I used to think that used car salesmen were always desperate to sell cars...
But so far all my experiences have led my to think differently....
Looking at some of their websites which offer to find / locate a car and that you will be contacted within 48 hours of entering your details...tried a site of a local Ford dealer and nothing after 5 days....sent an e-mail asking if they had heard from me..nothing....(Planning on part exchanging current 5 year old car for a used model around £9k)
Tried contacting two other main dealers (Ford and Toyota) via website...so far nothing...
I went around to one dealer and asked about sourcing cars from other Dealerships in the manufacturer group (they had a very limited stock) - they seemed very disinterested...
A couple of years ago I went around to an independent dealer and asked about a Car, even when I offered £2200 for a £2250 car (which needed some work on it) seemed completely disinterested...
So far this has been my limited experience with Car dealers/ salesmen...
Is it a seller's market at the moment? Are Dealers run off their feet with buyers?
Does anyone have any similar experiences?
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There is no accounting for why so many salesmen are so lazy (I am one myself but not in the motor trade), I guess it is the 'fast easy buck' mentality that so many of them have.
But I certainly don't think the car marketplace has been a sellers market for quite some time, except for a tiny minority of specialist motors.
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It's a level of apathy and complete lack of understanding of 'Customer Service' which seems to almost be the norm in the UK now. Unfortunately it extends across many more sectors than motoring.
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You're not commenting on a small independent thats for sure!
Car sales, for salesmen, is the easiest low paid job/best paid hard job in the world.
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SWMBO stopped off at a main dealer for one of the large Japanese manufacturers last week to look at a model we are (admittedly seriously) thinking of buying next year, finances depending. The salesman approached and she made very clear that she wasn't a serious buyer (yet), but just wanted to look around and get some information.
He spent a good half an hour with her, let her try the baby seat for fitment, and answered all questions politely and without any nonsense. Gave her his card, said call him if she needed any further info, or a test drive, and left her to browse.
Plenty of interest, but no pressure. We will be going back.
Cheers
DP
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Car sales, for salesmen, is the easiest low paid job/best paid hard job in the world.
It took me a couple of reads to see where you were coming from, but in the end I see it is a very true statement.
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Quite correct - it was a large independent
Small independents in my area - very few offer warranties over 6 months regardless of how much you spend...
Some of them are very dubious others very good...but risky trying to telling them apart especially if you are going to spend 30% + of your annual income!!
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You can always tell when the salesman is lying.
His/her lips move!
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UPDATE
One of the 3 dealers actually got back to me, was very polite and thanked me for the
e-mail...They seem very helpful..and were willing to do business
Other 2 dealers still nothing...
I know where my business is likely to go....a certain Ford dealer in North Cornwall....
A colleague uses them for services and they fixed a 5 minute problem for him for nothing as it was so minor
.....
Obviously cannot promote individual Dealers by name on this site, but those of you who live in that area will probably guess who it could be..
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>>Obviously cannot promote individual Dealers by name on this site
Why not ?
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I guess to stop dealers themselves posting fictious stories about great things that haven't really done for consumers in order to drum up trade....
I assume they can do this anyway on some sites where dealers are rated, but I guess HJ doesn't want his forum jammed with dealer promotions...
Besides I'd like to check it out further before I sing their praises - initial impressions are good, but lets see how it goes...could be they have lots of write offs to shift!! (very unlikely)
S
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I knew a dealer who deals in older prestige cars in the main.
He worked to the principle of selling the cars within £200 of the margin he wanted, which meant they were cheaper than the competition, thus he had loads of people viewing cars and never failed to sell them. Anyone who asked for money off was politely refused and they were then asked if they wanted the car - if they still wanted to talk about the price he usually said he was going down the pub and if they wanted the car, let him know.
At the end of the day, if a car is well priced and looks good, he reasoned that he didnt need to do the hard sell because the punter would think they were going to miss out ( which often happened to the ditherers ) and the dealer must have plenty of buyers for it if hes happy to walk away.
What they didnt know was that he had serious amounts of money and while he liked making a buck or two, he didnt need it and ran the place as more of a profitable hobby ( making about £20,000 a month ), so if he lost one customer, he didnt care.
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Being an unemployed graduate I have to say I don't like it much at all. What really gets me is the number of recruitment agencies I have walked into and they have taken my CV 'just to shut me up' as my girlfriend says. I have walked into an employment agency (a well known name) and I met a very nice and polite chap who I felt was trying to give me sound advice, but he didn't even want my CV, handing it back to me. All the graduate jobs have god knows how many people applying for them, all the normal jobs want experianced people, and all the school leavers jobs don't want people with degrees.
Aside from my personal rant I feel that we are all sales people, all the sales persons job is, is to sell a good or service, but we are constantly trying to sell ourselfs. New car sellers are having a testing time at the moment facing falling sales of new cars and increased competition from internet brokers. A lot of Graduate recruitment is done over the internet these days and we have websites dedicated to selling cars over the internet. For main dealers though their apathy is puzzling. For a brand like Citreon or Fiat who discount their cars as a matter of fact, why is it not company policy to at least try to sell cars at list price? One of the biggest puzzles in the car industry must be fiats low levels of (reported) customer service and their large discounts. One can only ask why? There is of course some causality, poor customer service leads to low demand and thus large discounts, but I don't understand why a firm that is desperate for customers (my interperetation of high discounts) offers a low level of custormer care (don't go on about franchises if you respond to this point, prehapps it is just the every fiat dealer is out for themselves and does not care about the brand??).
Just as firms take on diffrent attitudes so do people. For example we are all trying to find love (or have found it) but take radically diffrent aproaches to finding it. The same occures with people who portray themselves as sales people. Some people try to make the hard sell and will do anything to get a sale, yet some other people just sit back and watch their wares sell themselves. Personally I hate the former, when I go into shops I constantly get confronted by sales staff saying 'Do you need any help?' all customer care I am sure, but will they please just leave me alone to browse?
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Torque means nothing without RPM
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Again I can only (as we all do) recount personal experience. My Avensis was booked in for major (warrantied) work over the phone. I arrived at the dealership last evening at 4.45. They had no job sheet made out for my car and no record of the appointment being made. The courtesy car I was expecting had not been booked either. The service guy didn't get flustered, didn't question the phone call had taken place. The outcome: ten minutes later the job sheet was printed and I had the keys to a brand new Yaris. 'Nearly a fill tank of fuel, Sir, should last you 'til you bring it back'.
How much profit did Toyota make in the last quarter? Billions was it? Is there a connection between first class customer service and profitability? In my experience, yes.
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