Love the car, hate the dealer. unsure what to do from here.
Discussion
I had a viewing appointment booked this Saturday gone at one of those big farm, open field dealers. 50-100 mostly high end cars in a field in Kent. I drove 30 miles and got there at agreed time, only to be told by his colleague that he left early for the day. "ooook... well I wanted to view this Lexus F-Sport you have for sale". The woman raises her hand at me and picks up her ringing phone. Does some admin stuff, then asks which one it was. Brings it out to the front, hands me the keys then gets back to fielding her telephone calls...
Half an hour into walking around and sitting in the car I get bored and ask her if we can go out for a drive. She says she won't be much longer. Another 15 minutes later I get tired of having my time wasted and hand her back the keys, deciding that I have test driven this model before anyway and can always test drive it when i come to pick it up if I decide to buy it. I ask her to give me a px quote for my car, but she raises her hand and answers another call as I wait. I must add that she was not the only staff in that office at the time.
I ask her when was the last service done? She tells me it was April last year. So I say "Ah so I am gonna need to get it serviced pretty much as son as I buy it". She responds with "I don't know how long Lexus service intervals are, but if it's 12 months, then yeah, I guess"
I ask her how long they had the car for, she says few weeks. I ask if it's few weeks as in a couple of weeks, or 16 weeks?
She responds that they sell a 100 cars per month and that they don't usually have cars for 16 weeks.
which again did not seem like an answer to me. Especially since I seem to recall first seeing this car in January..
I hoped to get an e-mail from the original salesperson yesterday, but none came. Today they dropped the price by a £1000 and still nobody contacted me.
I find their salesmanship worse than non-existing.
I did like the car, the interior and the colour/wheel combo. I did think that the rear bumper is almost an imperceptible shade darker than the rest of the car, which normally would not put me off, but given the slippery answers of the salesperson I do wonder if it's a cause for concern.
anyway I just don't know what to do from here. I do want the car, especially seeing it reduced in price. If I can get another 1000 off it should make the potential issues with it worth it. Do I email the salesperson and tell him just how bad he is? Do I call and ask for the manager? I am a bit shocked at the lack of effort at selling the car to me.
Half an hour into walking around and sitting in the car I get bored and ask her if we can go out for a drive. She says she won't be much longer. Another 15 minutes later I get tired of having my time wasted and hand her back the keys, deciding that I have test driven this model before anyway and can always test drive it when i come to pick it up if I decide to buy it. I ask her to give me a px quote for my car, but she raises her hand and answers another call as I wait. I must add that she was not the only staff in that office at the time.
I ask her when was the last service done? She tells me it was April last year. So I say "Ah so I am gonna need to get it serviced pretty much as son as I buy it". She responds with "I don't know how long Lexus service intervals are, but if it's 12 months, then yeah, I guess"
I ask her how long they had the car for, she says few weeks. I ask if it's few weeks as in a couple of weeks, or 16 weeks?
She responds that they sell a 100 cars per month and that they don't usually have cars for 16 weeks.
which again did not seem like an answer to me. Especially since I seem to recall first seeing this car in January..
I hoped to get an e-mail from the original salesperson yesterday, but none came. Today they dropped the price by a £1000 and still nobody contacted me.
I find their salesmanship worse than non-existing.
I did like the car, the interior and the colour/wheel combo. I did think that the rear bumper is almost an imperceptible shade darker than the rest of the car, which normally would not put me off, but given the slippery answers of the salesperson I do wonder if it's a cause for concern.
anyway I just don't know what to do from here. I do want the car, especially seeing it reduced in price. If I can get another 1000 off it should make the potential issues with it worth it. Do I email the salesperson and tell him just how bad he is? Do I call and ask for the manager? I am a bit shocked at the lack of effort at selling the car to me.
isee said:
I had a viewing appointment booked this Saturday gone at one of those big farm, open field dealers. 50-100 mostly high end cars in a field in Kent. I drove 30 miles and got there at agreed time, only to be told by his colleague that he left early for the day. "ooook... well I wanted to view this Lexus F-Sport you have for sale". The woman raises her hand at me and picks up her ringing phone. Does some admin stuff, then asks which one it was. Brings it out to the front, hands me the keys then gets back to fielding her telephone calls...
Half an hour into walking around and sitting in the car I get bored and ask her if we can go out for a drive. She says she won't be much longer. Another 15 minutes later I get tired of having my time wasted and hand her back the keys, deciding that I have test driven this model before anyway and can always test drive it when i come to pick it up if I decide to buy it. I ask her to give me a px quote for my car, but she raises her hand and answers another call as I wait. I must add that she was not the only staff in that office at the time.
I ask her when was the last service done? She tells me it was April last year. So I say "Ah so I am gonna need to get it serviced pretty much as son as I buy it". She responds with "I don't know how long Lexus service intervals are, but if it's 12 months, then yeah, I guess"
I ask her how long they had the car for, she says few weeks. I ask if it's few weeks as in a couple of weeks, or 16 weeks?
She responds that they sell a 100 cars per month and that they don't usually have cars for 16 weeks.
which again did not seem like an answer to me. Especially since I seem to recall first seeing this car in January..
I hoped to get an e-mail from the original salesperson yesterday, but none came. Today they dropped the price by a £1000 and still nobody contacted me.
I find their salesmanship worse than non-existing.
I did like the car, the interior and the colour/wheel combo. I did think that the rear bumper is almost an imperceptible shade darker than the rest of the car, which normally would not put me off, but given the slippery answers of the salesperson I do wonder if it's a cause for concern.
anyway I just don't know what to do from here. I do want the car, especially seeing it reduced in price. If I can get another 1000 off it should make the potential issues with it worth it. Do I email the salesperson and tell him just how bad he is? Do I call and ask for the manager? I am a bit shocked at the lack of effort at selling the car to me.
There'll always be another car with a good colour combo. Don't bother with clownsHalf an hour into walking around and sitting in the car I get bored and ask her if we can go out for a drive. She says she won't be much longer. Another 15 minutes later I get tired of having my time wasted and hand her back the keys, deciding that I have test driven this model before anyway and can always test drive it when i come to pick it up if I decide to buy it. I ask her to give me a px quote for my car, but she raises her hand and answers another call as I wait. I must add that she was not the only staff in that office at the time.
I ask her when was the last service done? She tells me it was April last year. So I say "Ah so I am gonna need to get it serviced pretty much as son as I buy it". She responds with "I don't know how long Lexus service intervals are, but if it's 12 months, then yeah, I guess"
I ask her how long they had the car for, she says few weeks. I ask if it's few weeks as in a couple of weeks, or 16 weeks?
She responds that they sell a 100 cars per month and that they don't usually have cars for 16 weeks.
which again did not seem like an answer to me. Especially since I seem to recall first seeing this car in January..
I hoped to get an e-mail from the original salesperson yesterday, but none came. Today they dropped the price by a £1000 and still nobody contacted me.
I find their salesmanship worse than non-existing.
I did like the car, the interior and the colour/wheel combo. I did think that the rear bumper is almost an imperceptible shade darker than the rest of the car, which normally would not put me off, but given the slippery answers of the salesperson I do wonder if it's a cause for concern.
anyway I just don't know what to do from here. I do want the car, especially seeing it reduced in price. If I can get another 1000 off it should make the potential issues with it worth it. Do I email the salesperson and tell him just how bad he is? Do I call and ask for the manager? I am a bit shocked at the lack of effort at selling the car to me.
30 miles is nothing - a 60 mile round trip is what, £15 in fuel and much better than travelling further to see a car you have not yet seen in the flesh only to be disappointed.
I know you feel let down and have had your time wasted but if it is the right car in the right spec then go back when the salesperson is there. He could have had a personal emergency that he had to dash off for and didn't have time to explain it to every other member of staff who may have thought he was just sloping off before everyone else.
When you saw other staff in the office, why didn't you approach one of them? Perhaps there is some honouramong thieves and they didn't want to take another salesperson's customer however they could have shown you around the car but said you would have to come back to deal with who you had originally spoken to - would you have bothered with a second trip to do that?
If it makes you feel more comfortable then phone and speak to the manager. Explain that you came to look at a vehicle but that the staff were otherwise engaged at the time and that you would be interested in a more thorough look at the vehicle if they can guarantee someone will be there to field your questions and facilitate a test drive. If you go straight to a manager and throw someone under the bus then the chances of any salesperson there wanting to help you out with any discounts may be severely diminished.
By all means walk away if they are
a second time around.
I know you feel let down and have had your time wasted but if it is the right car in the right spec then go back when the salesperson is there. He could have had a personal emergency that he had to dash off for and didn't have time to explain it to every other member of staff who may have thought he was just sloping off before everyone else.
When you saw other staff in the office, why didn't you approach one of them? Perhaps there is some honour
If it makes you feel more comfortable then phone and speak to the manager. Explain that you came to look at a vehicle but that the staff were otherwise engaged at the time and that you would be interested in a more thorough look at the vehicle if they can guarantee someone will be there to field your questions and facilitate a test drive. If you go straight to a manager and throw someone under the bus then the chances of any salesperson there wanting to help you out with any discounts may be severely diminished.
By all means walk away if they are
a second time around. if you want the 'Arrods experience you don't go to Tesco.
they are churn sites, you are a number, but they should offer better value over other sites, low prpfit high turnover. Sometimes paying a bit more knowing you have a comeback/customer service is better in the long run. if you feel let down before you have bought then it would never get better.
they are churn sites, you are a number, but they should offer better value over other sites, low prpfit high turnover. Sometimes paying a bit more knowing you have a comeback/customer service is better in the long run. if you feel let down before you have bought then it would never get better.
I run a car sales business.
I would be absolutely livid if we dropped a grand off a car when I had someone out on it that was almost ready to buy because no one could be bothered to deal with them.
Go back and bag yourself a good deal on the car but fully eyes open they don't give a hoot now, it is unlikely to be much better if/when anything goes wrong.
I would be absolutely livid if we dropped a grand off a car when I had someone out on it that was almost ready to buy because no one could be bothered to deal with them.
Go back and bag yourself a good deal on the car but fully eyes open they don't give a hoot now, it is unlikely to be much better if/when anything goes wrong.
sandman77 said:
If its the car you want then arrange to go back for a more thorough look/test drive. If you like it and want it then buy it. You are buying the car not the dealer.
This.It sounds like it's a car supermarket type place. If you want to buy from that sort of place, you need to play by there rules, to a point.
If you like the car and the price is right, head back over for a test drive and buy it if it passes muster - if you can, try to go at a time when they're not quite so busy.
If you want a better experience, go elsewhere, you will find other cars.
Go back and test drive it - if you like it leave a deposit on it with a credit card then come back with cash/bankers draft/balance transfer when you come to collect it.
The credit card company should cover you for the whole amount if it turns out to be a pile of poo and you have issues with the company - I think?? I'm not sure how much they cover but I'm aware this is one way to cover yourself for smaller purchases if nothing else. Might be worth ringing your card company to ask.
The credit card company should cover you for the whole amount if it turns out to be a pile of poo and you have issues with the company - I think?? I'm not sure how much they cover but I'm aware this is one way to cover yourself for smaller purchases if nothing else. Might be worth ringing your card company to ask.
skeeterm5 said:
If they can't be bothered to take care to sell you the car and take your money how do you think they will react if you have a problem post purchase?
Unless you are getting a stonking deal, the car isn't rare, buy it somewhere else.
S
Exactly this. If they can hardly be bothered to sell you the car in the first place, just how much energy do you think has gone into the vehicles prep? Or how keen are they going to be to look after you in the evebt of problems after the sale is completed? Unless you are getting a stonking deal, the car isn't rare, buy it somewhere else.
S
You must be absolutely crackers to even consider going back.
You'll be posting on PH for help before the end of the month if you buy it!
Just done some research and found the previous owner who is an old CEO of a big golf company. I contacted the Lexus service centre that serviced the car and they said it was a boring car (in a good way). It appears that the biggest reason the dealer could not sell the car this far and have dropped it by 4k since originally receiving it is that in 1000 miles the car is due a very big service. Which as a current Lexus owner with a service plan, I might be able to transfer over. I think it puts me in a good position to negotiate a good deal on a car that is already way below comparable cars on the market. My biggest reason for considering it, is that I cannot see any other car of this make and model on the market that would compare, even if I added another 6k to the budget.
Am I the only one who thinks the OP's expectations are part of the problem here? There is no excuse for rudeness and the member of staff raising her hand at you while three others sit around would seriously irk me, but equally expecting a single receptionist (in a non-franchised car supermarket with a hundred cars on site) to recall Lexus service intervals, and the service due date on that particular car off hand, and the scope of that service, when her colleague who is supposed to do that job has knocked off early and left her up to her eyeballs in phone calls to deal with?
Plus, asking said receptionist how long they've had the car when you already know the answer just to 'trick' them?
Sounds like the car you want at a good price... you want to pass it over and potentially pay thousands more because a salesman was absent on one visit?
Be diligent, treat it as a private sale, if the deal is right go for it.
Plus, asking said receptionist how long they've had the car when you already know the answer just to 'trick' them?
Sounds like the car you want at a good price... you want to pass it over and potentially pay thousands more because a salesman was absent on one visit?
Be diligent, treat it as a private sale, if the deal is right go for it.
HustleRussell said:
Am I the only one who thinks the OP's expectations are part of the problem here? There is no excuse for rudeness and the member of staff raising her hand at you while three others sit around would seriously irk me, but equally expecting a single receptionist (in a non-franchised car supermarket with a hundred cars on site) to recall Lexus service intervals, and the service due date on that particular car off hand, and the scope of that service, when her colleague who is supposed to do that job has knocked off early and left her up to her eyeballs in phone calls to deal with?
Plus, asking said receptionist how long they've had the car when you already know the answer just to 'trick' them?
Sounds like the car you want at a good price... you want to pass it over and potentially pay thousands more because a salesman was absent on one visit?
Be diligent, treat it as a private sale, if the deal is right go for it.
Fair points, though you perhaps interpreted what I said to suit your narrative. I said I THINK I saw it in January first, I wasn't certain, hence why I asked. It also wasn't a receptionist. She was a salesperson, who funny enough, is dealing with me now by e-mail. But I take your point and perhaps having started off on the wrong foot I chose to take their vagueness for dishonesty, rather than give them the benefit of doubt.Plus, asking said receptionist how long they've had the car when you already know the answer just to 'trick' them?
Sounds like the car you want at a good price... you want to pass it over and potentially pay thousands more because a salesman was absent on one visit?
Be diligent, treat it as a private sale, if the deal is right go for it.
HustleRussell said:
Plus, asking said receptionist how long they've had the car when you already know the answer just to 'trick' them?
I'll often ask this. It's a good indicator of honesty. If they try to waffle on this point it's a safe bet that more tall tales will be on the way.....Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff