Are Car Sales People Universally Useless?
Discussion
The Rotrex Kid said:
That wouldn’t normally result in a fail, it should refer and an underwriter would then get the person who inputted the information to check and correct as required.
If evening else (address, DOB etc) matched you then just having the incorrect surname wouldn’t end in a rejection.
Correct - not a fail just a request for passport, utility bill etc If evening else (address, DOB etc) matched you then just having the incorrect surname wouldn’t end in a rejection.
My experience with Audi was not the best. Called in to arrange a test drive of a RS6 performance. Didnt have one in stock on site but could get one from another dealer. Promised a call but no call, called a couple of times back to them and nothing. I wanted to buy from them, to get the two year warranty on used cars. Cut my losses and found a independent dealer in Harrogate with one in stock. Drove over, test drove it, left my deposit and picked it up a week later. After sales from this company have been real good. Needed 3 new tyres this year but all tyre places could not get stock, one local to me had 2 in stock at £280 a corner. Rang garage where i bought and they shipped one out same day for £40 pound less plus payed postage for express delivery.
Always find independent car sales a lot better.
Always find independent car sales a lot better.
Ive got an Audi TT on order. I live in the south . My experience is quite contrast when compared with geographical location (it seems). My local dealerships were arrogant and indeed quite useless to get back to me , in fact a week went by just to get a quote which turned out to be the best annoyingly but even with the better deal decided to go with a dealership further North in the Huddersfield area whom were brilliant . Patient , polite and excellent communications. Still did me a fantastic deal mind. Just a shame im a 3 hour drive away to continue the experience when it comes to routine servicing etc .
To answer the op directly, no they’re not.
As with most professions, they vary hugely.
The ones who move me from wavering into, here are my card details are simply normal people.
Just down to earth, polite, keep their word (I.e. call if they say they will) and are up front about positives and negatives of a car.
I don’t expect them to bow and scrape, but simply not using passive-aggressive, or actively aggressive techniques makes all the difference.
I get that dealing with the public is a major PITA, so I understand, but the default should just be -
where are you in the process,
chat about the car for sale,
upfront chat about any part-ex,
see if there’s a deal to be done…
If so, and the conversation is normal and pleasant, then commit!
Customers have a part to play too, if we set parameters and they meet them - hit the button!
The best purchases I have done are 5 minute conversations, concluding after: “If I can get to that number, can I take a deposit?”.
As with most professions, they vary hugely.
The ones who move me from wavering into, here are my card details are simply normal people.
Just down to earth, polite, keep their word (I.e. call if they say they will) and are up front about positives and negatives of a car.
I don’t expect them to bow and scrape, but simply not using passive-aggressive, or actively aggressive techniques makes all the difference.
I get that dealing with the public is a major PITA, so I understand, but the default should just be -
where are you in the process,
chat about the car for sale,
upfront chat about any part-ex,
see if there’s a deal to be done…
If so, and the conversation is normal and pleasant, then commit!
Customers have a part to play too, if we set parameters and they meet them - hit the button!
The best purchases I have done are 5 minute conversations, concluding after: “If I can get to that number, can I take a deposit?”.
I’ve had a very frustrating time buying a new Toureg R, it’s not a new model but it is a new version however my query was applicable to all models of Toureg.
Simply I wanted to know what option I needed to specify to ensure it had remote control summon - ie it will roll out of a parking space on command from my phone. This is important to me as I’m a fat git, it’s a wide car and it’d be a handy thing to have.
3 main dealers thought I was joking, VW customer services were totally unaware but asked me to email them which I did and whilst no dealers got back to me (including the dealer I’d ordered the car from) VW responded with a standard “ask the dealer” template.
In the end I sent them their own press release and a guilt tripped VW CS person confirmed as I’d selected “park assistance plus” my car does indeed have remote control.
When I ordered the car the dealer said it was the most expensive car they had ever sold but I need to acknowledge (and accept) I’m getting Polo levels of customer service.
It’s here in August, I’ve been told the memory pack plus cannot be fitted due to a chip shortage and I’m ok with that as the main loss is an electric steering column.
Simply I wanted to know what option I needed to specify to ensure it had remote control summon - ie it will roll out of a parking space on command from my phone. This is important to me as I’m a fat git, it’s a wide car and it’d be a handy thing to have.
3 main dealers thought I was joking, VW customer services were totally unaware but asked me to email them which I did and whilst no dealers got back to me (including the dealer I’d ordered the car from) VW responded with a standard “ask the dealer” template.
In the end I sent them their own press release and a guilt tripped VW CS person confirmed as I’d selected “park assistance plus” my car does indeed have remote control.
When I ordered the car the dealer said it was the most expensive car they had ever sold but I need to acknowledge (and accept) I’m getting Polo levels of customer service.
It’s here in August, I’ve been told the memory pack plus cannot be fitted due to a chip shortage and I’m ok with that as the main loss is an electric steering column.
DSLiverpool said:
3 main dealers thought I was joking, VW customer services were totally unaware but asked me to email them which I did and whilst no dealers got back to me (including the dealer I’d ordered the car from) VW responded with a standard “ask the dealer” template.
In the end I sent them their own press release and a guilt tripped VW CS person....
anonymous said:
[redacted]
The expired driving licence point is pretty sensible really.I’ve a GR Yaris on order, which I paid a deposit for over the phone from a garage in the North East. I requested at the time, and was promised, a test drive when I was next there.
I was there last week, called up, mad was told that the car was at another dealership a few miles down the road, part of the same group. I said that that was fine, I was happy to drive over, but was told that it wouldn’t be fair on the staff as they’d not be getting any commission as I’d already bought the car from the place I was on the phone to.
I’ve got two ordered, from two dealers (one local to my place down South) but may drop the CEO of the NE dealer a polite line cancelling the order and just go with the other one.
Jamescrs said:
I bought my BMW M240i AUC from a main delaer last September and they were very good I found, sales man was very responsive to emails, I had to travel about 90 mins to get there and when I arrived car was waiting for me, no issues with a test drive, he encouraged me to go as fast as I wanted to in it and test the different modes out, no pressure on their finance, I told him I had a better rate on a personal loan and he accepted it no issues so I bought the car and collected about a week later.
The collection was equally pleasant and i'd happily go back there, LLoyds BMW near Blackpool if anyone is interested.
Literally exactly the same experience with Lloyds today too after, funnily enough, a 90 minute journey. Pick the car up next Saturday - absolutely no pressure at all, couldn't do enough to take the pressure off tbh.The collection was equally pleasant and i'd happily go back there, LLoyds BMW near Blackpool if anyone is interested.
rich146 said:
Ive got an Audi TT on order. I live in the south . My experience is quite contrast when compared with geographical location (it seems). My local dealerships were arrogant and indeed quite useless to get back to me , in fact a week went by just to get a quote which turned out to be the best annoyingly but even with the better deal decided to go with a dealership further North in the Huddersfield area whom were brilliant . Patient , polite and excellent communications. Still did me a fantastic deal mind. Just a shame im a 3 hour drive away to continue the experience when it comes to routine servicing etc .
Which dealership in Huddersfield?Im a salesman from fast moving consumer goods to home improvements to name a couple to my own business related to ad space. .
.I have to say I find main dealer car salesman generally a bit well a bit wet tbh. It seems to me I have to push things along I have to make things happen. Remind me of estate agents no idea how to ask empathetic questions lacking any get up and go take it or leave it attitude.
Maybe thats why the turn over of sales staff is high they are not very good......or maybe the general public just wear them down and suck the life force out of them.I imagine they maybe get fed up with being used as leverage for someone elses deal.
.I have to say I find main dealer car salesman generally a bit well a bit wet tbh. It seems to me I have to push things along I have to make things happen. Remind me of estate agents no idea how to ask empathetic questions lacking any get up and go take it or leave it attitude.
Maybe thats why the turn over of sales staff is high they are not very good......or maybe the general public just wear them down and suck the life force out of them.I imagine they maybe get fed up with being used as leverage for someone elses deal.
Edited by smashy on Sunday 20th June 22:35
Edited by smashy on Sunday 20th June 23:09
TheLuke said:
I had a cracker of an experience at the weekend.
I have been looking to buy a Megane RS 250/265 CUP.
Found one at an Indy about an hour away had the nice recaros, low-ish mileage and of course "full service history"
, phoned the day before to make sure it was still available and if was, so went down Saturday to view with my brother.
Turned up and the chap opened the car for me, usually they give you the keys, but this was near Manchester so I figured it was to stop thefts. No problem and we looked around the car, seemed like a good example, so I enquired about the service history etc and he brought the booklet out.
Turns out it only has 5 stamps over 11 years and has not had a change of cambelt yet despite the mileage alone, let along age requiring one. So I spoke to the chap about it being included in the sale price and he advised if I wanted it doing it would be £400 extra, I advised its in his best interest to have this done as it could quite literally snap at any minute being 11 years old and would give them piece of mind regarding having a potential engine failure. No joy, I had to pay extra. At that point I had decided (in my head) to not buy the car as better cared for examples were not a huge amount more.
I did then ask for a test drive as I have not driven a Megane RS before and he said yes that's fine, wait for another chap to get back blah blah blah.
The other chap comes back and advises me I cannot test drive it until "we are at the buying stage" and that I can pootle it around the yard
at which I replied that we are at the buying stage, hence the discussion about wether the cambelt would be included. Turns out "the buying stage" is leaving a deposit, you test drive it, if something is wrong with the car, then you can back out. I was gobsmacked, we had a 10 minute disagreement over this which ended with me leaving. It seems they just wanted morons to walk in, cash in hand and drive away without even driving the car. Or maybe I was asking too many questions/eating into their margin too much with the cambelt thing, who knows.
Put a deposit on a different one on Sunday, from a well known Megane guy who gave me the polar opposite experience and couldn't be more happier to be collecting an RS265 at the weekend.
Was this Performance Only? I have been looking to buy a Megane RS 250/265 CUP.
Found one at an Indy about an hour away had the nice recaros, low-ish mileage and of course "full service history"
, phoned the day before to make sure it was still available and if was, so went down Saturday to view with my brother. Turned up and the chap opened the car for me, usually they give you the keys, but this was near Manchester so I figured it was to stop thefts. No problem and we looked around the car, seemed like a good example, so I enquired about the service history etc and he brought the booklet out.
Turns out it only has 5 stamps over 11 years and has not had a change of cambelt yet despite the mileage alone, let along age requiring one. So I spoke to the chap about it being included in the sale price and he advised if I wanted it doing it would be £400 extra, I advised its in his best interest to have this done as it could quite literally snap at any minute being 11 years old and would give them piece of mind regarding having a potential engine failure. No joy, I had to pay extra. At that point I had decided (in my head) to not buy the car as better cared for examples were not a huge amount more.
I did then ask for a test drive as I have not driven a Megane RS before and he said yes that's fine, wait for another chap to get back blah blah blah.
The other chap comes back and advises me I cannot test drive it until "we are at the buying stage" and that I can pootle it around the yard
at which I replied that we are at the buying stage, hence the discussion about wether the cambelt would be included. Turns out "the buying stage" is leaving a deposit, you test drive it, if something is wrong with the car, then you can back out. I was gobsmacked, we had a 10 minute disagreement over this which ended with me leaving. It seems they just wanted morons to walk in, cash in hand and drive away without even driving the car. Or maybe I was asking too many questions/eating into their margin too much with the cambelt thing, who knows.Put a deposit on a different one on Sunday, from a well known Megane guy who gave me the polar opposite experience and couldn't be more happier to be collecting an RS265 at the weekend.
Edited by TheLuke on Tuesday 25th May 15:13
They’re not all useless but unfortunately it seems the poor ones are the ones that leave an impression.
I’ve had a mixed bag across the board; trying to buy an M140i from local BMW dealer was bloody painful. I lost interest after going to see them for a ‘golden ticket event’. The deals were no better than before. I ended buying via Tony Lewis and the experience couldn’t have been more different and easy.
I bought my 130 from a small, independent specialist recently and the experience was painless. He was obviously a petrolhead and put a lot of effort into preparing the car even though it was old and not that expensive.
I’ve had a mixed bag across the board; trying to buy an M140i from local BMW dealer was bloody painful. I lost interest after going to see them for a ‘golden ticket event’. The deals were no better than before. I ended buying via Tony Lewis and the experience couldn’t have been more different and easy.
I bought my 130 from a small, independent specialist recently and the experience was painless. He was obviously a petrolhead and put a lot of effort into preparing the car even though it was old and not that expensive.
For the past few new car purchases, ive used Car Wow to avoid using the rubbish dealers, and had much better deals as a result of working with dealers who actually want your business.
Other thing i don't quite get it why they feel the need to bung an 'admin charge' (aka additional profit) on top and cannot actually justify why its charged.
Other thing i don't quite get it why they feel the need to bung an 'admin charge' (aka additional profit) on top and cannot actually justify why its charged.
I’d like to think I’m a sensible buyer with realistic expectations but you can see why sales folk get the reputation they do. This is a summary of my last 3 recent experiences buying used.
Jaguar main dealer. Vehicle £30k plus. Although prepared to a high standard and delighted with the car things started to go awry upon delivery with missing documentation/spare keys etc. All resolved in the end but took weeks and weeks of chasing and false promises. I should have just left it with them but as the car was a couple of hundred miles away I agreed to take it as is.
Prestige used car dealer. Vehicle £30k plus. Couldn’t have been more helpful during the sales process. A little bit disappointed with the prep as things started to appear a few days after collection that weren’t obvious when I picked it up. The worst thing was we had agreed they would release £10k equity in my part ex and deposit this into my account ‘in the next day or so’… It took 6 weeks in the end of blatent lies, ignored phonecalls and messages to get my money and this only happened as I turned up unannounced in the end.
Vauxhall main dealer. Vehicle £10k. Mrs wanted a Mokka and we found a low mileage example at a local Vx dealership. To be honest the whole experience from start to finish was excellent and the sales guy couldn’t have been more helpful.
Jaguar main dealer. Vehicle £30k plus. Although prepared to a high standard and delighted with the car things started to go awry upon delivery with missing documentation/spare keys etc. All resolved in the end but took weeks and weeks of chasing and false promises. I should have just left it with them but as the car was a couple of hundred miles away I agreed to take it as is.
Prestige used car dealer. Vehicle £30k plus. Couldn’t have been more helpful during the sales process. A little bit disappointed with the prep as things started to appear a few days after collection that weren’t obvious when I picked it up. The worst thing was we had agreed they would release £10k equity in my part ex and deposit this into my account ‘in the next day or so’… It took 6 weeks in the end of blatent lies, ignored phonecalls and messages to get my money and this only happened as I turned up unannounced in the end.
Vauxhall main dealer. Vehicle £10k. Mrs wanted a Mokka and we found a low mileage example at a local Vx dealership. To be honest the whole experience from start to finish was excellent and the sales guy couldn’t have been more helpful.
Pit Pony said:
MYOB said:
Not my experience either. I do wish they start using emails though.
I've found that picking up the phone, and talking to someone, is quicker and more effective. In all walks of life. Sending an email gives the salesperson the time to look into the specific questions and answer them properly. Phoning in the salesman usually doesn't have the knowledge or information about the car. It either needs a call back or they'll blag their way through the call. Too often they forget to call back just like they fail to respond to emails.
I hear the excuse that they don't respond to email because it has the lowest sales rate, but there is as many complaints that people are happy buying, or setting up the sale, by email. If they made a bit more effort with emails there is plenty of genuine buyers.
The number of people that use the phone to call people must be lower than ever. Lots of people use text, WhatsApp, email far more often. Sales people need to catch up with modern times.
DSLiverpool said:
I’ve had a very frustrating time buying a new Toureg R, it’s not a new model but it is a new version however my query was applicable to all models of Toureg.
Simply I wanted to know what option I needed to specify to ensure it had remote control summon - ie it will roll out of a parking space on command from my phone. This is important to me as I’m a fat git, it’s a wide car and it’d be a handy thing to have.
3 main dealers thought I was joking, VW customer services were totally unaware but asked me to email them which I did and whilst no dealers got back to me (including the dealer I’d ordered the car from) VW responded with a standard “ask the dealer” template.
In the end I sent them their own press release and a guilt tripped VW CS person confirmed as I’d selected “park assistance plus” my car does indeed have remote control.
When I ordered the car the dealer said it was the most expensive car they had ever sold but I need to acknowledge (and accept) I’m getting Polo levels of customer service.
It’s here in August, I’ve been told the memory pack plus cannot be fitted due to a chip shortage and I’m ok with that as the main loss is an electric steering column.
Would it not be easier just to lose some weight? You could have walked round the block in the time it took you to write that….Simply I wanted to know what option I needed to specify to ensure it had remote control summon - ie it will roll out of a parking space on command from my phone. This is important to me as I’m a fat git, it’s a wide car and it’d be a handy thing to have.
3 main dealers thought I was joking, VW customer services were totally unaware but asked me to email them which I did and whilst no dealers got back to me (including the dealer I’d ordered the car from) VW responded with a standard “ask the dealer” template.
In the end I sent them their own press release and a guilt tripped VW CS person confirmed as I’d selected “park assistance plus” my car does indeed have remote control.
When I ordered the car the dealer said it was the most expensive car they had ever sold but I need to acknowledge (and accept) I’m getting Polo levels of customer service.
It’s here in August, I’ve been told the memory pack plus cannot be fitted due to a chip shortage and I’m ok with that as the main loss is an electric steering column.
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