Selling your production slot

[ScubaRx]

A few weeks ago an issue came up on Facebook concerning a customer that wanted to sell their production slot to someone else because some unforeseen situation came up and they wanted to cancel their Oliver order. It was requested to be able to do this so that they would not lose their deposit of $1500. The contract had been signed in December of last year.

There was a back and forth discussion on FB with no consensus. I discussed this with Rodney Lomax, and reported back there that it would not be a problem. I got a call from him today and the sales team had examined all the ramifications of doing this and decided that they would not be able to do this now or in the future. The sales staff was in complete agreement that this was NOT a good idea and would only add to their workload while not increasing their compensations. (Personally, I agree with them.)

The reasoning is that the deposit is a good faith promise from the customer to the company that they will buy the trailer. I have included the first paragraph of the contract that is being signed by new customers. It explains the circumstances under which deposits will be forfeited.

Even though the deposit money is eventually applied to the cost of the trailer, it is used immediately to be able to fund the sales team's commissions and the costs of advertising. If the the whole process were to be started over, the sales member would be spending an equal amount of time with the second customer with no compensation. Another issue is the new customer is essentially breaking in line before existing customers who have been waiting their turn.

As we all know, sales are booming in the RV industry and the Oliver team is working very hard to give us the very best trailer on the market. They are doing a Great Job! Let's all thank them for all that they do.

Bold italics are mine...

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE
1. Offer, Governing Provision, and Cancellation: This writing constitutes an offer to purchase by the party
designated as Buyer, identified above, to purchase the products described herein in accordance with the
following terms and conditions. This writing is not an acceptance by Oliver Travel Trailer Sales, Inc. (hereinafter
“Oliver”) of any offer made and acceptance by Oliver of this offer made by Buyer is expressly conditioned upon
Oliver’s signature below and Buyer’s assent to these terms and conditions. Buyer will be deemed to have
assented to these terms and conditions when Buyer signs and delivers this purchase order form, along with an
initial deposit of $2,500.00 to Oliver. Buyer will be given a seven-day (7-day) grace period to cancel the order
and receive a full refund. Cancellation after the seventh day will result in a cancellation fee of $1,500.00 being
retained by Oliver, the cancellation fee will be deducted from the amount of the deposit returned to the Buyer. A
separate cancellation fee, as detailed below, will be applied if the Buyer cancels the order after forty-five days
prior to the production start date.

 

[ChrisMI]

I’m guessing this is for customers who changed their mind between the week after the deposit was placed and before any type of finalizing has occurred for their trailer.  This is a 6ish month long wait period in the middle where very little to almost no sales force time has been spent.  I do not have a problem with this if…

The salesman/company is not allowed to sell that production slot to another buyer.  Instead everyone moves up a couple days and down a hull number.  This means hull number would be released very late in the game.  If the same salesman was able to easily resell that early slot to another buyer I would call that a money grab.

[SeaDawg]

Since this is a fairly rare occurrence,  I don't personally see it as a big issue. 

The Oliver folks have always tried to be very fair, imo, in my 14 years of dealing with the family, and staff.  

A contract is a contract. A slot is a slot. The factory needs a schedule,  too . 

Most manufacturers don't allow selling a slot. Actually,  none that I know of. The contract wording is pretty straightforward and clear.