Stupid car weasels

[judecorp]

I freaking hate car shopping. I like driving the cars, I just hate dealing with the freaking dealer people. This one Toyota dealer has called me every day since Saturday. It's like, okay, what part of "I'll let you know if I decide anything," do you not understand, dude? Thankfully I almost never answer my phone. Argh. It's enough to make me never want to buy a car from them.

On the other hand, the Nissan dude called one time to follow up, and when I told him I would let him know when I was ready, he said okay and has not called back since. Originally I thought he was weaselly but he has proven that he is kind of human. Which is nice.

I really wish someone would just give me a car so I could tell these people to go to hell. Bleh. I so don't have a head for sales. At all. Is it this ridiculous when we buy a house?

Yuck.

Comments

[cappucinogrrl.livejournal.com]

Get a Honda. They are the shit.

And never give your phone number to car dealers.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Well, see, I don't mind a follow-up call. Remember that I'm married to someone who has made quite a bit of money in sales. Salespeople can be people, too! And the way the one dude handled it (called once to check in, I said to wait, he never called back) is totally cool with me. It's the other dude, who called me four days in a row and then started calling Jen, that I have major MAJOR issues with.

I hope he calls again someday, so I can answer and chew him out. :)

p.s. The one Honda we were interested in (the Fit) was only available by pre-order. And I won't order a car I've never seen or driven, you know?

[cappucinogrrl.livejournal.com]

Only one Honda? Oh well. As long as you like the car, I suppose I can forgive you ;-)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Well, only one Honda that we can afford. :)

[skreeky]

> Is it this ridiculous when we buy a house?

Oh. Oh my.

On second thought, methinks I should not answer that question, lest you fling yourself out a window right this minute. There will be no flinging! There will be calm soothing thoughts of little ocean waves and autumnally colored mountain ranges and kittens. Oodles of kittens. And pie. And kittens.

Now then... mmmmm, pie... What was the question?... house what?...

KITTENS DAMMIT!!!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I think I missed anything you may have insinuated because you mentioned PIE. Mmm, pie! I would like some pie. Indeed, it is getting to be MAJOR pie season. Piiiiiiie. And kittens.

I just hate buying things, because I hate weasels. I should simply just by pie from kittens. :)

[buddhafly4224.livejournal.com]

one of the many reasons being a grown up is lame.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Dude, seriously.

Let's go back to college.

[00solstice.livejournal.com]

Back in the day, if you knew what you wanted you could call ask to speak to the fleet manager for a no-hassle process. Then the dealerships caught on and created "internet sales managers", which are nothing but salespeople who have also been given an email account. I could go on and on about the games dealerships try to play...

What's the worst they could do, decide the price you paid was too low and take your car back (http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2738687)?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Holy crap - that article is INSANE! It is even below Ricart in evilness! SCARY!

But yeah - they've certainly taken all the fun out of stuff. Car salespeople can be a lot like doctors. I think they both get a little intimidated when you "know stuff."

[mightywombat.livejournal.com]

You really have to let them know who is in charge, and the one thing that you can threaten them with tht will make them stop and take notice is not buying from them. If he calls again, answer, listen to what he has to say, and tell him, "Yeah, okay. Listen, I told you I'd let you know, and you have all but harrassed me every day since then. If I hear from you again before I've decided and called you back, I will not buy your car. Do you understand?" Then stick with your plan. If the pushy sales guy wants to harrass you, that's his nevermind, but you can refuse to provide him with a commission, and post all about his nasty habits on various consumer sites, and generally make his life more miserable than he's made yours. You are the consumer, and YOU are in charge, not him.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I would totally tell him that no problem. The only problem is that all of the calls have come during business hours, and I rarely get to answer the phone during business hours because I don't answer the phone when I'm with clients. And he hasn't been unfortunate enough to call me in the 10 minute bursts in between when I'm driving from house to house. I hope he does!

But I think he's given up on me. After 4 days of calling, they started calling Jen. But I don't know if they're still doing that. They SUCK.

[mightywombat.livejournal.com]

Yeah they do.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Not you, though. You are awesome. :)

[biophile6.livejournal.com]

i actually made a bold move when talking to the realtor, and he said

no. the money is too large
we have a code of ethics
if you cheat them, they get you somehow.

realtors are better most times

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good to know. I hope the one we choose is as good as yours.

[fatfeistyfemme.livejournal.com]

Car shopping indeed sucks major bung-hole.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Totally.

Except when I was living in Maine. I was met on the lot by a very lovely and nice woman in a sharp skirt suit. We chatted a little bit about the ad I'd seen in the paper, and then she gave me the keys to the car I was interested in and told me to take it home for the weekend! Let me tell you, two days of driving that car instead of my piece of junk jeep and I would have done anything she asked.

[colorbars.livejournal.com]

Your first mistake was giving your phone number. There's only one legitimate reason they want your number and that is to continue the sales pitch later on. My standard response when asked by a salesweasel is "I don't give that out." This usually takes them by surprise, but I almost never get a follow-up. If they persist, you tell them that you know that they're asking so they can telemarket or sell the number and if they want your business they'll take that as the final word.

Since you didn't do that, now you have to do damage control. Mightywombat is right. If the salesdrone calls again tell him that if he doesn't stop harassing you RIGHT NOW you'll make sure you never buy a car there AND that you'll tell everyone you know not to buy a car there because of their sleazy sales tactics.


Now let's deal with alternatives. Sometimes you really do need to leave a phone number with a company because they might have a real reason to get in touch with you. There are various options, but the best one I've found so far is a company called K7. Go to their website www.k7.net and you can get a free voicemail/fax number. The message/fax is emailed to you or you can log in from the website. The only downside is that the phone number is in Seattle, so anyone who wants to leave a message woul dbe subject to toll charges. But if it's a business, you probably don't care. I've been using them for years and it works great. Just make sure you have a message going through at least once a month or they might turn off your number. I've had that happen a few times but I reapplied for the same number and got it back.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Well, the problem is that he's never called at a time when I could answer the phone (always during business hours when I'm with clients), so I haven't been able to say anything to him. But I think after 4 days he got the hint and stopped calling. Actually, he started calling Jen. ;)

At one of the dealers, when we were just making a casual inquiry, we refused to give a phone number and the people BUGGED OUT. You say you almost never get a follow-up. Well, I wish we had been so lucky! When we did it, the guy asked about 15 times, then said he would "get in trouble" if he didn't have one, then got the sales manager. So we left. But really - frustration.

Those free voicemail numbers are fine but I don't like that they are not local. I suppose it's fine and dandy for things like telemarketers but if it's something I genuinely want to know about (I mean, we did think about buying that other dude's car, before we found another car we liked more), I'd rather know when they're calling. My fear is that I would forget to check the messages and miss things. As it is, I never answer the phone.

[colorbars.livejournal.com]

You need to be more proactive. Call and leave a message on HIS voicemail telling him what to go do with himself. If you want to be extra snarky, leave a message on the manager voicemail telling him to tell Salesweasel to shut up.

As for Mr. Bug Out, it wouldn't surprise me. I almost never deal with big ticket items. I'm thinking about buying a $10 part from Rat Shack or something. (They're much better about that crap than they used to be though.) Anyway, someone buying a car would be considered a hot tip for telemarketing types. Salesdrones like people with money to spend, so they want contact info. That's why it wouldn't surprise me if there was a quota of contact info or something like that. Then again the weasel might have been lying. Either way that kind of a response would tell me one thing. RUN AWAY. A sample response could be "Well, I don't want you to get in trouble, so you can just forget we were ever here." and walk out the door. Maybe with more people like us they'll get the hint.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I tried to call him today with the number that came through my phone as an incoming call. It must have been some internal extension because they phone just rang and rang and rang. I gave up after 10 rings and asked Jen to find the main number and tell him not to call anymore. I hope it worked!

Oh, when it comes to those cash register phone number things, I always say no.

[colorbars.livejournal.com]

And now life decides to give me a nudge.

I'd forgotten that J2 has free voicemail numbers too. They also get sent to you in email. The difference is that these numbers are all over the country and you get a random one. It so happens that I got a 781 number a long time ago. If you want it, it's yours.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I'd be afraid I would get nothing but junk messages! :)

[hoo.livejournal.com]

Hey, there is a Five Door VW Rabbit for sale in the US if you want to muddy the search a little more.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Clearly you are against us. We are Libras and our waters are already muddy! :)

We were going to call more places and drive more cars, but in the end felt that we would NEVER decide if we did that, so we would stick to the one we both liked. Jen drove it yesterday and she gave it the final green light, so it's on.

Thanks, though. The 5door Rabbit is super cute!