Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
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Dealer's Tricks - bait & switch, etc.
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Comments
When will I see a notice from you of equal seriousness to those who have used vulgarity and vituperative/abusive language on Edmunds?
I appreciate your concern for maintaining the user agreement rules, but I would appreciate even more consistency on your part in enforcing those rules. May I expect that?
http://www.pyramidwest.com/tactics.html#anchor320146
hey PT, if you want to be helpful to consumers go after the mattress business.. the car biz isnt even close. We need to see the story "confession of a mattress salesperson"...I nominate PT.
It is NOT okay to copy those webpages and post them under your user ID as though you had written the words yourself.
There is an analogy about Town Hall that comes up from time to time, and that is that Town Hall is like a neighborhood bar. Now, we all know that drinking and driving do not mix, so leaving aside the "alcohol" portion of that analogy and focusing solely on the "social" portion of the neighborhood bar, let me proceed.
Are you a person who walks into the neighborhood bar, pushes your way into the first conversation you run into and proceeds to badmouth everyone who had already been in this conversation for hours without even taking the time to listen to what the discussion was about?
Would you then be surprised when all of the folks in the existing conversation simply turned away and ignored you? Would you then call for the "bartender" to make these people talk nicely to you? Would you be surprised when the bartender did not respond the way you demanded?
Or would you be a person who could walk around for a while listening to several conversations looking for a discussion that encompasses your own thoughts, find one, listen for a while, and then, when there was a pause in the discussion, start contributing some of your own thoughts while listening for some feedback? And then when you got some feedback, would you tailor your further comments to accommodate that feedback, yet still try to politely get your point across?
Which kind of person would you rather be, ptmccain?
It's not that you don't have some worthwhile things to contribute to our site - you do indeed seem to want to help folks who are shopping for cars get great deals.
However, there are plenty of conversations going on throughout Town Hall where folks are asking the kinds of questions you are trying to answer. You seem to be answering questions that are not asked in the topics you are frequenting.
And this is one reason why your posts are not being well received.
Pat
Community Leader/Maintenance & Repair Conference
rich
What I asked for was simply some consistency on your part.
Why have I not read an equally strong rebuke of those here who are resorting to obscenity, vulgarity and abusive language to express themselves? I have seen this rule broken numerous times and yet no strong rebuke and warning from you.
I understand the need to insist on compliance with the rule and the fact that you need to enforce them. What I would like to see is a commitment on your part to equally vigorous warnings of those who violage the rules when it comes to language and abusive rhetoric.
May I expect you to be equally vigorous and forceful in your enforcment of this Town Hall policy?
I did receive an e-mail from Pat, I was admonished for calling you an Idiot.
I was wrong in doing so. No matter how I feel you add to or detract from the forum, I should not have violated the Town Hall policy. This was my first transgression in over two years of posting. You were cut some slack for logging in under an assumed name, which was your first offense in your few weeks of posting here. Your second offense was meet with more vigr, which it should have been.
You are not being singled out. Getting back in the faces of hosts here is nothing but a continuation of your poor behavior.
It you wish to discuss this farther, post your email address. Or, I will post mine so you can email me.
But if a sales person gets too pushy, I'd just let them fade, no sense in getting mad or the pistol out. Calm down.
Unfortunately, he missed the point.
Once, while on a business trip in Alaska, I wandered into a local tavern. I could tell I was overdressed and I kept my mouth shut, my head low, and didn't stay long.
On the wall was a chalkboard. On one side it said 86'd for a year. There were probably a dozen names along with dates.
On the other side it said...86'd FOREVER. There were four or five names there.
As I left, a fistfight was taking place in the parking lot!
Ketchikan, Alaska isn't a good place to start trouble!
In recent weeks, there has been a very visible "edge" to many posts, both by members new to Town Hall and the veterans who have literally been here for years. I just want to remind all users that spirited debate and the "agree-to-disagree" concept are encouraged, but there will be an immediate end to name-calling, badgering, insults, and posts that serve no purpose other than to incite arguments or anger. Posts of this nature will now be deleted on sight, and Town Hall management will contact the poster directly via email. Repeat offenses WILL result in suspensions and/or permanent banishment from these forums.
Having said that, please carry on, showing the respect that everyone has earned and deserves. Thank you!
kcram
Co-Host - Smart Shopper & FWI Conferences
edmunds.com Town Hall
There were two salespeople in the store at the time. One was a fat gentleman, about 45, in a white shirt and tie. The other was a petite woman on crutches. The fat gentleman showed me the mattresses he had, and generally was a determined proponent of the theory that fewer springs was better. He asked me how I slept, and when I said on my back, he said he didn't believe me, and claimed that the more padding I had, the more comfortable I would be.
I decided which mattress I wanted, and ignored a great deal of pressure to buy something more expensive or fluffy-looking. The fat gentleman then left the room, perhaps in disgust at the lamentable practice on the part of the mattress-buying public of buying insufficient padding. So I turned to the woman and introduced myself.
I was buying a queen size with a frame, so I asked what the total was including the frame, delivery, and taxes. She totalled up the figures on an adding machine and gave it to me. Let's say it was $850. I mulled this over, and decided to offer $650.
Without a word, she retabulated the numbers and arrived at $810.
I asked if they could do $650.
Absolutely not, offered the fat gentleman, who had now recovered from his indisposition, they would go out of business at that price.
The woman verbalized an inspiration of hers, that perhaps there might be a special on this mattress. She called someone on the phone, and found indeed there was a special, they could do $760.
I asked if they were sure they couldn't do $650.
Oh no, said the fat gentleman, and he gave various reasons why, along with a few other facts which although interesting were probably not too relevant. During this time the woman volunteered that she was a sales manager, and was not on commission, and I politely reassured her that that was OK, and that I was sure it was none of my business anyway. I smiled.
I told the fat gentleman that I understood how he could not be expected to do $650, and that it was OK, and I rose to leave.
While I was standing, the woman again probed the mysteries of the person on the other side of the telephone, and there was good news. He could do $690, she said. That's only $40 more, she said.
I accepted her offer of $690, and sat down again. Using the tabulation machine, she rung it up, and showed to me, a total of $755! The woman had cleverly made a low offer to make me move, and then had withdrawn her offer! I pointed out her mistake, and after feigning innocence, she tried the magic phone again.
The customer meant out-the-door, she said. She made some more noises into the telephone. (It really did seem like she was talking to some one!)
The phone approved $690 out-the-door, so I bought it, said thank-you, and left. The fat gentleman was gazing intently at some blank pages in front of him, perhaps gratified to know that he wasn't going out of business, at least today.
With all the information available on the Internet to the car buyer, there is no good reason why anyone should get "taken" any longer.
Frankly, given the information out there, a customer who does get taken has nobody to blame but himself.
You can find out what the car cost the dealer and then you can go from there and fix a price you are comfortable with.
The best "technique" for a customer is simply to say, "I'm sorry we could not do business." Then stand up, say goodbye and walk out the door.
Pretty easy actually.
Floridian
I refuse to believe you are serious, for me to do so would also be for me to assume that you are a very silly person!
The last sentence of your post was totally incoherent.
And, of course, we both know you never sell a new car at $5,000 *under* invoice.
-Chris
Have you just started looking at them?
email: heritagehonda@aol.com
Jerry
The over msrp stickers in the northeast are nothing more than a pleasant memory...
Rich
What is the going rate in Tenn?
but after being in the car biz in CT for 17 years I have quite a few friends at honda dealers, Honda was even one of our many franchises....they are discounting if the consumer isnt foolish enough to believe all the full list hype. I am speaking of connecticut in particular...from my standpoint, I love it when people pay list or more, but it never lasts forever on mass produced products....
Rich
I guess it depends on the dealership concerning what they do. If the original brother has been a good customer of the Honda store, I can't imagine they would stiff him over one vehicle. They would want him back for the next.
Now, if the brother has never bought a Honda before, then perhaps that is another story. Yet, even there, one has the opportunity to perform a good will gesture. The customers waiting for their vehicles later in line would not know.
I believe there is too much opportunity to lose a customer or two by refusing to let the other brother take his place.
But then I don't sell cars every day.
Cheers,
TB
My advice to buyers is that they get an itemized list of equipment that comes with the car before inking a deal. My fault for not inspecting everything thoroughly (it was about 10 degrees when I picked it up), but I thought that this was a really cheap shot.
-Jim
As far as options that will raise the resale value, I'd look through an NADA book or KBB to determine for last year's model's "ADD's". If the options you're considering show up there then they will raise the resale by that amount one year later. Maybe. If the vehicle comes standard with that option the following year, I doubt it will be an "ADD" on your resale value.
Good Luck!
Rob
A well-informed car buyer can make a good deal and not get ripped off!
So at this point, I have a purchase order signed by deal A's manager, with year,make,model, a list of options, total unit price, sales tax, registration fee, and a deposit of $1000 on my credit card. They told me on the phone the vehicle would arrive approximately in a week and they asked me sent in loan draft from eloan.com so that they can have the draft cleared by the time the vehicle arrives. In the mean time, deal B keep insisting that deal A is just playing tricks with me, for example, they did not write the vehicle identification number on the purchase order. I am a little uneasy on the deal only because deal A did try to play tricks on me by omitting 2 option items on the first purchase order they faxed me. That's why I am asking for advice on this board, should I go ahead and send dealer A the loan draft from eloan.com? can they still play tricks from this point forward?
By having the VIN attached to an equipment list, there can be no mistaking what was agreed upon.
If you are THAT distrustful, simply spend the extra 500.00 and buy it from the store you trust.
The omission of those two items could have been an honest mistake.
On the other hand, there are dealers who hate it when a customer tries to pit them against other dealers to save a buck or two.
I would skip the fax routine and (gasp) show up in person to make sure everything is being done properly.
Well, it turns out the car was a former Budget rental car that had been bought at auction. When the salesman called us bright and early the next morning, I told him that and he said he was confused (I bet). The funny thing is that I might have bought a new Altima from him if he hadn't been such a lying sack of....flour?
And...what a stupid salesman. Why lie about something that can be easilly chacked out?
Confused...yeah, right!
Any information would help.
Thanks!
AltimaMan
A dealer can opt not to be in the program but they lose out on alot of factory incentives. So almost all are part of the program.
Rich
Most Banks will, if you have very good credit, Loan up to NADA Retail on a used car, sometimes more.
The lower your score, and the lower your tier, the less they will loan on the car for reasons of being in an equity position.
Bill