Why do MB salesman make it difficult to buy from them?

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A couple of years ago I was looking for a second hand C Class estate. I had a TVR Tuscan to p/x. The Plymouth MB dealer wanted to know if it was auto and diesel. Made me wonder if he knew anything about his own products.
 
MB of Giffnock, Glasgow have been superb so far - looking forward to collection day !
 
ming said:
A couple of years ago I was looking for a second hand C Class estate. I had a TVR Tuscan to p/x. The Plymouth MB dealer wanted to know if it was auto and diesel. Made me wonder if he knew anything about his own products.

They've got standard questions to ask. The chap probably didn't know anything about cars and being confronted with something more esoteric for PX would have thrown him.

A more experienced staff member or someone who was a car fella would have been more suitable for you to deal with as he'd have been able to know the answers without asking you.

I find it odd how a car dealer couldn't recruit a salesman who was actively interested in cars.

I tried getting a job in car sales, got nowhere.
 
Interesting. I worked in car sales for over 20 years and even in the most intense training courses (Ford were the best) they rarely covered details on cars outside of their own or nearest rival's ranges.

But, at all the dealerships I worked, most of my colleagues were "into" cars and found out as much as possible for themselves. This clearly isn't the case these days!!! :D
 
in my experience most middle to high end marques have really crap salesmen. All squeaky shoes, shiny suits, electroplated tie pins with arrogance and rudeness in ambundance

It it a cut throat market, why dont the sales managers hire people that have a good manner about them, they would sell more cars

Have been in many MB, BMW and Audi showrooms over the yrs and bought about 8 news cars over past 15 yrs. Each time the salesperson is offish, disinterested and rude. This is not just to me but to other customers too. Was having my merc serviced at chichester the other week, this old man came in, obviously had a bit of money and was enquiring about buying a new £30k car. The dealer made him wait when he went off to answer his mobile, didnt offer him a drink or anywhere to sit down and was blantantly abrupt with him. Needless to say the old chap in question didnt buy. I thought through their rudeness they lost a sale.
 
MB Norwich, part of Robinsons Motor Group. Highly recommend speaking to Martin Cooke.

Have had two new C Class from them and was confident and trusting enough in his abilities I bought the second one without a viewing or test drive all over the phone.

Really worked hard to get me in the car I wanted at the price I wanted to pay.
 
Excellent customer focus from Brooklands, both Used Sales (I'm very happy with the P/Ex I did via a 500 mile round trip to them) and New (were very responsive to enquiries about potential deal). It probably helped, in both cases, that I'd already identified exactly what I wanted and was ready to put a deposit down right away.

Preston Used Sales were keen to offer test drives and kept coming back with improved deals. New Sales were OK- courteous and responsive, but not exactly pushing for a deal.

Worst sales service I've experienced in recent years was at a VW dealership- they were how I expected MB would be (which thankfully, MB weren't) .
 
JohnDeere my wife and I went into MB Chichester last year actually planning to buy the new A Class.
They couldnt have been less interested and despite leaving our details we never heard from them. All they wanted to do was shoo me away from the convertible E Class I was looking at. The salesman locked it after I got out of it.
Needless to say we bought an A Class elsewhere and I bought an SL elsewhere.
 
By the way JD my 2 experiences of MB Chichester " servicing" has been dire and they appear to invent faults that despite not being rectified they dont spot on a subsequent visit. One of their receptionists could earn a gold medal for rudeness and nothing would persuade me to use them.
 
Some years ago my wife and I walked into a main Fiat dealership (part of the Desire group) to enquire about about a new Multipla. The salesperson didn't know the answers to our questions, took our telephone number and said he'll find out and call us back. He never did. When we called the dealership asking for him by name, they said that he no longer worked for them. There was no interest in finding out why we were looking for him or if someone else could assist. We bought a Renault.
 
That wouldn't happen to be the old FIAT place at Hayes Bridge would it? I had a similar experience there in the early 90s.... :D
 
That wouldn't happen to be the old FIAT place at Hayes Bridge would it? I had a similar experience there in the early 90s.... :D


Nope - it was North-Finchley-something.
 
Some years ago my wife and I walked into a main Fiat dealership (part of the Desire group) to enquire about about a new Multipla. The salesperson didn't know the answers to our questions, took our telephone number and said he'll find out and call us back. He never did. When we called the dealership asking for him by name, they said that he no longer worked for them. There was no interest in finding out why we were looking for him or if someone else could assist. We bought a Renault.

That is probably because the sales-person was the most intelligent person you have ever met.

He knew, and I mean 'really knew', that the Fiat Multipla was an absolute crock'o'shyte and you were of an intelligence level above that of an amoeba.

There was no way that he could lower himself to allow you and your family the grief of owning the motoring equivalent of genital herpes.

He did you a favour.
 
BOSTON MERCEDES - ASK FOR ANDY.. SALES MANAGER.. HE WILL ASSIST..

HE WILL REMEMBER ME REGARDING MY W212 SALOON I COLLECTED FROM THEM ON XMAS EVE 2010.

01205 360200 - Andy Worsley

GOOD LUCK

DILLAN

This lot were the original supplying & servicing dealers of what is now my E-class estate. I called them to check the history when I was buying it and they were very helpful when there was clearly nothing in it for them.

The engine bay has a service plaque signed by whoever last carried out the service - never seen this before and thought it showed an element of care and pride in their work too.
 
Took an impromptu trip down to MB Salisbury this morning to take a look at the Graphite SLK they have advertised on their website (following a tip-off from ). Spoke to a salesman there and he could not have been more helpful, even though I made it clear from the outset that I'd already placed an order elsewhere and was simply interested in seeing what the colour looked like in context.

At first he thought I was talking about a Graphite car they'd just sold, but when I mentioned it was still on their website he realised it was one that hadn't actually come in yet. I had a feeling this might have been the case as it was shown as "awaiting image". However, he said was quite familiar with the colour as they make a point of ordering in cars with various designo options, and took me round their used stock point out how Graphite varied from other greys they had.

We ended up looking at two cars parked side by side, one Tenorite, the other Palladium, and he was able to tell me that in terms of shade, Graphite was about 60-65% towards Palladium, so somewhat lighter than I had imagined. He also said it had a subtle green tinge to it, which was also news to me. And that might have been that.

But no, he then invited me back into the showroom for a coffee, and proceeded to hunt down images of Graphite cars to demonstrate further how it compared to Tenorite. We also got to talking about the designo interior options, and the old nappa/Artico quandry. (He agreed that the Sand did seem to be a very good pairing with Tenorite, though.) Why, he even apologised for the fact that I'd had a 'wasted' journey, even though I made the trip entirely on spec.

All in all, he spent about 45 minutes with me, knowing all along that he would not get a sale out of it. Having said that, if I'd been looking for a dealership with whom to do business, they'd have stood very good chance on this showing. Before I left, he asked for my contact details and offered to send me photos of the Graphite SLK when it came in - and I fully expect he will do just that. He even showed an interest in seeing my current SLK when I was leaving, and walked out to it with me to bid me goodbye.

OK, so maybe things were a little slow customer-wise this morning, and I obviously wouldn't have taken up so much of his time if he'd had customers waiting, but the point is he took the time to treat me as a human being, and not as the source of his next bonus payment. That, I feel, is highly commendable.
 
Went to MB Newbury (think its a Sytner dealersship), test drove the car - sales assistant was a pretty young girl who was really nice. Back at the dealership she handed over to a real ar$e whose job I guess was to close the deal. Anyhow, he didn't appear to want me to buy the car, so I didn't. Went to MB Basingstoke (Tony Purslow) who were excellent and bought from them instead.
 
This lot were the original supplying & servicing dealers of what is now my E-class estate. I called them to check the history when I was buying it and they were very helpful when there was clearly nothing in it for them.

The engine bay has a service plaque signed by whoever last carried out the service - never seen this before and thought it showed an element of care and pride in their work too.

I've always had fantastic service from Boston , Carl is a great service manager and always goes the extra mile .
 
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