Rude car dealers

[Kentish]

I have sent a few e-mails to different dealers and with one exception I have received very abrupt responses such as "The car is available. If interested call for appt" No "Hi" or even "thanks", not even a name of who replied from most.

What's wrong with a little politness such as.....

"thanks Mr Kentish for your enquiry, yes the car is still available, if you'd like to call me on xxxx xxxxxx we can arrange an appointment to view. Thanks & regards, nice car dealer"

There has been one exception from a company called D Salmon who were extremely polite and even followed up with an email and a phone call and a voice message to apologise and inform me the car I enquired about had sold. Very impressed with them

But other dealers have been so damn rude!

[Kentish]

Actually, it's not just e-mails. I phoned one earlier and he was so abrupt. I asked how long the MOT was and he said it had expired, so I enquired whether he intended to re MOT the car for him to sell it and he repeated "the MOT has expired". SO I asked "it won't have an new MOT on sale then", "NO" he replied.

Bear in mind that he still wanted the full asking price which was similar to other examples elesewhere with a full ticket and tax and less miles

Do these people get up in the morning and make a point of being a complete arsehole and still expect us to provide them with a salary?

Edited by Kentish on Monday 19th February 17:29

[Kentish]

kieran2006 said:

I experienced the rudeness when I was looking 'round at cars lately. You were lucky to even get replies from your emails! A lot of them act like there doing you such a huge favour just for giving you the time of day, seem to have a 'buy the car or leg it' attitude.

I agree and I haven't received a response from most to emails either, even when they do still have the car they haven't replied and I ended up phoning - email is much easier at work. I realise they can't be watching their PC all day but you'd think after 3 days they could manage to reply to sales enquiries. I don't mind that so much but when they do respond or you speak with them, so many are so rude.

I guess there are many lookers and test pilots but I'm a mature sensible person asking serious and sensible questions and it's not as if I'm enquiring about a £1000 Fiesta either.

Edited by Kentish on Monday 19th February 17:39

[Kentish]

I went to look at a car yesterday too and had a spotty faced youth just stand next to me and he was pleasant enough but said nothing, he was really happy to just stand there and tell me nothing about the car.

It did get a bit irritating after a while since he kpet following me around the car as I was looking it over, all the time saying nothing until I asked a question then he replied mainly with "I dunno". Not really "selling" it to me was he

[Kentish]

Globulator said:

Yeah I phoned up one of the old guys out of Practical Classics once as his place was near the A505 where I was going past (can't remember the name).

It went something like:
- "Hi, I was in the area and wondered if I could look at some of the cars you have advertised"

"which one."

- "well, I'm not sure..."

"I'm not running a museum here, I'm running a garage, if you don't know which one you like then I can't help you".

- click

Needless to say I don't look at any of his adverts any more

That's terrible!

I'm the same, I have no set idea of what I want but I know my requirements and if it's a classic seeing the car and the condition may sway me and I like to have a browse. I'm still a serious buyer just an open minded one

[Kentish]

Perhaps the car for sale isn't as good as words describe and when people see photos you don't hear back and therefore make the assumption the buyers are timewasters.

Some dealers are happy to waste a buyers time by saying that a car is "mint" and the buyer drives 150 miles to see it and finds an old snotter.

I think the few minutes it takes a dealer to send a few pics is time well spent for both parties.

[Kentish]

When we bought our land rover the dealership was excellent and has been ever since. Main dealers are very variable - when I had a VW the local VW gargage in contrast was appauling, you could stand for ages without being spoken to by a member of staff. To redress the balance I was on holiday in cornwall and popped into the main VW dealer near redruth and they were so helpful and attentive.