gmhdds

My Service sucked. I picked up my new A4 3.0Q dirty on Saturday and was let down by the salesperson's checkout service. He then had the nerve to call the next day and tell me to give him all 5's. I got the car washed and now love it but...what a nerve.

April

Tell them in exact terms how they let you down. Keep it short and unemotional. The only way to effect change, is to tell the people who can do something about it in the larger sense.

Now I do not know how much you paid over invoice, but sometimes a sales team feels someone isn't worth good service if they haven't made much money. Yes, the management can agree to sell the car for X amount over invoice to reach a sales quota, but the salesperson may want to let the customer go and try to find another higher paying potential client. I am not saying this applies to you, but some of the low numbers I've seen here would indicate that good service isn't going to be a top priority.

Oaktree

It seems very simple. Deliver my car in excellent condition and I will give you 5's. My Audi and Volvo dealer both did this.

EdP

Meaning, did you walk in, buy the car, then take ownership? If that is the case, there would probably not be enough time to detail the car for delivery, especially on a saturday. What I do in that case is have them come back so I can get it detailed (and as a courtesy refill the tank).

phred

If you're planning to have an ongoing service relationship with this dealership, be careful about dinging them on the survey. All the survey results are given to the dealership so "they can improve," but they don't hide names so it's pretty obvious who to go after for bad ratings. There's money (and continued employment) at stake, so salespeople are forced to take this stupid survey very seriously.

Majorafro

I know of no other business where the seller *agrees* to allow the buyer to purchase his goods at price X , then decides to punish them with crappy future service b/c they didn't pay price X+10. DO airlines pay less attention to the checked luggage of lower-fare customers? Makes sense on the school-playground-rules level, but it's pretty stupid from a business perspective. *Especially* a word-of-mouth business, as car dealerships often are.

If you are going to do that to your customers, you might as well give up on bartering and convert to a Saturn dealership.

Marc Collins

...perhaps why they get such a bad rap and no-dicker prices could be "invented" as a selling technique.

My problem is that dealers get treated like **** by the manufacurers, have almost no say in what they sell, but have to absorb collosal inventory costs whie they are at it.

The whole system breeds inefficiencies and provides a big incentive for less honourable sales staff and managers to screw people if they think they can get away with it.

Give me the European order-what-you-want anytime you want and wait system any day. How many times do I want to spend $30 - $50K without thinking about it first? I don't want a car that AoA thinks is good for me, nor do I want to settle for the lowest common denominator of what's on a lot...but that's what we are almost forced to do.

EdP

the folks BUYING are even WORSE than the sales people.

Never have the courtesy to keep appointments, or call if they can't make it.

Lie outright, and try to contrive information when shopping around - ie, can't be direct and honest.

I could go on. The shoe fits on the other foot quite easily.

Majorafro

Heh. I don't doubt that for a second. Maybe it's the overall impression that car dealers are jerks that feeds us consumer's bad behavior which in turn feeds the car dealers and on and on.

April

still view it as a weakness they should take advantage of, instead of responding in kind.

As Ed is finding out now, the reason dealerships play all the games, is because they been burned and have learned. I have been repeatedly astonished at what people try to get away with. Their reasoning is that it is only a car dealership and the dealer deserves any tricks, dirt or lies that can be heaped upon them as a preemptive strike. What they don't realize is that folks like Ed are learning that the public is rather dishonest in general and he will become jaded and suspicious - eventually possibly joining the ranks of disillusioned salespeople who realize that they must take aggressive steps to help themselves, because nobody else will care. And so the cycle continues......

Be professional in your shopping. Just as buying a house may involve finding a good representitive, so should buying a car. All the research to find the right car, should not end when you walk onto the lot. Your best chance of having a good experience is to talk with an ABS. Barring that, talk with the service manager and ask them from whom THEY would buy a car - they get see all the broken post sale promises.

Do you know that if you start with one salesperson whom you like, come back later to talk numbers or drive more cars while that person has time off or is busy with someone else - so someone else helps you out - that the first salesperson is now obligated to split the commission 50/50 with that person who may not have done very much ? That is how the system works. After all, the other salesperson may have been able to find another customer in the time they were helping you, and made a full commission.

Make appointments - never just show up. Treat a salesperson you like, like any other professional. Please make appointments and keep them. If you can't, a 10 second phone call is all it takes to let them know. It is just respect for yourself, other shoppers, and the salesperson. You'll find in general that you get treated better, may get a better deal, and feel better about the whole transaction.

Ok, ok, I'm getting off the soapbox now...