Why are most of the automotive dealers today still stuck at the Stone Age sales tactics? Well after years of working at a big dealership I will try to offer you some insights to this common issue why big dealerships lack customer service. For one, automotive sales person are hated even more than police officers, that is a tough reputation to beat. In today’s dealerships you usually see a very young generation of sales people in the new car department due to the fact; they will be ok living at home with minimum pay. Some of them could be going to university or college and just need some extra income to support themselves. But these eager individuals have to answer to the ‘sales managers’ as well as internal politics. It is a constant struggle trust me! The world of automotive sale is not fair, I have seen car sales person who was bright but lazy, crashed 6 company cars while intoxicated in two of them and still employed there. What’s even crazier is because of those crashes, no other sales person is allowed a company car! I have seen sales person who has brown nosed his way to become manager’s pet, in where they even go out to party together on company credit card. The world of a dealership sometimes can be backward compare to real life. And there are so many rules and regulations including unfair politics one has to face. For example, a dealership that is supposed to be ‘fair’ on the surface will have a rotational list for sales person to take customers. Ideally the one that comes in early should be able to see more customers, more chance of selling something. But because of few bad apples in the pile, the manager’s buddy usually comes in late, and leaves early. On top of that he or she gets free deals from the management. When you walk in as a customer expecting a good service, the ‘manager’s buddy’ will usually play dumb or claims he is busy. So he will pass you on to the next sales person, so he can have more time to spend on Facebook. That usually means you as a customer have to wait extra 5 to 10 minutes until the next available sales person comes around.
After you have met your sales person, and went on a test drive with him. You are brought back to the office to discuss pricing on that brand new or used vehicle you were interested in. Assuming everything went ok with your vehicle purchase, now you are about to face the business office. Where you will be pressured into buying extended warranty or rust proofing. These products generally speaking are complete waste of money, if you read carefully at the contract terms, you will realize you have virtually no legal ground to claim anything when you need to. Assuming you are sharp enough to avoid all the money pits after going into the business office. Now you are at the mercy of the business manager to submit your credit application and waiting by your phone vulnerably for an approval for your loan. After your typical 24 hour period of waiting, you may get a phone call from your sales person informing you are approved for financing. Now you are finished half of the battle, the other half is still waiting for you. Let’s say you want a white color car that the dealership is not carrying. Well then your file will land on a fat, hairy woman’s desk called ‘inventory manager’ who often brings her world of misery into work place. She will make you wait until the factory send out a car, which can be 4 to 6 weeks from the day of your signing. Frustrated you may call your sales person to complaint, but he or she is completely powerless to help you because they don’t want to piss off the ‘inventory manager’ for their future deals. Assuming you are lucky enough to met the right sales person who has a good relationship with the ‘inventory manager’, he or she maybe able to pull some strings and do you a ‘favor’ by locating the vehicle with a near by dealership. Now the waiting game is on the service department, where some one will have to do the clean up, pre-delivery inspection, and make sure your brand new car will be in tip top condition for delivery.
Your brand new vehicle will be at complete mercy of the service department’s work load. New car deliveries are usually the least important to a service manager who is looking to service the walk in customers first. Frustrated again and you may call to complaint to your sales person trying to push the process a little quicker. And you should be getting the stereo typical answer of ‘let me look into it for you’ or ‘I will speak to my manager’. Hopefully from that point on you wouldn’t need to wait too long, and I hope you have been happy with your new car.
If you are looking for a completely different car buying experience. You should try us at Manor Contours, located in the heart of Toronto, we are your independent car broker. With our small but professional team of sales consultant we can help you get into your next new or used car at the best possible deal. Visit us online at http://www.manorcontours.com or http://www.manorcontours.ca
Manor Contours Ltd is Toronto’s premier automotive broker service, we understand your car buying frustrations therefore we try our best to bring you a pleasant car buying experience. Visit us online at http://www.manorcontours.com or http://www.manorcontours.ca for our contact information.
Posted in 
