MB Salesmen/women

[Noodle-Pulp]

New Health and Safety Regs

:bannana:

New safety guidelines prevent any car salesperson from jumping hoops or leaping hurdles to help or please any existing or prospective customers, in case of accidents.

:bannana:

 

[James Rothwell]

You MB customers don't seem to have much luck with sales guys, maybe I should leave Skoda/Alfa Romeo and see if I can do a better job!

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

I did find an amazing salesman a while ago, he would literally do anything I asked of him (except knock more than 20% off anything - or perhaps giving me a car for free).
He let me test drive various vehicles, even after I'd only just bought one from him, knowing that I wasn't in the market for anything else just yet. He had my car valeted almost every time I passed by the showroom, he offered me track day tickets, a day at MB world.. he even offered to take me and the lady to dinner. All of this was post-purchase.

I think he was a bit ...well.. too good, and sadly he doesn't work for MB anymore - I suspect his boss didn't like his style..

 

[nictry]

Funny enough I have just had some interesting experiences with dealers, I decided I wasn't going to have any messing about taking cars out for a test drive only to end up 2 hours later with them offering me stupid money for my car and walking out.

So, I went for a different approach, I rang 3 dealers 2xaudi and one MB, I told them all what vehicle I had (was totally up front with condition etc.) and what car I wanted to buy from their stock (I know the A6 and E class as have driven them before) all cars were 6-9 months old so fully warrantied etc. and I am not emotional with my buying so didn't need to test them out) anyway 2 of the 3 sales bods said this wasn't normal process and could I come over to which I said no, if you want to sell a car then ring me back with a p/ex value and if it is good enough then I will come and buy the vehicle (I had checked their glasses values so knew how much they were all marked up by!)

That evening had a call back from MB dealer offering his price, told him it wasnt bad but could be better so he said he would call back in the morn, also got a call from Audi dealer and once again (had prev experience trying to do a deal with Audi 3 years ago) 15% lower than I would have expected and 12% less than the MB dealer, no call from the 3rd dealer.

Next morning MB dealer rang back and had bumped up the p/ex so went over to see the car, managed to get an extra years warranty in the deal and bought the car

Popped in to see the audi dealer who gave me a price and told him why I wasnt buying, also said that this is twice in 3 years that I haven't bought an audi due to the stupidly low price they offered for the p/ex

Here comes the funny part though, I then received a letter from the dales manager of the other audi dealer saying that he hoped I received the service I expected from his sales staff and that they were able to offer me the car I had enquired about and looked forward to servicing my needs in future!!!!!! As this dealer was too far to pop into I rang the sales manager (couldn't speak to customers as was busy so I left a voicemail asking him to give me a call, after 2 days no call so rang again and again couldn't speak to him so left a voicemail saying that perhaps he would like to ask the salesman to actually call me back some time to see if he could offer to sell me the vehicle I wanted to buy!!!! Also thanked him for making the effort to call me back too! To date still not received a call back so needless to say Tonbridge Audi won't be bothered by my custom again

 

[James Rothwell]

Working in car sales myself for the last 5/6 years, I can't tell you how much of a difference the customers attitude makes to the process of purchasing a car, at the end of the day it's pretty simple you want to buy a car and I want to sell a car, you want to save some money and I want to make some money.

Attitude plays such a massive part in the overall process, I've got so many great customers who are more like friends than customers now and they are the ones that will get the best service. If you come into a showroom giving it the big 'I am' and the typical 'My car is worth more because Parkers say so' attitude it won't get you anywhere, even if you do end up buying a car you won't get the same service afterwards because you made my life more difficult why should I make yours easier.

So next time you go into a dealership try a different approach and I think you'll find it a lot easier to get the deal you want!

 

[stevieb15]

Very sound advice indeed.........now find me an estate agent that also conforms and I'll buy you a pint!

Estate agents, bmw, audi, mb dealership sales people, hotel receptionists virtually interchangable.
Speaking of estate agents, in my town a large ex nightclub/hotel is up for sale for development subject to planning, I got the details and thought I might be able to convert it into 4 flats, keep one myself and sell or rent the others, so I arranged a viewing and asked that the agent bought all the info about the property with them.
The appointed day arrived, so did I, the agent turned up late, well they would wouldn't they! No additional info so there was no floor plan.
Having had a good look around I advised the agent the property might be suitable for my purposes and that provided the vendor was willing to negotiate I was definitely interested. I was informed the property had been on the market for a while and the vendor was now desperate for a sale. The agent promised to speak to the vendor and elicit the aforementioned floorplan.
Three days later the agent phoned me back to say there was no floor plan, but was I still interested?
"I would be if there was a floor plan" "oh ok" was the response.
3 months later the building is still on the market and the asking price has dropped twice.
Is it me?

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

Estate agents, bmw, audi, mb dealership sales people, hotel receptionists virtually interchangable.

ermmm.. I think you missed out Banking types...

 

[Alps]

MB sales people are pants, even on the used car sections, I went in and they seemed really helpful, got my details down on what i was looking for etc... and said they would call me if they found anything, heard nothing for the last 6 mnths! even i know and have found, other cars in other main dealers which could have been possibilities, but heard nothing from my local dealership! guess they dont want my money!

Parts guys are great tho... sales are c*ap

 

[crockers]

ermmm.. I think you missed out Banking types...

Wrong consonant

 

[Dryce]

So next time you go into a dealership try a different approach and I think you'll find it a lot easier to get the deal you want!

I disagree.

I feel a lot of sympathy for car sales staff given the amount of messing about that goes on and I set out specifically to politely avoid wasting their and my time.

And therein lies the trap. There's a proportion of sales staff who think that if you approach them decently that you're a sucker and they'll waste *your* time. I've experienced a full spectrum of rudeness, bullsh*tting, ritual play acting, and brazen lies on the majority of occasions I have entered a car dealership over the years. As a result I generally don't like visiting car showrooms.

Our current two cars were bought as <1 year old used MBs and the sales experience on both was simply excellent. If the same staff were there I would definitely see them again before making any final purchase decision. The whole experience of the first purchase led to the second.

But. Those staff seem to have moved on. My wife went to talk about replacing her car and was treated like a timewaster once she actually got to speak to somebody. It says something about the culture within the industry that a sales person can leave a customer not just disappointed but frustrated and offended.

 

[davidjpowell]

Estate agents, bmw, audi, mb dealership sales people, hotel receptionists virtually interchangable.
Speaking of estate agents, in my town a large ex nightclub/hotel is up for sale for development subject to planning, I got the details and thought I might be able to convert it into 4 flats, keep one myself and sell or rent the others, so I arranged a viewing and asked that the agent bought all the info about the property with them.
The appointed day arrived, so did I, the agent turned up late, well they would wouldn't they! No additional info so there was no floor plan.
Having had a good look around I advised the agent the property might be suitable for my purposes and that provided the vendor was willing to negotiate I was definitely interested. I was informed the property had been on the market for a while and the vendor was now desperate for a sale. The agent promised to speak to the vendor and elicit the aforementioned floorplan.
Three days later the agent phoned me back to say there was no floor plan, but was I still interested?
"I would be if there was a floor plan" "oh ok" was the response.
3 months later the building is still on the market and the asking price has dropped twice.
Is it me?

Sadly not unusual. I carry out a lot of acquisition and agents find it pretty much impossilble to follow a simple requirements sheet.

When we bought the Espace I went into my local dealer who kept me hanging around for an hour while they tried to underwrite the p/x on a Sunday. Promised to ring me back on the Monday, but never did. I bought another car in the meantime and quite enjoyed tellling the customer survey person that I had bought a car thankyou.