Stories from the Sales Frontlines

imidazol97

My point was to find when the Other, Real car was sold by running a check on the VIN--use carfax or a friend who is able to check VIN history--maybe a car salesperson can check who bought and when. If the car was sold after the date of Mom's car's sale then the switch was intentional for the purpose of extra profit skipping the $10 extras. If the car was sold before the Mom's car's sale then the sale was to someone wanting the other one NOW and Mom got the switcharoo.

1racefan

I know what you were inferring, and it's a good idea - I just randomly pulled your previous post to respond to to state my opinion.

jmonroe

I bet you'd just laydown and pay MSRP too.

Yes I would listen to this one:

When we moved back to the ‘Burg’ from South Carolina in 97’, I knew Mrs. jmonroe wouldn’t be satisfied with a 20 year old kitchen, not after having a new one when we had a house built in 92’ when we moved to SC. Heck, I didn’t even like the looks of it myself. So I knew we going to redo the entire kitchen. We even talked about that when we knew we were moving back.

We went to one of the big boxes and bought everything. When the tape comes out of the machine she gets it and says, “there’s a mistake with the price on the oven, it’s $199 less than what the price said on the oven back in the appliance dept.”. I said, “are you sure, let me see that” and she says, “I know how to add, you know”. I look at it and sure enough she’s right (I hate it when she does math that fast). So, I show it to the kid who rung it up and he said, “that’s what it says and since it’s in your favor why are you questioning it”? :surprise: Since he didn’t want to pursue it, I went back to the salesman and he said, “that’s a mistake on the receipt”. Then the store manager comes over and says, “thanks a lot for bringing this to our attention, I’m going to take $50 off the price you thought you were going to pay”. I said, you don’t have to do that because I’m being honest”? He then said, “oh yes I do, now I’m going to go check to see how many of these went out of here with the wrong price”. (it turned out none had but he put a hold on the sale of that oven till he got the right price in their system)

Soooo, in a way, you can say I am a laydown for MSRP.

Now, I’d have to think looong and hard about this if I were dealing with a car salesman. :shades:

jmonroe

british_rover

Might not be double doors but it is a fridge.

Center Console Fridge

lrguy44

Now, I’d have to think looong and hard about this if I were dealing with a car salesman

Just love the prejudicial generalization - wonder if people do that about anyone who works in your profession.

imidazol97

>Now, I’d have to think looong and hard about this if I were dealing with a car salesman.

The probability of having a price too low on a car sale is..., like...., zero. Things are going to be added on, accidentally too high, packs added on to that "out-the-door price."

jescue

Not true. I had a deal this month where Audi raised the invoice on a Q7 from the time I placed the order. I honored the original price which was $517 lower. Mistakes happen and it is all in how they are handled.

jmonroe

Double doors and a big pull out freezer. I like.

Oh no, not another one.

When GE had a repair/replace notice on about 3.5 M dishwashers this past summer, instead of having it repaired we opted for $150 off the price of a new one since ours was at the 10 year mark. We went to Sears to look at the GE dishwashers. Yes, you guessed it, like a magnet, Mrs. jmonroe was drawn to those newer style refrigerators. She starts whining it would help her back if she didn’t have to reach to the back of the freezer on the refrigerator she has to now. :surprise:

I wish these designers would just leave things the way they are (you know, freezer on top refrigerator on the bottom). I know if when we get one of these new styles, I’m going to end up freezing the mayo, then I will be in trouble.

jmonroe

imidazol97

>Not true.

Okay. So it's 1 out of a billion that it might be lower.

madmanmoo

Dino,

There IS no other way. We do it for the customer's good and at their request.

The only thing that bugs me about the system is the way that people make stupid offers, walk on me over $50 and never believe that my price is real and final.

Really.

-Moo

british_rover

Nope we did the same thing a few years ago.

Land Rover bumped the price on Range Rover Sports that came into the country after Jan. First 2006 by 550 dollars. At the time everyone had their ground stock sold so all the cars coming in were pre-sold ordered units.

Now they sent out a bulletin around December 23rd telling us that they would be bumping the price of the cars but they would honor the old price on cars we had marked pre-sold in the system before the 22nd of December.

If you didn't have your pre-sold cars marked sold in the system the day before you were SOL and had to either get the extra 550 bucks out of your customer or eat it.

None of our pre-sold cars were marked sold because we never do that till they hit the ground. I think we ended up eating about 2,750 dollars in lost gross because of that.

lrguy44

That is why we mark them sold when we get a deposit. Also, theoretically, the sold units are a delivery priority out of port. It may not mean much to you but we are at the very end of the delivery area and last to get cars.

jmonroe

Just love the prejudicial generalization - wonder if people do that about anyone who works in your profession

C’MON, has it been that bad of a month? How many Emotorcons do I have to use before you get the gist of that comment? Taking something out of context like that, I might expect from a newbie here, not from an old salt like you Captain. :confuse:

However, if you must have an answer, I’d say none or at the very worst 5 or 6. But then I’m not in your biz so that’s an unfair question to ask. :P (That's as many as I could put in until I got the warning)

jmonroe

fezo

Don't worry. I like it, but not enough to go four figures into a refrigerator.

Heck, I got dragged kicking and screaming 15 years ago when we built the house and she wanted a new refrigerator in the new house. "there's nothing wrong with the old refrigerator." "It's 70s yellow." "You can paint it." Yeah, that got me far.

I like BR's refrigerator but I think the LR around it might be a bit rich for my blood. Think I'll wait on the Flex (man, they need to call that a Fairlane!).

mrsjmonroe

Play nice and get off the computer!!!

Our kitchen needs more remodelling. Also, the local dealership called and thanked you for agreeing to their no haggle pricing. They apparently look forward to doing more business with you.

Love you honey!

Mrs. Jmonroe

fezo

There she goes again!

british_rover

We used to do that but I swear they always take longer when they are marked sold.

dino001

OK then. Glad we understand each other.

How about that Cayman - I heard they sell them 15 grand under invoice. One guy offered me one for for $35,475 already, but I passed. I would drive 350 miles if you could get me that $50. Deal?

jmonroe

Play nice and get off the computer!!!

Yes dear. (I hope she doesn't see that I have my fingers crossed)

Love you honey!

Same here.

jmonroe

lrguy44

Just love the prejudicial generalization

Sorry, I just hate the fact that it takes 10,000 crooks to ruin the reputation of one honest sales person. :shades:

madmanmoo

SOLD!

Always nice to have an understanding between posters.

-Moo

mackabee

What make of car is it? We have agreements with local merchants and credit unions to provide special pricing for their members.
Depending on the vehicle it can be as low as $100.00 over invoice less any rebates or if it's a hot selling car it's closer to MSRP. Dealers don't get kickbacks for this. It's just a way to keep the dealers name in front of people and get some leads out of it. If you are a savvy negotiator and enjoy the sport you can do better than the buying services or credit union prices.

Mackabee

oldfarmer50

"...That's why we mark them sold when we get a deposit..."

So does the "sale" count towards your monthly bonus or do you have to wait until delivery to get credit? It was always my understanding that nothing got credited until the wheels left the lot.

lrguy44

Nothing gets paid until it is burning gas. We mark it sold for 2 reasons,

1. Theoretically we get priority delivery (in our dreams)

2. So when other dealers go on line looking for a dealer trade, they know the car is not available.

mackabee

I would not do that to anybody. Mistakes are made and sometimes you have to give the person the benefit of the doubt. In this case they should have specified on the fax that the information on the invoice was not for the car that your mom drove but one just like it with the additional tray and wheel locks. Me, personally wouldn't even had mentioned the wheel locks and just included them on the negotiated price of the truck. If I'm on a mini deal to begin with I rather have the store pay for the extras and keep a happy customer than try to nickel and dime them in the end. If there was some gross in the deal I would personally pay for the items. Wheel locks are around 25-30 bucks and the cargo tray shouldn't be more than $70. With my discount I probably spend $50 out of my pocket. In the end I have a very satisfied customer that's going to tell the girls at church on Sunday and during the weekly bingo game. Some dealers are just too shortsighted to see the forest from the trees.

Mackabee

ps. negotiating and paying for the car says a lot about the type of person you are. In my book that's called an honorable man.

mackabee

GE had a recall on their dishwashers? Where can I get a copy of the letter? I'm not too happy with this GE we got about a year ago. It's not washing the dishes properly. I called my bud that sold it to me and he told me to try a different dish washing liquid or soap. Tried that, still no good :mad: I should have stayed with Whirpool.
Mackabee

mackabee

They do. Toyota does the same thing to us. Anytime I go into Dealer Daily and reserve a car for a customer it does take a week longer than the units that are not reserved. I don't mind as this keeps other dealers from looking at that car and we don't end up trading it.
Mackabee

madmanmoo

A penguin takes his car into the shop because it's acting up. Mechanic lets him know that it will take awhile.

So the penguin goes to the ice cream shop next door to get a cone. (Penguins love ice cream.) He's struggling a little bit with it and gets it all over his beak.

So after enjoying his ice cream, the penguin goes back to the mechanic to see what the problem was on his vehicle.

Mechanic says, "Looks like you blew a seal."

Penguin says, "No, that's just a little ice cream."



-Moo

lrguy44

Same with us - wonder if they want the unsold units delivered first for more floorplan income.

joel0622

I hate Credit Unions. They have broke more deals for me over the years then anything. One of two things happen to me on around 30% of the deals I let out of here to go to a credit union.

1. The loan officer at the JMALAACCU (Just Make A Loan At Any Cost Credit Union)has a guy bird dogging him from another dealership and he tells the member that he can get him a better deal from his friend Tommy Twotone over at Oh Mercy Me Motors. So he calls the guy and tells him that has a member that can buy a car for $20K OTD and his buddy cuts my deal $200 and get the sale with no work or time invested. If the member balks then the loan officer tells him they are on the preferred dealer list and he will save him .25% on his rate as long as he does auto withdrawl.

I had that happen to me 3 times. Then I went personally to the Credit Union and sat in the Lobby for 2 hours to see the President and explained to her what was going on and how many violations they were committing. She plead ignorance and told me she would take care of it, but the guy still works there.

2. Joe Snufagufulus comes in and picks out a car. He takes a buyers order to another Credit Union, this one is called OCORALWOLEPOBVCU (Of Course Our Rates Are Low We Only Loan Eighty Percent Of Book Value Credit Union).

The Loan Officer is named Nick Nospine, he looks at the OTD price and figures NADA on the car and instead of shooting straight which would be to say "Mr Snufagufulus, now we do have the lowest rates in town, the reason why is we only loan 80% of loan value so you will need to put down $4000 on this loan".

He instead has no spine (hence the name) and says "Sorry Mr Snufagufulus I can't give you this loan the dealer is charging you to much for the car."

And thats why I hate Credit Unions

Oh and don't even get me started on the POS mechanical break down coverage policies allot of them have started selling that can't hold a candle to a Factory Service Plan but the CU will them that they won't finance my warranty but if they want one they have to buy theres.

mackabee

I feel you brother! I used to hate them too since our pay plans are based on back end money too and you know cash/credit union deals do nothing for us. It does move units and I try to make it to the unit bonus to counter act the back end. :confuse: I know some of our posters are probably confused by that statement but you know what I mean. We do a lot of deals with one of the local CU's and handle all the paperwork for them. Those do count towards the back end.

The ones with NFCU we don't get back end money. We are the preferred dealer so we do get a lot of business from them. Not to mention that we are home to the largest naval base in the US so there's lots of sailors and sailorettes that need cars and they go to Navy Federal. Their rates can't be beat and they include gap and life and disability with their loans at no charge to the member. Yes, I'm a member too.

Thinking of getting an Avalon or Camry SE for the wife around March as the 09 is coming out then for the Camry.
The Avalon is a bit rich for our blood but she really liked the one I rented for Thanksgiving.

Have you checked out my blog yet?
Mack

lrguy44

Joel, you need to come and work here. Most of the credit unions belong to a consortum and dealers can do about 50 credit unions and get reserve. The person gets the same rate as if he walked into the CU. But on many deals my banks will beat CU rates. By the way, the CUs will do 84 months.

joel0622

We have got one CU here that lets us make the loan and pay us a little reserve but it is still screwed up because they have one department handling direct loans and another handling indirect so the two departments are competing for the same business and here in TN the "Good Ole Boy" rule is still in full force and I will tell a CU member that the rate is the best they have and then they will call Peggy Sue at the CU from my office and she will tell say, "Oh honey pie, sugar, darlin, you just come on down here and see me and I will get you a better deal then that.

And that brings us back to reason #1 of why I don't like credit unions.

Don't get me wrong, we have some great CU's in the area that truly have there members best interest at heart, but I hate the bad ones allot more then I like the good ones.

lrguy44

What I love is when a customer says "I have $10,000,000 in Moneybags National Bank and I can get a better rate there than you can". Then I show him that my indirect rate at Moneybags National is a point lower than the direct loan.

joel0622

Ya thats always fun, I do that with Regions Bank all the time. People that bank there will tell me they are getting 7.5% I can charge them 6.5% and make 1.25% in reserve. They save money and I make money, win-win.

joel0622

Have you checked out my blog yet?

Comments Posted

greanpea68

I have a greanpea update....

Moo,

I pass along the informatiion as I get it. Just in...

You were right. We as a dealer have to pay $20,000 to Nissan either for training to be certified or for a certain tool what ever it may be.

You have to pay this money on top of the other requirements that I mentioned last time. I know we already have a deposits for the GTR...

So the question is which dealer are going to pay the $20,000 for the service certification?

From what I understand we will be doing it. Also There seems to be a feel of a lot of pain along with this process from the way my manager is telling me about it.

Hope this is helpful

GP

greanpea68

Penguin says, "No, that's just a little ice cream."


Tha was good I needed a laugh...

GP

greanpea68

JMALAACCU

OCORALWOLEPOBVCU

Wow... that was hysterical.... You guys are killing me tonight

Joel,

You did forget to mention when credit unions start telling Mr. Snufalufagus that he isn't getting enough for his trade or that he is paying to much for a used car or maybe you did mention that one...

GP

dino001

It was a fire safety recall, IIRC. I would check their website.

imidazol97

I think it was about a switch inside the door that could catch fire. That's a bad thing even though there should be water inside the washer while it's working (but if on fire that might not be for long).

madmanmoo

That's actually a good bit less than what I was thinking. I'm pretty sure most dealers will jump at the chance if the price is only $20k. I'm sure the 'lookie-loo' traffic will be worth that in indirect advertising.

At any rate, grats on being able to sell those. Read the first look review they have posted here on insideline.com. Pretty good. Also, check out the new GT2. They have a review of that as well.

Glad you liked the joke. I choked on my saliva when I heard that. Since jokes are so much about delivery, it's tough to know if it will sound the same when reading it.

Keep selling brother!

-Moo

imidazol97

Love your Old Folks Driving video.

http://www.carspace.com/videos/play!id=.5a00dcfb

joel0622

Will they build enough of them to make it worth it to the dealers who do pony up the money? Does the $20K cover the tools and diagnostic crap the Service Department will need?

This used to be a big deal with Ford Dealers to be SVT Certified before Ford ruined the program. If you wanted to sell Cobra's and Lightnings you had to be SVT and it cost big bucks.

mfletou1

Had to laugh a little bit about the credit union talk.

I just did a deal with my credit union on my new Ody...I financed for 84 months at 5.99%!

I have no interest in letting my Credit Union negotiate my deal...I just show up, show them the purchase order, and they go from there.

It sounds like you've got some bad apples, but in general, credit unions, especially those associated with the government and armed services, help us be able to even visit you in the first place by reducing our overall costs!

joel0622

Like I said there are some good ones in the area to. But they are no fun to talk about now are they

jmonroe

GE had a recall on their dishwashers? Where can I get a copy of the letter? I'm not too happy with this GE we got about a year ago. It's not washing the dishes properly. I called my bud that sold it to me and he told me to try a different dish washing liquid or soap. Tried that, still no good I should have stayed with Whirpool.

The problem with the GE dishwashers was not their inability to clean. The problem was if you ever, even once, used the “rinse agent dispenser”. It seems the rinse agent, Speedy Dry, No Spots, etc. caused a seal to deteriorate and the rinse agent got on the insulation on the wiring inside the door causing it to break down and the problem only got worse from there. I asked Mrs. jmonroe if she used this stuff and she said, only a couple bottles worth right after we got it but since she couldn’t see any difference, she never used it again.

About a month before we got the recall letter I noticed the smell of plastic melting so I thought she put one of the grandson’s soft plastic dishes on the lower rack and the heater was melting it. When I opened the door (while it was still running) no plastic dishes were on the lower rack. Believe it or not she actually listened to me.

I was getting ready to pull the inside door panel off to see what was going on in there, then we got the recall notice. So I guess you could say I was saved by the mailman.

FWIW Mrs. jmonroe likes the GE better than the Kitchen Aids and a Maytag she has had. She had a problem waaay back with the first Kitchen Aide and when she made sure she bought fresh soap (looked for the date on the box) and changed the way she loaded the dishwasher, no more problems.

I said 3.5 M units were affected; make that 2.5 M, in any case that’s a lot. The dates of the affected units (gobs of Model Nos. and S/N’s) are from Sept. 1997 to December 2001. If you still want to check, the e-mail address is: www.geappliances.com/recall (just follow the prompts and you’ll know if your dishwasher is affected, although if it was and you returned the warranty card, you should have gotten the notice) or you can call 1-877-607-6395 from 8 AM to 8 PM Eastern Time. I wouldn’t call; you know how long that could take.

Be sure you have the Model and S/N ready. They are located on the left vertical side of the unit when you open the door. Lots of letters and numbers there so use your glasses.

Hope this helps. It’s the least I can do for a poster buddy.

jmonroe

madmanmoo

Will they build enough of them to make it worth it to the dealers who do pony up the money?

That's a great question. I thought they were going to be selling in the neighborhood of around 1,500. That would make it tough if you are only allocated 2 at your dealership. How much markup can you really have in a 75k car? Especially when corporate frowns on the dealership marking it up over sticker.

GP, chime in here. Any idea on how many will be produced?

-Moo

mackabee

If it's an electrical fire water won't do anything for it. Water is a major conductor of electricity, Rule of thumb an electrical fire gets put out by CO2 NEVER spray water into it. Same as a grease fire on the stove or oven. NO WATER it only spreads the fire around.
We had an oven fire this past Thanksgiving at my son's house. My in-law was taking the turkey out of the oven and some of the juices fell on the oven tray and kabooom instant fire. I heard the scream and then I see my grandson rounding the kitchen isle a few feet away from the stove but his guardian angle tripped him so he fell a few feet from the stove. I ran and picked him up and got him out of the way and then I told the girls to close the oven door. That put the fire out. That was a bit of a scare. Always keep a kitchen fire extinguisher handy. Son went and bought one next day.
Mack aka as Fireman Papa

mackabee

Thanks! :shades: