Do dealers want to sell cars?

[Fatherdougal]

In the market for a second hand car around the £30k mark. Through the magic of Pistonheads alerts, yesterday morning I got a notification that a new listing had been added and was pretty close to the spec I wanted. I contacted the dealer through the contact button asking if I could arrange a viewing. No response.

This morning I checked their own website, saw the listing and again used the contact button - still no reply through either of these methods. Given the car isn't exactly cheap, and lack of business presumably recently during COVID I would have expected them to be chomping at the bit to follow up leads. I work in sales, and would be pretty disappointed if anyone in my team didn't follow up interest within 2 days...

Not bought a car in a while - is this the norm? Am I expected to ring instead, would that make a difference? Are my expectations of response times too high? Interested in opinions!

[Wills2]

Pick up the phone and call them....it's not hard.

[RS93]

I think calling can show your more genuine as imagine dealers get a lot of dud email leads

[whp1983]

Yep, sounds a pretty textbook experience. They tend to only take you seriously if you turn up..... although you’d like to think post Covid they’d be a bit of willing!

When everyone orders cars online in future I’m sure dealers will wonder why!

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

RS93 said:

I think calling can show your more genuine as imagine dealers get a lot of dud email leads

Maybe so but I would agree it's poor customer service. If you aren't going to bother responding to email enquiries why bother having the facility set up?

[Fatherdougal]

Wills2 said:

Pick up the phone and call them....it's not hard.

Err - thanks for that, I think. I work through the day and yesterday was back to back, so I can email while on calls. What's the point in having an email option if they ignore it, is kind of my point....

[Cold]

It's a dealer. They only do fax, carrier pigeon or two tins and a piece of string. Computers are just funny looking typewriters to them.

[Jag_NE]

Used car sales are flying. You are in a queue.

[abzmike]

The majority of dealers I’ve dealt with are absolutely rubbish at operating a website. I just think it’s not their preferred way of doing business, as no one is going to click ‘Buy Now’ and accept all the add-ons that make it a good deal for the dealer.

[hyphen]

Cold said:

It's a dealer. They only do fax, carrier pigeon or two tins and a piece of string. Computers are just funny looking typewriters to them.

This.

But some are more polished, i bought my current car and setup the viewing via the online chat facility on their site.

[photo_ed]

I think to register interest as serious, I think the majority of dealers probably still favour a call & conversation over a more general email enquiry.

I'd just give them a call.

[chow pan toon]

Fatherdougal said:

Err - thanks for that, I think. I work through the day and yesterday was back to back, so I can email while on calls. What's the point in having an email option if they ignore it, is kind of my point....

Call them during your lunch. If they're as busy as you with calls and walk ins then emails are going to be bottom of the list.

[Drl22]

Fatherdougal said:

Wills2 said:

Pick up the phone and call them....it's not hard.

Err - thanks for that, I think. I work through the day and yesterday was back to back, so I can email while on calls. What's the point in having an email option if they ignore it, is kind of my point....

You make calls at work because it’s the best way to communicate with clients etc, same applies to this. Call them.

[Fleckers]

My preference is email, I can ask everything I want with out forgetting something, yes I could write a list but I still miss things off

If the dealer has an email they should use it

[CarlosFandango11]

Drl22 said:

Fatherdougal said:

Wills2 said:

Pick up the phone and call them....it's not hard.

Err - thanks for that, I think. I work through the day and yesterday was back to back, so I can email while on calls. What's the point in having an email option if they ignore it, is kind of my point....

You make calls at work because it’s the best way to communicate with clients etc, same applies to this. Call them.

You make calls or use emails at work depending on what is most appropriate for the situation. The vast majority of my communication is done by email.

For the OP’s position where he’s very busy, email it clearly the best choice - and it gives the dealer the opportunity to reply when they’re not occupied.

[Chris944_S2]

I receive about 150 emails a day.
I’ve found that ignoring them and only answering when I get a reminder is the most efficient way to filter out pointless ones. It’s amazing how unimportant most emails actually are.

Phone the dealer, email is the favourite tool of time wasters so if you’re genuinely interested, you don’t want to be categorized as one of them.

[chow pan toon]

CarlosFandango11 said:

For the OP’s position where he’s very busy, email it clearly the best choice

I think he's proved it isn't.

[Street2408]

My dealership is running at less than 50% of the usual staffing levels, we’re so busy we are working from 8-6:30 everyday without even a lunch break, going two weeks between days off and managing colleagues customers who are still on furlough etc.

Why is it people on the internet assume car sales people are lazy and don’t want to sell cars?

Try giving a call and if you can’t get through to an exec, someone will take a message and you’ll get a call back. Every lead into the business will be monitored and logged with an exec having to log what contact they’ve had with the customer.

I’m now at the point where working all these hours and how the bonus is paid, I’m probably worse off for the next month or so than when I was on furlough.

[oldaudi]

I bought a used car a few weeks ago. Started sending emails and using the “contact dealer” button on some websites. I had a list of questions I wanted answering for the car I wanted to buy. Not one from 8 dealers contacted me. I used this method because I was working from home, on a PC and it was an easy method to copy and paste my questions. . The car I purchased was only done so after I phoned and spoke to the dealer 60 miles away (but still used the reserve to buy option on their website.)

Made some small talk with the guy as we were doing the paper work and he has concluded that if someone wants the car they’ll phone. He was bored of responding to emails that then get no further response. He was selling enough cars to people that could be bothered to phone him. Weird but I guess it’s better for them to do phone calls only. We actually had to wait for his computer to boot and apply about 3 months worth of security patches before we could start

Edited by oldaudi on Wednesday 24th June 22:17

[Terminator X]

Wills2 said:

Pick up the phone and call them....it's not hard.

To the OP, it is well known that if you don't call multiple times + lick the shoes of the salesman you are a Timewaster. You must do better.

TX.