How to lose a customer, car dealership edition...

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mtuomi

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Well done, unnamed Ford dealer in the Atlanta area (NOT the one run by one of the members here!).
Here's a pro tip on how to lose a customer. Actually, it's not a tip, clearly this dealer already knows how to do this. Call your customer at 8:30PM on Sunday evening. And when that customer (me) says now is not a good time, I'm eating dinner, saying "oh but it will only take a minute" is a pretty damn good way to ensure a) I will hang up the phone and b) I will never buy anything from you. I already dislike unsolicited callbacks, but this one takes the cake...
 
Paid by commission sucks. Try HHgregg vs. BestBuy, walking in the front door is like being attacked by mosquitoes. I will never step foot into HHgregg again.
 
I thought my boss over the past summer was kind of a $%^& when he would answer an unknown number and say "How in the #$$% did you get my number you #$$%^ 2#$%^" and then hangup. Turns out if you cuss at them they put you on a no call list because you abused their employees lol.
 
mtuomi said:
Well done, unnamed Ford dealer in the Atlanta area (NOT the one run by one of the members here!).
Here's a pro tip on how to lose a customer. Actually, it's not a tip, clearly this dealer already knows how to do this. Call your customer at 8:30PM on Sunday evening. And when that customer (me) says now is not a good time, I'm eating dinner, saying "oh but it will only take a minute" is a pretty damn good way to ensure a) I will hang up the phone and b) I will never buy anything from you. I already dislike unsolicited callbacks, but this one takes the cake...
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My folks are to lazy to call that late!! :D:D:D I'd hang up on anyone calling me that late on a Sunday night!
 
What I used to do was answer, then say hold on a minute, lay the phone down, and go on with what I was doing. Couple minutes I'd pick up the phone and hear a dial tone, so they were gone. Worked great.
 
Bought a Tacoma at a Toyota dealership last year and those guys have been harassing me nonstop ever since. I get emails and calls weekly, sometimes daily, reminding me that I'm due for service or telling me about some special they're having. I told them that harassing me was a sure way to lose my business. They didn't stop. So, I blocked their calls and started sending their emails to my spam. Somehow - no idea how - they got my mother's phone number down in TN and they've been calling and harassing her now. wtf.

I want to replace our Honda with a Toyota 4Runner soon, but definitely not taking my business there.
 
The thing that did it for me was that I go through the whole thing, and at the very end, the finance manager comes out and tells me I need to put full coverage insurance on the vehicle. I'm paying in cash. I've never put full coverage insurance on a new vehicle, and I always pay cash. Finance manager explains that they are still liable for the car as it drives off the lot. I explain that he is incorrect.

Okay. Whatever. No big deal, I can change it later as I want. I give USAA a call and give them the VIN and tell them to add it to the policy, full coverage right there in the office. Before I could hang up, the finance manager grabs the phone out of my hand, and says in to the phone, "Is this USAA, and did you add the vehicle to a full coverage policy?" They say yes.

The salesman has this look of horror in his eyes. He spend two hours closing the deal and doing paperworks (so did I for that matter) and now the finance manager pulls a complete, totally a###hole move. Finance manager has this smile that says "my victory, a-hole."

I ripped the papers up right in front of them, and walked out the door. The owner of the dealership received a nice letter explaining how I will never do business with them again as long as that finance manager is still in their employ, and oh by the way neither will our company, and we've bought a few.
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
Bought a Tacoma at a Toyota dealership last year and those guys have been harassing me nonstop ever since. I get emails and calls weekly, sometimes daily, reminding me that I'm due for service or telling me about some special they're having. I told them that harassing me was a sure way to lose my business. They didn't stop. So, I blocked their calls and started sending their emails to my spam. Somehow - no idea how - they got my mother's phone number down in TN and they've been calling and harassing her now. wtf.

I want to replace our Honda with a Toyota 4Runner soon, but definitely not taking my business there.
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There is a fine line between staying in touch and wearing people out, sounds like they are on the wearing people out program! I don't mind a monthly newsletter or email on specials, but I bought some furnace filters and now I get weekly emails reminding me to reorder or change my filters! Once a month is plenty. I bought a replacement slide for our doggy door, I finally blocked them, 2-3 emails a week!
 
How car dealers lose customers is a book the size of the manhattan yellow pages . . . .

The stories are rife - my last one was:

I brought a highly desirable used vehicle [a 2005 ML350 - they convert them into lowriders in the hood in LA - but do I want to deal with that buyer? No] into a local Benz dealer who has used well optioned Mini Countryman my wife wanted. Their opening price was very good - I told them to meet my price for my car, which was KBB blue book used trade in with all the options and mileage. Given that they could easily make $2k on it in less than 48 hours prob - they offered that price.

I told them I'd be back in an hour with the title, and a check. I told the salesman that upon my return they had 30 min to deliver me the car. No BS - no delays - and if we got to 31 I was walking out. I didn't NEED that car that day.

I come back in 55 min -with the title to the ML350 and the check. The Countryman is not detailed yet - still sitting right where I left it.

I walked in - salesman came over and glad handed me as he best friend and said - we will get this done -come see the finance manager. I said - I ok, knowing there was no way.

I sat down - and after the prelims told the guy - print out the paperwork, here is the check, and the title - and if you try to sell me one thing extra Im out of here. He prints everything out - and then can't resist trying to sell me the upgraded warranty. Mind you - the prior owner already BOUGHT a 2 year extended warranty and a 4 year service agreement -but they did not do their homework.

I stood up - picked up the title and the check. Said:"I said - I don't want to be sold anything." Walked out his door. And the Mini was STILL sitting there. Unwashed even.

Salesman came running over - and I said: "30 min, right? Whats up with [the car sitting there.]"

Oh, we don't detail used cars until they are sold - then I said - everything you said was total bullshlt then? Got in my car and drove off.

In an hour the sales manager called and left a message.

The next day the sales manager and the salesman called.

The second day the dealership manager called -

The third day finally the owner called - and wanted to know what went wrong. It was the 30th day of a 31 day month at that point.

So I called him back - and started at the beginning. He said: "we will deliver the car. We will give you free car washes as long as you own it. We will give you oil changes, floors matts, whatever it takes."

I said: "Sure, you can deliver it. And you're gonna bring me a 1.99% finance deal for the balance of the trade, and since I've wasted 2 hours of my life with your BS business practices - you're gonna take another $750 off the car and not give me one bit of lip about about - thats non-negotiable. Yes or No."

We have the car.
 
N747JB said:
There is a fine line between staying in touch and wearing people out, sounds like they are on the wearing people out program! I don't mind a monthly newsletter or email on specials, but I bought some furnace filters and now I get weekly emails reminding me to reorder or change my filters! Once a month is plenty. I bought a replacement slide for our doggy door, I finally blocked them, 2-3 emails a week!
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When I place an order online - there is always a comments section - this is what I say:

"I have placed an order - I have deselected being added to an email list. I do not want any contact except that related to this order.

"Be advised I have a personal unsolicited commercial email policy. This policy include a $500 charge per contact for reading, categorizing, deleting and providing you space on my server. I do not want your marketing emails.

"By sending me unsolicited emails you agree to my policy, which includes costs of collection."

that will generally stop the inclusions in email lists because order departments read the comment - send it to management - who sends it to legal who tells them not to spam me.
 
Sac Arrow said:
The thing that did it for me was that I go through the whole thing, and at the very end, the finance manager comes out and tells me I need to put full coverage insurance on the vehicle. I'm paying in cash. I've never put full coverage insurance on a new vehicle, and I always pay cash. Finance manager explains that they are still liable for the car as it drives off the lot. I explain that he is incorrect.

Okay. Whatever. No big deal, I can change it later as I want. I give USAA a call and give them the VIN and tell them to add it to the policy, full coverage right there in the office. Before I could hang up, the finance manager grabs the phone out of my hand, and says in to the phone, "Is this USAA, and did you add the vehicle to a full coverage policy?" They say yes.

The salesman has this look of horror in his eyes. He spend two hours closing the deal and doing paperworks (so did I for that matter) and now the finance manager pulls a complete, totally a###hole move. Finance manager has this smile that says "my victory, a-hole."

I ripped the papers up right in front of them, and walked out the door. The owner of the dealership received a nice letter explaining how I will never do business with them again as long as that finance manager is still in their employ, and oh by the way neither will our company, and we've bought a few.
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I would've told the finance manager to go to hell at the demand of the insurance change in the first place.

This is part of why I avoid new car dealers. I don't like buying new cars anyway, and all that BS especially gets to me. I do find that American car dealers tend to be worse about this than foreign car dealers, although it might just be the particular dealers I've gone to.

Surprisingly, I have had far fewer problems with used car dealers in this regard. Walk in, this is what I want, buy it, and walk away happy. I also had an easy time when I bought my Dodge Ram (new) in 2004, but went to Texas for that. There's only about a billion truck dealers in Texas (this one was on a corner with 3 other truck dealers on the other 3 corners), so they need to be competitive. The dealer in Indiana where I was living at the time did not have competition and pulled all the standard dirty tricks.
 
Ryanb said:
Paid by commission sucks. Try HHgregg vs. BestBuy, walking in the front door is like being attacked by mosquitoes. I will never step foot into HHgregg again.
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Circut city was the same way, you could see all of those leaches standing by the isle waiting for you to walk into their area so they could pounce on you. When you walked into the front door and look down the store, it looked like a gauntlet. Never stepped foot into that store again.
 
I try to have fun with it. My mobile number is in a SoCal area code (714) and I live in Texas.

Recently I started getting a lot of telemarketing interruptions. Many in Espanol.

Last week it was a carpet cleaning company and they wanted me to press some button if I'd like a call back, so I did it.

Dude calls me about 3 hours later with questions about number and size of rooms, etc. I answered them all and said, when can you be here? He nicely asked for my postal code and then sheepishly says "That's in Texas." I said yes, is that a problem?

Click!

Only problem? Got me thinking about having my carpets cleaned. I'm sure someone will call soon. :)

The other question I enjoy is when they ask if I know who had the number before me. I tell them I have had the same number since 1993 they get pretty quiet. I think some of them were in diapers in 1993.
 
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Acrodustertoo said:
Circut city was the same way, you could see all of those leaches standing by the isle waiting for you to walk into their area so they could pounce on you. When you walked into the front door and look down the store, it looked like a gauntlet. Never stepped foot into that store again.
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We had a circuit city years ago. Once BestBuy opened up it put them out. None of the commission stores last. HHgregg opened a few years ago and it's practically dead and just a matter of time now. Went a couple of weeks ago to look at dishwashers and we were the only ones in the store, other than like 3 others.
 
Ryanb said:
We had a circuit city years ago. Once BestBuy opened up it put them out. None of the commission stores last. HHgregg opened a few years ago and it's practically dead and just a matter of time now. Went a couple of weeks ago to look at dishwashers and we were the only ones in the store, other than like 3 others who were returning their dishwashers.
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FTFY
 
Ted DuPuis said:
This is part of why I avoid new car dealers. I don't like buying new cars anyway, and all that BS especially gets to me. I do find that American car dealers tend to be worse about this than foreign car dealers, although it might just be the particular dealers I've gone to.
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My wife's dad retired from Ford, and that makes most new car transactions painless. Show up, tell them you're buying on the A-plan, and the bullchit goes away. They show you the real invoice, which has prices for the various employee plans. I believe A-plan is the best one, the price turns out to be true invoice minus dealer holdback.
 
Why is buying a car reminiscent of a scene like this?
 
I called a dealership because I wanted to order a new car exactly the way I wanted it. They said they didn't know how to do that but could try and figure out how. Nope.
 
Bill Jennings said:
My wife's dad retired from Ford, and that makes most new car transactions painless. Show up, tell them you're buying on the A-plan, and the bullchit goes away. They show you the real invoice, which has prices for the various employee plans. I believe A-plan is the best one, the price turns out to be true invoice minus dealer holdback.
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It is definitely the best pricing on a new Ford, but still some folks want to negotiate that price! It risks losing your A-plan privileges for the customer and the dealer, it's a great benefit for Ford employees and their families.
 
The first time I was looking at a new car the salesman suggested I get a haircut. You can bet that was the end of me considering that dealership. I bought the car at the dealer down the road instead.

The next car I bought I had researched (I'd seen it at the local auto show). I go into the closest dealership. "Hey, we got one of those as a demonstrator with 60 miles on it that you could get a good price on." They quoted me a price that was a few hundred off the sticker. Not even a good price for that hadn't been driven. Walked out on that one. They called later that evening with a more realistic offer but my wife told them I'd already bought one elsewhere. Oddly the place I did buy it I sat down and said I'm going to pay $xxxxx so you figure out what you want to do to make the numbers come out going out the door. They screwed up slightly it came in $50 high because they forgot to figure in the tag fees. I let them slide on that.

Oddly the next three cars I bought didn't have much foolishness other than trying to upsell me on things (alarms, undercoating, extended warranty) after the price was set.
 
PilotRPI said:
I called a dealership because I wanted to order a new car exactly the way I wanted it. They said they didn't know how to do that but could try and figure out how. Nope.
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A lot of dealers don't like retail orders, I love them. Some manufacturers make it difficult or so I am told.
 
I guess retail orders take longer to come in, there's always a slight chance of a messup with the spec and so on.
I used to be in car sales back in Europe a long time ago (Volvo/Renault), and I _hated_ retail orders for Renault. You order what you order, they send you what they send you. Usually those two things weren't even close.
 
Bill Jennings said:
My wife's dad retired from Ford, and that makes most new car transactions painless. Show up, tell them you're buying on the A-plan, and the bullchit goes away. They show you the real invoice, which has prices for the various employee plans. I believe A-plan is the best one, the price turns out to be true invoice minus dealer holdback.
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Not to mention the doc fee is less too, if you belong to EAA you can get Ford pin# for the A plan, I have bought several Fords and Lincoln's with the A plan, but sometimes you can get a better deal without it as well, for some reason some dealers do not seem too enthused about the A plan
 
N747JB said:
It is definitely the best pricing on a new Ford, but still some folks want to negotiate that price! It risks losing your A-plan privileges for the customer and the dealer, it's a great benefit for Ford employees and their families.
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It seems the A-plan discount varies by model, do they adjust the discount depending on the popularity of the model?
 
Next time I go to buy a car and they hand me off to the chucklehead trying to sell me their service plan I need to say something along the lines "Oh, I thought these cars are reliable. If I need a plan like this that bad I don't think I want it." then walk out.
 
cowman said:
Next time I go to buy a car and they hand me off to the chucklehead trying to sell me their service plan I need to say something along the lines "Oh, I thought these cars are reliable. If I need a plan like this that bad I don't think I want it." then walk out.
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I just tell it like it is: "Hey, yeah, nice to meet you, too. Look, I'm not going to buy any of the extras, so we can both save ourselves lots of time if we just jump to the end and get it done!" Usually works.
 
strangebird said:
Not to mention the doc fee is less too, if you belong to EAA you can get Ford pin# for the A plan, I have bought several Fords and Lincoln's with the A plan, but sometimes you can get a better deal without it as well, for some reason some dealers do not seem too enthused about the A plan
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I think the EAA discount is the X Plan (I used it a couple years ago on a Focus ST).
 
Zeldman said:
I have found that walking in with the check already written at the price I am willing to pay works pretty good. No trade in, insurance card in hand.
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Several years ago my wife shopped for a new minivan. Found one she liked online from a local dealer. Got the price negotiated on a specific model, if not VIN (it's been awhile), and we went to the dealership with a check at a prearranged time. It took well over an hour to drive off the lot. :mad:

First the "internet salesguy" wasn't there; remember, prearranged time. Then they had to run a credit check as we had a personal check (she'd asked ahead of time as was told it was ok). Then they screwed up the credit check; used someone else's data and told us we had a 580 credit. :eek: We both immediately and emphatically told him that was wrong, shocking him to physically take a step back. Reran it and my wife's credit showed up ~840.

Really?

If buying cars was as easy as buying a TV at Walmart I would buy cars more frequently. Unfortunately it tends to be a painful process, so I don't.

We lessened the pain by buying used cars with cash, but it's still far more painful than buying a TV.
 
Tesla motors lets you buy direct from the factory and have a car delivered without any BS from what I understand. Assuming of course you're in a state that doesn't make that illegal.

Yes, buying factory direct is illegal in some states... to protect you from.... IDK... not getting price gouged? Pretty indefensible protectionist legislation IMHO.
 
cowman said:
Tesla motors lets you buy direct from the factory and have a car delivered without any BS from what I understand. Assuming of course you're in a state that doesn't make that illegal.

Yes, buying factory direct is illegal in some states... to protect you from.... IDK... not getting price gouged? Pretty indefensible protectionist legislation IMHO.
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There are many strange laws with car purchases. Here in Colorado you can't buy a car on Sunday (from a dealer). They changed the law a while ago and liquor stores can now be open Sunday, and every stripmall in Denver has a recreational pot shop (also open on Sunday), but you can't buy a car.
 
ColoPilot said:
There are many strange laws with car purchases. Here in Colorado you can't buy a car on Sunday (from a dealer). They changed the law a while ago and liquor stores can now be open Sunday, and every stripmall in Denver has a recreational pot shop (also open on Sunday), but you can't buy a car.
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Sundays are great days to walk the lot, check what they have, look at stickers, etc., without being harassed.
 
Bill Jennings said:
It seems the A-plan discount varies by model, do they adjust the discount depending on the popularity of the model?
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No, it's a straight up pricing plan across the board, some dealers don't like to sell "hot models" at A-plan, we do for regular customers, I don't think I would sell a Raptor A-plan or if they even offer it on them.
 
cowman said:
Tesla motors lets you buy direct from the factory and have a car delivered without any BS from what I understand. Assuming of course you're in a state that doesn't make that illegal.

Yes, buying factory direct is illegal in some states... to protect you from.... IDK... not getting price gouged? Pretty indefensible protectionist legislation IMHO.
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Actually, buying direct you get to pay sticker every time!! LOL
 
ColoPilot said:
There are many strange laws with car purchases. Here in Colorado you can't buy a car on Sunday (from a dealer). They changed the law a while ago and liquor stores can now be open Sunday, and every stripmall in Denver has a recreational pot shop (also open on Sunday), but you can't buy a car.
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I'd love that law in Georgia, I choose to close on Sundays, but a few Ford dealers are open. In Detroit, it's closed Sundays, and I think open one or two nights per week after 6. :eek:
 
N747JB said:
I'd love that law in Georgia, I choose to close on Sundays, but a few Ford dealers are open. In Detroit, it's closed Sundays, and I think open one or two nights per week after 6. :eek:
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As a customer, I prefer dealerships being open on Sunday. Weekends are the easiest time for us to go look at cars, and for us Saturday and Sunday are basically interchangeable in terms of schedule. I understand that for many Sundays are church days or they set it aside for other family items, but for us we just work on what we can when we can.

That said, if I had a dealership, I would probably opt to close on Sundays to make sure that there was one day that everyone had off (and one day that I hopefully would get fewer phone calls!) so I see both sides.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
As a customer, I prefer dealerships being open on Sunday. Weekends are the easiest time for us to go look at cars, and for us Saturday and Sunday are basically interchangeable in terms of schedule. I understand that for many Sundays are church days or they set it aside for other family items, but for us we just work on what we can when we can.

That said, if I had a dealership, I would probably opt to close on Sundays to make sure that there was one day that everyone had off (and one day that I hopefully would get fewer phone calls!) so I see both sides.
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I tell the Chevy dealer next door, as long as he's closed on Sunday, I'll stay closed. :D We are actually good friends and usually end up calling each other to see how the other one is handling holidays or snow days, it's good to be friends with the competition!!
 
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