Disappointing Dealer

[wdoyle9752]

I live in the Orlando area and have visited my local Infiniti dealer twice, both times no one talked to me.

I'm 20 (I look about 25, or so people say) make pretty decent money in customer care outsourcing business, and go to school full time. My time is pretty valuble.

Visited a week ago in my 2000 Frontier, look at all 11 of their G35's, spent about 15-20min doing so and no one came out to greet me. I left. I wrote an email, GM appoligized, said they don't act like vultures.

My reponse is there is a clear difference between meeting and greeting a customer, and having a sales guy come up say "What would it take to get you in this car today"? (BTW...BMW dealer sends out a little runner to ask if you need help...and I get a letter thanking me for my vists a week or two later)

He still wants to have me drive the car. So I return in the 5 speed manual Lexus SC300 (I'm mentioning cars, cause they probably don't want to waste their time with a geo, sadly). Again no one comes out to talk to me (after the GM said he would speak with his staff about my complaint). So I left.

No more writing emails. I'm not sure how they can afford not to sell cars (good 10 or so G35's on the lot). My family has had bad experiences with the dealer in the past when trying to buy cars.

I'll definitely be waiting for G35c later this year, and make my way over to Tampa Infiniti.

What do you guys think? Should I have to go find someone to talk to me or what?

Doyle

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Go up and ask. It seems that you are trying to make a big deal out of nothing.

If you asked and then they did not help you would have something to complain about. Just go in and ask.

The GM is proably right they don't run after every customer that walks thru the lot.

Walk into the showroom and say let me drive the G35 !!!

[FanaticZ]

actually when i was at the nissan dealer a year ago to get some service a salesman immediately came out and started the whole car talk, i wasn't even looking for a car. i'd rather roam the lot alone first, look at what i like and then go inside to get some attention instead.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I agree with the previous two guys, but have certainly been in the same boat as you.

Since you are young, I will give you some advice that will help you alot in life:
"IF YOU WANT SOMETHING BE PREPARED TO ASK FOR IT".

PS: This also works well with WOMEN!

[**DONOTDELETE**]

lol unleashell LOL

Yeah I don't see what the problem is; overaggressive dealers are not my cup of tea; I'd be happy with what yours did; and when I needed help I would have gone and looked for it.

[wdoyle9752]

You guys are right, I'm just used to being attacked I guess. Just had better experiences at Lexus and BMW....

[ 04-02-2002, 09:16 AM: Message edited by: wdoyle9752 ]

[CharlieDigital]

My experience was like yours doyle, except I even made an appointment to be in on a certain day at a certain time. I showed up at the dealer in my Maxima with two coworkers and no one said a word to me!

But that was good since I was too busy drooling all over this car and looking like a fool taking tons of pictures with my digital camera images/icons/grin.gif

When I was ready to drive, I simply asked the receptionist if my contact was available and she kindly asked me to wait a couple minutes while she called him up. Once he showed up, he simply asked me for my liscense to copy, and grabbed a pair of keys images/icons/shocked.gif . The dealer gets major respect for that. I like the fact that I didn't get any BS and that I was given the time to look at and study the car itself without hassle.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

In all of my test drives (dozen or so in the last year) only one dealership didn't at least greet me and after waiting for about 10 minutes by the car and even walking slowly back to my car no one came. So finally I went inside and I had to bother a guy there at his desk since everyone else was wandering around. After he spent about 15 more minutes getting info about me, he finally took me out to the Passat and 300M and gave me the tour of the vehicles before letting me drive them. Because of the dealership's location and loss of time the the salesman spent gabbing, I wasn't able to take the cars out to a highway or interstate, so I didn't get a real good test drive. Even though I liked both cars, I would have a hard time ever buying anything from this dealership in how inattentive and wasteful of my time they were. There should always be someone there to greet a customer at least within 5 minutes, and then be willing to the leave the customer alone if they are just looking around.

[Jason B]

This has been moved to the: Nissan and Infiniti Dealer Experiences forum.

____________
2002 Q45 with tint - more mods to come: http://get.to/q45

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Originally posted by OKMikeG35:
I guess I would hate to be a salesman... You need to be part mind reader. I guess I have been lucky that the dealerships in Tulsa (Audi/BMW/Infiniti/Lexus) are not REAL agressive. They usually come up and ask they can help, if you say you are just looking they say they will be around if you have any questions and move back. The Infiniti sales staff are a friendly group and remember your first name weeks after the sale (even the sales manager).

In my case the dealership was a significant part of the decision to buy the G35.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial[/img]Did you get your G35 at Jackie Cooper? They were really cool to me when I was looking for a car last year.

[dmmattix]

I guess I would hate to be a salesman... You need to be part mind reader. I guess I have been lucky that the dealerships in Tulsa (Audi/BMW/Infiniti/Lexus) are not REAL agressive. They usually come up and ask they can help, if you say you are just looking they say they will be around if you have any questions and move back. The Infiniti sales staff are a friendly group and remember your first name weeks after the sale (even the sales manager).

In my case the dealership was a significant part of the decision to buy the G35.

[shmivel]

unleashell, with regard to your comparison of cars and women, this is really an unfair assessment as one is much more complicated than the other. When I put my car in the garage, I just close the door. No muss, no fuss. No "car-in-law".

[**DONOTDELETE**]

For the most part my experiences have been very good. Good service and prompt attention...but here are some good stories
Dropped in to the Nissan dealer after narrowing my search down to a Sentra SE sport package.
Salesman took me out to show me one on the lot ...river blue...(the last one on the lot with the sport package) and said that it was sold but if one came in he'd let me know and I could TD it.
So I got a call a week later, salesman said one came in. I show up and he takes me out to the back lot...low and behold there is the same river blue SE. I said "oh thats the one that is sold"
He said "no it just came in"
"but its the same one, color, and parking spot."
he checked and said "oh yeah the deal fell through so its avail."
I said "Ok let me TD it"
"can't the keys don't work in it"
"huh?"
"The chip is bad and it won't start"
"well try it any ways"
So he gets in and turns the key
"see..nothing, we'll get it fixed but right now it won't run"
I look over and say "how 'bout pushing in the clutch next time you try it" images/icons/rolleyes.gif
He through me the keys at that point, smiled and said let me know how the drives goes. (thrashed the car a bit after that..more fun to TD without the salesman present..they always squeal when you induce a four wheel drift images/icons/grin.gif )

Second story
Went to a Ford dealer...looking for a cheap used car for a buddy....used car salesman actually approched us and used the line "what can I do to put you in a car today?"
I asked him if he just graduated salesmans class that morning images/icons/grin.gif
Asked if he had any Focus's..he said yes 20 or so...asked to see one in a 5 speed...he said they didn't have any only autos images/icons/confused.gif
Showed us a used 97 Probe...told us how it was a much sought after car and that it couldn't be dealt...price was firm. No Deals, no $ knocked off.
So I pointed out the after market crossdrilled brakes and asked if a factory technician installed them, or the owner and his buddies while splitting a 2-4 (US translation...case of beer) on the weekend.
He knocked $500 off
I pointed out the small dent above the drivers door.
He knocked off a couple of hundred more
My buddy pointed out the spot of rust on the trunk..another couple hundred down.
My buddy **********ed about the s****y set of Goodyears on it... more $ off
Soon we had him down $2000 on a car that couldn't be 'dealt'
At that point he should have left us be...but he had to push the car a bit more and tell us that the car was popular because it handled so well.
I walked up to it and pushed down on the front quarter panel above the wheel...got the car rocking so much, it'd make a Navy Chief blow chunks...went back to my Sentra with the stage II suspension package...wouldn't budge...offered to take him for a ride in my car...not only did he not take my kind offer but he sulked all the way back to the sales office and sat pouting out the window at us as we poked around the lot finally free to look about in peace images/icons/grin.gif
Pat

[Mark F]

Originally posted by Silver SR20DE:

Second story
Went to a Ford dealer...looking for a cheap used car for a buddy....used car salesman actually approched us and used the line "what can I do to put you in a car today?"
I asked him if he just graduated salesmans class that morning images/icons/grin.gif

Asked if he had any Focus's..he said yes 20 or so...asked to see one in a 5 speed...he said they didn't have any only autos images/icons/confused.gif
Showed us a used 97 Probe...told us how it was a much sought after car and that it couldn't be dealt...price was firm. No Deals, no $ knocked off.

Pat<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial[/img]If your salesperson used a line like ""what can I do to put you in a car today?",trust me, he's never had any sales training. The way he kept knocking dollars off the price instead of trying to build value in the car merely confirms my original impression.

I can believe he wouldn't have a used 5-speed Focus though. The vast majority of Foci on the used market would be program cars that invariably have automatics. As for the 97' Probe being a highly sought after car that he can't make any deals on, that's just funny!

[Mark F]

Originally posted by C-Digs:
My experience was like yours doyle, except I even made an appointment to be in on a certain day at a certain time. I showed up at the dealer in my Maxima with two coworkers and no one said a word to me!

But that was good since I was too busy drooling all over this car and looking like a fool taking tons of pictures with my digital camera images/icons/grin.gif

When I was ready to drive, I simply asked the receptionist if my contact was available and she kindly asked me to wait a couple minutes while she called him up. Once he showed up, he simply asked me for my liscense to copy, and grabbed a pair of keys images/icons/shocked.gif . The dealer gets major respect for that. I like the fact that I didn't get any BS and that I was given the time to look at and study the car itself without hassle.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial[/img]I see young guys (expecially when they are travelling in groups) get ignored on my lot all the time. Car salespeople can be just as lazy as anyone and its easy to pre-qualify someone and blow them off. Personally, I love these kinds of ups. It takes about 2 minutes to figure out if they are just killing time, out looking for a free joyride or really want to buy a car. It takes about another 2 minutes to figure out if they can actually buy a car (more often than not the answer is no but then, sometimes it is yes). Not a bad investment for 5 minutes of my time.

Really the best way to go though is to call the dealership in advance, set up an appointment with the salesperson you talk with - unless s/he is a jerk, then call back and find someone else - for a time when its not really busy, like a weekday afternoon - not a Saturday. Then show up and go for a drive, but make sure you ask for the salesperson you talked to on the phone.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

It is a fine line between ignoring, and being overly aggressive. I liked the dealers who would hang back a bit, not pressure, just nice and calm.
Generally they seem more aggressive selling when selling a price, and calmer when selling a product.
When I was shopping I made it clear I wasn't buying today or this week, but "In 3 months, I want my car 2nd week of April (It was Jan)". This caused the most aggressive salesman to almost walk away.

Price and stuff, http://carbuyingtips.com, gave me a few ideas, and savings stuff. Just don't be a jerk, their time is worth money too. However a new car is a really large purchase, they should always give you the respect you deserve (yes it is $500 to him, but it is $20k to me)

[Mark F]

Originally posted by Matt - SentraGXE:


Price and stuff, http://carbuyingtips.com, gave me a few ideas, and savings stuff. Just don't be a jerk, their time is worth money too. However a new car is a really large purchase, they should always give you the respect you deserve (yes it is $500 to him, but it is $20k to me)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial[/img]To be accurate, unless your paying sticker, it's $100 to him/her and $20k to you.

Another point of interest to all from someone who lives this everyday; I personally don't mind "shoppers" - when it's slow. If it's a Saturday and we've got twice as many customers as sales people than the last thing I want to do is spend so much as a nanosecond with someone who's "buying in 3 months". To a salesperson that translates directly to "I'm never going to see you again". Why? Because the odds of you coming back and asking for the same person you dealt with 3 months ago are about a zillion to one. It's just so rare its not even worth considering. In my year in the business I can think of 1 person that came back months later and asked for me.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Originally posted by wdoyle9752:
I live in the Orlando area and have visited my local Infiniti dealer twice, both times no one talked to me.

I'm 20 (I look about 25, or so people say) make pretty decent money in customer care outsourcing business, and go to school full time. My time is pretty valuble.

Visited a week ago in my 2000 Frontier, look at all 11 of their G35's, spent about 15-20min doing so and no one came out to greet me. I left. I wrote an email, GM appoligized, said they don't act like vultures.

My reponse is there is a clear difference between meeting and greeting a customer, and having a sales guy come up say "What would it take to get you in this car today"? (BTW...BMW dealer sends out a little runner to ask if you need help...and I get a letter thanking me for my vists a week or two later)

He still wants to have me drive the car. So I return in the 5 speed manual Lexus SC300 (I'm mentioning cars, cause they probably don't want to waste their time with a geo, sadly). Again no one comes out to talk to me (after the GM said he would speak with his staff about my complaint). So I left.

No more writing emails. I'm not sure how they can afford not to sell cars (good 10 or so G35's on the lot). My family has had bad experiences with the dealer in the past when trying to buy cars.

I'll definitely be waiting for G35c later this year, and make my way over to Tampa Infiniti.

What do you guys think? Should I have to go find someone to talk to me or what?

Doyle<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial[/img]Just go up to them and ask. That isn't so hard.

[tlvoigt]

Try Infiniti of Melbourne. 901 S. Apollo Blvd. They are really good on customer service and, if you persevere, on price. (Don't pay for advertising, ad min costs, etc. and be firm about it.) I just picked up my G35 and am well pleased. My salesman was a fellow named Allen Bobst. Good Luck!

[Pathy]

Originally posted by wdoyle9752:
So I return in the 5 speed manual Lexus SC300<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial[/img]cool! when did lexus start to make or ever make SC300's? i know of SC400's, IS300's, SC430's.. hmm.. maybe a difference in Canada and the US?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I see Lexus SC300's every day. What island have you been living on?