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, Reply)