I sat in a main dealer today on my own waiting for my car and listened to a conversation with the service receptionist.
Basically a customer's car needed new pads and discs at the front which she said needed replacing and weren't covered by warranty. After some discussion she said 'I'll speak to the service manager'.
She then held the phone by her side for thirty seconds before getting back to the client with 'I've checked and we can give you a x% discount'.
The customer readily accepted the offer.
I work in the much aligned public sector - does the private sector always operate like this? if so it stinks.
Edited by rtj70 on 05/06/2009 at 22:12
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The work was never covered by warranty in this instance - wear and tear. And if needed the discount could be a sign of the servicing agent wanting the work but not being seen as too desperate.
If the discount was genuine they may been lucky due to the economic climate.
So other responders here please do not assume they have been ripped off etc.
Rob (Moderator)
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I think this practice is the low tech version of "computer says no", as in the receptionist gives the impression that it is not their decission so they don't have to haggle with the customer. Of course if the customer wanted more of a discount they might demand to speak to the service manager themself, but I imagine the SM is aware of this tactic and has set a discount the receptionist can give.
Edited by Mookfish on 05/06/2009 at 20:28
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Sounds a bit like the salesmans ploy of "I will have to clear the deal with the sales manager". My policy is if the person I am dealing with cant "do the deal" I will speak to someone who can.
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Basically a customer's car needed new pads and discs at the front which she said needed replacing and weren't covered by warranty. After some discussion she said 'I'll speak to the service manager'.
So this way the £150/ £250 service has £180 added for what is a 30 min job so this doubles the invoice.
Repeat this 5 or 10 x per day x 5 days per week and the workshop £££s will be massively improved and 25/50 punters will be aggrieved!
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Halmer - "I work in the much aligned public sector - does the private sector always operate like this? if so it stinks"
If it was the public sector, they'd have never got through to speak to the receptionist!
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If it was the public sector they'd have never got through to speak to the receptionist!
If car dealerships were run by the public sector then each one would have a staff of about 1000 people. Mosty in personnel.
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:-)
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Speaking to the service manager (or not) is a variant on the speaking to the sales manager when you're buying or selling a car. The sales person goes away into the glass booth, closes the door and comes back with something nearer what you want.
If you ask for the sales manager to come over, sales people can get quite thrown.
As for public and private sector, how quickly we forget. Can I remind you of the banks, which weren't in the public sector until they made such a colossal mess of things that we all now own much of them.
Give the poor old public sector a break!
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And the car probably didn't need "pads and discs" either.
When I had my own car, and when my wife's car went to the main dealers - on almost every service visit I was told "It needs new pads" or "new pads and discs".
Now I drive a lease car (where any additional work needs to be negotiated with a professional fleet manager) pads are never mentioned (unless they actually need doing!)
Similarly when ordering our own new cars we had the very hard sell on "paint protection" - which we rejected, but when I ordered and picked up the lease car it was never mentioned!
J
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This is common practice, I instruct my customer facing staff to do the same when negotiating goodwill payments with customers, the aim of the game is to give as little goodwill payment as is necessary to actually maintain the goodwill.
It's business, not charity, I'm afraid I can't see what the dealership is doing wrong. The staff are pre-authorised up to a certain discount level so that there's no need for them to bother their manager every time they want to give someone £20 off some brakes, but the customer feels better about it if they think they're getting something special.
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wrt Rob's comments near the top, my brake pads were covered (even for wear and tear) by the Vx NetworkQ warranty when I bought the car second hand. It surprised me, and it sounded like it also surprised the dealer when he called me during a service to tell me the pads needed replacement.
See www.networkq.co.uk/the-network-q-programme/12-mont.../ , but not in Chrome cos it doesn't display...
Edited by smokie on 06/06/2009 at 00:25
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it also surprised the dealer
Afew of the people on one of the Mercedes forums, including myself, have the now discontinued Mercedes Service Plus, which is basically a full maintenance package.
Using it, it's absolutely astonishing how little work the car really needs. Sure, you get regaled with great lists of work that *must* be done, but then they ask how you'll be paying and you say "ServicePlus" and they visibly slump. Then it turns out none of the work needed doing after all.
There's a great story from one member who got the "we've got the wheels off, shall we do the pads and disks" call, plus a whole load of other work. he said "sure, go ahead". Then when he was presented with a ginormous bill he handed over his ServicePlus card and the colour drained out of the Service Advisors face!!
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Spot on Bill. The price is something they set, doesn't really matter about the theatricals, you either pay or you don't.
The interesting question is whether the work was necessary. My CR-V has 'needed' new pads since 25,000 miles and disks for the last two services. They still look fine last time I looked, though I might need pads now - it's being serviced by a proper bloke next week, I've given up on the dealer although they've been helpful in other respects; if they hadn't tried this stunt too often I'd still be using them.
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I've given up on the dealer although they've been helpful in other respects; if they hadn't tried this stunt too often I'd still be using them.
Exactly my experience with the BMW dealer, most routine jobs don't take long and the £50 versus £90 per hour difference wasn't what led me to abandon the main dealer - it was the continual phone calls telling me that work was needed when I knew it wasn't.
J
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One of several factors that persuaded me to go for an Octavia estate rather than another Golf was the transparency of the Skoda dealer (Jewsons of Oxford) where the business manager sat me down to look at his computer together and work out a deal.
The VW saleswoman (from the same group of dealers) disappeared for two long sessions (which I assumed, perhaps naively, were with her manager rather than for a fag break), once to check availablity and once to work out a deal (which was too high a price and apparently non-negotiable).
Transparency, and making the customer feel that (s)he is doing a business transaction as an equal, is not difficult to achieve, and we should walk away if we don't feel we are being treated as such. I'd say that a dealer who thinks that rules and procedures are more important than attracting customers is not long for this world.
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Not just garages-if you apply to a bank for a loan(on the phone),the person on the other end will have a "Yes/No" on his computer screen immediately but will wait a few seconds to make it appear that it is being considered.
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Yes, or the classic Credit Card co. one whereby if the answer's yes you are told straight away, if it's no then you are told that the application is being processed and they will write to you with the outcome.
When I worked for a catalogue it took us between 1 and 2 seconds to process the credit checks and gain approval/decline for each customer, the most time-consuming part was typing their details in.
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jacks - spot on! I've never thought of it before, but I bought my Passat through drivethedeal, and I gather that the main dealer you actually buy from treats the sale as a fleet sale. Hence no calls re paintwork protection etc.
I had my wife's A4 serviced recently by a good indy in Evesham and I got 'the call' but it was to tell me that the rear brakes needed new pads and to advise me that the front discs and pads need replacing in a few months time. I've had the car from new and it's needed very little work on the brakes so i knew that they were being honest. They also asked when the cambelt was last replaced - good practice imo.
No pressure, excellent service, good price.
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