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Comments
IIRC, I was using a 110 baud modem in the 80s. And that was on a "portable computer" that weighed in at about 50 lbs., did not have a display screen and used a teletype "display." I could quite easily type faster than the computer.
And you know what? I still don’t think computers are fast enough!
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
As a merchant, would you sell your product for what you pay for it?
The "fleet manager" will be interested in just how many cars you plan to buy for your "fleet"!
Do you have any idea just how many of these upstart warranty companies have gone broke leaving thier clients holding the bag?
Some of these companies had pretty strong backing too.
You will be "lost for words" too if this happens to you.
Your painting with a pretty broad brush there. I'm not sitting on tons of excess inventory. Nor do I have lot's of incentives from my manufacturer. [Audi]
I do deal with people all the time that think buying a high line German brand is like buying a Ford. Just go in and demand 10k off, and don't take any BS from these sorry sales guys.
Oh, I don't have a fleet dept either. Unless the Dallas police dept wants to buy a bunch of 50k S4's for interceptors.
Your advice is appreciated by buyers of the cars I described. People coming to me with that mess however, will get dismissed.
OK I have lived in Northern IL all my life and pushed my luck crossing the Cheddar Curtain (IL/WI state line) many times over the last 30+ years and I never saw that.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Back then you would be posting stuff like this on a BBS, ah the good old days
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Try doing taxes someday.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Oh, I'm sure and do they come crying to you when they get tagged for an audit?
And paying by the minute for it. :sick:
Oh, I use to have contempt for you guys... but that was over 4 years ago. I've since been "reprogrammed", by the guys here that are in the biz. I know you regulars here do it the right way. So, no contempt as a generalization or here individually.
And the part I wrote about being a "real" job was a joke... I think you missed my little
Customers want a resolution. A salesperson who can convince them that this is the best price. If they are not, then by the time they hit the 2nd or 3rd dealership they are tired of the whole process and want it done and over with. Unless, that is, you have offered them to beat the price by the same amount as the other dealer has you beat (or at least worthwhile to drive back).
eg.
You offered: $15000.00
Other dealer offered: $14750.00
Now, at this time, the customer is overjoyed. He sees an end to this "hassle" that he is going through and sees an opportunity to end this. Now let us assume he does call you back and you offer $14700.00 right away on the phone. He will find that offer ridiculous since he will have to spend over an hour driving back to you. In case you cannot offer anything immediate (talk to manger/GM, blah..blah), he has wasted his time again with you (since you did not offer the good price in the very beginning to begin with.
I can't live that way myself. Life is short.
I can see why some stores lowball customers. They shouldn't do this (I don't) but some shoppers seriously bring this on themselves.
But we do get people that lie to us, either to get better tax refunds or to try to use our guarantee to pay their taxes.
We had one guy a few weeks ago arrive at out office yelling that the tax return we prepared caused him to lose his house. Thats one we are still trying to figure out.
The real sad thing is in the beginning of tax season when you get people racing to get their taxes done before the ex-spouse so they can cheat their ex out of the dependent deductions and credits.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I know someone mentioned WI. here earlier...
I understand Wisconsin is changing their motto to "Eat Cheese or Die". :surprise:
2025 Forester Limited, 2024 Subaru Legacy Sport
If the customer really wanted to end this "hassle", then why did he go to a new dealership?
2025 Forester Limited, 2024 Subaru Legacy Sport
Jipster, I'm not so sure this is something you want to broadcast to the general public. What if the rest of Team Jipster finds out about this?? :surprise:
A good salesperson will sit them down and find out what they are looking for, who's going to be the primary driver, will it be used for work, commuting, or business, etc, Then he will select the product that fits their needs. When you do that with customers most of the time they will shop around but they will come back to you. There have been plenty of times when a customer has told me the reason they came back to me was that I showed them the features and benefits of the car, I was low pressure, and the other guys were just trying to hustle them.
Once in a while I'll get the "give me your best price" kind of suspect that only has 10 minutes. With these people I do the lowest price possible knowing that anybody that will beat my price is going to lose money. These folks go all over town shopping price and end up buying something else because every other dealer in town will tell them to go buy the car at that price. Then they are too embarrassed to come back and see you and to save face they lie to you when you follow up with them. "Oh, I bought a car already. They beat your price by xxxx and I couldn't pass up the deal." they say. I'll ask them really? Was it an LE or Ce?" AND that's when you catch them on the lie. They don't even know which trim level they got.
Good night. Going on a weeks vacation to the southwest (Texas, New Mexico, and I'm crossing the border into Mexico to visit family and friends) You won't see any posts for about a week as this is also a visit to sprinkle my Mom's ashes in the place she was born. It was her wish and due to my situation with my illness now is the time for me to do it. It's been for years this coming May that we lost her to cancer.
Mack
:shades:
:shades:
Mackabee
Jipster, I'm not so sure this is something you want to broadcast to the general public. What if the rest of Team Jipster finds out about this??
Yes,. you may have a point there carofthemonthclub. Perhaps I should clarify what was obviously a "mis-speak", ala Hillary and George W.
I was fed faulty intelligence from my former advisors (tbaxxton,psy101 & socal4). Upon further review of posted documentation in this discussion and others, it was decided a shift in policy was necessary.
Long live "Team Jipster"! :P
You know something else I miss about the old Impaler? When I would drive at night on the interstate, its police-like profile would frequently part traffic and made passing a breeze.
My favorite Wisconsin motto is "Come smell our sweet dairy-air".
as someone who works for a large corporation's payroll department in employee level tax, I get some of the same crazy stuff. People who were set up to work in one state incorrectly, and it's not noticed by the employee for 4 years, and then when they go to file for unemployment in their state, they notice (then) that they've been taxed in the wrong state the whole time. We asked why he didn't notice when he filed his taxes on a yearly basis...but I'm sure you can guess why he didn't notice all this time...
But you are right, people will lie all the time to try to finagle how their taxes are set up. It's just unreal...
Thankfully, I will be leaving the wonderful world of corporate america next tuesday to make my way on my own as a freelance designer - we'll see how that goes! there's always car sales if i fail miserably! ;-)
-thene
I know it is crazy thing but I did it yesterday. Every situation is different. I have a previous customer who I had helped with service and followed up with every 6 months. He told me he was going to shop my numbers to make sure he was getting a good deal. I discounted the car halfway leaving about 1k profit to the dealer. Now I have what I think is good enough raport with the guy that when he says he is going to call me before he makes a decision I believe him. Today he is going to other dealers. I am not so far away that when he gets these numbers he will be like wow GP is trying to screw me. Unless the other dealer wuote outside banks. ( it is a lease ). But I am not worried about that because I covered that with him. If anything I will match a deal but what I have found out is that people really enjoy doing business with someone that follows up with them and takes care of them. In the last year or so I have had many customers come back and buy there second car from me. They say they have never done that and they like that they are building relationships. So yeah I took the chance on not giving my best number. But I am in this business to make profit. Not rob people because no one will ever come back if you do that.
But like Mack did last week with his previous customer. He gave the customer a fair discount. I remember people jumping on him about it ( no names mentioned ) but to build a customer base you have to work with people!
Thank s for reading
GP
Are they going to drive that 50 miles every time they need service?
Isell, I agree about the warranty thing. I had a buddy who bought his wife a Benz, after the factory was out, he had one of those extended warranties from one of "those" companies. They went out of business right before a $2400 repair bill came calling.
Subprime
GP
They think the best way to negotiate is to pull a number out of their [non-permissible content removed], and then get up and walk out when I can't come remotely close.
Hey guy I just described, 1984 called, they want their car buying strategy back.
I am very proud of him :surprise:
GP
We've never been audited and if we ever are, we will have nothing to fear we are so over conservative!
Mack I agree with the whole post. It is so true. I can't say everyone comes back because as it was siad some people get run down and give up. But the majority of the people know when they get treated right.
My first post ever on this site was " Will you pay more if you were treated right?"
In the beginning everyone was like no way! :mad:
in the end everyone ( on average ) said they would pay a little more.
Mack I hope you have a great vaca.... Hopefully you will find dome burrito shop that has wi-fi and say hello.
GP
Good luck Thene!
GP
But that is part of the whole process.
The customer starts off the buying process with a zeal to get the best deal. But, as he soon realizes, it is not any easy task. That is when it turns into a hassle :shades:
A good salesperson will sit them down and find out what they are looking for, who's going to be the primary driver, will it be used for work, commuting, or business, etc, Then he will select the product that fits their needs.
This is the essence of a good salesperson.
Once in a while I'll get the "give me your best price" kind of suspect that only has 10 minutes. With these people I do the lowest price possible knowing that anybody that will beat my price is going to lose money
This is definitely the customer that is NOT going to come back or even call you back. 'cause he is in a hurry to spend the least while getting a branded appliance.
If you really want to save time, you can do what I did. I’ve said this before and this is exactly why when I bought the last two times (05’ and 06’) I started with the internet.
In 05’ the internet quote was a few hundred dollars high but close enough that I gave the salesman a call and I told him he was close and if he was willing to meet the price I gave him as we were talking, I would buy that night. He said their stores policy was to not give a price over the phone that was different than what was put in their email reply to me. He assured me that if I came in I wouldn’t be disappointed. Since the place was only a couple miles away I drove over there. The salesman tried to hold to his email price but when I reminded him what he said over the phone he went to his boss and the deal was done just that fast. I guess you can’t blame a guy for trying but initially it did irk me.
When I bought in 06’ I did the same thing but this time the salesman wasn’t as hungry as in 05’ so I called his competitor across town who also responded to my internet inquiry. They were also a few hundred dollars high. Why is it always a few hundred dollars higher than my number? :confuse: Maybe it’s because you never give your best number right off the bat even in an email. This is risky, because the guy that's looking to save $50 could go elsewhere. Me, I'm not running across town for even $100. In any case, I wasn’t going to drive over there until they agreed to a price over the phone. I told this back and forth phone tale before but to make it very short for this post, the deal was done all over the phone in about 30 minutes and that included the time it took for them to make one call back to meet my price.
I’m convinced that when you do your research and present an honest offer to a salesperson that knows there is no sense in wasting time, they’ll take their mini and move on to the next guy with the hopes of making a bigger commission.
This is what I call saving time and until this method stops working for me I’m not going back to the ‘traditional method’ of buying a car.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
-thene :-)
That is definitely true. But those customers are ones who are not in any hurry to get the new car. They consciously make a decision for a new car, and are in no hurry to find the best deal. They would rather work with a known salesperson who respects their intelligence.
Which is what I did too!
I had all my prices right. I even had the VIN number of the car I wanted when it was dispatched from the factory.
I called up the receiving dealer, told him I wanted this car with this VIN, and this is what I am going pay for it (I even had all the rebates listed). I dropped $500 refundable deposit down over the phone. 2 weeks later when the car arrived at the dealership, the salesperson called me. I drove over and was done with all paperwork in 30 minutes or so. I drove the car around the block to make sure the vehicle is OK and then signed the papers and drove away.
For the most part the incentive programs built into BMW and Merc are leasing based and the cash/finance buyers get left out.
GP: I remember that post! That was a good one to introduce yourself as well as to introduce some stimulating on-topic discussion. No wonder jipster recruited you so quickly! :shades:
If I remember correctly, didn't one of your business associates also log in -- with some rude heckling -- without you initially knowing it was him??
Amazes me sometimes.
I enjoy lurking around here, some good stories. And some good folks trying, like most of us, to make an honest living (honest living selling cars? Oxymoron!!! :P
But, and this is for me, regarding Mack's very nice thoughts above, I guess this is where I have a disconnect. I've always been a bit of a car guy and most everyone I know has some knowledge. Rarely (if ever?) do we go shopping looking for a car salesman to assess our needs/wants/desires and make a recommendation. Rather, all homework is done sans salesman and by the time, other than to test drive, I do work with a salesman (or IM/Fleet Mgr) it is to begin the dollar dance!
But, that is me/us, and this forum is a great daily reminder that "us" ain't everybody else!
Mack, have a great vacation. Safe travels, may the wind always be at your back...
Thene, best of luck with your new professional life. My brother could only take one year of corporate America. He quit, chose a profession completely out of the blue and has succeeded probably beyond anyone's (except for his own!) expectations!
Me? Corporate drone, but I don't mind. However, while I'm not envious (other than the fact he can afford all the cars that I want...) or jealous of my bro, I look at the path he chose and know, yeah, it coulda been me... But then I never would have met the Evil Wife and had the certainly less evil children...! :shades:
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
Your brother certainly likes to play with fire, that I can deduce :shades:
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,