wasn't missing that dealership experience

[Mach351]

recently have been contemplating retiring the Mach from DD duty but not too excited about having a car payment.

perusing some dealership websites I found what was advertised as a good deal on a SUV so thought it would be simple enough to send an online inquiry.

this place has now literally emailed me five times and called twice in the last two days since my inquiry. (they had already sold the SUV and don't have anything else in inventory that's lighting the proverbial fire but are relentless at getting me on the lot)

explained to them twice i'm in no itchin' hurry for another car
and now reminded of why i have not set foot on the sales side of a dealership in over seven years
other than running in and out of the service dept a couple of times for specific parts have had no reason to be there - and parked in back to evade the sales people at that

no disrespect to the sales-people trying to make a living, but having to deal with the bait-and-switch crap at every turn is a real irritant.

/rant

[Big Ron]

It's frustrating. It's either all or nothing. I've been at a dealer with cash in pocket and they wouldn't even give me the time of day.






Big Ron

[Thunderbolt]

Originally Posted by Big Ron

I've been at a dealer with cash in pocket and they wouldn't even give me the time of day.

That's what happened when I bought my '93 GT brand new. All these old geezers just ignoring me because they thought I was a tire kicker punk kid. Then this real young guy comes up and helps me. Next thing he knows he's got his first sale as a salesman. Those other guys about crapped.

[Mustanger2]

I emailed a dealer for an online quote for the old model Escape recently & honestly said I wasn't sure it was in my price range so give me a good price quote on the closeout sale & if it was in my range I'd be in to talk,,,,in 30 days of constant emailing I never got one number !! They finally got ruder & ruder demanding a face to face...

It was unbelievable the hassle...I had previously bought 3 cars from them too....never again.

[Thor]

Buy a beater for a DD; no payments and low insurance rates...

[yellowshaker04]

Originally Posted by Mustanger2

I emailed a dealer for an online quote for the old model Escape recently & honestly said I wasn't sure it was in my price range so give me a good price quote on the closeout sale & if it was in my range I'd be in to talk,,,,in 30 days of constant emailing I never got one number !! They finally got ruder & ruder demanding a face to face...

It was unbelievable the hassle...I had previously bought 3 cars from them too....never again.

Going thru the exact same thing right now myself. Found a nice SUV that we would like to try and purchase and i have sent a few emails back and forth and when i asked for the bottom line out the door price they have replied twice saying if you look at KBB it shows we are selling this for 6k under retail value.

[Mach351]

i hear y'all. my real frustration is really from a past experience trying the "email" method of shopping (about 8 years ago) and it obviously hasn't changed.

found a nice truck in an ad but it was at a dealership 4 hours away (where my brother lived) - this was on a Wednesday. called the place, alleged they still have the vehicle at advertised price. we had exchanged info and had emailed each other several times Thurs and Fri - had an appt set up for first thing Sat morning to get the truck. again, allegedly it was still there at the time i left Friday afternoon.

i am on this lot the minute the dealership opens on Sat. guess what, truck just happened to sell last night. sales guy spends the next 30 minutes showing me the sheets on the trucks he has in inventory and wants to take me out to the truck lot to drive - i wasn't interested in any of these and the price was $2k above what we negotiated in the email deal.

then there was the "if you give me $100 deposit we can order the exact truck you want and it will be here in a month". i'm like wtf are you talking about... give you money to wait for a month and would likely lose it anyway for not buying that exact vehicle. i was done with this dude at this point.

later that day ended up at another dealership and told the sales guy of the debacle i encountered that morning and i wasn't in the mood to mess around. he sympathized and said usually the vehicles listed in sales ads are sold before the paper is even distributed. yeah, i should have deduced that one sooner on my own. (was in and out in half an hour including test drive with truck i wanted and the deal i wanted - that's how life should be)