Car salesmen that don't sell...?

[POORCARDEALER]

With a good salesman you wont feel you are been sold to , more of a discussion....madness ignore walk ins

[GOG440]

POORCARDEALER said:

With a good salesman you wont feel you are been sold to , more of a discussion....madness ignore walk ins

Definitely

With the car I bought at that time I walked in to well known scottish based chain (with a pretty poor rep) purely because they had a model of car that was on my shortlist but with no local dealer. I went in had a chat with the salesman, had a test drive and bought the car because they offered me a very good deal on it.

[Butter Face]

Ares said:

GOG440 said:

There was a long thread on here that I started a couple of years ago where I got a lot of stick, called "being ignored in the dealers" or something similar where I had a very similar experience where a salesman was much more interested in cold calling previous customers than he was in talking to the customer stood in front of him.
And at the time I was most definitely not a tyre kicker, I was changing jobs and losing my company car but gaining a car allowance.

There has to be a happy medium somewhere between being harassed the second you walk through the door and being completely ignored.

Exactly. If he spent 2 minutes getting my name he would have realised that I've bought 7 cars from that dealership in the last 12 years and find out that my current car (supplied by them) was a) very nearly 2 yrs old, and b) had a list price more expensive that even that well-optioned M3, he would have seen I was a good target.

Does the salesman you bought the last 7 cars from not work there anymore?

It may be incredibly likely that they did recognise you and didn't want to get drawn into a conversation that may take up their time just to have to pass the sale (if you bought) back to their colleague....

Just playing devils advocate!



(Still not nice if it happened exactly as you describe)

[Cliftonite]

daemon said:

Happened a mate of mine - he went in to look at a top end BMW and the snooty salesman said he couldnt afford it, so he went down the road, bought a brand new top end merc with cash from the tescos bag he'd with him then went back past the other dealers while waving his willy out the window whilst the salesman was being given his marching orders by his sales manager.

True story.

I do not believe you. A Tesco bag? Never!

[so called]

I just send the Wife. She always gets faaaar better deals than me.
She once haggled on a Nissan Murano getting it down from 31k down to 19k, traded in 2 cars in the deal and walked away with a nice new Murano and 7k in her back pocket.

[R36vw]

Cliftonite said:

I do not believe you. A Tesco bag? Never!

It does happen...a good friend of mine who has sold citroens all his life was gobsmacked when a regular buyer to the dealership he worked at turned up one day and bought one of the demonstrators digging a carrier bag(tescos too!) out full of cash to pay. Not the way most dealers like to work nowadays as counting it and then a trip to the bank to pay it in, is a ballache. ...at least he didnt ignore him

[daemon]

R36vw said:

Cliftonite said:

I do not believe you. A Tesco bag? Never!

It does happen...a good friend of mine who has sold citroens all his life was gobsmacked when a regular buyer to the dealership he worked at turned up one day and bought one of the demonstrators digging a carrier bag(tescos too!) out full of cash to pay. Not the way most dealers like to work nowadays as counting it and then a trip to the bank to pay it in, is a ballache. ...at least he didnt ignore him

I would have thought he couldnt accept that amount of cash - money laundering and all that.

[Sump]

Ares said:

james_gt3rs said:

Maybe they knew you didn't want to buy so didn't waste their time?

How did they know? Truth being, if he'd made me an offer that was good enough, I may have gone for it. M3 looking like what I fancy moving to next.

What's with all the smokes and mirrors. You either want an M3 or you don't. It's so weird testing out the salesmans reaction over you checking out an M3 or what not.

The only reason I know someone would do this is a psychological issue where you would want the other salesman to notice you, engage with you, and end with thinking he has persuaded you to a out of the blue upgrade just so you can get him to think you're extremely wealthy? I can't see any other reason for the smokes and mirrors.

[jonah35]

I'd rather salesmen left me alone so they can't win

[ashleyman]

I've just bought a brand new car and it was horrible.

Audi Epsom - went in to look at the size difference between an S3 and an S4 as wasn't sure. The guy sat me down and told me I couldn't even afford A4.
Audi Wimbledon - went in after the first bad visit to Epsom. No, you can't test drive an S3 today I'll call you to organise. Never phoned me back.
VW Drift Bride - No you can't test drive a Golf R unless you pay a deposit.
VW Couldson - No you can't test drive a Golf R unless you pay a deposit.
Mercedes Purley Way - I don't know if we have an A45 AMG, I'll call you back once I've found out. Never phoned me back.
BMW Croydon - Salesman who was excellent on my first visit was 45 minutes late to the second test drive when I took the wife and turned up with keys just as we were about to walk out.
Mini Croydon - I'll phone you back to organise a test drive. Never phoned me back.

I had excellent service from Mercedes Epsom & Lookers Mitcham who couldn't do enough.

Admittedly we weren't sure what we wanted but had a short list of cars. There were a fair few boxes that needed checking so we needed some hand holding in the process but we were definitely buying and had the money to spend. Most didn't care!

Edited by ashleyman on Wednesday 24th February 20:07

[TheFungle]

My wife has been car shopping recently and naturally I tag along so I can kick some tyres

First choice was and is the Jaguar XE, the local Jaguar dealership were fantastic and could not be any more accommodating and happy to let the car sell itself. Popping over the road to BMW was as described by the OP, getting any sort of engagement seemed a massive struggle, while not needing to be 'sold' a car it would be nice to be acknowledged and at least offered information etc.

[shake n bake]

Maybe that guy was crap or maybe he knew you weren't buying?

[2.5pi]

I've bought at least 10 new bmws and 3 used from my local bmw dealer, all from one salesmen, he left and since then they appear to have lost the ability to return calls , service dept are still great but it still amazes me how they can service cars that I've bought elsewhere without anybody from the sales dept giving a sh*t ,

[caelite]

Might just be the way you look. I experienced it in a merc dealer where I was meeting my dad (who was test driving a car that day, I was coming along for the ride). I was eyeing up a GLA45 (sporty crossovers are my guilty pleasure) and other stuff for about 15minutes well he was late arriving. He walks in the door and within 2 minutes a dealer is asking if he wants help. We're both smartly-ish dressed, but I suppose spotty 20something is a far less desirable sales target than a middle aged buisnessman type.

[Buster73]

Ali_T said:

I've had the same attitude every time I've been in a BMW dealership. I've been in numerous time stop look at nearly new M cars and still haven't bought one because they never bother trying to sell them.

What a load of unbelievable rubbish , I've read it all now.

[Sump]

Buster73 said:

Ali_T said:

I've had the same attitude every time I've been in a BMW dealership. I've been in numerous time stop look at nearly new M cars and still haven't bought one because they never bother trying to sell them.

What a load of unbelievable rubbish , I've read it all now.

Indeed, it's the most BS I've read so far this year.

If you want a car, you walk in and say I want this, not I want this but I'll only buy it if you sell it to me with some effort.

Talking BS is getting far too frequent now.

[Superhoop]

daemon said:

Happened a mate of mine - he went in to look at a top end BMW and the snooty salesman said he couldnt afford it, so he went down the road, bought a brand new top end merc with cash from the tescos bag he'd with him then went back past the other dealers while waving his willy out the window whilst the salesman was being given his marching orders by his sales manager.

True story.

Two things make me think this is ballcocks....

1. Having worked in the motor trade for 25 years or so, this ^^^ is the most recycled story ever*

2. You ended with "True Story", so a sure sign it isn't.

• funny how many people have a mate that walked into a BMW/Ferrari/Porsche/Merc etc.. dealer (normally in ripped jeans) and when they were ignored/ask to leave the showroom blah blah blah, "went down the road and bought one". Also strange that "the mate" always "goes back to the original dealer" in said new car (that obviously just happened to be in stock at the other dealer) to show it to the salesman that ignored him, and that said salesman always "gets the sack"

If I went into a dealer and was treated badly, no matter how badly that was, I would never said foot in there again, let alone go back to show the salesman the sale he'd missed - can't say I can think of many people who could be arsed, and those that would need to get out more

[valiant]

Why is it always BMW dealers?

[daemon]

Superhoop said:

daemon said:

Happened a mate of mine - he went in to look at a top end BMW and the snooty salesman said he couldnt afford it, so he went down the road, bought a brand new top end merc with cash from the tescos bag he'd with him then went back past the other dealers while waving his willy out the window whilst the salesman was being given his marching orders by his sales manager.

True story.

Two things make me think this is ballcocks....

1. Having worked in the motor trade for 25 years or so, this ^^^ is the most recycled story ever*

2. You ended with "True Story", so a sure sign it isn't.

• funny how many people have a mate that walked into a BMW/Ferrari/Porsche/Merc etc.. dealer (normally in ripped jeans) and when they were ignored/ask to leave the showroom blah blah blah, "went down the road and bought one". Also strange that "the mate" always "goes back to the original dealer" in said new car (that obviously just happened to be in stock at the other dealer) to show it to the salesman that ignored him, and that said salesman always "gets the sack"

If I went into a dealer and was treated badly, no matter how badly that was, I would never said foot in there again, let alone go back to show the salesman the sale he'd missed - can't say I can think of many people who could be arsed, and those that would need to get out more

[Wills2]

jonah35 said:

I'd rather salesmen left me alone so they can't win

A good salesperson will have the skill set to acknowledge you without you feeling pressured and running away. At the end of the day if you want to buy a car you'll have to talk to someone (as scary as some might find that)