and found out I made it, my salesman gave me a printout confirming my "CONDITIONALLY complete" order. It states that my intake timestamp is 2:36:11. However, when I went to the dealer a couple weeks later and had my dealer print out a status page of the information listed at solstice1000.com, it has another area where it shows my timestamp as 2:35:00. I don't know why they differ, but if the original printout pulled the time from the local PC and the final database was compiled using the time from the main server, it would certainly explain the discrepancy. Not trying to say that's what necessarily happened or that it justifies it, but it makes sense.

At any rate, I'm sorry to hear you missed out ... you're not alone. Check out http://www.solstice1k.com/node/8 to see the full list of times and you'll see several others with early times who didn't make it.
 
#20 ·
Fformula88 said:
Where are you located? I am just curious to know whether your zip code begins with a "0" since there was a problem with people trying to get a car in a "0" zip code.

Im one of them that began with 0
Some computer geek forgot to put 0 in the program.
I think he was a George W Bush man , And new John Kerry was at
Dealer to buy one . I no I was the guy standing in line in front of him.
George Rules.
 
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