Topic: Worst salesman ever?

[sailor723]

I've really been enjoying the "Cord's believe it or not" thread about all the bizarre customers that he's come across working in the retail auto business. It has started me thinking about the reverse of this topic and some of the stranger salespeople I've dealt with while car shopping over the years.

Back in '01 while shopping for a new car for my wife (turned out to be an 02 Maxima) we dropped into the local Honda store to look at an Accord V6 EX-L. After a few minutes we were approached by a salesman. Now I try not to judge people by their appearance but this guy looked like he was sent over by central casting in response to a call for "car salesman circa 1972,quantity:1, type: sleazy" (ill fitting polyester sports jacket,pinky ring,chunky "gold" ID bracelet and the worst toupe I've ever seen!) He basicly ignored my wife even after I told him she was the one shopping for a new car. A couple of times when she asked a direct question he responded by giving me the answer. It got so bad that I half thought it must be some kind of joke and started looking for the hidden camera
 The final straw came after the brief test drive.(I had to talk my wife into one,she was ready to walk after 5 minutes in the show room) I can't remember the exact line but it was something like "This would be a great car for you...easy to drive...perfect for the little lady"  needless to say we left quite quickly after that and my wife refused to even set foot in the Honda dealership when she was car shopping next in 05


The next experiance was one I had last Fall while shopping for a replacement for my Pathfinder. This was while the whole US import issue was being widely reported and the response of Canadian manufacturers was changing daily. I went into the Hyundai dealership to look at the Vera Cruz and while there raised the US pricing issue(politely asking if Hyundai had come up with any programs to address the issue) 
 The salesman responded by saying that I (like a lot of people) was confused, that the "Autopact" made it illegal to import new cars to Canada. He said that you could only import used cars from the US and even then if you bought the wrong model or if it wasn't old enough it could end up being seized by Canada Customs when you got to the border. At that point I didn't even try to argue but just said "thanks" and left.

It's amazing.....

[The Mighty Duck]

Worst I ever experienced was at the local Ford dealership, which I stopped by to take a look at a Mustang.  Salesman spent a good ten minutes walking in a circle around the car, pointing out the fact that it had bumpers...  no joke.  I hear this is standard policy for Ford dealers, though.

I told him after a test drive that I was only looking, and I'd give it some thought and let him know.  He proceeded to ask me several times what it would take to get me to buy today...  I told him unless he was giving me the car, I wasn't buying today, I was just looking.

My father had one worse with the same dealership: test drove a used truck, and when he said he wasn't going to buy it the salesman and the manager tried to guilt him into it with stuff like "you said you'd buy it!"...

Needless to say, none of us have ever bought a car there.  Sad thing is, we have two Ford lots in Victoria, but they're owned by the same guy and both are equally scummy...

[mmret]

Back in '01 while shopping for a new car for my wife (turned out to be an 02 Maxima) we dropped into the local Honda store to look at an Accord V6 EX-L. After a few minutes we were approached by a salesman. Now I try not to judge people by their appearance but this guy looked like he was sent over by central casting in response to a call for "car salesman circa 1972,quantity:1, type: sleazy" Smiley (ill fitting polyester sports jacket,pinky ring,chunky "gold" ID bracelet and the worst toupe I've ever seen!) He basicly ignored my wife even after I told him she was the one shopping for a new car. A couple of times when she asked a direct question he responded by giving me the answer. It got so bad that I half thought it must be some kind of joke and started looking for the hidden camera Grin
 The final straw came after the brief test drive.(I had to talk my wife into one,she was ready to walk after 5 minutes in the show room) I can't remember the exact line but it was something like "This would be a great car for you...easy to drive...perfect for the little lady"  needless to say we left quite quickly after that and my wife refused to even set foot in the Honda dealership when she was car shopping next in 05

I had a similar experience with when shopping for a car with my girlfriend (her car). Left promptly.

[Thinking Out Loud]

The biggest problem I have personally experienced are inexperienced (or uneducated) salespeople on their own product, at least KEY components like engine displacement for example.

Or WORSE, they seem completely oblivious to what the competition have out there and how they stack up.  'Know Thine Enemy As Thyself'.  Typically, this type of 'consultant' is found skulking around the local Honda dealer .

Easiest way to get rid of a salesman's hard-core pitch:

Tell them you lease doesn't come up for another 6 months 

Most junior sales types will balk and walk, or at least know the extent they will get from you.  A salesperson that's been in the industry may try the 'we can take care of that old lease for you'.  Assuming you actually DO have a lease situation of this type, your response should be:

I'm uninterested in rolling my remaining 6 payments into a new lease.

They'll try to make you think that they'll get rid of your exisiting commitment (and technically they do), but at a price.

[wing]

Yesterday, I went into the Mitsu dealer to pick up a car.

We (myself and Paul) were greeted by a Salesman instantly (it was obviously a slow day on a long weekend).

I immediately asked for the sales manager by name as he is my contact to pick up the car there.  Anyways, he walks in with us and says the sales manager is busy -- fine I'll wait a bit.  The EVO is in the showroom so I start snooping around it.  I get out and I'm like, nice seats, not very special inside though.  And he starts rambling how he hasn't driven one but can't wait till he does.  Then Paul mentions he drove it in California.  Oh this was a hoot.  Paul then mentioned how the new line-up was great for Mitsu and something about the MR, the guy didn't know what we were talking about.

Then he said "what is that car you are driving" I said VW EOS, he said "WHAT?" VW? I thought it was a mercedes EOS?  Never heard of it.  Anyways, we were in there way too long, long enough for to make himself look really stupid.  Paul thought he was the janitor haha.

[mwqa]

A month ago I walked into a dealership for a second time. A couple of weeks previously, I had test driven a Suzuki Aerio S trim (the lowest trim with no options except for A/C, power windows and mirrors). I wanted to knock the car of my list of potential choices, and figured the best way to do it was to talk money.

The car was listed at $11,000, which was at least $1,000 more than similar cars listed by other dealerships.

I walked in and met the junior sales associate who had been with me on my test drive. This is the middle of February when few people are shopping, and he remembered me right off the bat.

We didn't even sit down: he asked me if I was there to buy the Aerio and I said, "Yes, assuming we were on the same playing field as to price".

He immediately went to his sales manager, who literally dragged me into his office and whose opening line was "I hear you are here to steal one of my cars". He was very aggressive, and rather disconnected from which car I was actually buying ("The one with all wheel drive?", "No, the vanilla S trim"). After making a show of shuffling through his files he became organized enough to figure out which car I was interested in.

I asked him, quite perturbed by this time, what his best price was on the car. He though a minute and said $9,500. He said that there was no way that I'd find a low kilometer 2004 for anything less. I shrugged and said "Well, if I'm interested in spending that amount I'll be back, but in the meantime..."

On the way out the junior sales associate, who had seen the whole thing, apologized for getting my hopes up, which I found quite amusing. I moved to make my goodbyes to the sales manager, but he was stoically staring at his desk, obvious wanting nothing to do with me.

A most unpleasant and ugly scene.

The next day the junior sales associate called, profusely apologizing for his boss's behavior ("I wouldn't treat my worse enemy that way"), and asked me to come in to discuss things over coffee. I did go, just because I couldn't believe that a dealership could stay in business when it treats it's customers like that. Was it the junior sales associate's lack of experience? Language problems? (The dealership was in the East end of Montreal and they can't get many English clients.) Maybe the boss was just having a bad day??

Maybe it was me, as I can be aggravating calm sometimes. I can understand that being asked what I'm offering and always replying "below $9,000" on a car listing at $11,000 as being a bit frustrating to a car salesman.

So I made the trek out to the dealership again the following night. My file had been taken over by 'the other boss' and the sales associate again apologized for his previous boss' behavior ("He's weird sometimes..."). We sat down, as we should have done the first night, and I explained my budget, and what I was looking for.

We briefly discussed the car on his lot, but because he was firm that the price was still $9,500, I let it go. I would have paid anything up to that price, but there was no way in hell that I would pay $9,500 for it after what had happened.

So - I think the sales manager is the worse car salesman I even had the misfortune to meet.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. I bought another Aerio S a few weeks later for less than $9,500. And now the one at the dealership is listing at $9,000. 

[Cord]

I wanted to knock the car of my list of potential choices, and figured the best way to do it was to talk money.

Interesting story. So you went to the dealership to avoid buying a car?

[johngenx]

In the fall of 1997 I was shopping for a replacement for my daily-driven 190E Mercedes. The old gal had a ton of km's on 'er (over 400K) and though running well, I felt a new car would be nice.  Money was good for us and I decided to "splurge" on a new C-Class.  (I'd bought all 2 yr old lease return MB's prior)

I was dressed in jeans and t-shirt, my typical not-at-work attire.  I stopped in at David Morris to buy a new C230.  Speaking driectly to the salesmanager, I indicated my preference of model/trim/options and he simply handed me a credit app and told me to go home, fill it out, and fax it to him.  He gave me a "you are obviously NOT a Mercedes customer" look, and I left in disgust.

Weber Motors played a game where they insisted I pay a $1500 deposit to even discuss buying a car from them.

Hyatt in Calgary won the day with superb service.

A couple years later I was having lunch with my friend, a successful rancher that lives east of Edmonton.  Abraham has TONS of money, but lives quite simply in some ways.  His car at the time was a well-wornToyota mini-van, one of the old funny box style units.  His had abobut 700K-km's on it as the body looked like brown lace curtains.  I picked him up and we headed for lunch in my Mercedes ML320 service loaner.

Abe loved the thing!  He thought it would be PERFECT for him.  AWD to get down the back roads and super comfy for coming into town.  He hadn't spent a dime on a car in years and figured he'd treat himself.

Two days later he calls me.  Without discussing it, he'd gone to David Morris and met the same salesmanager that had given me the bum's rush prior.  This time the fellow was even more rude.  Abe was dressed in his coveralls and driving his old Toyota, and the guy explained that he would have to leave promptly.

I laughed and gave him the number of the fellow in Calgary that I'd bought my car from.  Abe went to Calgary and wrote a cheque for two new ML430's, one for him and one for his wife.  I never asked him if he'd called David Morris to mention the $130K in sales they lost...

Now, before this becomes a total car salesperson bashing thread, let me tell you that over the years I have met poor ones, but there are outstanding ones that outnumber the truly horrible ones by far.  We bought our Forester from Jerry at Sundance Mazda, and he was great.  Danny at Hyatt Mercedes in Calgary was awesome.  Dale at Acura was great.  Recently, we bought or Toyota from Shafik at Mayfield Toyota, and I'd send any friend to him.

Like any profession, there are good and bad. What irks me about the whole thing is the way that it is set up. We have progressed to a point where the dealerships have created a hostile environment and customers are now coming in ready for battle as well.  To me, it's unpleasant.  Spending that much money should not be a chore, and thankfully, buying the Corolla was not a chore at all.  Maybe things are getting better?  Maybe it's just that I'm SO NICE?  Hahaha!

As an aside, I find that the truly bad, aggressive service is most likely to come from the sales manager or business manager.

[Cord]

...let me tell you that over the years I have met poor ones, but there are outstanding ones that outnumber the truly horrible ones by far.

Spending that much money should not be a chore, and thankfully, buying the Corolla was not a chore at all.

See, I find this very interesting. Here we have someone saying that the good outnumber the bad by far; their last buying experience was pleasant; and yet there is generalized talk of hostile environments and unpleasantness in the whole car buying "system." Is this a perception vs. reality issue?

In my experience, it is only certain individuals that come in "ready for battle", not the population in general. By far, the majority are reasonable and pleasant enough to deal with. (Otherwise I'd be updating my other thread on an hourly basis). And these individuals are probably the same ones that are ready to battle the Home Depot cashier for being slow or yell at the postman for being late with a delivery.

[johngenx]

I should have put more thought into my writing.  I have found over the years that the salesperson is generally good, but with some exceptions either way, of course.  Then I encounter the salesmanager.  Suddenly fees are added and the sell gets aggressive.  The business manager can't understand why I don't want etching or rustproofing or fabric protection and spends an inordinate amount of time badgering me.

The sales process with the Corolla was lacking.  Lacking surprise fees.  Lacking sales of rust proofing, etc.  The negotiation process took five minutes, not an hour.

I agree about the minority being ready to battle.  I encoutered these people on occasion in retail, and they did comprise a small percentage.  However, they do generate the majority of Tylenol sales!!

[safristi]

...I'm selling THESE on E Bay............any takers....................

[mwqa]

I wanted to knock the car of my list of potential choices, and figured the best way to do it was to talk money.

Interesting story. So you went to the dealership to avoid buying a car?

I went to the dealership not expecting to buy the car because it was more than my budget, even after a reasonable discount. However, the market was pretty quiet at that point, for both buyers (me) and the dealers. I felt it was a stretch, but worth a try.

My original budget was $9,000 including an installed cargo cover ("below $9,000"). The cover is around $500 installed and is not standard equipment on S trim Aerios.

I asked the sales manager, and the sales associate later - is there anything about this car that justifies me breaking my budget? There was never an adequate response to that.

On my side, I believe the car is worth $9,500. According to Carfax, it was built in June 04, missing the 2003/2004 winter, and has been in dealer inventory since September 2007, missing most of this winter. Plus, it was a dark colour, which I wanted as I though it went better with the black mirrors and door handles than silver, which is the more popular and common colour.

They were willing to install a cargo cover if I bought the car for $9,500 and they were willing to let me get it inspected by my own mechanic.

My final offer would have been $9,250 if they had installed the cargo cover and thrown in some floor mats, but they never called me back after I had said that I wasn't going to pay $9,500 for the car.

And there was no way I would call them back.

... there is generalized talk of hostile environments and unpleasantness in the whole car buying "system." Is this a perception vs. reality issue?

Except for this unfortunate incident, my experience with everyone else I have dealt with, at other dealerships where I had test drives, was very positive.

I do leave all this behind with the impression, however, that that sales manager deliberately attempted to bully me, to throw me off-balance so that the dealership would be in control of the transaction. So unpleasant things do happen.

[Mitlov]

Worst car buying experience?  Getting my wife's Tacoma.  The salesman told us that (1) all Tacomas have six airbags (not true; side airbags aren't available on anything but a double cab, and even then they're optional), (2) we shouldn't even look at the Frontier because it would have trouble getting up hills compared to the Tacoma (the Frontier is actually lighter and more powerful), and (3) we shouldn't even look at the Ridgeline because it's unsafe (the Ridgeline won several awards for being the safest pickup ever...not surprising given its unibody design).  The dealer repeatedly insisted on talking with me, even though we all made clear it was my wife's truck and the only reason I was there was to watch the kid.  When we actually got to purchasing, the financing guy would NOT stop trying to get us to buy the prepaid oil change package.  I literally had to tell him "no" 15-20 times and I had to raise my voice.

After this was all said and done, we wrote a letter to the dealership's management, complaining about the way we were treated.  We never even got a phone call in response.

A second worst experience was when my wife was pregnant and I was shopping for a replacement for my Civic coupe.  I was treated very well by every dealership, save a Mazda dealership.  I wanted to look at a Mazda3, Mazda5, and Mazda6.  When we were about ready to go out for the test-drive, I made clear that I was a serious buyer but would not be buying that day.  At that point, the salesman quit walking toward the car, and started browbeating me about "wasting his time" (no other customers were even on the lot).  Basically, he thought of buying a car like buying groceries.  You don't go to the store unless you're going to buy right then.  He simply did not understand the whole concept of "shopping around" and researching all possible options before making a five-digit purchase    At least there, the management was receptive to my complaints when I called them later that day.

Aside from those experiences, I've had wonderful dealership experiences, particularly at Acura, Volvo, BMW, and MB dealerships.  Of the non-luxury brands, the Honda dealership in Eugene, Oregon is the best I've ever been at.  Very knowledgeable, low-pressure salespeople.

[KRS]

Worst salesman?
 
 For me it was a guy named Bruce at Birchwood Pontiac Buick GMC, in Winnipeg about a dozen years ago. I wanted to price out a new S15 to replace the Full size Chevy pickup I owned at the time. I had a very specific equipment that I wanted. Regular cab long box 4X4 was needed because i used my truck to haul crates for work occasionally and it needed to fit a 7 foot long crate and I was buying not leasing because I couldn't make leasing make financial sense to me when I did the math while figuring out what I could afford before I went shopping

 Bruce After I explained my needs and my intent to buy rather then lease proceeds to tell me that I don't want to get the truck I need because it will not have good residual value. I stressed I was buying not leasing and would he please let me know what the MSRP was so I could decide if the S15 was a possiblity. At this point Bruce only wanted to know how much a month I could spend. Again I explained that if he could give me the MSRP for a truck like I was wanting I would do the math on if it was affordable to me both with GMACs rates and my local banks and then order the truck if i could make it make sense over the term of the deal.

 Bruce proceeds to give me this sells pitch on how I should make my money work for me and if I told him how much I could afford a month he would get me set up in a good lease and the money I saved  could work for me instead. I  again explain to him that I am not leasing and that I  am not able to write off lease payments because on the occasions i use it for work i receive mileage, and I did not believe a few hundred a month for 4 years and a bigass balloon payment at the end was making my money work for me. Bruce excuses himself for a few minutes and when he comes back has pamphlets for GMAC leasing and tells me to read it over and when I'm serious about getting a vehicle to come back and and once he knew how much I was willing to spend per month he'd get me in a good S15 crew cab that would have great residual value. I do not to this day no if I was suddenly speaking Swahili or why he didn't listen to a thing I said but I assured him I would stop by to visit when I got the vehicle I wanted so he could see I was serious over the next few months of buying a new truck, but the one I wanted.

 I ended up buying an S10 like I had wanted at Orion Chev Olds and Made it a point to drop by Birchwood and ask for Bruce just because he had annoyed me that much. When he lays eyes on me he asks me how much I am willing to spend per month on the Grand Am i had been talking to him about. I get him out and show him that the Long box S truck I had been shopping for is what I got even if he wasn't willing to help me. Bruce at this point says "If thats what you wanted why didn't you say so. I would have been happy to help you." 

 I have never experienced anything like it before. I have since had a few people tell me of simiiar experiences with Birchwood and other salesmen pushing leasing regardless of what the customer said so I don't know if the managers train salesmen to ignore the customers requests but I have Bruce in my mind as the worst kind of horse thief to this day
 

 

[Cord]

 

When he lays eyes on me he asks me how much I am willing to spend per month on the Grand Am Huh i had been talking to him about. I get him out and show him that the Long box S truck I had been shopping for is what I got even if he wasn't willing to help me. Bruce at this point says "If thats what you wanted why didn't you say so. I would have been happy to help you."

That's funny stuff. Thanks for that.

[Wetson]

There are good and bad in all trades.  I recently test drove a BMW 3 series at Downtown BMW in Toronto and the sales rep George was incredible.  Although we ended up preferring something different he still understood.  I'd gone to the same dealer 2 months prior and a different sales rep was horrid and looked at me like I couldn't afford anything before we even discussed finances.  When I bought my first Honda at Classic Honda in Brampton the sales rep was incredible.  Although he played the sales game running back and forth to the sales manager he treated us well.  Saj Molu at Toronto Honda has been exceptional to us.  He's gone out of his way and is a straight shooter.  No games.  I went into a Cadillac dealer 4 months ago to look at a CTS and the sales rep was obnoxious and rude.  He just didn't seem to care.  What bothers me is that some car salesmen seem to look at my age (mid 30's) and assume I can't afford a higher end vehicle.  Uhmmmm.... I'm #5 in my company right now and most of you know what I do for a living.  So you can't always judge a book by it's cover.  Ah well... C'est la vie.

[1TSX]

About these "bad salespeople"...

Are they trained to be like this? Or are they just asshats like that?