Salesperson has to drive off the lot?

[coaster.n3rd]

Originally Posted by espo19047

Playing the misic full blast while the guy sits back there is rude.

Talking about your wifes breast in this forum is a little bit immature. You also come off as a condescending type. You said you would hire him if he got fired? Is that supposed to impress someone?.
I'm sure the sales guy would have liked to let you drive by yourself but it is the policy of his dealership. I do not agree with some of my requirements as a salesman but I do what I have to. I sold 209 Chevys last year and never had a guy need a test drive for an hour. I sold ZO6s that weren't even drivin. bottom line is you had no respect for the salesman after a few minutes I think you figured out how uncomfortable he was yet you continued...
I stand by my earlier statement you need to grow up.

This is all well & good and I understand your empathy for the salesman. however, and this is coming from a salesman who has been in this situation, the customer is always right and can do what he/she wants provided it is within the limits of the law.

[espo19047]

Originally Posted by coaster.n3rd

This is all well & good and I understand your empathy for the salesman. however, and this is coming from a salesman who has been in this situation, the customer is always right and can do what he/she wants provided it is within the limits of the law.

The customer can play the radio as loud as he wants. It is still rude and shows a lack of respect. Can he get arrested for not listening to the salesman and entering the highway even after the salesman says no? No he would not but again it is rude. "The customer is always right" is not a free pass to mistreat people.

[t-rex]

espo19047....
Are you genetically unable to discern sarcasm? Or is it merely lack of formal education?

Are you some machine-like deity that can't pick up smartass comments? Or understand a simple bit of subtle humor, such as playing Prokofiev (he's a 20th-century Russian composer) at full blast? Okay, in case you STILL don't get the sarcasm.... you can't "blast" classical music. You can turn the volume up all the way, but you can't "blast" it. Oh forget it...

You're obviously one of these argue for the sake arguing types....

[MalibuMaxxSS]

Originally Posted by t-rex

Make no mistake. I CLEARLY let Steve know that I intended on taking the car (a GMC Acadia) on a thorough test drive. He made no clear objections to the suggestion. Apparently he thought I was joking.

And for all you salesman... If you SERIOUSLY THINK that I'm going to write a cheque for nearly $40 thousand based on a spin around the block, you're completely out of your friggin' minds.

You want to discuss disrespect? Try respect the fact that we're talking a huge sum of money here. I mean enough money to put a kid through college. Enough money to put a substantial downpayment on a house. A year's income for many Americans.

If I'm going to spend a substantial portion of my savings on a non-disposable product that I'll likely keep a decade, you damn right you better be prepared to let me spend at least an hour with the vehicle.

My real estate agent didn't mind an hour to show us our house before we bought it. Our contractor spent the whole day going over renovation plans with us. Our flooring people spent at least an hour with us. The Landscaper.... And you know why? THEY RESPECTED OUR BUSINESS. And we weren't spending $40 grand on flooring or landscaping either...

If you can't take an hour to let a prospective buyer test the car in the environment the car will be used in, or respect the fact that these buyers are making a rather substantial monetary outlay, then you clearly need to rethink who has the "respect" issue here.

If any salesman (or dealership policy, since it's out of the salesman's control) can't respect the needs of the buyer, and the importance of the buyer getting the proper vehicle for their needs, then salesmen deserve the sleazy reputation they have with the buying public.

Don't lecture me on respect...

clearly you are quite an arrogant guy....you think the world revolves around you..did you ever think for one second that after you rat bag the car for a few hours, and dont buy it someone eventually does, so maybe as the DEALER who happens To OWN the vehicle YOUR slap happy bagging around town, maybe they should get a say in how its is drivin....

Tell you what come here I will let you drive our car, and I will take your out for a couple hour spin...get off your rocker dude. things dont work your way, they work ours..the dealer owns the car not you and until you do, drive it accordingly, and how we say, or DONT drive it.

as for the poor steve guy, hopefully next time you get someone who is not a rook and puts you in your place.

[coaster.n3rd]

Originally Posted by MalibuMaxxSS

clearly you are quite an arrogant guy....you think the world revolves around you..did you ever think for one second that after you rat bag the car for a few hours, and dont buy it someone eventually does, so maybe as the DEALER who happens To OWN the vehicle YOUR slap happy bagging around town, maybe they should get a say in how its is drivin....

Tell you what come here I will let you drive our car, and I will take your out for a couple hour spin...get off your rocker dude. things dont work your way, they work ours..the dealer owns the car not you and until you do, drive it accordingly, and how we say, or DONT drive it.

as for the poor steve guy, hopefully next time you get someone who is not a rook and puts you in your place.

Malibu, I disagree quite a bit. First GM builds a quality product. I have no issues with someone putting a car thorugh its paces. Its not like T-Rex ran it at a hundred miles an hour, he didn't squawk the tires at every light, he even put his own gas in it.

The dealer does not own the car, a bank does and there are reasons we have our vehicles insured. If a customer drives 3 miles a day, the take it for a three mile drive, if a customer puts a hundred on a day, then I have to limit the miles, but I want them to drive it how they would, radio up, windows down, roof open etc etc... If we determine the customer broke something by bouncing it through a field, we have police & lawyers to rectify that.

I agree with T-Rex, they are about to spend some serious coin and therefor they get to do what they want within reason. As long as they put bread on my plate and get me back before close so I can get home, I don't care.

We are veterans here right? We can determine the ass thats going to stroke us and the guy thats gonna buy usually within the first 5 minutes. use discretion.

[FILTHYPHIL]

This is a good thread to read. I find it interesting to hear both sides of the story, or at least an opinion or two from a few different perspectives on the same subject. I personally have never test driven a car with the salesman inside... I do not have extensive experience in this field, I have only test driven 12 - 15 cars in my life. Never has the sales guy wanted to drive it off the lot, or even accompany us on our test drive. They did however, almost every time I think "bring the car up front" for us. Anyway... theres my 2 cents....

[N8s07ss]

I test drove 2 Cobalt's before buying mine, and 1 guy just let me take it right off the lot, while the other guy at a diff. dealer (who could barely get it into reverse) said he had to drive it off the lot to a safe parking lot? So I guess it does change from dealer to dealer/salesman to salesman.

[chakis24]

Originally Posted by GMCdriver

I always drove off the lot with a "customer."

The only person who ever got "Keys and a Plate" was someone that I didn't think could afford a car anyways so why waste my time going for a ride and answering all their stupid questions.

If you had a salesman that sat there and chattered the whole time then you had a babysitter and not a car sales professional.

maybe thats why i was thrown the keys when i was 18 and showed up to test drive the used 04 sierra 2500hd 8.1 (at a real snotty bpg dealer).....

thats not a good business tactic, cause i had 25k cash to spend. they didnt treat me very well, and they wouldnt budge one cent on price (they wanted 28), so i took my business elsewhere. you cant judge what a waste of time is just by looking at someone.

...but then i again when i test drove what have now, they said go ahead (this time at a ford/kia dealer that had a gt roped off in the showroom, what an awesome car), this time i had my mom with me though, so maybe that helped. i/we were alone both times, or maybe cause i was buying used both times and they didnt really care. i dunno.

[Family Man]

In my limited car buying experience, I've had just one salesperson allow me to drive a new car alone (well, with my wife). The next three cars that I purchased, the salesman always came along. Of those next three purchases, I probably test drove a dozen vehicles. Every salesman let me drive around where I wanted. I would take it on a good highway run (even had the Aura doing 80mph - oops... I used to be able to tell by the amount of noise from my Venture that I hit highway speeds, but the Aura was so damn quiet, I found it odd that I was flying past cars until I looked at the speedo). A salesman would try to tell me where to drive, but I would let him know that I was headed for a street with lots of bumps to see how much noise the suspension made. Most salesmen who rode with me would keep quiet and let me ask the questions.

No matter whether the car is a $40k Acadia or a $15k Aveo, we're still talking a serious amount of cash, and I feel that the buyer has every right to take the vehicle on a good test run. However, this needs to be balanced withh the requirements of the dealer, and I, for one, would not be happy paying top dollar for a vehicle if it already had 100 miles on it.

I enjoy these threads about the car business. I've learned a lot reading these threads.

[espo19047]

Originally Posted by t-rex

espo19047....
Are you genetically unable to discern sarcasm? Or is it merely lack of formal education?

Or understand a simple bit of subtle humor, such as playing Prokofiev (he's a 20th-century Russian composer) at full blast?



....

I do understand someone who thinks the whole world revolves around him.
You do have some issues. In the past you have bragged about your income. You have posted pictures of your house. If you posted a picture of yourself I expect to see a short guy. You are trying to over compensate for something I just do not know what.

[Buick61]

Originally Posted by espo19047

I do understand someone who thinks the whole world revolves around him.
You do have some issues. In the past you have bragged about your income. You have posted pictures of your house. If you posted a picture of yourself I expect to see a short guy. You are trying to over compensate for something I just do not know what.

Well, he is short. Not Danny DeVito short, but short enough to be noticeable.

[ChebbySalesDept]

Wow! Another heated sales vs. customer thread. Who woulda thunk?

I was trained many years ago and I'm surprised no one brought this up. There is a specific reason that the salesperson drives the car off of the lot. They will tell you it's a policy/insurance issue but the real reason is that most customers DON'T want to test drive the car (New York that is). The salesperson is supposed to take them on a predetermined route. So we put them in the car, put the plate on the back and we (salesperson) drives it away. We drive it far enough away so that we get out of the driver's seat and TELL the customer to drive it back, that's the only way for them to get back to the store, PERIOD!

Now, the fun part. Since when does ANY customer dictate what policy is and how we do things? Some of you guys better get some balls and speak up. I've been selling Chevrolet's since 1985 and I have NEVER gone on a one hour test drive. If the customer wants to see how a vehicle drives for an extended period of time, GO RENT ONE! We also have to accompany EVERY customer on a test drive. Unless we are blood related, we're going with you. If you deal with a professional, he won't be blabbing about everything that means nothing. He is there to defend his product and discuss relevant features and benefits with the customer. Wer'e not taking any chances where the customer goes by himself and speeds, runs a light, hits someone or something, smashes the suspension against the curb, etc. Who's paying that ticket? If the customer starts abusing the vehicle by either BLASTING music and trying to blow the speakers or driving like a maniac, at the next stop light we will turn off the car and then drive them back to the store and say ADIOS, MUCHACHO!

Stop with all of this "the customer is always right" baloney. Who do they think they are? Maybe in your state or dealer, policy says to let customers go by themselves. Fine. But, a one hour test drive? You've got to be kidding.

The bottom line is for salespeople to stop this major sucking up because the customer may walk if they don't get exactly what they want, the way they want it.

What about what YOU want? Have some self respect and take control of your situation and your customer. You'll make much more money in the long run. You'll also weed out the ballbusters. If they're breaking your nuts now, imagine what they're gonna do to your service department.

[MalibuMaxxSS]

Originally Posted by ChebbySalesDept

Wow! Another heated sales vs. customer thread. Who woulda thunk?

I was trained many years ago and I'm surprised no one brought this up. There is a specific reason that the salesperson drives the car off of the lot. They will tell you it's a policy/insurance issue but the real reason is that most customers DON'T want to test drive the car (New York that is). The salesperson is supposed to take them on a predetermined route. So we put them in the car, put the plate on the back and we (salesperson) drives it away. We drive it far enough away so that we get out of the driver's seat and TELL the customer to drive it back, that's the only way for them to get back to the store, PERIOD!

Now, the fun part. Since when does ANY customer dictate what policy is and how we do things? Some of you guys better get some balls and speak up. I've been selling Chevrolet's since 1985 and I have NEVER gone on a one hour test drive. If the customer wants to see how a vehicle drives for an extended period of time, GO RENT ONE! We also have to accompany EVERY customer on a test drive. Unless we are blood related, we're going with you. If you deal with a professional, he won't be blabbing about everything that means nothing. He is there to defend his product and discuss relevant features and benefits with the customer. Wer'e not taking any chances where the customer goes by himself and speeds, runs a light, hits someone or something, smashes the suspension against the curb, etc. Who's paying that ticket? If the customer starts abusing the vehicle by either BLASTING music and trying to blow the speakers or driving like a maniac, at the next stop light we will turn off the car and then drive them back to the store and say ADIOS, MUCHACHO!

Stop with all of this "the customer is always right" baloney. Who do they think they are? Maybe in your state or dealer, policy says to let customers go by themselves. Fine. But, a one hour test drive? You've got to be kidding.

The bottom line is for salespeople to stop this major sucking up because the customer may walk if they don't get exactly what they want, the way they want it.

What about what YOU want? Have some self respect and take control of your situation and your customer. You'll make much more money in the long run. You'll also weed out the ballbusters. If they're breaking your nuts now, imagine what they're gonna do to your service department.

nicely put...kinda what I said but everyone got mad at me....

I like the grow some balls part....

yes it is our workplace, and our rules, not the customers, I dont go to your woprk place demanding things my way or Im gonna act like 5 year old and spin circles on the floor till I get my way.....

anyhow good post once again chebby...

[coaster.n3rd]

Originally Posted by MalibuMaxxSS

nicely put...kinda what I said but everyone got mad at me....

I like the grow some balls part....

yes it is our workplace, and our rules, not the customers, I dont go to your woprk place demanding things my way or Im gonna act like 5 year old and spin circles on the floor till I get my way.....

anyhow good post once again chebby...

HEY! I'm not mad at you. i just disagree. But I disagree with everyone...

Sky is Blue??? Shenanigans!!!!

[DuSpinnst]

Originally Posted by espo19047

The customer can play the radio as loud as he wants. It is still rude and shows a lack of respect. Can he get arrested for not listening to the salesman and entering the highway even after the salesman says no? No he would not but again it is rude. "The customer is always right" is not a free pass to mistreat people.

Those wouldn't be issues if some sales people would choose to not be draconian.

There is doing your job as a sales person and there is being an *******. I can tell the difference and I (like most people) don't deal with *******.

Now granted you put an ******* in the car with me and I will be a bigger *******, but that is my nature. I haven't ever had to do that as only one salesman insisted he had to go with me (it was on a SKY) and he didn't say much while on the ride.