kglesq
Droid's Brother
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2010
- Posts
- 136
- Reaction score
- 4
I promised Birdman that I would give a review of my experience in buying a Raptor from Randy Wilson (username HARLEY6LF250SDU on this forum) once the process was complete. Here is that review. For those looking for a Cliff’s Notes version: Use Randy, the guy will move heaven and earth to get you taken care of, and you’ll not only get a truck out of the deal, but a friend as well. For those that want the details, read on.
In September of 2010, I decided to buy a Raptor. My brother (Droid) had already decided to do the same, and had done the research and found that the most straightforward deal around seemed to be to go thru Randy, who would order the truck and sell it at $3,000.00 under MSRP. Randy’s dealership is in Pouteau, OK, but his deal included delivery to my door in CA.
I spoke to Randy over the phone and he had a truck that was exactly what I wanted already in the order bank, which he put my name on. I informed him that I needed the truck before the end of the year, and Randy told me right up front that he would not be able to guarantee that as Ford was not beginning production of the 2011 trucks until very late in the year, but that he’d do his best. As a note, this was the rule with Randy--he was an absolute straight-shooter from start to finish. He never made any promise unless he was sure he could keep it, and gave me the progress (or more commonly lack of progress due to Ford’s hold on the trucks) reports without any varnish or BS.
About a week after I ordered my truck, Randy called to tell me that he had an order that was ahead of mine open up as the customer who had ordered that truck backed out. The truck was identical to mine save for the lack of a tailgate step, but it had a VIN and a build date. I told Randy to put my name on it, and he did. Things were going well, as the truck was to be build on November 15. What could go wrong? As it would turn out-plenty.
The truck was built on time, but then didn’t ship. Ford was closed-mouthed about what was going on to delay the shipment of the trucks, and wouldn’t say when they would ship. As we got toward mid-December, I was getting very nervous. Randy was calling everyone he knew of at Ford, but getting no information.
The week of Christmas rolls around and still no movement. Randy still cannot get any answers out of Ford. So what does he do? While delivering a truck in Ohio, HE DRIVES 400+ MILES OUT OF HIS WAY AND SHOWS UP AT DEARBORN WITH A TRAILER trying to get them to release my truck and my brother’s truck. Ford won’t give him the trucks, but he does manage to get an answer as to what the holdup is (the BCM hold) and then makes nice with the folks at Jack Cooper Transport, getting them to mark my truck and Droid’s as ‘hot’ so that when they are released, they will go right on the truck for shipping to the next stop in the delivery chain, the Kansas City mixing yard (trucks go from Dearborn to the mixing center, and from there are distributed to dealers across the country).
Randy is burning up the phones trying to see when my truck will be released, and finally, on Christmas Eve, he is told that my truck is on a carrier headed to Kansas City. I need to have the truck in service before the end of the year, and there is no way it can be shipped to California in that time. I make arrangements to come to Kansas to pick it up, as Randy has managed to befriend the folks at the mixing yard and can get it released to me there. Had Randy not managed to pull that one off, I’d be screwed.
Unfortunately, my brother’s truck is nowhere to be found. As such, he tells Randy he is going to buy one in California. Randy is beyond gracious about this, and even offers him some tips on what to look for to make sure that the deal he’s getting is a straight one.
Randy offers to get me a plane ticket to Kansas City, as he has a friend that works for the airlines who can get a buddy pass, but the flight runs through Denver and I’m concerned about the weather. Southwest has a cheap nonstop so I take that instead.
On arrival to Kansas City, Randy picks me up from the airport. He has driven roughly 400 miles from St. Louis to do so. We go to the mixing yard, but the truck is not there yet. On the off chance that the truck does not show up to the mixing center before 6 pm, Randy has gotten us lodging at Harrah’s on the river. We go there for lunch, which Randy insists on buying.
After lunch, Randy pulls out his computer and cell phone and goes to work on tracking down my truck. He calls a half dozen people, and finally gets in touch with a guy at the transport company who affirms that the truck should be there today. We go down the the mixing yard and literally camp out at the entrance. The yard closes at 6, and at 4:30 we decide to go grab a cup of coffee and then come back. I’m nervous as hell at this point.
On the way to get coffee, we pass a car hauler going the opposite direction. On the back, a beautiful sight: a silver Raptor Super Crew! Randy busts an immediate U turn, and we chase the transporter back to the yard.
Once the truck is unloaded, Randy gets the truck released from the yard. We do a quick walkaround to make sure there is no shipping damage, and then I follow Randy over to a gas station to do the PDI.
While there, Randy calls his buddy who works for the airlines, and gets my brother a ticket for that night to fly to Denver to meet me so that I have a co-driver for the ride home. I’ll drive across Kansas solo, but I’ll have my brother to drive the rest of the distance. That turns out to be a Godsend as the weather in the Rockies turns out to be brutal.
Randy puts a full tank of gas in the truck, installs the bed-extender that he had ordered for the truck, helps pull all the plastic out, install the floor mats, answers questions re the nav, and whatever else, and gives some tips for the best places to stop on the drive home (he’s a former trucker, and his knowledge of the interstate system is impressive to say the least), and I was off on the journey home. That was not the last I heard from Randy that night though, as he called me around 2:00 a.m to make sure that the drive across Kansas was going well, to see if I was tired and needed someone to talk to to keep me awake, and to offer advice as to where the good exits were to grab a bite to eat.
So, in summary, I cannot speak highly enough about Randy. I don’t know how much Randy makes on a deal like mine, but I have a very hard time believing that it’s enough to see much of a profit after all he did. In fact, if you factor all the time, effort, and fuel he put into the deal, I’d guess he saw a net loss. He worked harder than I would ever have expected anyone to--especially given that he had informed me right up front (in September) that the truck might well not be here by the end of the year, and thus he had no obligation to get it to me by then. He was honest, forthright, and genuinely cared that I, as the customer, was taken care of. On top of that he’s a heck of a nice guy, and having gotten to know him I consider him a genuine friend. In summary, if you’re in the market for a vehicle and Randy can get it for you, go with him--you won’t be sorry.
And Randy, if you’re reading this, I’ll say it one more time: THANK YOU!
In September of 2010, I decided to buy a Raptor. My brother (Droid) had already decided to do the same, and had done the research and found that the most straightforward deal around seemed to be to go thru Randy, who would order the truck and sell it at $3,000.00 under MSRP. Randy’s dealership is in Pouteau, OK, but his deal included delivery to my door in CA.
I spoke to Randy over the phone and he had a truck that was exactly what I wanted already in the order bank, which he put my name on. I informed him that I needed the truck before the end of the year, and Randy told me right up front that he would not be able to guarantee that as Ford was not beginning production of the 2011 trucks until very late in the year, but that he’d do his best. As a note, this was the rule with Randy--he was an absolute straight-shooter from start to finish. He never made any promise unless he was sure he could keep it, and gave me the progress (or more commonly lack of progress due to Ford’s hold on the trucks) reports without any varnish or BS.
About a week after I ordered my truck, Randy called to tell me that he had an order that was ahead of mine open up as the customer who had ordered that truck backed out. The truck was identical to mine save for the lack of a tailgate step, but it had a VIN and a build date. I told Randy to put my name on it, and he did. Things were going well, as the truck was to be build on November 15. What could go wrong? As it would turn out-plenty.
The truck was built on time, but then didn’t ship. Ford was closed-mouthed about what was going on to delay the shipment of the trucks, and wouldn’t say when they would ship. As we got toward mid-December, I was getting very nervous. Randy was calling everyone he knew of at Ford, but getting no information.
The week of Christmas rolls around and still no movement. Randy still cannot get any answers out of Ford. So what does he do? While delivering a truck in Ohio, HE DRIVES 400+ MILES OUT OF HIS WAY AND SHOWS UP AT DEARBORN WITH A TRAILER trying to get them to release my truck and my brother’s truck. Ford won’t give him the trucks, but he does manage to get an answer as to what the holdup is (the BCM hold) and then makes nice with the folks at Jack Cooper Transport, getting them to mark my truck and Droid’s as ‘hot’ so that when they are released, they will go right on the truck for shipping to the next stop in the delivery chain, the Kansas City mixing yard (trucks go from Dearborn to the mixing center, and from there are distributed to dealers across the country).
Randy is burning up the phones trying to see when my truck will be released, and finally, on Christmas Eve, he is told that my truck is on a carrier headed to Kansas City. I need to have the truck in service before the end of the year, and there is no way it can be shipped to California in that time. I make arrangements to come to Kansas to pick it up, as Randy has managed to befriend the folks at the mixing yard and can get it released to me there. Had Randy not managed to pull that one off, I’d be screwed.
Unfortunately, my brother’s truck is nowhere to be found. As such, he tells Randy he is going to buy one in California. Randy is beyond gracious about this, and even offers him some tips on what to look for to make sure that the deal he’s getting is a straight one.
Randy offers to get me a plane ticket to Kansas City, as he has a friend that works for the airlines who can get a buddy pass, but the flight runs through Denver and I’m concerned about the weather. Southwest has a cheap nonstop so I take that instead.
On arrival to Kansas City, Randy picks me up from the airport. He has driven roughly 400 miles from St. Louis to do so. We go to the mixing yard, but the truck is not there yet. On the off chance that the truck does not show up to the mixing center before 6 pm, Randy has gotten us lodging at Harrah’s on the river. We go there for lunch, which Randy insists on buying.
After lunch, Randy pulls out his computer and cell phone and goes to work on tracking down my truck. He calls a half dozen people, and finally gets in touch with a guy at the transport company who affirms that the truck should be there today. We go down the the mixing yard and literally camp out at the entrance. The yard closes at 6, and at 4:30 we decide to go grab a cup of coffee and then come back. I’m nervous as hell at this point.
On the way to get coffee, we pass a car hauler going the opposite direction. On the back, a beautiful sight: a silver Raptor Super Crew! Randy busts an immediate U turn, and we chase the transporter back to the yard.
Once the truck is unloaded, Randy gets the truck released from the yard. We do a quick walkaround to make sure there is no shipping damage, and then I follow Randy over to a gas station to do the PDI.
While there, Randy calls his buddy who works for the airlines, and gets my brother a ticket for that night to fly to Denver to meet me so that I have a co-driver for the ride home. I’ll drive across Kansas solo, but I’ll have my brother to drive the rest of the distance. That turns out to be a Godsend as the weather in the Rockies turns out to be brutal.
Randy puts a full tank of gas in the truck, installs the bed-extender that he had ordered for the truck, helps pull all the plastic out, install the floor mats, answers questions re the nav, and whatever else, and gives some tips for the best places to stop on the drive home (he’s a former trucker, and his knowledge of the interstate system is impressive to say the least), and I was off on the journey home. That was not the last I heard from Randy that night though, as he called me around 2:00 a.m to make sure that the drive across Kansas was going well, to see if I was tired and needed someone to talk to to keep me awake, and to offer advice as to where the good exits were to grab a bite to eat.
So, in summary, I cannot speak highly enough about Randy. I don’t know how much Randy makes on a deal like mine, but I have a very hard time believing that it’s enough to see much of a profit after all he did. In fact, if you factor all the time, effort, and fuel he put into the deal, I’d guess he saw a net loss. He worked harder than I would ever have expected anyone to--especially given that he had informed me right up front (in September) that the truck might well not be here by the end of the year, and thus he had no obligation to get it to me by then. He was honest, forthright, and genuinely cared that I, as the customer, was taken care of. On top of that he’s a heck of a nice guy, and having gotten to know him I consider him a genuine friend. In summary, if you’re in the market for a vehicle and Randy can get it for you, go with him--you won’t be sorry.
And Randy, if you’re reading this, I’ll say it one more time: THANK YOU!
