Oh My God! Im Gonna Smash Someone At Smart

[Schmimbo]

I get to my office today Sunday to do some work while the phones are quiet.

I see that I have a message on my voice mail. It’s smart USA calling and leaving a message. Wow cool. Maybe my notice to configure. Maybe an orphan availability locally with no dealer gouging.

Voice Mail Message Says:
"Hi This Is Smart USA calling you to confirm your CANCELLATION of your $99.00 reservation from May of last year. Your local dealer in WINSTON SALEM called for you because of your in person request to cancel your reservation at your local dealer. You should receive your $99.00 refund check within 5 to 7 business days. If there is anything we could have done differently during this process to keep your business please give us a call at 1-800-762-7887."

Ummm..... excuse me? Cancellation notice? Refund check on its way?...
Ummm excuse me? I’m here on the west coast in Southern California not in Winston Salem. WTF?

So I immediately called the 1-800 number (hands trembling) at the same time trying to stop my heart attack from happening and ask to speak to the exact person who left this message on my voice mail.

I’m fortunate enough to get this guy on the phone to say WTF?

I never cancelled my order and in fact where’s my damn Configure email already? He confirms my name, my address, my phone number and my email.
I asked who cancelled my order. Because surely I did not cancel and I still want my smart after all this time waiting and being so called "PATIENT".
He said my dealer did in Winston Salem called for me. OH MY GOD! So smart checks their records and puts me on hold. Heart pouding that its all over! We are sorry Tim, somebody else with the same exact first name and the same exact last name as yours and a reservation holder cancelled their order at the Winston Salem smart dealer. So we crossed names and the information with yours. We are very sorry." Your name is still on the list and you are still a reservation holder. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

So I asked them since I had somebody on the phone. When am I going to get my config email so I don’t have to worry about this. This is craziness. According to smart USA every reservation holder will get their config email by end of May, 2008. Wait a minute. Everyone? Why the push now? People that just reserved today will get their config email by the end of May? How is that fair? He said yes. We are trying to speed up the config process for all reservation holders. Un FREAKIN real!

Can you imagine if I was out of town/country on business and receiving $99.00 check refund from smart and having to start this SH$% all over again with reserving and waiting another year again because of some technical/human mistake detail at smart corporate? I would have thrown in the towel and went back to buy that freaking orphan and bent over for the dealer to take my money or just said screw it and forget the whole damn thing. I’m pretty much at my whits end with this deal at this point. By the time the car gets here (if it ever gets here) right now I will be too burned out from this process that I wont want it or enjoy having it. Have patience. Patience my A$$! I want my smart not my $99.00 back or the headaches and frustrations of waiting.

Amazing story. You cant make SH%* up like this. Just unreal!

[Robbie51]

good thing you caught it man!!!! I'd be ticked too.

[rwcmick]

my cousin's name is john smith. after 9/11 he got shook down at every airport and he's a travelling salesman! name confusion does suck. all i can say is, it's not the car's fault.

[LorbeerTLC]

OMG! Talk about dropping one right there on the spot!

Tim, you ought to write a diary and try to remember every detail from the time you "reserved" your smart till the day you received it (or longer if you want to make sure you don't have any problems with it).

I bet when time comes and someone wants to write a book about when smart comes to America, stories like yours could be worth something to publish and for people to reflect back on when they reserved their smarts.

Just a thought...

Good Luck & Thanks for sharing your story.

-Tom L.

[Schmimbo]

Thanks LorbeerTLC. Glad you enjoyed my Sunday Morning story. I have all the details ready if somebody wants them someday. Heres my overview with a story to go along each one. Good stories, bad stories, interesting stories some not worth speaking of. But I got some as many do here on this and other forums.

Spring 2003 First 450 smart car sighting/inspection in Sherman Oaks, CA
May 26, 2007 Test Drove 451 Passion Coupe at "street smart" road show Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA
May 27, 2007 Test Drove 451 Cabriolet at "street smart" road show Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA
May 28, 2007 $99.00 Reservation. Reservation Code 1243.
May 31, 2007 Test Drove 451 Passion Coupe at "street smart" road show Glendale, CA
January 17, 2008 1st walk in customer for Grand opening day at Universal City smart
February 28, 2008 Test drove 451 Passion Silver/Silver available orphan with $2600.00 in dealer forced upgrades.
March 2, 2008 received phone call cancellation scare of my $99.00 reservation from smart USA because of name matching error.

[Evilution]

Originally Posted by Schmimbo

every reservation holder will get their config email by end of May, 2008. Wait a minute. Everyone? Why the push now? People that just reserved today will get their config email by the end of May? How is that fair?

Fair!

Just because you reserved your car 8 months before it even came out in your country and will have been waiting a year to get it doesn't mean everyone else should after it has been released.
They can make more per day than they can sell so completing orders wouldn't take very long, the reason they are taking their time is to give the smart an air of mystery and to make it illusive, that way the residuals stay high and people still buy them.

[bigal]

I didn't appreciate the high prices and pressure to pay for extended warranties, but at least they didn't mess up our reservation. You will love the car once it's in your hands. Soon all the problems will be forgotten and life will be good again. At that point you might want to put in another order so you'll have one for the week days and one for the weekends. :-)

[Schmimbo]

I hear ya bigal. Would love a Cabrio. But think I will wait for the Brabus Exclusive if it gets here. In the meantime I will be happy to have my regular smart for the time being. Just the thought of not spending so much money on gas and having some new found fun while driving really sounds good to me right now.