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November-December 2022 - A Tale of Two Lines

The simple line chart below summarizes the state of affairs regarding allocations, along with our own sentiment regarding receiving our own allocations, towards the end of 2022. The chart has two series: one is the general number of allocations given, as monitored and recorded by us, over time, from online forum activity and posts (the green line). The second series is our "allocation hopefulness sentiment" - the orange line. Both series are graphed over time, from about the start of November to just before the middle of December.

As November 2022 progressed into December 2022, there was a clear inverse relationship between our allocation hopefulness and reported allocations from the forums.

We had been monitoring the forums ever since our initiation of the orders-and-allocation spreadsheet we created by in the spring. We had enough sense of the flow of allocations being given out in order to establish a baseline, which for the longest time was very low (maybe a couple of allocations per month across all the countries we had data for). But around the beginning of November, we noticed an uptick in online forum users reporting that they had finally received their allocations. Mostly the allocations are in the U.S. Then around the start of December we start to see Canadian users posting news of their allocations. Exciting for them. Bittersweet for us, though.

All throughout this period, our enthusiasm and hope for receiving our own allocations was on a long downward slope. We were at a fizzy high in the days after our late October Porsche Centre London visit, but we hadn't heard a word from them since, and now, six weeks later, hearing about all of these Canadian allocations starting to drop, we were starting to feel that same hopelessness and powerlessness that we'd felt earlier in the year. The promised update from Paul Renaud at our local Mark Motors never came, highlighting in our minds the sense that the sales staff at dealerships was just not that motivated to keep their word, especially if there was no immediate and direct financial benefit involved.

By the second week of December, we were into frazzled territory again:

From: Luke Ward 12/8/2022, 2:42:30 PM
Another business day goes by with deafening silence from PL.

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/8/2022, 4:49:01 PM
deafening, yes. how hard could it be to reach out.

[ ...]

From: Luke Ward 12/12/2022, 5:15:50 PM
Wonder if we should arrange a call with Christina just to refresh our faces with her? Remind her we are here?

From: Luke Ward 12/12/2022, 6:10:04 PM
I guess what I am feeling is the need to get in front of them again

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/12/2022, 6:12:08 PM
I dunno - at some point we're going to have to go down there and say "look you guys.... this is getting pretty ridiculous. We're having a hard time understanding how we can be going this long without a REAL sense of the timeline, and you telling us that Porsche tells you nothing is not an acceptable answer. We are starting to get pretty frustrated."

From: Luke Ward 12/12/2022, 6:12:12 PM
So talking with them and having them say "ya look, we've still not heard anything about allocations guys" Is at least positive information. As opposed to no information

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/12/2022, 6:13:08 PM
it's not even about having allocations. It's about having the decency to tell us, straight up, WHEN will the allocations come. I refuse to believe there is not the right set of people somewhere who don't know that. I simply refuse to believe that

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/12/2022, 6:13:49 PM
so we've been patient for a very long time, we're pretty much at the longest wait time for the entire country, and you owe us some info. period.


In the background behind all of the frustrated back-and-forth texting, we are also preparing yet another small upgrade to our builds. We were really liking the Sport Carrera (the big five-spokers, and we'd also heard that the mid-level BOSE audio option had returned, after being unavailable for several months. We also of course were hopeful that us upping our builds yet again would be received as an additional sign of our commitment to our purchases. And I suppose we were also wanting a legitimate pretext to contact them, to try and get an info update from them. So, after nailing down the specifics of our build updates, Luke prepared to send a note to Porsche Centre London. And on December 14, we send the following email to Porsche Centre London:

Hi Christina, Tim, and Steve,

Andrew and I have decided to add two options to our respective orders: the BOSE stereo system, and the silver 20" Carrera Sport Wheels. For convenience, here are our two new Porsche codes that include these two options: Luke: PPXUH2N4 Andrew: PP8Q4Y66 Could you please add each of these options to both of our orders, with confirmation back to us when that is complete?

Thanks, Luke and Andrew

Our expectations were again low:

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 4:07:27 PM
Let's see how they respond....

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 4:10:24 PM
the response should be quick and of the "sir, yes sir" variety
(I mean what I would hope of them)

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 4:10:58 PM
and if we are really lucky, they will think to provide us some news and/or words of encouragement
but I do not expect that, of course

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 4:12:58 PM
I barely expect the former

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 4:13:26 PM
yes I realize our expectations are low

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 4:13:40 PM
It would seem to be the bare minimum

But then, against all hope, not ten minutes later, from Luke: "Well, they have exceeded expectations".

We got a near-immediate response from Steve, the general manager of the dealership. And the last time we got a rapid reply from management, it was good news. This time?

Beautiful! Thanks for the updated build codes. They have now been put in the system.

Thank you.

Very interesting that we got a reply so quickly and confirmation that the builds were updated. It results in a small improvement in our back-and-forth chatter:

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 4:32:34 PM
indeed

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 4:32:43 PM
and I like that it was Steve who responded. And fast. ten minutes
very good
This also all serves as a nice little "hey hey we're still here you know". so that's good

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 4:34:46 PM
Yeah A small effing reminder. But I'll take the crumb.

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 4:35:35 PM
yep. So we now bite our tongues and wait a bit longer.

With this submission of our latest builds, we now look for online examples of what our cars will look like ...

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 6:42:20 PM
I guess this is us now...

With the updated builds we submitted on Dec 14, this is now how we envision our two cars.

Interestingly, only a few hours later, we got another email - this time from the Sales Manager, Tim:

Awesome, thanks guys!

We are working away on things on our end, as always, we appreciate your patience.

We will be in contact.

Tim


Very interesting, we thought. Apart from the fact that the words were friendly and encouraging, it once again hinted at something. Porsche Centre London's policy seemed to be "silence unless good news", and so what did this mean. More speculative chatting between us afterwards:

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 7:45:12 PM
oho - a nice little add on message from Tim. Not news specifically, but a bit of re-affirmation. I appreciate that.

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 9:42:52 PM
Ah yes, nice to hear from Tim. Thanks for replying.

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 9:44:24 PM
What he said is encouraging. If they were planning to skip us, they wouldn't say stuff like that

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 9:44:59 PM
Yes, better than just a "thanks guys". See how little it takes? Jeez

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 9:45:15 PM
I know. Just that little bit from both of them was all it took

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 9:45:32 PM
But yep, I'm feeling a smidgen more enthused.

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 9:46:42 PM
If they were planning on skipping us, then that email would be just an outright lie. Which I don't think they would do.

I don't know exactly what "work" they do, but have to presume that something goes on in the back channels I guess.

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 9:47:15 PM
Right. It hints that they are working the back channels for us yes

From: Andrew Lavigne 12/14/2022, 9:47:42 PM
Advocating. Pressuring. Whatever
Negotiating maybe

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 9:48:19 PM
I will feast on their little crumbs for now.

From: Luke Ward 12/14/2022, 9:48:36 PM
And in the meantime, gaze wistfully at those two photos.
Coz those cars look $#%&-ing gorgeous.
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