Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
Terry.
ummm, right. first off, after i get the financial details out of the way, i'm told that they have to order the wheel and that it won't be in for at least 5 days. okay, some things happen, i can live with that. i came in when the wheel finally arrived 2 days later than they said, and was told it's about a 2-3 hour job, minimum, because they have to do an alignment, etc. are you KIDDING ME?
i leave and come back, and i'm hoping everything is okay. as soon as i drive off the lot, i realize that the steering wheel is about 15 degree off to the right. i immediately call the guy who worked on my car and told him, and he gave me a "gee, aww, shucks" line. he told me i couldn't bring it back because they were busy, but try for later in the week.
so, i bought a car under false pretenses. i NEVER would have bought the car, had i been told the truth at the outset. i would have bought another one without this particular problem (but i was getting a "deal," whatever the hell that is). needless to say, i would have held out for another car. the salesman lied, or maybe honestly didn't know, but should have found someone who did indeed know. in any case, i'm now stuck with what i deem to be a seriously "used" car since it will have been in the shop three times and for longer than i've even owned the 2 week old car. this PISSES me off to no end. i buy new because i want to stay out of the garage for at least a year.
i HATE BUYING CARS AND I HATE ACURA.
For example, did you learn to never believe anything a sales person tells you?
Or did you learn to only deal with quality sales people who have been recommended?
Or did you learn to not buy a car until EVERYTHING is just like you want it - proper alignment and good steering wheel?
It sounds like your salesperson's intentions were good, but his knowledge was lacking. Maybe he had gotten some bad information from the service department on the amount of time or labor required to rectify this situation. Maybe he just lied to get a sale. We will never know. What is apparent here is that the service department is not very cooperative. You might want to find out if there is another dealer who can service your car around you.
honda called me yesterday to ask how my purchase had gone, and i was frank with the rep. i guess whatever i told him will be relayed to the dealer, but like they care now? i've already bought the car from them; they couldn't care less about me now.
the driver's side seat wasn't fully covered by plastic and all the mechanics' dirt from their pants rubbed off on my seat. wonderful.
i got the car back and now the alignment is off the other direction. hahahahaha it keeps getting better and better.
You said, "i got the car back and now the alignment is off"
Why did you accept the car? You should have left it at the dealer until they got it aligned properly.
Under the current scoring model with many manufacturers your going to fail the salesperson no matter what....I realize that isn't your intention but based on your statement that will be the result.
Some mfg. don't score their surveys with the same weight with each question. Some questions can take away as much as 20+ points if its not a "10". Had survey come in this week. The guy gave us one 8 and one 7 and the reat 10's....on a 2 page survey. We ended up with a 47% score...which is a huge failure...I called the guy and asked him if he was unhappy and he said it was by far the best car purchase he ever had and it wasn't his intention to fail us. It seems our big mistake was not managing the survey, which we don't normally do...but the deck is so loaded it may forces us to.
Our other salesguide bought one of the last couple of 2005 LR3s for his wife. He didn't get a sales survey but when he first brought the car in for the 7500 mile service he got s survey.
Filled it out and gave perfect across the board.
Now a week or so later when the survey scores get recorded into the system the service manager notices that our saleguide's survey was not a 100.
It was like 94 percent.
He was confused and a little upset so he starts reading the actually survey.
The questions that marked the survey down from a 100 was this one.
convenience of service hours. It was marked as only satisfactory instead of perfect.
Ok now that is obviously Land Rover messing with the survey. The guy works here and so is at the dealership about 45-50 hours a week.
We are still fighting them on it.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
DIng ding ding we have a winner.
That's some twisted self-delusioned game of fiction played by the manufacturers/dealers. It's like all they want to hear is that everything was so great that nothing can be changed. And we know that's almost never the case.
If you asked me: "was the process so spotless that nothing can be changed", I say no, if you ask me - "was the guy/gal good enough to get their bonus on your sales?" I may say yes, depending of course on the experience. In current state of affairs, it seems, I cannot get those two at the same time.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
The mfg is doing exactly what your suggesting the dealer shouldn't do to the salesperson....use the survey as a weapon.
The Sandman
Felt that was a bit dishonest and wrote about it on the survey. The service department screwed up eventhough the sales side was great. What will happen with my survey??? A shame that the service guys weren't honest from the get go...I just couldn't forget about it, as I had to drive 40 miles roundtrip so they could fix their "screw up".
The Sandman
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '08 Charger R/T Daytona; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '08 Maser QP; '11 Mini Cooper S
On another subject, what is it with salespeople who don't know much about the cars. I know there is dead time for salepeople, and they should use that time knowing the cars inside and out. I was looking for a Versa SL but the sales person said that he has a load Versa S with cruise. I told him that the Versa S doesn't come with cruise and it's not an option. Finally he admitted that he was sure, but it's a new model. That's just one example, but I guess they're more interested at knowing some facts to sell the vehicle versus knowing facts about the vehicle. Or that the Versa "doesn't really need ABS" even though the Consumer Reports test shows a big difference in stopping distance between the Versa with and without ABS. Anyway, just my impression.
I don't even coach anymore. I ask people to take some time to answer the phone survey because I get paid that way. That's it. I always have great CSI. That's partly because everyone knows that their salesman gets paid that way and less than perfect is bad.
As far as car salesmen not knowing their product....... This is a tricky question. There are a number of factors involved in this answer.
-New to the product line. There are ALOT of things to learn on every vehicle.
-Doesn't care. Alot of salespeople know that the guy who knows everything about every car is typically the guy who sells an average or below average amount of cars every month. Point being, product knowledge doesn't sell cars.
-Lazy. You may have a bad salesperson.
I think that the car salesmen should know their product. Keep in mind though, when you come into a dealership, you've just done all your research on ONE specific car and have it all fresh in your mind. There's really no excuse though. Your salesman should know what the crap he is talking about or let you know he doesn't know.
Any other salesguys care to comment?
-Moo
For the service dept, I can see how the survey can important, because they want people coming back on a regular basis, but people don't buy new cars that often.
with regards to knowledgeable salespeople, many don't care to learn the information because they don't feel they get paid enough to make the extra effort. when i sold cars, i sold nissans, which i personally love anyways - so i was always the product knowledge expert at my dealership.
-thene
-Moo
This is an excellent comment. I agree 100%. There should be no reason why we (the salespeople) should have to educate people on their surveys. It really should be 'transparent'.
The stystem is messed up, but we have to play by those rules until they are changed. This is why I don't take too much account for surveys.
Look at J.D. Power's surveys. They have some of the strangest ways of interpreting data for new vehicles. Malibu's with great ratings..... :sick:
-Moo
Don't the mfg.'s hold any seminars on new cars? Or are you lucky to get a brochure on the sales points of the car and a maybe a few minutes to read it before you sell it? I had a friend that used to sell new cars back maybe 10 years ago mention that his dealership was sending him to Detroit for a seminar on that years lineup of cars.
The survey's are a freaking JOKE.. it all depends on how well we COACH our clients.
One VERY GOOD instead of EXCELLENT will KILL the whole survey and "ding us"
I'm on the service side (like duh, if you couldn't guess by my handle/screename)
and I have AT A MINIMUM of 30% of my BONUS at risk for survey's.
It used to be worse, we used to be on a 3 month rolling average, which meant that ONE (1) bad survey could "ding" us for upto 3 months
Now, it's by the month. If we are above market/region/nation we get the highest %
Make 2 "gates" ABOVE, get a smaller %
make 1 "gate" ABOVE, an even smaller %
Be AT or below GET NADA, NOTHING ZILCH! :mad:
It's all a dog & pony show.
I just wish clients would understand this:
MY PAYCHECK DEPENDS ON YOU GIVING ME A PERFECT SCORE!!
YOU DON'T SCORE ME PERFECT/EXCELLENT, MY KIDS DON'T EAT!
PLAIN & SIMPLE
GOT IT??
GOOD
I can do my job perfectly, you love me, but my porter doesn't wash your car and you ding me on the survey.
Is that MY fault .. NO
Do I have any control over it .. NO
Do you as a client have control ... YES
Is it fair .. NO
But this is the way "the game is played"
It all depends on the COACH.
Capiche?
If I buy a car from a dealer, the dealership is not working for me per se. There is to some degree an adversarial relationship in negotiation. The CSI is an ABUSE by manufacturers & dealers of the salesperson. It is worse than a joke.
But, we DO get docked for less than perfect survey's.
There are 6 to 8 questions that I have DIRECT control over. The other 20 to 25 questions ... NO control
Things such as:
Process to make appt
Cleanliness of store
Cashier handling of paperwork
Was the car clean upon pickup?
Do these have to do with me? ... NOT!
I am held accountable for everybody INCLUDING myself.
So, like I said .. IF I do everything in MY capacity/control but somebody else drops the ball, I PAY FOR IT .. actually, I DON"T GET PAID !! (NOT lol)
Like we all have said & will continue to say (those of us who CHOOSE to be in the biz) until this whole survey nonsense goes away .. it's NOT fair but we ALL have to deal with it and work it to our advantage. We can't cry over spilt milk.
It is what it is. :shades:
Like my dad used to say: " If they give you lemons ... make lemonade" Remember, the glass is always half full ... NOT half empty.
They filled out the survey average all the way down which gave me a 50 for that survey and I have only gotten 6 other survey in the last 3 months putting me at 92.85, The rolling green was set at 93 so I am out about $500 bonus for .15 of the total score
Surveys suck
With regard to a survey, you can't improve something if you don't know what went wrong and can't use the things you do very well to focus on the areas where you need to make improvement.
So my suggestion if to complain to your car manufacturers...they are the ones screwing with your pay/bonuses, not the customers you serve. If you have to resort to bribery to get a good enough result to get paid, then either the product (auto) you're selling has a problem, your car manufacturers are totally unrealistic with the scores they require, or your not doing a good enough job and probably need the real survey results to help you improve.
As a customer, I want to deal with an honest dealer. The very fact that a dealer attempts to bribe me just for a survey score will automatically make me think of where else are they not being honest with me...in my book, a very bad move...
my two cents...
-thene
I love it when I hear someone say well I just cant ethically give you 100% if soemthing happened that I wasn;t happy with. Yet these are the same people who will squeeze every penny out of a dealer and commit to buying the car just to take their purchase order to the dealer down the street (after agreeing to the deal with their word a handshake, signature and deposit) and say X dealer up the street gave me this deal can you beat it?
And, I think that is how these people go through life.
Sad...
it's not even the people that grind you down that are the miserable people most often they dont even buy the car after you gave them everything they wanted. someone in svc gives them a hard time or the F&I guy pisses them or theres a mechanical problem they throw you down on the survey...the one guy who actually nothing to do with causing the problem and no way of fixing it
I know from the last time that I purchased this make, the survey is going to include the question, "Were you introduced to the service manager?" For some reason -- I think the dealership had a bunch of deliveries the same morning -- I was not. I don't really care that I wasn't.
What should I do for the survey? I don't want this oversight to reflect poorly on the dealer, but I don't want to lie on the survey, either.
Did you happen to buy a Land Rover? Because that is one of the most missed questions on the Land Rover Surveys?
I guess that is just a common question then.
smitty said he didn't want to lie.
I would suggest marking "no", then in the comment section write excellent service...100% satisfied. Let them do with it what they will.
just my opinion though...
-thene
Depnding on how the bonus system is set up it might take the salesperson a couple of months to recover from that ZERO score and get back in the money. That assumes all of the following surveys are 100% scores.
Right, but the question is asking if a task was completed - In this case, was he introduced to the service manager. In this case ZERO PERCENT (no) of that task was completed. Had the salesperson completed said task, then he could reward them with a (yes) 100% completion score. Again, going with the assumption he wants to answer honestly. If it is the salesman's responsibility to introduce the customer to the service guy, and he didn't, then that's the salesman's fault. I'm not here to bash a salesman, but most people get graded for different aspects of their job, and if someone neglects to adequately complete a certain task, they aren't neccessarily given a free pass, because they are a "nice guy".
Out of curiosity, what would happen if he did not answer the question - just totally skipped it? Not saying that is the "honest" thing to do either, but I'm just curious in general.
By the way...If I felt that strongly about honesty, and did like the salesman, I would call him, and tell him that I think he forgot to introduce me to the service manager. If the dealership was close to me, I would ask him if he could do so if I swung by at a convenient time for both of us (then give him the "YES" check).