Do salesmen think people are daft?

[Deleted member 55947]

I've been looking for a >3 year old S212 350, loads of options, for a couple of months now and they seem to be like hens teeth however a call from my local MB dealer assures me they have done new stock in so off I go this morning. Met salesman and told him the requirements and off he sets on his laptop and is pleased as punch to find the perfect car and shows me, no good says I as 2010 is not less than 3 year old!
So the only one available and suitable is in Swindon ( that's what tinternet has been telling me at home). Fine I say, fetch it up and I'll have look, if it's ok we'll do the deal. Next pearl of wisdom is a £1k off if I take MB finance at at 9.9%, I point out that I can get 2.99% so I won't be interested but he re-iterates the £1k off and is dumbstruck that I'm not interested!

Off he toddles to the sales manager and says he can get the car up if I pay a £1k deposit that won't be refundable unless the car isn't up to MB used standard. I point out that I'm a bit old fashioned and would much prefer to see and drive a used vehicle before I bought it, which he replied that this wasn't an option.

I wouldn't have objected to £200 or so deposit to show I was interested but I think £1k to lose if you don't buy is a bit off.

 

[c_200k]

That's why I hate going into car dealerships. I've already done my research and know what's what.

I think they are used to selling car's to people who just come in and they sell them what they have lying around not what they asked for.

 

[Voyager]

last time i negotiated a near new merc, i made an appointment to see the sales manager (having already got the name of the regional sales manager) - went in at a pre-appointed time and cut through all the rubbish you get with sales floor staff. often they are not reflecting the company's position, they are often only de-risking the situation for themselves personally. good luck.

 

[bpsorrel]

Would never leave a £1K deposit, or not unless it's fully refundable and in writing to that effect. Too much to throw away if you don't like the car!

A dealer tried that on a while back and I simply refused. He said it was policy, I got up and left.

 

[Druk]

Yes.

Wandered into Evans Halshaw last week and enquired as to the cash price for a new Corsa (for SWMBO). "Ticket on the screen says £157pm sir"

No no...the cash price for the car please?

"Ticket says £157 sir"

HOW MUCH IS THE CAR to drive away cash PLEASE?

"don't know that sir...we never sell them for cash"



Exit left in direction of Fiat dealer.

 

[Deleted member 55947]

I told them that any further interest would be dealt directly with Swindon MB. I wouldn't care but I bought my current car from them after they brought it up from Oxford for £100 returnable deposit so I wasn't exactly a time waster.

 

[Scott_F]

I recently had a telephone conversation with a Stratstone dealership 60 miles away about a car that I quite liked the look of. I had a chat with the sales guy who was very helpful and answered my questions about the car.

I then asked whether they had any flexibility regarding the price as I wouldn't be prepared to pay what they were currently asking. I was told that the price was fixed. I tried again by saying that I'd be interested in coming to see the car that weekend and if I liked it I would be willing and able to do a deal there and then. Again, the salesman told me that no discount whatsoever would be possible. If they accepted a reduced price then head office would be onto them and therefore the price was absolutely fixed. I thanked the guy for his time and that was that.

During the next fortnight, the asking price was dropped three times and as far as I'm aware the car is still sitting on their forecourt.

 

[Deleted member 2227]

I recently had a client wanting a brand new AMG, I rang my dealer to make the contact. No brochure was sent, no contact made but they then sent me a survey which I scored them Zero in.

 

[developer]

I had a salesman bring an E320 to my house from Hull (150 miles away) based upon the £1K deposit on a card. The "rule" was that the deposit was refundable if the car wasn't as described but considered sold if I liked it - he said it was to avoid him wasting a day on the road for a tyre kicker.

The car was a particular designo silver, which looked ok in the photos, but turned out to be beige.

A great spec but I just couldn't drive round in that colour.

He drove back and promptly refunded the £1K.

 

[Deleted member 55947]

Funnily enough John that was one of the things he stated, not liking the colour wouldn't be a acceptable reason for refunding the deposit

 

[stumpy1]

Wandered into Evans Halshaw last week and enquired as to the cash price for a new Corsa (for SWMBO). "Ticket on the screen says £157pm sir"

No no...the cash price for the car please?

"Ticket says £157 sir"

HOW MUCH IS THE CAR to drive away cash PLEASE?

"don't know that sir...we never sell them for cash"



Exit left in direction of Fiat dealer.

I tried to buy an Evoque last year for cash and the salesman point blank refused to sell me one unless I took their PCP. I left the place in a state of shock.

 

[Dieselman]

Put a wanted advert on here. I know of a member that might have a silver 350Cdi estate to sell.
3 years old, 20k miles, iirc.

 

[markjay]

I recently had a telephone conversation with a Stratstone dealership 60 miles away about a car that I quite liked the look of. I had a chat with the sales guy who was very helpful and answered my questions about the car.

I then asked whether they had any flexibility regarding the price as I wouldn't be prepared to pay what they were currently asking. I was told that the price was fixed. I tried again by saying that I'd be interested in coming to see the car that weekend and if I liked it I would be willing and able to do a deal there and then. Again, the salesman told me that no discount whatsoever would be possible. If they accepted a reduced price then head office would be onto them and therefore the price was absolutely fixed. I thanked the guy for his time and that was that.

During the next fortnight, the asking price was dropped three times and as far as I'm aware the car is still sitting on their forecourt.

I would hazard a guess that the sales person might have been more inclined to discuss a discount had you turned up at the dealership and posed the question to him in person.

 

[John]

I then asked whether they had any flexibility regarding the price as I wouldn't be prepared to pay what they were currently asking. I was told that the price was fixed. I tried again by saying that I'd be interested in coming to see the car that weekend and if I liked it I would be willing and able to do a deal there and then. Again, the salesman told me that no discount whatsoever would be possible. If they accepted a reduced price then head office would be onto them and therefore the price was absolutely fixed. I thanked the guy for his time and that was that.

During the next fortnight, the asking price was dropped three times and as far as I'm aware the car is still sitting on their forecourt.

I had a similar thing a few years ago. Was looking for a filler car until I decided what I wanted next.

Was looking at a 4 year old late 2003 520iSE ES for around £11k.

Absolutely no discount on that price sir with accompanying attitude problem.

OK, will leave it there then.

Bought a 3 year old 2004 9-5 Aero HOT for £9k.

Price dropped on the 520 a couple of times after...

Then BMW phoned me for a customer satisfaction survey.

Shame.

Haven't been back to BMW since and probably never will.

 

[keith of kent]

I tried to buy an E 350 Sport estate from my local MB dealership in a town that sounds like "young ladies rock".In Kent. Spent 4 hours there to test drive 2 cars. Called me in, "I've got just the car for you".
It wasn't. I wanted an estate, it was a saloon.
In the end I bought a car from Vikings in Canterbury who were a joy to deal with in every sense.
I love my E350 Sport estate

 

[Deleted member 6183]

I bought a used car from Stratstone at the end of last year.

The pricing is already very keen so discount is not easy to agree, I did get some but not as much as I would usually expect.

Car was great, service was very good pre-sale.

Post sale experience was not great, service book lost by dealer and duplicate took weeks to arrive, my number plate transfer took 2.5 months and, in fact, I had to complete the transfer myself.

So, overall a good buy, I hope, at a price I was happy with. Stratstone have a pricing policy to ensure that theirs will be the cheapest car available at any one time and this will explain the reductions seen above. Its a process that they follow, works for some but you need to accept that the price is keen at the outset.

 

[MercedesDriver]

You have to be posh if you want to get salesman attention. Unfortunately.

 

[markjay]

Some years ago my wife wanted to buy a new Fiat from a Fiat delear in North London.

We went into the showroom and were greeted by a young salesman. He showed us the cars on display but when we asked about LPG factory-conversion option he said he'll need to check. He took our telephone number and promissed to call us back.

After a few days we tried calling the dealership but were unable to get hold of our salesman. After several further attempts the receptionist finally told us he no longer worked there. There was no attempt to find out why we were looking for him in the first place...

Wife bought a Renault.

 

[DSM10000]

Some years ago my wife wanted to buy a new Fiat from a Fiat delear in North London.
.

Had a similar poor experience of FIAT some years ago, we walked into the Salisbury showroom, the car that we wanted, a Bravo was sitting there, right colour, right specification.

We were serious buyers and made it very clear that we wanted to buy the car but the salesperson told us that not only was he not offering any discount over list price but that the price would be going up in two days because FIAT UK were introducing a price rise. He was also offering interest at 9.9% APR and was not interested in a cash sale.

Due to his attitude we drove to Southampton, they did not have the car we wanted in stock but after checking found that a shipment was due to land in 3 weeks, without any real pushing we were offered £3000 off, an upgrade to a CD auto-changer and finance, if we wanted at 2% APR.

 

[developer]

Funnily enough John that was one of the things he stated, not liking the colour wouldn't be a acceptable reason for refunding the deposit

It must be just down to the individual - he tried hard to sell it to me (including stating that you didn't see the colour when you were inside ) however, I could have argued that it wasn't as shown in the photo.

It did look silver(ish) in the photo but was as beige as a Munich taxi in the flesh - horrid.

Apparently it was John Weir's car.