Selling cars is certainly a strange world. Since Christmas me and my wife have received at 6 pieces of mail between Audi and Toyota and some from our local Ford main dealer. We have also both had a phone call from the dealership we bought our car from.
If they are trying so hard for sales why can't they do a simple deal?
Last weekend some friends went looking for a replacement for their VW which is almost three years old. They found a BMW they liked, a year old and well below list. The BMW dealer offered £11,500 for their car - this wasn't miles fom what they expected, but pushed and this was upped to £12,000 without any hesitation. They left at that point as they were considering other cars.
They then went to the dealer who supplied their VW with a view to buying a brand new car. Sales staff went and looked and came back with a glowing report about how well specced it was, well looked after etc etc. Sat down and were offered £9,000 and no discount on the new car. This same dealership had a similar car to theirs, same age but much lower spec on the forecourt at £15,999.
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Ubi, you could also try uknewcars.com. I bought my Honda from then on PCP three years ago, and it was a painless and efficient process. Well, it was once I had decided what I wanted and hunted around for bargains anyway. Very easy to deal with. (And no, no connection other than as a customer).
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I've had some bizarre experiences at dealers recently.
VW - Possibly the most arrogant individual I have met, refused to quote me on the finance package i needed, only the one he wanted me to have. I asked him four times before he budged. They had just sold the remaining model that I was interested in. Despite having several at other dealers in their chain, persisted in quoting me on cars they had in stock which were neither the model or spec i was interested in.
I'm still scratching my head as to how or why this person is employed by VW?!?
Mazda - Test drive booked, I turned up on time on for the salesman to breeze past & speak to a smart looking couple with a baby. I asked at reception for the salesman as I had a test drive only to be told 'have a coffee he will be with you in a minute`. He wasn't, 20 minutes later I walked over the road to a Honda dealership & had a very pleasant time discussing various finance deals on offer with the attentive staff.
I shall be be returning to Honda on Friday.
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Until recently I worked in a car dealer. The salesmen there (I worked in service), and I suspect everywhere, are not interested in what the customer wants. They earn their commission selling add-ons, finance packages et al that are pushed on them by the company that owns them, or senior management if it's a "family-run" dealership. There is, due to the stupid way things are run, NO incentive to help find a car spec that a customer wants. The same thing operates in service: I had a customer screaming at me as I couldn't get him a courtesy car. He kept asking, and I must say I agree, "you're part of a huge group, ring the other dealers in the group" and I had to fob him off. Why? Because we are in competition with other dealers in the group and they have carte blanche to charge more or less whatever they like to "lend" us a car. There is NO good-feeling between dealers in the same group. It's often more important to beat the dealers in the same group than it is to beat other dealers.... oh, and by the way, if you've ever wondered if dealers lie, cheat and steal to get custom, extended warranties then yes they do. Do they lie about damage caused by their drivers and mechanics (sorry, technicians)? Yes, they do. Do they routinely quote over the odds for service and then magically lower the price? Yes, they do.
I hope they ALL go bust in these economic conditions quite frankly. It may level the playing-field. I for one would never ever buy a car from a main dealer after my experiences.
Oh, and one last thing. Car salesmen are VILE. Odious, patronising, lying, arrogant toe-rags. They treat the rest of the dealership like dirt, and think that their "profession" is somehow important.... despite most of them being ill-educated and narrow-minded (example: male customer (musician, it turned out) with slightly longer than average hair: hippy gay ****.... female customer with short hair: lezzer etc. etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum).
To say I am glad to be out is an understatement... .although if anyone has any jobs going, please let me know!! : )
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an interesting, if rather embittered, picture of life with a main dealer (as you see it) ... a thought as to your last bit, asking for potential employers to get in touch: it might help if you had had found a few positive points to include in your rant, too, StevieD. Were there any?
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I was kind of joking about the employment bit..... but, nevertheless, El Hacko, a fair and valid point. Were there any positive points? The people in my department were great. Nice, good people. The job taught me how to work in a difficult environment, and I learned a lot about how customers perception is very different to reality... although not sure if that's good or not in a lot of ways!
By the way, interesting point from a contributor re the Subaru dealer Alderley Edge way, I too have heard good things about it. I think that these smaller dealerships may get the upper hand in a lot of areas.. there's a couple my way that I am hearing good reports about. Hopefully the recession (the term 'credit crunch' has to be passé now?!) will do some good in this respect.
Oh, I have just realised I may NOT be joking re employment... the reason I am posting at this hour is that I am working nights and have just come in!!! : )
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I think the point about salespeople could apply equally to any industry. The industry I work in is completely unrelated, yet I recognise some of the character traits you describe. Many salespeople are not like this though, and in my experience, it's usually the better ones. The less able tend to be all bravado, self importance and bull plop in an effort to make up for their shortcomings.
I was in the motor trade for 18 months selling new Fords as my first job, and I rate it as a valuable life experience, which got me access to some lovely cars (how many 19 year olds could say they've legally driven examples of most cars under £40k on the market?), and allowed me to meet some real characters. I was quite good at it, and met or exceeded my targets every month. Unfortunately, the hours and the pressure (which as you say is in direct contravention of customer interest) were never going to make it a long term choice. I also hate lying to people.
Final straw for me was when management in its infinite wisdom implemented a new policy for customer enquiries. A customer would call in to ask about a used car, and would be routed to a special recorded (for training purposes) phone which we would answer in turn. We were supposed to follow a script to basically lie to the customer about what cars we had in stock just to get them in to see us. In other words, a customer would call wanting a used Mondeo between £10000 and £12000 in a specific spec and colour, and we'd say "we have several cars in stock just like you mention" and then pin them down to an appointment so we could sell them something else.
Each month, a training company would review the recordings, and see us individually to critique them. That was when I called it a day. What a start to a relationship with a customer - getting them into the dealership for a car that doesn't exist. People understandably got angry when they realised they'd been lied to (well, if you actually looked at the wording, it wasn't technically lying, but if it happened to me, I'd call it lying) and walked out vowing never to deal with us again. I heard through friends still working there it was dropped after a further six months!
I never regretted working in the motor trade, but I'm glad I got out, even before this recession bit!
Cheers
DP
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Does any one remember a great blue oval dealership scandal of about 25 years ago.
? It happened in the North West and was exposed in a Sunday newspaper.
In a nut shell. Couple / family would go in to a room with the sales person to talk figures.
During the uming and ahring the sales person would suggest leaving the buyers to talk between themselves. What in fact happened was the room was bugged and the sales person would sit elsewhere listening whilst the hapless buyers discussed how much they could really afford in terms of monthly payments, extras for the car.
Sales staff would then return armed with knowledge that would help gain the dealership maximum bucks.
Whole thing was discovered when some child playing on the floor whilst family discussed money, pulled out wires from under desk with microphone dangling from them.
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would sit elsewhere listening whilst the hapless buyers discussed how much they could really afford
We get the car dealers we deserve. If people would organise themselves to fight back against malpractice the car sales and service sector would be forced to gradually respond or be renewed with more customer facing practitioners.
If you have incurred the cost and time of travelling miles to a dealership on the basis of information deliberately falsified for that purpose, you may have been defrauded. Raise an action in the small claims courts. If two of you were given that false information, then that is corroboration.
Beat a path to the Trading Standards Office about shoddy sales or servicing standards. Don't imagine that because it is a national chain you'll be ignored. The bigger the better.
Pool your experiences. With enough evidence a national newspaper will be delighted to carry the story. The prospect of 4m potential customers reading about a dealer con in a Sunday scandal sheet is enough to kill off many a franchise overnight. It's a brave replacement indeed which would pull the same stunt.
Fight back. If you shrug your shoulders and accept that it's your lot to be the mug and theirs to seize your cash there is absolutely no incentive for them to improve.
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good man, knew you were a decent chap, really - I reckon your experience of people and business has stood you in good stead for life's next chapter. Best of luck in your job hunt ... presumably outside the trade. And stay positive!
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Thanks for those comments, much appreciated, and yes, I am hunting outside of the trade!! : ) Despite my passable impression of Bernard Black on here, I am actually a very positive person.... I just like a good moan!!
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I would have to agree.. SOME dealers are just like stevied describes...
not all I must add, any I have had the misfortune to work for, I have found alternative employment ASAP.
Unfortunately as I see it now, it is the dodgy trading practices that are keeping companies afloat
If I could, I would get out the trade right now - today has not been a good day - I wish I could say why, but feel if I did, my employment could very quickly be terminated.... Lets just say, my conscience remains clean, where other peoples dont.
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I have bought three new cars in my life;; two in the 1980s and one in 2004. The ones in the 1980s were dreadful; as Stevied says, lying toerags. We bought the Hyundai in 2004 from a local group with about ten outlets. Very straightforward to deal with and when we popped in recently, similarly helpful.
I have also bought second cars from 'main dealers' and have generally found that if you want an unusual make, then the dealers are superb and would strongly recommend the Subaru dealer in Alderely Edge (Monks Heath) as the best example of customer service. The experiences of going into a VW or Audi dealership over the last decade have been too woeful to describe accurately..........
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I remember working for a Big 4 accountancy firm and going to a client meeting with a partner. The partner proceeded to tell the client a complete load of nonsense - all technically wrong. Promised him things that were impossible.
Client went away with big smile on face, partner got more business. Impossible things were never delivered - my job.
It's not just car salesmen.
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