another car salesman tale
Salesman number one couldn't be more helpful ..yes you can have the car in grey on that date for a reasonable price and while you're here I'll value your old car and offer you a fair price.
Being sensible I thought I should compare with other dealers just to make sure the deal was actually good and I wasn't just being overwhelmed with shininess in the showroom.
I spoke to a nice chap at another dealership who said come on over and we'll have a chat.

When I arrived the same chap greeted me but was rudely interrupted by a fairly elderly chap who took charge (first bloke looked quite annoyed about this). He seemed to be offended from the off that I possibly wanted to buy a car from him and seemed to be of the viewpoint that surely my husband should be handling this (this was suggested during his attempts at pleasantries)and he continued to talk to me as if to a small child.
Anyway I explain what I'm after he appeared to listen.

No you can only have the car in red at the full list price and you can't have it for at least another 5 weeks as the French are on holiday. I had to point out that the car is made in Eastern Europe so no idea why French holidays had any bearing on it. He ignored this comment and went off to check on the valuation that had been going on while this stunning non sales pitch was happening and he came back with an offer £500 less than the other dealer and a look that suggested I'd darkened his door even driving onto his forecourt with it!

I politely (yes really) bade him farewell and I went back to the first dealer (via a Toyota dealer who tried to tell me that Aygos are made on the special Toyota production line which was at least funny rather than offensive)
(cmouse is pondering about life in other jobs, Wed 18 Apr 2012, 13:52, 1 reply)

I bought a car a few months ago, and had a similarly infuriating experience.
The salesman was OK, but as I was hammering the living daylights out of him on prices etc, he had to keep referring to his boss.

He would nip off to the back of the dealership, disappear for a few minutes, come back and say 'Sorry, my boss says no'.

Every single time. Metallic paint thrown in? No. Servicing? No. Can you do better on the tradein? No.

Can I talk to your boss? No. He won't come out here.

OK, well we'll think about it and get back to you.

We bought the same car from another dealer, and got at least some of the stuff I was trying to negotiate. The original dealers called us a week later to ask why I hadn't got back to them. Satisfying . . .
(username failed moderation, Wed 18 Apr 2012, 14:33, closed)