Reservation/confirmation compounding

[Agent 99]

Originally Posted by maxtraxduffy

i live in a town of 289 in a county of 8,674 largest town in county is 1400 largest near bye town 25 miles 35000 nearest dealer 127 miles i was a 1239 delivered 5/7/08 that said i think they are tring to get cars in every zip code!or a %of cars percapta in said zip!thats my story and im sticking to it.

One of the reasons I've been given by Smart is that my zip is not assigned to any dealer yet, sorry I really wish your reasoning held up against what I was told just this past Tuesday. BTW I was also advised to check the DDE every month or two, OK, right, like I'll quit checking daily. I've spoken with Smart via the customer line given on the Smart USA website twice, Emailed four times recieved responces to two. Best help I've recieved is from the Indianapolis Smart Center, at least if they don't have an answer they don't just pull one out of a hat. Oh well I can wait

[curtis]

now that I have my car I like that they are still only trickling in to the USA. (I waited 407 days so wait your turn!)
I never want the Smart to be the "new" PT Cruiser. If I see that coming I will put mine on the auction block.
Luckily it's so un-practical for many I doubt that will happen and with the economy I doubt too many can afford to buy it as a toy.

[Jimbo]

i can appreciate the frustration because i am nearing the end of my own 12 month wait. in reality, the only person to be upset with is yourself for not jumping on the wagon sooner. i wish i reserved winter of 07 instead of spring 07 and i'd already have mine by now. there would be no practical business reason for a company to discontinue accepting reservations despite a very very long waiting list.

i mean, you know that going in. every news report mentioned the year+ waiting list. if you're not up to that, that's no fault of penske - i am sure if they could magically produce 50,000 smarts to 2,000 dealerships across the country they would do so. their profitability is certainly also hamstrung by the same set of circumstances. the pent-up demand for the product is not a money-maker when the MSRP is prohibited from rising based upon that demand. it would be an entirely different matter if penske was letting the 50K reservation sit and charging a 50% premium on the vehicles that are arriving, but that's not happening.
i can guarantee, PENSKE is just as frustrated as the most frustrated consumer that he can't get more of these things into the country, quicker.[/QUOTE]



First of all, it will likely be a year or more before I even configure, and another 6 month wait for construction and transit after that. I can deal with it, I just see it as unfair when people who reserve 6 to 8 months after some of us, configure and receive their orders while some of the rest of us are forced further back in line as new orders come in to some of these hot areas. Second of all, I still have to travel to whatever dealership they assign me to, so what does it matter where I live? The car doesn't come to me, I go to where they send the car!
Third, if many of us had known about the car or its availability in the US in March, believe me, we would have reserved one then. I first became aware of their existence on a vacation to Europe last June, and was totally unaware of the opportunity to own one until late July. I sent in my reservation the day I knew I could. I wish I had known about it sooner, but I'm not frustrated about that.

Yes the later newscasts reported waits of a year or more, but last summer the reported wait was 6 to 9 months, so that's what I knew going in. I also knew going in that orders and confirmations were based upon your date of reservation. There was nothing on the website, the road show, or any of the printed literature about load balancing the orders by locality, so that story has also changed. Anyway, thanks for your insights.

[gotta have a SMART]

OK- I'm new here and just received my confirmation 03/24/08 so I KNOW I'm totally rushing things by trying to de-code my Confirmation Number but....
What concerns me is that in many people's postings I see they have a Confirmation Number consisting of only 4 digits. Guess what- MY Confirmation Number has a whopping TEN (count them- TEN) digits! What's up with that? Am I missing something or am I correct I thinking (God forbid) that I just may NEVER get my own SMART??!! This waiting game may be the end of me> Maybe I should change my name to "gotta get a LIFE". Thanks for the support!

[SmartCard]

Its a probably just a matter of semantics. Its the reservation number which contains the ten digits, the last four of which that are commonly cited by others. This is contained in the email confirming the $99 reservations (hence some call this confirming). Once you are invited to configure your smart (also called confirmation process by some) your order is confirmed. (but no number to "decode" is given here)

In your case the question is...did you reserve on 3/24/08, or did you configured on 3/24? (sounds like the former)

[JPaul]

Just a reminder from an earlier post:
The reservation number that came from "noreply@smartusa.com" called «Your smart USA Reservation» is the moment your $99 deposit was entered into IB's system.
I.e.
the number: 0345901611 or 03|45|90|1611
03 = 30 seconds
45 = 54 minutes
90 = 09 hours
(all Pacific time)
into the 1611th day after Jan 1, 2004
The program started March 19, 2007 with #...1173
Today's #...1611

[gotta have a SMART]

Wow! Aren't you smart? (pun intended) I know I could count on you guys to set me straight. Yes- I reserved on 3/24/08. I'm thinking about going th orphan route though. Otherwise I'm just waiting for the Configuring email like so many others... Thanks again!

[Big Panda]

Originally Posted by gotta have a SMART

OK- I'm new here and just received my confirmation 03/24/08 so I KNOW I'm totally rushing things by trying to de-code my Confirmation Number but....
What concerns me is that in many people's postings I see they have a Confirmation Number consisting of only 4 digits. Guess what- MY Confirmation Number has a whopping TEN (count them- TEN) digits! What's up with that? Am I missing something or am I correct I thinking (God forbid) that I just may NEVER get my own SMART??!! This waiting game may be the end of me> Maybe I should change my name to "gotta get a LIFE". Thanks for the support!

WOW!!!! maybe i'm just around the corner to 'configure and confirm'. i 'reserved' on 3/16/08....NO invite to confirm yet. my DDE did change yesterday to "Aug-Oct 2009", moving me UP 30 days from the previous figure.

interesting that you reserved 8 days AFTER i did, we both appear to live in metro areas, yet you get invited before me. also, i'm only about 10-15 minutes from the smart center Indianapolis.

[gotta have a SMART]

Must be Deliver Date Estimation? Now where do you find this bit of information? Like I said- I'm brand new to this game. I have my printed "smart USA Reservation" here in fornt of me but it has no DDE. Where can I get this?
Also- I live about 20 minutes from the nearest smart center so I'm pretty metro also. Interesting...

[PassionforPassionCT]

smart USA company information
Just put in your email that you used to sign up with.