Is this an unreasonable request

Is this an unreasonable request

Author
Discussion

RWD cossie wil

4,319 posts

174 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
If people are serious, they call. Any other form of contact is merely window shopping in my experience.

HeatonNorris

1,649 posts

149 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
RWD cossie wil said:
If people are serious, they call. Any other form of contact is merely window shopping in my experience.
The last 4 cars I bought with my own money started with an eMail enquiry.

Many dealers missed out on the opportunity to sell me something by not responding, though.

daemon

35,841 posts

198 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
HeatonNorris said:
RWD cossie wil said:
If people are serious, they call. Any other form of contact is merely window shopping in my experience.
The last 4 cars I bought with my own money started with an eMail enquiry.

Many dealers missed out on the opportunity to sell me something by not responding, though.
I definitely think its wrong of a dealer not to reply - if the facility is there to email then it needs to be accomodated - even if its just with an 'sorry we cant respond to email enquiries at present, please contact us on XXXXX XXXXXXX'


RWD cossie wil

4,319 posts

174 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
I had a bit of a bargin recently, I saw a very nice gearbox for sale on another forum I use, normally over 2.5k without any of the kit needed to fit it into my car. It was up for 2k, with all the bits needed to fit it. The advert had been on the website for about 8 minutes before I spotted it.

I started writing out a text to the guy selling, then thought what is the point, I will just ring him & ask him the questions I need to have answered before u commit to buy. Ten minutes later & after a good chat, I owned a gearbox I have been after for ages, & there were a number of very dissapointed people who had texted, emailed & rang during the time I was in the phone!

I suppose my point is that from nearly every big purchase & sale I have made from an online source, a phone call has always been the most successful way of doing it.



Edited by RWD cossie wil on Wednesday 1st August 22:05

Fox-

13,241 posts

247 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
RWD cossie wil said:
If people are serious, they call. Any other form of contact is merely window shopping in my experience.
Surely the winder shoppers are the ones who turn up on a Sunday to kick tyres and test pilot?

How does one window shop by sending a text based message full of boring questions about service history to a dealer?

RWD cossie wil

4,319 posts

174 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
quotequote all
Fox- said:
Surely the winder shoppers are the ones who turn up on a Sunday to kick tyres and test pilot?

How does one window shop by sending a text based message full of boring questions about service history to a dealer?
I'm not a dealer so I don't know about them, but selling privately emails never seem to result in contact over the phone or viewings, most people are happier emailing as it means they can just blank you instead of having to say sorry but it's not the car for me, same as texts.


Fox-

13,241 posts

247 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
quotequote all
RWD cossie wil said:
I'm not a dealer so I don't know about them, but selling privately emails never seem to result in contact over the phone or viewings, most people are happier emailing as it means they can just blank you instead of having to say sorry but it's not the car for me, same as texts.

Scammers aside when they send you an email they are interested in your car 95% of the time. I accept that more often than not they'll not buy it - be it because something you tell them puts it off, or because they couldnt really get the money, or whatever - but they are interested. Only nutcases will take the time to email about a car they've no intention of viewing or buying, what does it acheive?

The guy who bought my 335i emailed me. He had lots of questions. I answered them all. We exchanged 2-3 emails and he called me and paid a deposit before even viewing the car.

Ignoring emails just seems daft?

FLASHG1981

101 posts

144 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
quotequote all
Fox- said:
Scammers aside when they send you an email they are interested in your car 95% of the time. I accept that more often than not they'll not buy it - be it because something you tell them puts it off, or because they couldnt really get the money, or whatever - but they are interested. Only nutcases will take the time to email about a car they've no intention of viewing or buying, what does it achieve?
Its not true that the reason they don't view the car is because something you have said puts them off. In the past when I have replied mainly with a positive reply to their question. If they ask for example any advisories on the MOT? I check and find no advisories and tell them this they still don't ever view the car. Same if the ask about history and I reply saying full history with main dealer. No matter what the response you give its just a waste of time.

Gruber

6,313 posts

215 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
hadenough! said:
Although, to add a bit of balance this lot couldn't have been more helpful:

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3492629.htm
Apologies for the thread resurrection, but...

Any particular reason you dismissed this one?

hadenough!

Original Poster:

3,785 posts

261 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Initially discrepancies between what they told me on the phone, info on the pistonheads advert, info on their website and info from the MOT database. Something just didn't feel right.

I think they were advertising it with sub 100k miles when it had bee MOTd at their local garage back in feb with over 100k.

Plus the E30 popped up at the right price at the right time.


Gruber

6,313 posts

215 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
hadenough! said:
Initially discrepancies between what they told me on the phone, info on the pistonheads advert, info on their website and info from the MOT database. Something just didn't feel right.

I think they were advertising it with sub 100k miles when it had bee MOTd at their local garage back in feb with over 100k.

Plus the E30 popped up at the right price at the right time.
Fairy nuff! thumbup

Bullett

10,889 posts

185 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
I suspect that you get a lower return on email queries because of the nature of the medium rather than the seriousness of the buyer. If looking for something basic and common lets say a 1.6 focus there are hundreds of them. I often browse late at night or when I'm on a conference call at work that doesn't need my full attention.

I can fire off 10 emails to 10 dealers with the same questions in the same time it takes to do one. If I get 3 replies the other 7 dealers have ruled themselves out by simply not replying. Maybe they all replied and only a few were good answers, I'm using it as a filtering method. Calling all those dealers would take me hours.

Do you cross reference the email to subsequent calls?