Horrible Service

Man, if there is one thing that really gets under my skin, it is horrible service. I walk into a large Dodge dealership last night to look for a new tow rig. Now, Dodge anything would not be my first choice for a vehicle, but they have the 2.99 gas garantee for three years and this dealer was picking up another 2.00 so it is really .99/gallon gas garantee for three years, up to 12,000 miles/yr.
So I call to ask about the program and they schedule an appointment for me to come out and talk to them. I show up at the agreed time and the freckin guy is not even working. That right there pissed me off, but I met with another guy anyway.
We go out in the rain and look at a few trucks and I find what I want. He takes down the stock number and we head in to work out some deals. He takes all the info for my trade and just before he goes to the sales office to get the "best price" he asks me if we can make a great deal, will I buy the truck today. I told him flat out, no. I was not looking to do business today, I just want to get an idea of what I am looking at. The sales manager then came over to try to talk me into buying that day. I repeated the same response, NO! He then walked away again to the sales office and then returned a few minutes later. I asked if they had some numbers, he said no. I was confused. He then told me that if I was not going to buy a truck tonight, he had no intrest in showing me any numbers or continuing the process. I told him that was the best way to ensure that I would not be buying a truck from them and I walked out the door.

As I was driving home, I just kept thinking that could not be the best way to do business. So, when I got home, I wrote an email to the dealership explaining my concern about not getting a price and thier policies. The "customer relations" director emailed me back stating that they did give me a price, that all thier vehicles have the MSRP printed on the window sticker.
I wrote back that in that case, I can find a better price elsewhere.

I mean damn, it seems like they would pretty much be kissing anyones butt that wants to buy a truck these days.

Sorry for the rant.
Adam

My wife and I were shopping for her car, she wanted an A4. We went to one dealer and got a price for what she wanted and thought it would be a good idea to shop around. We went to another dealer and the guy says how much do you want to pay a month? We said we don't buy that way, we want to know the bottom line price of the car.

The guy starts getting pissy and pulls out the book. They he starts asking us what we want in the car and he starts going down the list prices and totaling up all the items. He then comes up with a ridiculous price that was $10k over the other dealer.

When we told him that we could get a much better price he jumped out of his chair and started yelling at us. "Go right now to the other dealership before they change their minds!" He then escorted us out of the dealership. Although we were pissed at first we then started laughing that we were able to work up the salesman so much that he booted us from the dealer. You should've seen the faces of the other people in the dealership as we were getting booted. lol

After two Audis she is now in a Subaru wrx.

Also, I'll add that purchasing a car can be hit-or-miss as far as miserable vs. enjoyable. I've purchased 5 cars so far. 2 good experiences, 1 awful experience, and 2 so-so experiences. The best new car buying experience I've ever had was CarMax. No haggle pricing on new cars that was very competitive. That's the only time I've left a dealership without feeling screwed or remorseful to some degree.

Hollywood wrote: Did you trade in anything with them? That's where they screw you. You pretty much get a salvage price, but if it's not a POS you'll see it for sale with a 50-100% higher tag than they gave you.

Good point. I've been HOSED twice on trade-ins. Never again. Both were hasty, last minute moves that cost me dearly in the end.

Pete

I hope you stopped by the other dealer and showed them your new car, would serve them right. I was told a couple times I couldn't afford a truck, they were wrong every time.

the best one at the dealership is "how much do you want your payments to be, and that right there tells me they are custom tailoring thier financing around how much you can afford a month. My reply is always i want no more than 150.00 a month payment. they smile and know your onto thier game

Dude, trucks are a dime a dozen right now, buy one from the end of someones drive....thier giving them away....let someone else take the hit

IIRC, Chrysler has tried this "offer" in the past and it failed then too.

8122pbrainard wrote: I wrote out a personal check for the full amount and drove off with a new car!!

That's exactly what most dealers don't want. They make good money selling the finance package to a third party and don't have the hassle of maintaining it.

They want to keep making money on our money over time...not unlike a bank. Those who save and pay cash can all but set their price!

Pete, I have done the same thing. Gone looking for expensive cars. Show up in my beat up 68 Ford pickup and my working around the garage clothes. They kept trying to steer me to cheaper cars.

I've also stood at the car and demanded a price. After the first trip to the sales manager with no price, I stated very clearly "Last chance - you ask me one more time to go to the sales office, or if you come back here one more time without an *************** price,I buy somewhere else." End of story.

Finally, I have negotiated a price letting the dealer believe I will finance through them. As suggested you will often get a better price because they expect to make money on the financing. Once they've finally given me a price, I pull out a checkbook and pay cash. I never sign anything except the final contract.

BKH

    Always negotiate like your going to finance.Most banks will allow the dealer to add 3% to the interest rate,thus letting them "give" the car away and make money on financing and kickbacks.I know alot of salemen and most of them already know the bottom line on the car before they even make the "trip" to see the boss,so the only thing their really discussing is how they can skew the numbers to make you think you're getting the deal you want.
   What most people don't know,is that the loan has to be carried for a certain term or the bank takes the interest money back from the dealer. If you negotiate a deal on an agreement to finance,you get a better deal,and if you take your personal check and pay the loan off a week later,the dealership does not get the money anyway.Most banks the term is 90 days.That is what is happening when you buy a car for "no money down,no interest and no payments for 90 days".The dealer is actually making the first three payments for you to guarantee they don't get charged back the interest on the loan and then they tack those 3 payments on to the end of your finance term.........nothing is free.
   Not all car salesman are shady,but I have a friend who runs a dealership and he claims that 90% of the people who walk through the door will feel like they got screwed even if they didn't.That ends up making the whole process uneasy from the get-go. He also said that if you go back to the same place to negotiate a deal more than twice and the price has not changed,that is more than likely the cheapest you can get it at that dealership.
   Guess I'm a little off topic.
Anyhow, I hate crappy service,too.Dell has been jerking me around on a computer for 4 weeks and I can't even get someone on the phone who speaks English.I believe that all you have is your name,and once that is tarnished you will never fully recover.What seperates good service from bad is when someone providing a service realizes that they can not survive the rest of their lives on one transaction.Repeat business is where it's at.

      B.T.W...I have a DODGE and it isn't that bad !


    Mike

Gary S wrote: [QUOTE=8122pbrainard] Bought a Fleetwood Brougham coupe with the leather de'eligance package, diesel, wire wheels, Vogue tires and sunroof. /QUOTE] Sorry to say Pete,I think they got the last laugh

Gary, Why do you say that? Besides looking like a pimpmobile, I loved the car. I ordered the car loaded and had it within a week. They didn't have it sitting at the dealership! If you referring to the diesel, I actually had 2 of the GM 350 diesels. Loved them. Never had a single problem with ether of them and put on about 120K on each. The people who did have the diesel problems I feel were the ones who never change their oil. You can't do that with a diesel.

As far as price, the salesman was a friend that my father had sponsored to get him into a Chicago suburban country club so I did trust him for a good price. I couldn't beat the service ether. The saleman would pick up my car at work, leave me his and drive mine in to the dealership for the day.

now guy's, you make a living, what if your boss said to you today were going to pay you 25.00 per hour today instead of 30.00...
I dont like car salesman anymore than you do and they too are entilted to make a living, its a matter of being smarter than them and being a better con artist.
i had a guy yesterday trying to sell me his boat and i know what he paid for it but he did not know that i knew, he wanted twice what he paid for it and was badgering me.
I stood there and looked at him and said you like getting good deals dont you? he said yes, i said if you wanted to buy this boat what would you want to pay for it? about half of what you are asking? end of conversation
another good way to negotiate is if im asking $1000.00 for something, of course your going to get the guy who wants it for $500.00 and he will offer that. thats where i tell him no I'll take $1500.00 for it, it always, always works, I'll squeeze the $1000.00 from him

81nautique wrote: Pete, have you seen Hollywood's daily driver? You two are out of the same mold.

Alan, Come on?? How can you even say something like that putting me in the same class as HW!!

I did see the picture of his car. I didn't say anything at that time fearing that some one would come out with a comment like yours!

Gary S wrote: [QUOTE=8122pbrainard] Bought a Fleetwood Brougham coupe with the leather de'eligance package, diesel, wire wheels, Vogue tires and sunroof. /QUOTE] Sorry to say Pete,I think they got the last laugh

Sorry Pete, but I laughed really hard at this comment because I thought the same thing! That must have been back in the day when Cadillacs were actually desirable cars- Pre-Lexus, Infiniti, and widespread availability of European luxury cars.

I used to laugh at what Monique would pay the Acura dealer to change her oil, nothing like a nice C-note for twenty bucks worth of oil and paper what a rip off. Foreign cars might be trimed out a little different but the quality is not any better and actually can cost quit a bit more for the same class america car over the long haul. Saw a yahoo news artical that a camery or civic cost over 4K more to operate compared to a cobolt or G5.