Z356

Indeed some of you have contacted me recently, sending me private messages & emails with your questions. Sorry, but since mid-September I have stop posting any additional information on this thread. Let me tell you why. I wrote all of these posts from my own personal experiences with custom ordering (& buying) Porsches in recent years - e.g. a Paint-to-Sample 2007 'Signal Green' 997S and a 2012 'Aqua Blue' Spyder. Yet it came a point in the effort where I needed 'Porsche Exclusive" to inform me (so I could communicated to all of you) how they would handle options like deviating stitching & leather to sample in the new 981 and 991 models! So I asked Sascha Glaeser a number questions in a nice, courteous email sent to his 'Porsche Exclusive' office in Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, CA.

Instead of supplying me with the information, he told me 'Porsche Exclusive' had NO time to answer these questions in any great detail! A surprising response for someone who had been trying very hard to help them market their little known 'Porsche Exclusive' services in the United States, something most dealers don't know or care too much about! As of early September (last time I counted) since starting this thread in late July, my 'Custom Ordering a 981/991, Porsche Exclusive and You' threads at Teamspeed, Rennlist and 6Speed had received over 20K individual views, a fantastic result for which Porsche Exclusive, PCNA & PAG should have been ecstatic! So I said f**k them & I have stopped posting. I have also cancelled my PTS 991 order with a US Porsche dealer. A bit of capitalist 'tough love', I know, but I feel just fine about it. Frankly, I am not very optimistic about the direction Porsche is taking or confident in the personnel they have hired to accomplish that mission! But it's their business...and I will take mine elsewhere!

I want to thank all for the great comments and encouragement I received from Rennlist members during the two months I posted in this thread! I tried my best to inform the enthusiast Porsche forum community re: this niche business in custom-ordering a 991 or 981, especially to prevent 'avoidable' errors and pitfalls. Hope someone else now carries the torch. Good luck in all your automotive endeavors in the future!

Saludos & Happy Holidays,
Eduardo

GoGoSA991

Sorry to hear you canceling your order. Terrible to hear the treatment you received. I hope they can make amends.

More importantly, this is a wonderful thread and thank you for the time and effort.

Cheers and have a terrible 2013!

-TLG

Nine Nine One

First off this thread helped me a ton spec my custom C2S -thanks a ton for doing this. I had a similar experience with Sascha who would respond sporadically to emails and did not want to speak on the phone. Since I am not a great typist I had thought the phone would be easier. Then someome on this Forum gave me the other Porsche Exclusive person, Melissa. It was night and day different. She was very responsive and even called me to discuss various options. She indicated that Sascha has to travel a lot even overseas and is not as available. But, to me, there is no excuse for not returning emais.

Again, thanks for this thread it helped me a lot. Rob

ww007

Sorry to hear you leave Eduardo. I read through this entire thread and found your postings to be very informative as well.

Just wanted to say, though, that my experience with Sascha has been nothing but positive. I scheduled an appointment to meet with him at his Beverly Hills office and he was extremely helpful in explaining the options to me in great detail. He was very knowledgeable and courteous in assisting me with my build.

I also know that my dealer in LA was in constant contact with him, asking him things that my dealer didn't know himself. Sascha was also in Germany for a week prior my meeting with him (otherwise I would've met with him a week sooner). My point is that he probably has other commitments and obligations to attend to, which is essentially what Melissa told Nine Nine One. The few times that I did email or call him, he responded quite promptly.

Anyway best of luck to you Eduardo and I hope you have a better experience with whichever car company you end up going with. Your postings will be missed.

DBYT

Rob,
Glad that Melissa was able to help you out. She was very helpful and responsive with me, that's why I passed on her contact details to you.


Eduardo,
Very sorry to hear of your negative experience with Exclusiv. Thank you for all the information you have posted over the months, it was of tremendous value to many members who were in the process of building their custom 991s.

Best of luck
Darren

Rushman71

I forwarded this thread to Porsche NA.

chuck911

What a total shame, Z. Disillusionment is the worst, but looking at your extensive list of past Porsches I'm sure you'll recover some before too long and be back to loving the marque. I know we all hope so. Meantime, a big Thank You for your efforts.

Z356

Thank you Rennlisters for all for your kind words. Sorry to have to say but I believe today's PAG and PCNA will not give a hoot about this thread one way or another! Sascha is not a bad person. I have even met his lovely wife Juli & their beautiful child Linus at the Parade in Salt Lake City this year! And he was helpful with my custom order on the MY2012 Spyder. Melissa is a fine person too, whom I met at The Quail Porsche Zentrum last August. But I don't think they fully 'get it'. They both proudly told me they never read any posting at forums such as Rennlist, Teamspeed and 6Speed! They wear this 'inattentive to the concerns of their customers' as a Red Badge of Courage and it might perhaps be a PCNA directive! In this internet age, that mindset is suicidal! BMW USA has a full time employee monitoring all BMW enthusiast websites and actively engages customers when they post of complaints or issues with their vehicle or service!

My first true love was Porsche and one never forgets their first romantic love affair! I have visited Zuffenhausen over 15 times, done two Porsche European deliveries and three PCA Treffens! I was part of a team racing a factory 944 Turbo in SCCA showroom stock (Playboy/Escort Series) and have enjoyed a varied & diversified experience with Porsche cars since I graduated from Penn in 1972! I am not leaving Porsche...they are leaving me!

Saludos,
Eduardo

PS Attached are a few photos of me in 1981 with Ferry & Dorothea, plus the legendary 'oldtimer' Porsche sales manager - Lars Schmidt! My hair is now a nice elegant shade of 'Grecian Formula' Grey to match the patina of the rich Corinthian Leather in my daily driver - a 1975 Chrysler Cordoba!

sfo

try getting a Porsche Exclusive contact in Zuffenhausen itself

Z356

I have met in person the head of the 'Porsche Exclusive' department during Rennsport IV here in Carmel and one of the deputy heads of that same department at the PCA Salt Lake City Parade last summer! Both of them are based in Zuffenhausen. In fact, I was introduced to them by Sascha himself! Before I met Sascha at the 2010 LA Auto Show, I was exclusively dealing directly with 'Porsche Exclusive' in Germany and they were very helpful!

Personally, I don't think its necessary to contact them and complain about what I think their representative is doing right or wrong here in the US. I fully believe that Sascha has the full support and confidence of Zuffenhausen! He worked there at 'Porsche Exclusive' for years and was successful enough to get this wonderful gig on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills! Melissa was hired stateside to be his assistant in the East Coast. So I am not going to go behind Sascha's back and undermine him! If Sascha HIMSELF can NOT see how this thread was helping him, Melissa and their prospective Porsche clients in this market with their business mission, there is nothing else to say! He is an adult professional and so is Melissa. I will treat them as such and accept their decision not to fully cooperate with this project, for whatever reason they have chosen NOT to do so. These are basic rules of business I learned early on at Wharton and continue to believe in them to this day!

Saludos,
Eduardo

Navy CDR

As I stated in my first post, the dealership really did not understand the Porsche Exclusive program. All they would do is go to their company version of the configurator. With me using Z356 thread on custom ordering I was able to ask specific questions which made it much easier on Melissa to help me.

She had help in producing 4 interiors using photoshop and then after my wife and I selected one she provided all the correct option codes for me to give to the dealership. I do not think anyone at the dealership could have done the same thing.

You have done the Porsche company a true service for their business and I regret that one person, for whatever reason, was short with you.

Porsche is a niche car company with a tremendous following of staunch supporters. The company cannot afford poor publicity within that cadre of folks.

Thank you again for your thread and how it gave me the confidence to order a car right out of my imagination and not the brochure.

Bob Rouleau

I met Melissa at the 918 introduction. She did an excellent presentation and was very well informed. She is out of the NY/NJ office. I suspect that for a while the Exclusive offices are very preoccupied with 918 orders since on a car costing $885,000 there will be a lot of customization. Perhaps just a timing issue, since I bet they had to spend a lot of time with the factory to sort out the huge number of custom options available. In the Exclusive centers (NY and Beverly Hills) they even have samples and as Melissa described a very fancy software program which allows a prospective buyer to see in a lot of detail what the options will look like on his or her car. Note that I don't know how many 918 intro sessions are scheduled in the USA but Melissa and or Sacha are part of them which may prevent them being as responsive as one might like.

Oh, and yes, PCNA does read Rennlist - closely

Best,

ADias

I fully agree. I've met Sascha several times and he is a courteous and very helpful individual. His role is to engage with specific customers on an appointment basis and it is understandable that time is at a premium giving his demand, especially for high-value projects as Bob points out. Nobody should expect complete undivided attention all the time or to redefine the terms of someone's job.

jmct

That's not what Z356 said, not even close.

The staff Z356 spoke to could have offered to follow up when they have more time, referred him to someone else, asked PAG for some resources to help him, etc.

Very boneheaded decision from them to answer such a lifelong enthusiast this way.

I'm not giving up the brand for the ignorance of a few staff, but let's call a spade a spade, it was foolish of them.

redantporsche

Eduardo, that is really sad to hear. It was because of this thread I went ahead with my Panamera GTS PTS in Mexico Blue. The car turned out great and surely it is good advertising for Porsche.