Salesmen..

Anybody have an bad experience with just the salesmen? I'm looking to write a paper for my selling class, and wouldn't mind getting some information. Share your experiences with bad salesmen.. Also, add some good experiences you've had, if any.

Had a really interesting experience when I bought my last car. Went shopping at a local dealer and decided on the car I wanted to buy. The sales guy told me they didn't have the color and options I wanted in stock, but, that they had a car coming in 3 days. Three days turned into 3 weeks. The salesman finally called me and told me the car had just come in, and, to come in and finalize the deal. When wife and I arrived at the dealership, the salesguy sheepishly told me that they had already sold the car to some one else. He indicated that if I put down a grand ernest money, he'd try to find me another one equipped the way I wanted. Wife and I just unloaded on him and his manager and walked away.

That same evening, my son hooked me up with a dealer where he lives. Their sales manager asked me about my trade and, in 3 days, obtained the car I wanted. Wife and I drove 3 hours to get to him on a Saturday. When we arrived, he looked over my trade and indicated that he was going to allow more for it . When and was said and done, this dealer beat the local boys by over $5000. Boy, am I glad they pissed me off.

Regards:
Oldengineer

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=226062
Just a Funny story
-Jimmy

Over the years......

Situation 1. The salesman changed the trade-in value to half what he had previously agreed to on the "work sheet." He didn't mention this when he slipped the "final contract" over to me to sign. I'm no fool: I re-read this typed version "final contract" before signing. Then that idiot salesman tells me that he can only get such and such for my trade-in at auction. How would anybody know what can be gotten until the car is actually auctioned? After I told him to return my car and the deal was off, he simply reached-over and changed the trade-in value to what he had previously agreed to and acted as though it was no big deal. It wasn't a big deal for him....that's just a typical car salesman's trick.

Situation 2. Bought a 2000 Mercury Mountaineer. The salesman didn't want me to take the vehicle for a test drive unless I signed an initial contract. Again...mama didn't raise no fool. I told the salesman, "If I can't take this vehicle for a test drive I'm not buying it." Okay, so he let's me take it for a 60 mile test drive and three hours for inspection. I decided to buy the vehicle IF he fixed certain items. He agrees. Again, that "work sheet" gets filled out, and again with this different dealership salesman, the "to be fixed" item's aren't on the "final contract." I stop everything and point out the discrepancy. He says, "Oh, that's right," and enters two out of the three items he promised to fix. No excuse for him not knowing what the agreed fixes were: He had my noted list of items to be fixed in his hand! I mention the third item to be fixed: only then does he add that one to the list too.

Situation 3. The used car lot salesman tell me that he can only give me $2500 for my car. I notice that other similiar cars on the lot are selling for $5,000-$6,000? This salesman and I agree that if I rebuild the engine, he'll give me $4,500 for the car. I spend the time and money to rebuild the engine (I was a mechanic at the time) and then take it back to the same salesman. The salesman now tells me that he can only give me $3,500 for the car because that's all he can get for it. Yeah, sure. I ended up selling it to a private party for $5,200.

Situation 4. This time I got to "burn" the car salesman in 1977! I had this piece of crap 1976 Corvette. I bought it brand new in '76. Nothing was right on the car. The first time I put it through a car wash, the paint on the left rear fender washed-off! Unbelievable! In the first 9,000 miles the rear end went-out twice! The fan, alternator, air pump and power steering belts (pre-serpentine belt days) kept flipping off because none of the pulleys were in proper alignment, and there was no way to adjust the alignment to correct the problem. By this time the fiberglass insulation under the hood was shreaded! I'd be driving down a highway and BAM...there went the belts again! That happened at least 6 times...maybe more! To make a long story short, my wife and I went to a Chev dealer to dump this piece of crap. I knew all the car salesmen tricks and I wasn't going to feel bad burning a car salesman, considering that burning you, the customer, is standard procedure.

Rule number 1...the customer who tells you that they are looking to buy a car won't. The customer who is simply "looking" is the one who will buy the car. I set this salesman up good....pulling the same games that they play on unsuspecting customers. My wife and I pull up to the street in front of the Chev agency in our Corvette. We walk into the lot "to just look a the new cars, but we weren't planning on buying a new car." We look at a new Malibu and my wife starts a conversation with me about how nice it would be to have a car large enough for a family instead of just two seats. The salesman who had walked within earshot comes-in for the kill...that's why I refer to car salesmen as "sharks." I allow myself to be talked into discussing a possible purchase of the Malibu in the salesman's office because the salesman said that he has a customer looking for a new Corvette. I tell the salesman that I really don't want to sell the Corvett but I'll listen to what he has to say.

Rule number 2. Assume that the room is bugged when the salesman leaves the room and tells you to "talk it over between yourselves." My wife and I have a pre-arrainged conversation to where she wants the Malibu "for the family," but I want to keep the Corvette. After a while my wife "wears me down" and convinces me to trade the Corvette in for the Malibu. I relent and tell her that the only way I'd trade the Corvette in would be if the salesman gave me $$$$$ for the Corvette. Less than a minute later, the salesman walks in and announces that "My sales manager said he can give you $$$$$ for trade-in on the Vette." Interesting that the amount I mention to my wife is the same amount the manager will give me? I "reluctantly" accept the offer. The trade is made, I got top dollar for the Corvette, the piece of crap Corvette is gone, and we drive off the lot in a brand new Malibu! :grinno:

For the next 3 or 4 years, we see this exact same Corvette going from one used car lot to the next. Apparently the 'Vette's owners continue to have the same problems with the car that we had, and they also keep dumping it for something else. I wonder if that salesman realized that he got burned? I'm sure glad that I got to play "What goes around, comes around" with the salesman. Lawyers, politicians, and car salesmen....can't trust any of 'em.

Wow, you got screwed... :S Since Im only 18 and never bought a car from a dealer, I cant really have any bad experiences... But I did have one interesting one last week with a friend of mine.

We were bored, school was out, and his mother was on the market for a new car. So we decided to go do some renaissance for her. We arrive at the local BMW dealer and both me and my 19 year old male friend we're dressed nicely in Clean, nice T-Shirts, and clean pressed Khakis. We we're clean shaven, the whole 9 yards.

We walk in, and start looking at the new X3, X5 etc.. I spot an M3 so I immediately hop in and drool all over the leather. :P Said to myself "One Day, Eric, one day..." and continued to look at the 3 Series sedans and wagons. I approached a salesman to ask a few basic questions and as I neared him, he simply turned around and walked away. Insulted, I went to the next one at the counter, and he was very dry, and un-informative. Both my buddy and I decided to get out of there. We were insulted to have been completely ignored, or if we were lucky looked down upon in such a disgusting way.

Decided to go to the nearest Tim Hortons and grab some coffee... across the street is a Mercedes dealer, so we decided to go see. No word of a lie, TWO HOURS later, we leave after having a great conversation with one of the sales reps. He treated us with the most respect he could, and we chatted about cars in general, Mercedes, and even salesman. I am a HUGE BMW fan, always have, and always will be. But that day sure changed the way I looked at BMW's. It's amazing, but now just that one experience might find me in a Mercedes instead of a BMW when Im older.

Moral of the story is... Age means nothing... I could quite conceivably be a rich-brat with 100Gs in my pocket about to buy an M3, and I wouldnt have that day thats for sure. OR, I could be someone shopping for a friends mother who IS rich enough to buy a couple cars from that show room.

Perhaps the greatest phrase ever turned inside a showroom is the infamous (or perhaps notorious) “Let me run some numbers and I’ll be right back.”

The funny thing is, every over-aged overweight salesman has used this line. It doesn’t matter if he’s selling Pontiacs or Bentleys. And the funny thing is, they actually think we’re stupid enough to think they have no idea how much their shit costs, and a meeting of the minds must take place to give us a “better deal than the last guy because he was a prick, and quite frankly, we’ve only known you for 10 minutes and hmm that’s a nice jacket.” Apparently nobody has ever sold this particular car before in this particular color and trim, so rather than leave everything to chance, the sales guys are going to crack skulls and work extra hard just for you.

So the 58 year-old salesman goes where all salesman go to “run the numbers and be right back”: the Big Counter in the Back. Of course, every Big Counter in the Back is 8ft tall so you can’t see over it. This is where the supposed Sales Manager lives and works. You never get to meet the Sales Manager. Hell, you never even get to see him. For all you know he doesn’t exist. There might be a guy back there, there might not. There might be a guy back there banging the finance secretary, there might not. There might not even be a finance secretary because you never get to see her either. So we don’t know who he’s banging.

What we do know is the salesman who introduced himself to you is “there to fight for you.” He’s on your side, working hard so you get the best deal. You deal directly with him and nobody else because that’s “the only way I work for my customer.” He’s the “Head” salesman anyway. Everybody else just works the phones and sharpens pencils, you got the guy who gets things done. Notwithstanding the fact that he’s has to go talk to his imaginary friend to “run the numbers.”

The spoof on “running the numbers” is they already ran the numbers. That’s all they get done doing. They sells cars. They know what they bought them for. They know their margin for each car. What’s left to uncover? They ran the numbers on the same car 10 times yesterday and they all ended up in the same place – firmly up your ass.

So the guy goes up to the counter, walks behind the counter, and starts talking to either himself or the imaginary Sales Manager who is really “Just the Guy at the Computer.” Nobody else knows how to use a computer, that’s why sales guys have nothing but an adding machine and picture of their daughter’s pet turtle on their desk. Anything more potent and “the numbers” start getting messed up. This is classic corporate empowerment of the bottom line in a top-down approach. Give your employees the tools to only make mistakes to your own corporate advantage.

So your sales guy goes behind the counter for what seems like forever. What in the hell can they be talking about. It’s a freakin’ Grand Caravan SE. The wife said no DVD Entertainment Pak so it’s shredded to the nuts and bolts as it is. So you snuck in the Premium Sound System by Delco and a keyless entry. The point is, there’s 100 other Caravans on the lot just like this one, so what in the cripes can take so long.

Now and again your sales guy sticks his head up over the Big Counter in the Back. Maybe he’s coming up for air while sucking the chrome off the Sales Manager. That’s his business. You’ve seen worse.

He keeps his eye on you. You might walk out the door and get a Honda Odyssey. If you had brains you would. This isn’t about that though because if it was you would have told the wife to jam it altogether while you road-tested a Vanquish.

You’ve looked at all the showroom posters trying to kill time. All these moms lugging groceries home with smiles on their face. Kids running out of the sliding door with soccer balls under their arms. It’s all the same. Nobody ever has a bad day and drives home angry. You’ve already looked at every car on the showroom like “Yeah, you really do have a great selection here, I can’t make up my mind.” The truth of the matter is they blow dongers just like the one you are negotiating on. You know it. They know it. Yet it all goes unsaid.

Finally your salesman walks out from behind the counter. He’s got some stuff to go over. He’s working hard for you and has your best interests at heart. In order to give you the good news, he always brings you back to his desk. Typical salesman tactic. All the paperwork and pens are at his desk. He wants you to sign a loan in a fit of impulse shopping before you realize he’s bent you over.

The salesman always has some “finish work” to do on the adding machine when he sits you down. The numbers might be good, but he’s doing that little extra for you. Even if he can shave a couple pennies. Little do you know he’s adding his big-ass commission. The Sales Manager has a target margin across the board, but the sales guy is throwing in a little more. His neighbor got a Ted Nugent bobblehead that plays Cat Scratch Fever. He wants one too.

He finally gets around to the damages. You told him you didn’t want to spend a penny over $25,000. Obviously nothing you said stuck because he’s configured a 7yr loan at 12% interest. He’s got you financing interest – paying interest on interest – and to make things worse he only gave you $500 trade on your 01’ Merk. OK, the Merk is a pile. And the wife talked you into that one too. But dollar for dollar you know the sales guy is trying to pull one over.

You’ve been nice and played by the rules. But now it’s time to go on the offensive with a flanking move.

“Larry. Can I call you Larry. I see those numbers but it looks like you not only have me upside down, you’ve got bent over a chair with an air wrench.”

“What do you mean?”

You proceed to lurch over the chair and demonstrate.

“No man. God no. That’s not what I meant. I mean we’ve run these numbers several times. This is a great deal.”

“Yeah Larry. You are right. For you I mean. I’m prepared to walk out this door right now. There’s a lot of places I can buy a Caravan SE, but I’m here with you Larry. Those numbers aren’t close.”

“Hmm really?” He makes it sound like this is the first time anyone has ever questioned their offer. “I tell you what. It’s the end of the month. We like to clear inventory about now. Let me see what I can do.”

The “End of the Month” line is the second most usurped line behind “Let Me Run Some Numbers.” Fact is, car salesmen are prepared to stick it to you during the entire month. A car not worth selling to you three weeks ago shouldn’t be worth your time now.

So your Knight in Shining Haggars walks over to the Big Counter in the Back and goes back to work. The Sales Manager (aka “Just the Guy at the Computer”) is visibly shaken but not stirred. A few aces in the hole remain to be played. You’ve gotten under his skin a bit however and you get a better look at him as he and your salesman “run the numbers.” Sure enough, just as you thought. The Guy at the Computer is like all the others. A relatively young puke. Probably just out college. Business or finance grad. Gets his jollies from ordering around 58 yr-old half-bald guys who never had a non-union job in their life before finding some part-time work as a car salesman at Beneviedes Chrysler/Dodge in greater Rancho Cucamonga. You know the salesmen think he’s a prick. Young snot thinks he can boss us around. He took all our free tail. Drives the expensive demos to his Laser-Tag matches. Jerkweed.

Another 20 minutes you are ready to call it a day. Either they have something reasonable or it’s time to part ways.

“Larry. I hope you have something for me this time.”

“I think we do.” Here’s where the bullshit begins to fly. “See, there’s a cash rebate on that car. Apparently we didn’t know about it. You know, dealer-to-manufacturer sales incentive. I don’t quite understand it myself but it’s going to save you about $600. Only on the SE model too so you lucked out. That’s our slowest trim package so we need to move it. So what we did was we activated the sales incentive retroactively, applied the cash-back savings we already talked about, rolled your trade-in over a shorter loan period, cashed in the actual cash value of the roadside assistance you’ll never use because these cars never break down, added your down payment to the last loan payment first to speed up the pay on interest, recalculated the money factor using a gross discretionary quantitataive algorithm, uhh only Chrysler is currently doing that by the way – that’s a nice savings there, then we took off the Delco sound package and keyless entry and swapped the vehicle with a loaner. I think you’ll really be happy with it. My, that’s a nice jacket.”

To be continued.


Stolen from UDPride @ Rennlist. Origional thread:
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=133006

83-944,
Great article! It's that same senerio that gets played-out a thousand times per day all over the United States. Perhaps when prospective car buyers tell the salesman what deal they'll take, rather than what the salesman will offer them...only then will car buyers not get burned as often. People don't seem to realize that when you go looking for a car you're doing the salesman a favor. Through a natural knack of manipulation, the salesman turns that all around and makes you think that he's doing you the favor. If you're going to accept whatever the salesman presents you, you may as well have a tube of K-Y Jelly handy so it doesn't hurt so bad when he sticks it in!

I recently purchased a 2001 BMW and I must say it is a very nice car. A few days later I was being contacted by BMW of North America to fill out the customer satisfaction survey, which I gladly did online. To my surprise this afternoon I got a call from the salesman I got the car from complaining about the score I gave him on the survey. Needless to say that it was mostly unexpected, and very disappointed that this could happen. How is it possible that the dealer could get my info as a feedback regarding their performance on the sale? and then call me to complain about my decisions on the survey. I am very upset by the lack of care from whoever is in charge on this department and I would be very grateful if you could direct me to the right person to have this issue reviewed or at least bring it to the attention of the right person, of course this same complaint would be posted on many BMW internet forums so that people are aware of how this "survey" is handled.