Well, we've finally bought a new car. It was a toss-up between a new one from New-Car Discount who provided a very good price against the other brokers I looked at and a delivery miles pre-reg from a dealer. My wife decided she didn't want to wait 10 weeks for a new one so we've gone for the pre-reg. I found the car at a dealer 10 miles away, but having been in to our local franchise to get a quote we thought we'd give them one last chance. Dealer simply couldn't be bothered to look on the computer to see if there were any cars matching our needs and told us there weren't any fitting that description.
It seemed a bit churlish to point out there was one half an hour away so we smiled and walked away. I wonder how many cars they have sold this weekend to make them so chuffing lazy!
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I rang the service manager of a very large and well known VW dealer to discuss a warranty issue on a new car. I called more than 10 times over a 4 day period leaving umpteen messages to the (repeated) embarrassment of his secretary. He never returned my call and so I arranged for the work to be carried out at a very helpful competitor even though it was over 100 miles out of my way.
My experience means I will never ever do business with that company and will pass the message on to as many of my friends, colleagues and customers as will listen.
They say it costs four times as much to attract a new customer than to retain them. A shame the "manager" of this dealership showed so little respect to his customers and gets my award for the World's laziest dealer!
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Shame on him, these people need a very sharp wake-up call to reality.
It maketh my blood boil!!
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn/problems.msnw?Page=1 - Pictures say a thousand words.....
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I guess a lot of main dealers aren't really bothered by the type of people who know that car brokers/supermarkets exist. That's not the market that they want to cater for and they possibly know that they can never really compete price-wise so theres little point trying. Fortunately (for them) there are plenty of people out there who will go straight to a main dealer simply because they have the local presence.
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...or are they becoming lazy because they can rely on fleet sales and know that the "users" of these cars will be tied to them for servicing?
Private motorist loses out once again as dealer attitudes slip?
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A friend of mine (sadly killed in an RTA just over a year ago) had worked as a salesman at the local (and very large) BMW main dealer since 1995. He was not at all interested in private buyers, especially not those who wanted to haggle or wanted test drives etc etc. If they came in with a bag full of cash (which occasionally did happen, so he told me) then he would 'help them out' and source a car to the spec. they wanted. His main interest was in business customers - these were the ones that brought in the money.
To give you some idea of his income, he lived in a large 6-bed house in a very nice area not too far from me. At the time of the RTA he was just in the process of buying his own independent motor outlet.
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Well economies of scale....
Who gets priority in a showroom, a company that turns over 8 top end 3 series cars, 4 compacts and couple of Minis over a three year period ? Or a private punter who may buy one car, may be a timewaster or may never return because the dealer "forgot to fill the washer bottle". Our company was the first type. But it would appear that we may end up being private buyers before long I wonder what kind of service we get then ?
Mind you I can't argue with the same dealer who has provided me with freebie rides in his best demos over the last few years and actually lent me five last weekend knowing the change in circumstances.
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Whenever I am thinking of a newer Peugeot I go to our nearest dealership, about 5 miles away across the river. I am on first-name terms with one of the salesmen, but I haven't bought a car from there since they were BL dealers about 25 years ago - though funnily enough I did buy a 205 from this guy 10 years ago when he worked at a Rover dealer down the road. I can always find a better deal somewhere (almost anywhere) else. I can only assume that they rely on regular customers who can't be bothered to shop around.
I do buy the occasional spare part there, but I can also get much cheaper oil/filter from the dealer 12 miles in the other direction.
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Having worked for several years in (technical) sales, I always treated every single customer with the same respect whether they were spending £500 or £1,000,000. In my industry reputation was very important and word of mouth was one of the best sources for new business. At the bottom end of the food chain, many sales people are so short sighted they lose the opportunity to feather their own nests and deserve to be scrubbing around the sad end of the business whatever product they are employed to sell.
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One of the reasons I've run a succcesion of Suzukis. Exemplary customer service, even on things that aren't even their problem. Wide acceptance on stuff as warranty claims even stuff that other manufacturers would have forced as fair wear & tear.
Jim
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Compare the following dealerships visited during my time spent deciding what should replace a BMW 530i:
(i) Local Merc garage: 4 visits and 6 phone calls over 9 months required in order to elicit a 15 minute test drive in an E320CDi. Each time: "We don't have one here now but *one is coming soon/one is at our sister dealership/one is on loan and will be back soon (*delete as applicable) and we'll call you to arrange a test drive.
(ii) Saab: excellent website with the opportunity to request a brochure and a callback from the local dealer, both promised within 48 hours. The brochure arrived two weeks later. I'm still waiting to hear from the dealer 2 months later. If they can't deliver a paper brochure on time then I'm seriously worried about their ability to deliver a car on time....
(iii) BMW: I live near to one dealer and roughly half way between two others. All three offered test drives there and then. One offered a 24 hour test which the nearest one agreed to match when asked, even though I admitted I'd play them off against each other.
Any guesses what I ordered?
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Nissan once gave me a *7 day* test drive of a Primera as a prospective company car.
I didn't pick it in the end, but since then my father has purchased two Nissans (1 new, 1 ex-dem) in part because of the good service I received.
What goes around comes around...
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patently - >we'll call you to .. < I have found very very few dealers where this phrase ever means an intention to do anything at all, certainly not within a week or two. Occasionally I am surprised by a call a month later, presumably because things have gone VERY quiet or the boss has asked for some action.
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Went into Epsom Audi on Sat, told em what I was looking for (A3, 5 door with tiptronic) - "No we haven't got anything like that at the mo...."
Should I be amazed that there was not even an offer to take my details and keep me on file, or cast around on my behalf?
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Went into Epsom Audi on Sat, told em what I was looking for (A3, 5 door with tiptronic) - "No we haven't got anything like that at the mo...." Should I be amazed that there was not even an offer to take my details and keep me on file, or cast around on my behalf?
No, because they can sell their quota without needing to sell one to you.
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silly, naive me then ... thanks for confirmation, Aprilia
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Hmm I have had rather differing experiences..
sold my A4 2 years ago.. still get regular mailshots/Audi magazine, offers..
Bought Ford: get regular offers, servicing reminders etc.
Quite satisfied: mind you looked at lotsof garages where I never bought anything so maybe I selected on basis of future service?
Agree with the points made about shortsightednes... BMW dealers have always given good service and selesmen were polite attentive etc.. useful for expanding customer base when Mini came along?
madf
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First impressions of a company are what matter to me, and (I suspect) to most potential buyers - I would not go back. It would have taken but an extra couple of mins for them to go thru the motions of making an effort, even if it turned out to be an academic exercise. Take a lesson from the Tesco work ethic: Totally Customer-Focused.
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I can't help thinking dealers are shooting themselves in the foot by ignoring/being unhelpful to private customers in favour of increased short term profit from businesses.
A friend of a friend once went to buy a new car from a dealer - who was basically very unhelpful indeed. Consequently, when his company then asked him to source 20 vehicles for them, you can guess where he didn't go...
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I found an Audi in East London that I was interested in but because I live in West London I thought that I would give my local dealer a call.
They were having a power cut so took my details down and of course no call from the salesman (as I think he thought I wasn't spending enough!!). Went in there the other day on a warranty matter and told them this and my, my weren't they sorry!
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