Experience with Internet Sales Managers

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This is quite an amazing story. I've never heard of a salesman getting mad at a customer request for a lower price and walking away. I had posted a bad experience few weeks ago where one salesman promised me a good price and then, just as I was about to sign the check, the "finance manager" came over to tell me that the dealership could not sell me the car for that low a price - but this is the normal bait and switch. Your story is a bit weird.

Did anything else happen that might have made the dealer change his mind? For example, did you tell him you would pay cash when he might have been expecting you to finance through him which would have been an opportunity to make more money? Or, was a used car involved in any way?

But to your other question - I would not be at all surprised if the price given over the Inet or the phone IS the dealer's lowest and best price. After all, they know you are shopping around and would be at a disadvantage of they gave you anything other than their best price.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

I had told them from the beginning I would be paying cash. There was no trade-in at all. I was just shocked how this played out and never expected it.

just buy a used car next time if you are paying cash

I had wonderful experience buying a new car (Honda Accord) through

I think your problem: you yourself are a sleazy guy like a traditional car saleman. On carsdirect.com I chose the car and the options...price was listed right away. When picking the car at a dealer I test-drove it and then signed the paperwork with their fleet manager (who didn't engage in any sleazy behavior with me, because he isn't a regular car salesman). It turned out I was charged for the insurance in case of an accident where my car would be totaled and auto-insurance would cover less than the full cost of the new car...I declined that kind of coverage when signing the paperwork...a few weeks later I received a check from carsdirect.com with refund for that coverage I had declined.

Boris

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We recently went into our local Subaru dealer and, after agreeing on a price, for a new Forester I gave him my Visa card. He asked was this for the down payment and I said, "No, for the entire price." He (the salesman) ran to get his manager who told me I couldn't put a car on my credit card, like this was the first time that someone had done this. I told him that: a) my credit limit was plenty high enough to handle it and b) that they had never said a word about the money I had been paying them, on my credit card, to service my 2002 Forester.

I told him that I would take my busines to one of the other local dealers accross the river. He then relented and took my card which bought me one hell of a lot of points and a brand new Forester.

Next, I', going to try buying a house with my American Express card.

I like that idea. Actually me and my finacee had discussed using a credit card. She has a Discover for 1% cashback and a American express. It's amazing what she has been able to pay for with it. We pay it off monthly but the cashback is great. I just had the idea they'd never allow you to do that but after you're post I'm going to ask!

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I had a motorcycle dealer get quite upset at giving the credit card company a cut of a purchase on a motorcycle. They don't plan ahead on giving the credit card company 1%-4% of the profit with American Express being at the higher end of that range.

Blair

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I wanted to do the same thing with my Chase Subaru MC card (for the Subaru 'bucks') but they wouldn't put more that 1/4 thr price - I guess they were concerned about a charge back or something. After I discovered there was an limit to the 'rate' of points earning, I just charged enough to get the max 'bucks'.

good for you sticking to your guns though!

Carl

And I would have told you the same thing and stuck to my guns. By the time you got through "dealing", the dealership, if lucky, would be making a thousand bucks on the deal. To shell out $500 of that to a credit card company is a sure way to go out of business. THe fortunate thing is that there are very few of you with a credit card limit that high.

I've had people come in and tell me to my face that they wanted one discount or the other and that "Joe just down the street gave me that discount right up to the day he went out of business".

Capiche?

Jim

And you don't for the instantaneous second, think that those of us who take Discover and Amex don't raise our prices 1.5% for your 1% discount? What sort of fools do you think you are dealing with?

Jim

Jim, I think that anyone who didn't adjust their prices to take care of the MC/Visa/Amex/etc fees is a fool. But if two people come in to your store to buy the same item and one pays cash and the other puts it on plastic are you going to give a "rebate" to the cash buyer? Hell, NO!!! Those fees are part of the cost of doing business.

An aside. I had to mail a letter this morn>And you don't for the instantaneous second, think that those of us who take

You bet your sweet ass we do. We can't "ding" the credit card holder (against their policy) but they don't have a problem with rebates for cash or check.

Only because the federal government could put Visa out of business tomorrow if it felt like it does Visa not charge the USPO or other government agencies a fee. Call it a payoff if you like. Call it protection money if you like. Call it the golden rule (he who has the gold makes the rules) if you like. Us peons don't have that clout, so we get charged.

Jim

I'm involved with several retail businesses that offer discounts to cash (or check) customers.

My fuel oil guy, and many of the FBO's I buy avgas from also offer a posted cash discount.

The Toyota dealership that sold my '05 Tacoma's sales paperwork states "stated price reflects discount for cash or certified check". So, in other words, you're not paying more for using a credit card, the price was pre-discounted assuming a cash instrument was involved. This gives the dealership the option of voiding the deal, charging more, or eating the fees.

Mark W (removeNoSpam) wrote: (snip)

We did our shopping online for our new Forester. I got quotes from all of the Internet Sales Managers in the area who had the car we wanted in stock. No, I didn't assume that the price quoted was the lowest they would go and when we went to the dealer to buy, we showed him the other quotes and asked him how close he could come to the lowest one we'd gotten (he was within a few hundred dollars anyway and we went to him because he was the only one who had the color we wanted with the options we wanted). He did come down, although he asked to make copies of the emails I had from other dealers so he could "justify the lower price to the general manager."

But I also think the Internet sales managers do *hope* that you are just going to come in and write a check, and they assume you have already been shopping around. All of them offered a test drive, however, and even with the car we bought, although we had already done test drives at other dealers and didn't ask for a test drive, the car was sitting out front waiting for us to test drive when we got there.

I think this particular Internet sales manager was very unprofessional in having a temper tantrum like that, but you did the right thing to walk out because the dealer now called you to accept your offer. I'd just chalk it up to another strange car buying experience and figure that since you are getting what you wanted, you won whatever game they were playing.

-yngver

Well the saga continues... As I mentioned when I talked to the dealer they told me they would be emailing me a rundown of pricing that day. This is what the manager told me. He kind of jumped in to call me on the phone to be the savior, understanding about my bad experience telling me he would help me, would meet the price I named, and I could come in that day. Of course after I went in and was treated like that I wasn't going to go in again until I had everything in writing. I told him I could make it Monday at the earliest. Then Monday came and still no emails. Finallly around 6PM I called him and was shocked. First, he claimed he had emailed me at both of my emails I gave them but I never received it. Second, he basically told me that they have chosen not to sell me the Forester. He said even at the price the salesman originally quoted me he was losing $500 and at this new price he would be losing close to $1500. He said the salesman made some errors in his math, that he for example gave a higher customer rebate than Subaru is giving. Then he followed it up with saying that he has no hard feelings (I don't know why he would. I would be the one having hard feelings). Then he follows it up with saying when I buy a Forester I hope to bring it in for service at his dealer. Now why woudl I do that after how I was treated? Well one of my original questions on here was if people thought this was all a game or he was really jumping in to help. Well now I know it is all a game. I think he knew what went on Friday but it was a game. I do think he called with the salesman next to me that i dealt with. That BS about him asking if I had been in yet, wanting to follow up, etc. was all BS. He just wanted to play savior and then offered me what i asked for to get me in there. I can guarantee if I had ran in there Friday I would have gone in and quickly see that deal fall apart. He woudl have had reasons it wouldn't work or add all these fees to it to get me to buy it figuring I would since I had gone in there like that. Well I wouldn't have and would have walked off after having this happen a second time. I have to admit this made me far more upset than the first incident. Maybe he figured I'd come in later on the weekend or even Monday since I had told him I would. The point, I had some extra appointments at work and I didn't finish up until 6PM and expected to go in today, Tuesday. Now I even wonder though what the original deal was like. He did quote me lower than any internet quotes I had at the time, saying it was the out of the door price. I wonder if this was true and if he had a lot of fees to add. Like they say if it looks too good to be true it probably is. As well, I wonder if he just figured he can beat all internet quotes just to get people in the door. One thing as well I know if people are fast talkers, ready to get you in without looking, sign on the dotted line, etc. often something is wrong with the deal and this is how he acted. Of course he did say at the end he will still sell it to me at the cost the salesman originally told me. I had already gone to another dealer after it fell apart Friday. He did finally tell me he would sell to me at the cost that the dealer quoted to me (the one the manager later said he'd take) if I have the quote in writing which I don't. Either way I plan to go back to the newer dealer today but I'm wondering how I shoudl handle what happened. To me he has crossed the line. I am wondering if I shoudl find out if there is any manager at the dealer above him or even if I should go to Subaru and contact them. Like I said I know how it is with pricing on cars and dealing iwth some salespeople but to me with the manager acting this way it went way too far. Any advice on how I shoudl handle this?

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Why are you going back after the way they have acted?

BTW - can you tell us where this dealer is located without revealing the actual dealership? This sounds too much like the dealer I was working with in the Albany/Schenectady/Troy, NY area.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

Actually the only reason I was is he was the lowest price but i agree with you. I am better off dealing elsewhere. At this point I honestly don't want to deal with him anymore and just want someone at Subaru to know.I am sure I'll do far better elsewhere. I was careful about revealing too many details for reasons of slander, etc. I can say though the place is in the Western Half of the US

If you complain to Subaru, what are you going to say? That the dealer promised you a lower price and then reneged? I imagine you are right, that the dealer was just trying to get you to come back in, but I'm not sure what the manager's game is in terms of later telling you he won't sell the Forester to you. I agree, I wouldn't go back to that dealer under any circumstances.

It isn't always about the lowest price. A few years ago when I bought my Honda, we didn't go with the dealer who gave the lowest quote because we were both pretty sure he was lowballing. It was just too out of line with the quotes everyone else gave. And I'd already heard a couple of stories of that dealer doing a bait and switch. It can be worth a few hundred dollars not to waste your time with a dealer who will say anything just to get you to come in to the dealership.

-yngver

Any advice on how I shoudl handle this?

Walk away.

Why continue to stress yourself ?

You don't need A..holes like that in your life.