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Took delivery today of a new 330d sport. Just had a call from the after sales guy asking how I liked the car etc.. Then dropped the bombshell that when I'd ordered the car in June they'd used the pre-increase prices by mistake. He hoped that he'd be able to appeal to my conscience and would I meet him so that we could come to some arrangement. He readily admitted that I could just tell him to get lost, but hoped that I wouldn't. I reckon the difference is about £5-600. I got a pretty good deal originally and I'm tempted to meet him half way with £250, or I could just tell him to sod off. Anyone had any similar experience?
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If he's being that decent about it, then I'd probably look for a deal around £x more for the car and a free service or something like that.
I might just even hand over the £250, depending on his behaviour.
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Car has 5 years free servicing Mark. Someone on a BMW site has suggested meeting him half way and asking for a couple of other 'goodies', jacket, brolly etc. I've just added up what I spent with this dealer over the last 4 years and it amounts to over £75k . Maybe not much to some of their customers, but plenty to me.
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Personally I would tell them (in a nice kind of way) that it is their mistake and they will have to live with it. Why should you give them another £300 or so? You bought the car for the price that you must have agreed, they supplied the car to you without question and now beacuse of their 'mistake' they want you to pay some more money. If the shoe was on the other foot, ie they realised they had overcharged you by £600 do you think they would have rung you up and offered you the cash back? I doubt it very much...
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They make enough money from selling you the car in the first place, i can't see that losing £500 to you is going to dent their profit margins. They are also going to make money from servicing your car, for which they overcharge (£85 p/hr labour!)
Why not offer him a goodwill payment of £50. Personally i wouldn't give them a penny.(but that is only my opinion)
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Seems that the dealer has had three months or so to notice this 'mistake'.
I'd have no sympathy with them at all, if a main BMW dealer can't get the simplest aspect of a deal right first try then they deserve to be stung like this.
Don't give them a penny.
PP
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I agree with Shaun on this one. BMW are the second most profitable car company per cars sold (second to Porche I beleive) The way I see it is that they are better off than you, £500 means something to you or me but not to a multi billion pound firm.
Anyway when it comes to part-exing, as you apear to do often, you won't be quite as heartbroken next time when the same salesman offers you rock bottom...
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Richy possibly has a point - How have you been treated by them in the past ?
If they have treated you fairly and the guy is being pleasant now, then why not do the decent thing.
Its not like he's rung up and demanded a sum of money; he's seemingly been quite frank with you, even to the point of telling you that you don't need to pay.
For all I know he's made a mistake, in a mess with his boss, and £250 would put it right.
Of course, he could be taking the wossname, but it doesn;t really seem like it.
I tend to try, and sometimes fail, to do the right thing. It sometimes, perhaps often, falls on stony ground and costs me money; but I feel better about it and on the odd occasion in my life it has come back at me in quite unexpected and pleasant ways.
Certainly I am sure that the people bellowing "stuff the salesman" etc. etc. never make mistakes themselves, would never expect someone else to do the decent thing and are unconcerned about what is, perhaps, the "right" thing to do.
Personally I am more confortable with my way.
And if its got free servicing, then there are perhaps other goods or services over which a deal might be done.
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maybe this is the latest way to fleece you?
Gone are the days of them going off to beg the sales manager to give you more on the PX while they sit in a back office and eat cakes. they just give you a sob story after you;ve got the car.
£500 is what the MD spends on champagne in a weekend.
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Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
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Everyone makes a mistake from time to time. I agree with OAP.
As has been said already, it really depends on how they have treated you to date. If your total spend there has been £75k then you've obviously been there a lot so you should have some idea.
If you don't really feel like it then perhaps other pressing matters will keep distracting you and preventing you from calling back.
If you cough up, I'd definitely ask for something back - goodies are all very well but will have to be accounted for in their books. How about some nice juicy test drives? 48 hour loans of a 645i Convertible? Z4 3.0i? 760i? - these will not raise any visible cost to them.
I'd love to know who and which dealership - email address is in the profile! ;-D
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Write him a really charming and apologetic letter - perhaps even handwritten - saying that you're TERRIBLY sorry but you absolutely bust yourself going for the 330d rather than a 320d (or Sport rather than standard), and without the good deal the saleman offered you, you couldn't have afforded it and would have had - so regretfully after all these years - to go elsewhere.
And - unctuously - you do so look forward to buying another new BMW from them again next time.
Don't grieve for him - a contract is a contract, and all he has to do to get £600 back is to do his next 3 deals less generously by £200 each.
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Bottom line is if he had overcharged you £600 would he have told you??
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Whatever, it doesn't sound like pride or integrity feature very highly in their company policy.
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Reverse the situation here, you do a deal with the BMW dealer, pay a deposit and everyone is happy, then you get home and realise the price they gave you for your part/ex car was incorrect as you inadvertently stated the car was a LX when in fact it was a GLX, so you ring up and tell them the car is worth £200 more so can you have a cheque form £200 sent to you.... What do you think they would say?? I don't think it would be 'cheques in the post'! The deal was done so it is their problem, I am sure the 'discrepancy' will not affect their profits.
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" .. and would I meet him so that we could come to some arrangement. He readily admitted that I could just tell him to get lost, ..
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remember he is just a salesman, working for a uk dealer.
he is not mr.bmw from germany.
in my view, he is making a perfectly reasonable request to meet and discuss things. he says you can tell him to get lost.
so what have you to lose?
meet him and find out.
go armed with your facts and figures about your previous £75k spent ther.
if you don't like what he says then, you can still say no.
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It sounds to me that his boss has cottoned on to his error and said, probably rather ruthlessly, get the money back or else it's coming out of your salary.I wouldn't pay I'm afraid.They agreed a contract with you and now they want to change it.No chance
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Just remember this... you could get killed or injured on the way to pay some company what you don't owe them, and spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair, unable to drive, while they fritter your £500 away on a new piece of art for the MD's office wall.
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If he is a reasonably successful BMW salesman then he will barely notice a £500 deduction from his salary (which is probably what this is about).
A friend of mine (sadly no longer with us due to an RTA) worked for one of the large BMW dealer groups from about '93 until 2002 - he earned a very considerable amount of money indeed. I wouldn't worry about it too much, it will just me that he personally would have made little or nothing from selling to you.
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Thanks for the replies folks. After sleeping on it I'm more inclined to take a harder line. I mean, if they make more from my PX than they thought will they ring me and offer more money? This is the first time I've actually dealt with this salesman and he's been pleasant enough, which you'd expect if yoo're shelling out £30k, but nothing out of the ordinary. Strangely, it wasn't the salesman who contacted me, it was the after-sales manager. Apparently the salesman did this on two cars, but fortunately for them the other customer hasn't taken delivery yet. Seems to me that the salesman is for the high jump whatever I decide to do!
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330d - i am intrigued to learn how your £75k total spend figure is arrived at?
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Dalglish, it's surprising how quickly it adds up, and hwo you can forget all rational thought where cars are concerned. Sept 2000 318Ci (about £22.5k), Oct 2001 another 318Ci (about £23k) , Sept 2004 330D sport (£30k).
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it's surprising how quickly it adds up, and hwo you ...
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are you talking headline gross figures, or net after deducting your trade in values?
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gross figures. But on two occasions I didn't PX.
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Ian D has hit the nail on the head - Imagine it was your mistake - would the salesman knock £500 off because you'd got your figures mixed up?
As for those saying 'everyone makes mistakes' of course they do, and those over the age of 16 carry the can for them.
CF
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Well, I stuck to my hard line and told them I wasn't coughing up any more cash. The 'brand manager' tried to persuade me that I'd got a 54 reg car instead of an 04 and therefore was better off. However, when I asked him if they'd made a loss on the car and he said yes, I just laughed at him. In one breath he said they only had 8 or 9 % profit margin, then in the next he said I'd had a 5% discount. So whay happened to the remaining figure. What he really meant was they hadn't made as much profit as they would have liked. To be honest, I hadn't even looked at the price they'd charged me on the invoice, all I was interested in was the price to change (like most people I expect). Thanks to everyone for their thoughts & advice.
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How many businesses do you think make a profit of 8 or 9% on what they sell? BMW franchises hardly have to work hard to shift the cars, so I have a job feeling any sympathy for them in the event of a mistake like this. If you ask me, they have a licence to print money.
Many years ago, when I worked in the construction industry, companies were having to survive on 1 or 2% profit for long spells. Of course a lot of them didn't survive the lean times but I doubt there are any working in the realms of 8 or 9% profit today.
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i cant believe you asked the question.
im going to try this one in the future!
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