Cord's Believe It or Not.

[Cord]

I thought I'd relay a few of the more memorable sales situations as they come up. Hope you enjoy.

Todays installment: "The payment will be no problem ... I don't intend to make one anyway"

A few weeks ago a customer comes in with a brand new Saleen S331 truck that he wants to trade in because he wants to lower his payments. Same story heard day after day so far. Everybody oohs and aahs over what is a pretty sweet truck... cut to checking the guy's credit: the oohs and ahhs turn to gasps and groans. He owes $93,000 on this truck The monthly payments are $1800    However, he has yet to make his first payment to Ford Credit. But he has manged to put 10,000 km on the truck. Coincidentally, that day I had been checking out the prices of trucks like this in the U.S. and figured I could get a lightly used one for about $45,000. Almost $50,000 of negative equity made it a little tough to make a deal so we said good luck and goodbye.

Cut to today. Same guy shows up wanting to trade in a Dodge truck. I ask him what happened to the Saleen. "I decided to give it back," he says. That triggers an automatic reaction to check his credit again. Still owes $93,000 to Ford Credit but no repo shows yet. He bought the Dodge truck 2 weeks ago through GMAC. It was a used 2004 and his payment was only $350 or so. Unfortunately the truck was now worth about $6000 and he owes $15000. I tell him that the 2002 truck that he wants to buy will end up being about $1000/mo because of the year and the negative equity. "No problem" he says, "I had a way bigger payment than that when I had the Saleen."

[AVToller]

    Sounds like he is unfamiliar with the concept of credit checks - among other things!! 

[tpl]

Cord, I am looking forward to more of these horror stories. 

[sailor723]

Shades of the subprime mess in the States....If lenders are stupid (greedy) enough to make these kind of loans they're going to get burned

[safristi]

Does FORD have a PONZI TRUCK???

[Careener]

Interesting strategy.
Declares bankruptcy -
Rinse and repeat

[initial_D]

Unbelievable. So Ford Credit and GMAC will finance anybody with a pulse ... or not?

[mmret]

Cut to today. Same guy shows up wanting to trade in a Dodge truck. I ask him what happened to the Saleen. "I decided to give it back," he says. That triggers an automatic reaction to check his credit again. Still owes $93,000 to Ford Credit but no repo shows yet. He bought the Dodge truck 2 weeks ago through GMAC. It was a used 2004 and his payment was only $350 or so. Unfortunately the truck was now worth about $6000 and he owes $15000. I tell him that the 2002 truck that he wants to buy will end up being about $1000/mo because of the year and the negative equity. "No problem" he says, "I had a way bigger payment than that when I had the Saleen."

Let me get this straight. He buys a $100k truck, decides its costing him too much and tries to trade it in but cannot because of the monster depreciation hit. So instead he lets them repo the truck, then buys another truck for a much lower monthly payment and then comes back to try and trade in the "new" truck.

Logic....what...help...

[sailor723]

I thought I'd relay a few of the more memorable sales situations as they come up. Hope you enjoy.

Todays installment: "The payment will be no problem ... I don't intend to make one anyway"


 He bought the Dodge truck 2 weeks ago through GMAC. It was a used 2004 and his payment was only $350 or so. Unfortunately the truck was now worth about $6000 and he owes $15000.

Not sure how you buy a used truck and end up $9,000 upside down in 2 weeks?

[Cord]

I thought I'd relay a few of the more memorable sales situations as they come up. Hope you enjoy.

Todays installment: "The payment will be no problem ... I don't intend to make one anyway"


 He bought the Dodge truck 2 weeks ago through GMAC. It was a used 2004 and his payment was only $350 or so. Unfortunately the truck was now worth about $6000 and he owes $15000.

Not sure how you buy a used truck and end up $9,000 upside down in 2 weeks?

Easy. Full retail should've been only about $10000 in the first place and he'd managed to do about $2000 of damage ("Oh that? Somebody hit me in a parking lot last night - on both ends"  )

Why worry about the selling price when you don't plan to make any payments anyway?

[Cord]

Today's episode: "You want to see my pay stubs? No problem, I was buying a new printer today anyway."

When people know they have poor credit and may not qualify for financing it is a common tactic for them to try and "bully" their way through a deal. The thinking seems to be, "If I am aggressive enough I can force them to approve me." It is seen day after day and is usually pretty easy to deal with. At most, it usually results in a little wasted time. This one went further and pissed off a lot of people.

This guy shows up as a classic bully. Well dressed, early 30's, big mouth. However, he parks his $2 car out on the street where nobody can see it (red flag #1). Then he looks around the used lot and orders a salesman to get the keys for this one, that one, that one, and that one (red flag #2). After looking, he refuses to drive one saying they all drive the same (red flag #3). At that point he wants to know what his payments would be, no mention of what the price is (red flag #4). In order to do so, the salesman asks some questions about his credit. Tricky questions like, "Is it good?" He takes offense and demands to see the manager (red flag #5). The manager tells him that until we check his credit report there is no way to give him accurate payment figures. The customer says that he  is already approved through Bank1 and Bank2 (sub-prime lenders - the ultimate red flag) and that he's not going through the trouble of filling out another credit application and that if we want to sell a truck we better start doing what he wants. The manager tells him that the lenders will not tell us about another dealer's approval and that he can either fill out an application or we won't be able to help him. He expresses outrage and leaves.

About an hour later, the Sales Manager gets called into the General Manager's office and is told about a complaint he received and is told "we can't be treating customers this way and that I want this customer approved today." Of course, the customer didn't relay the entire story to the GM but high level managers are all about avoiding heat and making people happy so that's what we have. So the Finance Manager starts calling in favours with the lenders trying to see if there is anything they can do. He manages to get one lender to tell him that the customer has not been approved but that they will help us, against the lender's better judgment.

So now we have this customer thinking he is in control and just when we think we are getting close to finishing, he decides he'll play his hand a little further by deciding that he'd rather have the blue one. This means the approval process has to start all over again and another day goes by. The lender finally gives the go ahead subject to seeing recent pay stubs to corroborate his stated income. "No problem", says the customer, "I'll fax them over."

The faxes arrive and are the cheesiest home made things you have ever seen - they look like they were created with Notepad. None of the columns line up, the font sizes are all screwy, and they are on 8.5x11 sheets - not your normal pay stub. When the lender sees them they respond with, "Are you kidding me?" They call the guy's employer and learn that he'd been fired two months ago! So now our relationship with the lender has been damaged.

The Sales Manager immediately gets on the phone and basically tells the customer to go f*** himself. Then he calls the GM to explain the situation. Right on cue, the customer then calls the GM to demand an apology, blah, blah, blah. The GM calmly mentions the words fraud and forgery and the guy hangs up.

This guy went farther than most by trying to bluff his way right to the dealership GM but similar situations occur everyday. And people wonder why sales people get cynical. Oh well. Next! 

[Brigitte]

The faxes arrive and are the cheesiest home made things you have ever seen - they look like they were created with Notepad. None of the columns line up, the font sizes are all screwy, and they are on 8.5x11 sheets - not your normal pay stub. When the lender sees them they respond with, "Are you kidding me?" They call the guy's employer and learn that he'd been fired two months ago!

    Were there three holes punched into the left side, too? 

I am enjoying your stories tremendously, Cord.  You are showing us the other side of the coin, and I appreciate that.

[Wolfe]

I am enjoying your stories tremendously, Cord.  You are showing us the other side of the coin, and I appreciate that.

Please keep the stories coming...

[AVToller]

I am enjoying your stories tremendously, Cord.  You are showing us the other side of the coin, and I appreciate that.

Please keep the stories coming...

       Wonderful reading. Thanks and keep them coming.

[Snowman]

Today's episode: "You want to see my pay stubs? No problem, I was buying a new printer today anyway."

When people know they have poor credit and may not qualify for financing it is a common tactic for them to try and "bully" their way through a deal. The thinking seems to be, "If I am aggressive enough I can force them to approve me." It is seen day after day and is usually pretty easy to deal with. At most, it usually results in a little wasted time. This one went further and pissed off a lot of people.

This guy shows up as a classic bully. Well dressed, early 30's, big mouth. However, he parks his $2 car out on the street where nobody can see it (red flag #1). Then he looks around the used lot and orders a salesman to get the keys for this one, that one, that one, and that one (red flag #2). After looking, he refuses to drive one saying they all drive the same (red flag #3). At that point he wants to know what his payments would be, no mention of what the price is (red flag #4). In order to do so, the salesman asks some questions about his credit. Tricky questions like, "Is it good?" He takes offense and demands to see the manager (red flag #5). The manager tells him that until we check his credit report there is no way to give him accurate payment figures. The customer says that he  is already approved through Bank1 and Bank2 (sub-prime lenders - the ultimate red flag) and that he's not going through the trouble of filling out another credit application and that if we want to sell a truck we better start doing what he wants. The manager tells him that the lenders will not tell us about another dealer's approval and that he can either fill out an application or we won't be able to help him. He expresses outrage and leaves.

About an hour later, the Sales Manager gets called into the General Manager's office and is told about a complaint he received and is told "we can't be treating customers this way and that I want this customer approved today." Of course, the customer didn't relay the entire story to the GM but high level managers are all about avoiding heat and making people happy so that's what we have. So the Finance Manager starts calling in favours with the lenders trying to see if there is anything they can do. He manages to get one lender to tell him that the customer has not been approved but that they will help us, against the lender's better judgment.

So now we have this customer thinking he is in control and just when we think we are getting close to finishing, he decides he'll play his hand a little further by deciding that he'd rather have the blue one. This means the approval process has to start all over again and another day goes by. The lender finally gives the go ahead subject to seeing recent pay stubs to corroborate his stated income. "No problem", says the customer, "I'll fax them over."

The faxes arrive and are the cheesiest home made things you have ever seen - they look like they were created with Notepad. None of the columns line up, the font sizes are all screwy, and they are on 8.5x11 sheets - not your normal pay stub. When the lender sees them they respond with, "Are you kidding me?" They call the guy's employer and learn that he'd been fired two months ago! So now our relationship with the lender has been damaged.

The Sales Manager immediately gets on the phone and basically tells the customer to go f*** himself. Then he calls the GM to explain the situation. Right on cue, the customer then calls the GM to demand an apology, blah, blah, blah. The GM calmly mentions the words fraud and forgery and the guy hangs up.

This guy went farther than most by trying to bluff his way right to the dealership GM but similar situations occur everyday. And people wonder why sales people get cynical. Oh well. Next! 

  Well done Cord. A fine candidate for Canada’s Worst Customer 

[ovr50]

Good stories, Cord, glad to see you putting them up, as too many ppl think the dealership is always in the wrong, which is not the case at all.

 

[safristi]

that should read" the other side of LACK OF COIN!!!"...... why do the up and ups @ Finance bother with these guys calls...there must be a "HIT/SH*T List ....NO?"..

  I feel a Veyron MOMENT coming on...... where's ME clean pants........

[Trainman]

Good stories, Cord, glad to see you putting them up, as too many ppl think the dealership is always in the wrong, which is not the case at all.

 

I agree, these are great and I am glad the other side of the coin is being shown.

I look forward to more installment's.

[Accordingly]

Thanks for sharing, Cord. The DIY pay stubs were a nice touch 

[UmroAyyar]

The Salesman's Diaries.  Interesting stuff.  Thanks for the laugh.

8.5x11" paystubs are ok, but those types contain a lot of information.