QuestionHi Ray,
I have bought 2 cars in 3 years from the same dealership. My daughter is in need of a "newer" vehicle so I went "shopping" around at the dealership that I have always used. I did not know that they were having this "tent sale" thing. The sales person that I usually work with was not there. The sales person that approached me told me I had to fill out a registration form and they needed my ssn. I told them no, they said they needed to run a credit check. I proceeded to tell them my credit was good enough to buy anything on the lot, if not the entire lot. Finally, the sales person let it go. We started looking at cars, when I asked for a price on one of the units I knew my daughter would like, the sales person tried their hardest to get me to test drive. I said no, it didn't matter what I thought, what was the price? This went on for some time...fianlly a "closer" came over and tried to get me to test drive, once they realized I wasn't test driving I was told they would NOT give me a price until I test drove. I demanded to see the manager. When the manager came out he told me that they paid this sales group to come in and pretty much had to play by their rules. He told me to come back Monday after they were gone. I informed him that if I walked off this lot, I was taking my business elsewhere. And he knew that I had bought previous vehicles here and have all my maintenence done here. What's the deal? I did infact leave and we bought my daughter's car elsewhere.
Thanks for the help
Megan
AnswerHi Megan
I am very happy you went elsewhere to purchase and questioned their way of doing business. Then again I also question your dealership for allowing this…
Your mail really put a smile on my face as I was at a dealership back in the early 80's that provided their own sales force to show us how to sell cars , it was same way as you mentioned . I cant believe this type of sales still exits today, my guess is someone brought it back and some dealers fall for this scam…
I say scam because, yes they did sell 40% more than average for the weekend and looked good on paper, and it took the dealership a few weeks to realize they had thousand of dollars in up-side down trade…Yes its sad , not only does the consumer get ripped, but also the dealer…lol
When I read your mail the first time I thought you were an old friend trying to bring back memory’s, the reason I say that is, you used a word in your mail that most consumers don’t…CLOSER…
I am happy you walked away…and Megan please check out my website sometime
http://www.usedcartips.org/
Regards
Ray
