Sandy wrote:Omni(s) ... 'Ya, right ! $ 30.00 commission (GROSS) and the Omni customer was the poster-child for PITA! Only one worse was the first 2 to 3 years of the Minivan (Caravan) customers ! If I had ten bucks for everytime I folded and re-folded and removed & replaced those freakin' seats, I'd be a millionaire + Seats in - seats out & answer 1,001 question from the Mrs, while the little brats ran UNcontrolled all around the showroom bangin' into stuff, under the nose of a totaly oblivious Mother, who then wanted a DEMO ride and and and and finally a price. Followed by a "Thank You" - 2 days later ya call em up to see what's doing and they inform you that they bought it at Hickory dickery Dock Dodge for $27.88 cents less, but "Thank you for explaining it all to us" ~ ~
'Ya, the Caravan buyer ! Trading in a 185,000 mile VW Rabbit and wanting FULL retail value for it. Loved 'em ... 'Ya, Right !
I am all too familiar with that story and I have a similar one that basically was the “straw that broke the camels back” for my brief career as a car salesman.
A good friend of mine that I had went to high school with and was still in contact with on a regular basis walked into the dealership one day saying he wanted to buy a new Ranger STX 4X4. He had done his homework and knew the options well and wanted to know how much I would sell him one for.
He worked for a steel supply company and always gave me a deal on anything I needed and I proceeded to give him the best quote I could which I knew he wouldn’t be able to get anywhere around unless they made a “mistake” on their part. The dealership I worked for is a small one and our inventory was also small so we relied on dealer trades quite often to get the customer what they needed. They have been a family owned and run business since 1972 and are known in the area as a very honest dealership so dealer trading was never a problem to do.
Then I got a call from him saying that the “ABC” Ford dealer down the road had an STX truck he wanted on their lot and that they would sell it to him for several hundred less than what I would. I tried to convince him that they are making a “mistake” in their “math” (lying) and that I guarantee that when it comes down to it, they will say that they made a “mistake” and raise their price at the last minute. I told him that when they do that to do me a favor, get up and walk away.
A few days later I called to check up on him and he told me I was right, they did exactly what I said they would and in the end he paid $150 more that what I had quoted him. When I asked him why he didn’t just walk away when it was clear that to them that they had lied to him AND paid more that what he could have bought it from me for. His response was that they told him that I was lying to him too and that since I would have to either order the truck, or dealer trade for one, that I would have to charge extra for that and raise my price to meet their new one anyway. That was of course another lie because we never charged any extra fee to either order a vehicle or dealer trade for one.
Then he said, “Besides, they had a truck sitting on their lot that he could drive away that day.”
Anyway, that day changed my opinion of most people when it comes to buying a car and I decided that it wasn’t the business that I wanted to be in anymore.
I still think however that everyone should try their hand at being a car salesman for a living at least once in their lifetime, it would forever change the way that people treat car salesman and how they buy a car.
Brent
