Salesman bulls@#t...??? Are front bumpers cut when removed to install a bull bar?

[Jonesy Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Jonesy]

Sounds like it is a pretty standard thing for Toyota dealers...
A dealership in Grafton decided that the best way for them to treat me as a repeat customer was;
- to not clean all of the rubbish out of the car that was pointed out on the test drive (rubbish was spilt coke in the 3rd row cupholders, spilt coke on several seats, lolly wrappers in EVERY cup holder and ash tray in the car)
- supply only one key and then claim that they had no knowledge of the other two keys and after asking them to see if they could chase up the other keys, they did nothing for a week and then said "oh sorry, no luck" what a surprise...
- leave the headlight protectors that was part of the deal in the spare parts department and not bother fitting them
- and last but certainly not the least, after agreeing on an on-road price they registered the Prado in the dealership name and told me to just pop down to the RTA and get it changed over to my name. Once I pointed out that the RTA would charge me a considerable sum in stamp duty and that they were liable for the stamp duty since we did agree on an on-road price I was told that (after many hours of screwing me around) "since you're a repeat customer we'll pay the stamp duty, however I really don't believe I said it was an on-road price. I'm not calling you a liar but well I didn't say the price was on-road" and then to finish it all up he told me "Thanks for the sale and if any of your friends and family are looking for a Toyota, tell them to come in and see me mate".

Of course there is no chance of me sending anyone his way ever. Toyota's - Great vehicles but f***ing pathetic excuses for dealers...

hmm well that's my rant over for the moment

Jonesy

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

I'm pissed off at the Grafton dealership just for reading that. What a pathetic excuse for customer service. He just had to point out that he was right and you were wrong. If you had an agreed price it would've been in writing.... From him! He would've drawn up his little pyramid of tricky figures on a blank piece of paper to tweak the most money out of you but in the end there would've been a drive-away sales figure for the car including the deduction of the trade in if you had one. So for him to call you a liar is bloody rich. And the car is not actually drive-away when it's registered cheaply & temporarily in their name. What the hell is that all about? I bet they do that to a lot of people who drive a hard bargain to make the deal seem cheaper, but try and force upon you that you have to re-register the vehicle yourself afterwards. And then try and score business from your friends & family.... Ombudsmen would have their hands full with some car dealerships until the dealerships fold and honour their original contracts, not to mention present cars in a state in which they can be handed over to the client. It's a shame dealership sales staff are deceptive.

I had a friend who sold new & used cars for a Mitsubishi dealership to give a new industry a try. The laboured breathing sales manager told him straight up he'd be expected to sell 15 cars a month and if he fell short I then he wasn't trying hard enough. He'd work 6 days a week. Mon-Sat. Mon-Fri 8am-6pm. Sat 8am-2pm. You get Sundays off and one week day off a month (58hr weeks). If he wasn't on track to selling 15 cars a month then he'd better forget about having the week day off once a month. He briefly ran through the phsycological skills he'd be taught to sell vehicles. There's an 8 step system and once he learned them he'd have no problem selling cars. The manager added if he stuck to the system he'd sell cars, and if he didn't stick to the system he wouldn't sell cars and "we'd have a problem." During his first fornight working there he asked the sales manager how he'd go about selling a car to people who were "just looking." The manager smiled, lent forward across his desk and quietly said, "I'll let you in on a little secret. They've already decided they want to buy the car they're looking at whether they'd amit it or not to you or themselves and you can't lose them to the other dozen car yards in town. He said go inside, grab the keys, come back outside and chuck the keys to them and tell them to take it for a drive. Go for a drive a few minutes down the road somewhere quiet and get them to pull over. Get them to pop the bonnet, both of you get out and start running through the cars external features starting with the engine and work your way around the car 360 degrees. Get back in and while driving back go through all the internal features. If you do your job right you'll have him wanting to buy the car off when you pull up in the yard again. You've gone the extra mile to help him out and ultimately he'll want the car, and best of all he'll want to buy it from you because you'll be the best salesman he's ever come across."

That's one of the many stories of this particular dealership. All are very interesting.

One more thing. The retainer was $33,000 per year. $65 commission per vehicle sold. If you sold 10 or more new or 10 or more used cars a month, not a combination of the two, then you earned a small percentage bonus of the total profit margin of the vehicles sold above the 10. Extremely difficult to achieve, but the temptation of making that sales figure was always there. My friend said it was rare when any of the sales guys would even get close to 15 cars a month combined new and used. Their sales manager used to get the sh*ts with them all towards the end of the month and repeatedly tell them they were not trying hard enough to sell cars in a confidence boosting pep talk during the 3rd week of every month.