Nissan's Nifty Ordering System for the Leaf. How Did it Work Out?

In my last post, I explained the advantages of Nissan's innovative online reservation and ordering system.  I explained that it is designed to put the power in the hands of the customers, to be as fair as possible, and to reduce uncertainty and stress.   How did it work in reality?

Well, like anything else new and complicated, the result was both good and bad.

I'll start out by summarizing the good and the bad, and then I'll talk about my own experience.

The Good:
As I mentioned before, Nissan's online system definitely put much of the control in the hands of the buyers and took away the ability of the dealers to pad prices.  This is because the system is basically a factory ordering system, and the choice of delivery dealership is totally in the customers' hands.  If you don't like the price quoted by one dealer, then you can take your reservation to another dealer.  Because of that and because of online discussion forums, word got out when dealers were willing to discount the car.  Small dealerships in some areas were willing to offer discounts to get more sales.  Other dealers followed so that they wouldn't lose the business.  Some Arizona and California customers ordered from dealers as far away as Washington State to get a good price!  The dealers covered part or all of the cost of shipping the car to the customers.  The fact that Nissan put the power in the hands of the customers is a huge and revolutionary idea, and this is the reason why I think that the online system is a big success.

The Not-so-Good:
In other ways, the system brought its own types of uncertainty and stress.  Nissan never made clear what factors determine a buyer's priority in line to buy the car.  During the reservation process, their help staff said that a delay in reserving because of a web glitch wouldn't cause a delay in ordering or delivery of the car.  Later, they said that the reservation timing is the sole determinant of order priority within a region.  Lots of people had issues with their online accounts due to issues with Nissan's web site.  When it came time to place orders for the cars, it was never clear why some people were able to order on August 31 and why some had to wait until September.  For those who were to order in September, Nissan gave no clue as to which day in September.  So buyers were obsessively checking their status on the Nissan site every few minutes for days, waiting to be able to order, and not sure if a delay on their part in placing the order would delay their place in line to get the car.  Some people are still waiting, as of September 18.  Timing is important to buyers because they may need to take delivery of the car during 2010 for tax purposes, and in certain states such as California, rebate money is first come, first served until the money is exhausted.  The delivery dates of the ordered cars are still not known, though Nissan has promised to post them on the web site when manufacturing begins in October.

Though Nissan set up online help chat and a phone help line, the people answering those lines often were told very little, or they gave conflicting information.  So uncertainty and stress are still part of the process for some of the buyers, despite Nissan's efforts to make the experience simple and straightforward for the buyers.

My Own Experience:
My own experience was stressful from the start.  Like all of those who reserved early, I waited all day on April 20 to get my email telling me that I could go ahead and put down my $99 deposit and reserve my Leaf. My email didn't arrive until about 30 minutes before the announced end of the open period, just before 6 pm Eastern Time.  Issues with Nissan's web site not being able to accept my AMEX card, though they listed AMEX as an option, plus typographical errors on my part caused my account to lock.  After calling Nissan's help line and waiting my turn to talk to a human, I was told that they would look into it and call me back in 5 to 7 days!  I was beyond frustrated, since it seemed that I would lose the chance for an early place "in line" due to Nissan's issues with its web site. Eventually, days later, I was able to reserve my spot, with further issues, involving a duplicate account, two credit cards being charged, etc.

When ordering opportunities were announced, I was somewhat surprised and pleased to see that  I would be able to order in September, and I was able to order on September 3.  But I still experienced anxiety while waiting for my order window to open, and it just as easily could have been September 12 or later, and I would have been left hanging for days, not knowing if I had fallen further behind in line.

So though Nissan did successfully put some of the power into the hands of its customers, they also created their own kinds of stress and uncertainty in the way they implemented their new system.

In my next blog post:  I Need a Charging Dock?  What's That?