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Having to look outside your area for a car or traveling to get what you want at the price that you want and the level of customer service that you want is not wrong.
it's not wrong. just like you can choose which dealership you are willing to buy from, the salesperson is also choosing between which customer to invest his/her time to earn a commission. you dont hold all the cards like you think when you are only willing to pay msrp for a fit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGirth
I don't think that can ever be a logical justification for dealerships to stop treating customers with careful regard and excellent service.
when you arent committed to buy, and the salesperson dont want to waste 2 hours on you, it's might not be careful regard and excellent service, but it is something every single successful salesperson will do on the spot, without hestitation. it's not right, but guess what? you wasting 2 hours of his time is not right either. when i use to take lot of floor customers, espeically on the weekends, and i find someone such as yourself. i'll explain to them, half of my sales comes on the weekends, if you arent ready to buy, come back when it's not busy, i'll spend sometime to show you a car then. if you must have someone to show you now, i tell some new salesperson who probably know less then you to stay with you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGirth
Not to mention, the fact that many people travel outside their area to purchase a product or service also implies that the local dealers aren't doing their job correctly.
no, it's because they are cheap, not because some dealer from 100 miles away is better at customer service. when you buy a car, you deal with 1 or sometimes 2 sales person, 1 sales manager, 1 finance manger, and usually that's it. most dealership have more then 40 sales people, paragon probably have 200, maybe more. whom you deal with is not a direct reflection of the level of customer service for the entire dealership. either case, paragon is something like the 5 highest volume dealer in the country, obviously they are doing something right...
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGirth
I agree with you partially, because everybody wants something for a dollar. But in this case, if me or someone else on here just wants a brand new, stock Honda Fit Sport 5spd for MSRP and the dealer to be honest and service-oriented, I don't see why that is asking for too much.
it's not asking for too much, but you didnt say that. what you said was, im not buying, i might want a price, but only to shop your price for 3 weeks, im not committing, and if you push me too much, i'll walk away. if you said i am buying, if you give me a fair price like msrp, i am ready to make the committment, then he will show you the car.
in the end, getting the customer to actually tell the truth for once, maybe that's really asking too much.
There are many of us who do, and really if you want to make a sale, treating the customer like crap doesn't promote that. I went to 3 dealerships here and ALL of them judged me because of my car, the way I dressed and of all things, my shoes. I left, disgusted in their behavior, I ended up buying my car from the internet sales office, I happily tipped the woman working with me/my wife. The whole expereince was great and at a fair price. In my opinion it was the easiest money they ever made.
good luck
-bix
i've probably sold 300 cars over the last 2 years... i've never ever gotten a tip, and i probably have one of the highest customer satisfaction score at my dealership.
as for judging people, i dont, im smart enough to ask qualification questions, and based on what you say, i can correctly qualify you. if you answer truthfully, you can expect excellent customer service and someone who is very knowledgeable about honda products. if you intentionally lie to me to waste my time, i dont have a problem making sure you regret lying to me.
as far as what people wear... it doesnt mean anything. when i dress up, my cloth probably cost well into 2000 dollar range, when im off work, i wear jeans and white tees.
You are coming at this from a dealers point of view and me from a customers point of view, so our opinions will never be in agreement with each other.
You have made some good points.
Volume and Quality do not go hand in hand.
Dell sells the most personal computers in the country, that doesn't mean they are of great quality or great service. Their ratings have been dropping for quite some time, and their service is far below Sony, HP, or Apple yet Dell continues to sell, so what are they doing right? They are selling a massive amount of computers for a low price.
Not everyone goes into a dealership to buy on the same day. From my experiences.. customers will travel to a dealership between 2 - 4 times before purchasing a vehicle. Sure, there are customers that come in with cash in hand ready to buy, but that isn't the majority.
Not knowing if the customer is serious about buying the vehicle today, tomorrow, or next week shouldn't matter. If you fail to provide service, you will drive people away. On average, a good experience is spread to 5 other people and a bad experience is spread to 7 other people. What does that say about word of mouth? This thread is a good example. There are about four-five persons giving negative feedback on Paragon Honda.
To each his own. Who knows, I may go back there when I have the cash because in the end all that matters is that you get your car. You don't have to deal with the dealer anymore after that.
You are coming at this from a dealers point of view and me from a customers point of view, so our opinions will never be in agreement with each other.
You have made some good points.
all im trying to get across...
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGirth
Volume and Quality do not go hand in hand.
Dell sells the most personal computers in the country, that doesn't mean they are of great quality or great service. Their ratings have been dropping for quite some time, and their service is far below Sony, HP, or Apple yet Dell continues to sell, so what are they doing right? They are selling a massive amount of computers for a low price.
volume and quality do not go hand in hand, but this isnt about quality, afterall, all honda dealerships sells the same product, you can argue the customer is higher of quality one place to another, but i said few posts back, we expect service, we just dont want to or will pay for it. just ask yourself, go to a dealer, receive top notch service, when it comes to price, they add a 200 quality customer service charge, how many of you will flip out?? now as for sony or apple vs dell, go look up honda accord vs acura tl, and see the price difference. honda is dell, and apple/sony is acura...
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGirth
Not everyone goes into a dealership to buy on the same day. From my experiences.. customers will travel to a dealership between 2 - 4 times before purchasing a vehicle. Sure, there are customers that come in with cash in hand ready to buy, but that isn't the majority.
that couldnt be further from the truth... out of every 10 customers that visits the dealership, only 1 will ever return, regardless of level of customer service he/she received. as for majority that comes with cash in hand, you are right, that isnt true either... but take this into consideration, a good sales person closes roughly 1/6 of his customers. so even if 16% people end up buying, the sales person is consider very good. (here is another reason why some sales people are fairly selective of which customer they choose, because they have to choose the 1 out of 6 if they are good, 1 out of 15 if they are not, to close a deal, choose someone who isnt ready 9 times, before choosing the right one, means 2-3 hours each, 20-30 hours, 3-4 work days before being to close 1 deal). 50% closing ratio, it's pretty much unheard of, so majority of the customers dont have cash in hand dont really carry much weight in this discussion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGirth
Not knowing if the customer is serious about buying the vehicle today, tomorrow, or next week shouldn't matter. If you fail to provide service, you will drive people away. On average, a good experience is spread to 5 other people and a bad experience is spread to 7 other people. What does that say about word of mouth? This thread is a good example. There are about four-five persons giving negative feedback on Paragon Honda.
if you arent ready to make a committment, then im not ready to committ 3 hours to you to see if you "might purchase" 3 weeks from now. it's a 2 way street. you think "i deserve service", the sales person thinks, "i deserve a commission." just because you are a consumer, it doesnt mean the salesperson should cater to your every need. but like you said, we have conflicting interest, but thats what it is. you think you deserve x, y, and z, and i think i deserve, a, b, and c.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGirth
To each his own. Who knows, I may go back there when I have the cash because in the end all that matters is that you get your car. You don't have to deal with the dealer anymore after that.
now if i have that mentallity... i would tell every single one of the loser deal customers i've gotten so far to piss off now they've bought the car already. your alignment is off? go get it fix, big o tires is right down the street. there is a rattle? should have bought a new car. scratch after you've driven off? my bodyshop charge 115 a hour. extra key? no, 180 each plus program. do you know how to program the key? yes, but it's not my job...
I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience. so far i've been fine with them. I went and got a Fit S in Tidewater Blue. I got my Civic Si from them and got a great price & rate. I've had a few friends buy from them with no problems. I checked with 2 other dealers and the price I got was good, but the rate was a bit higher. I went down to paragon and told them the price I got and they beat it by 100 plus a lower rate.
The sales guy didn't BS me, he told me that the color I wanted, I would have to wait about 2-3 weeks since it was on the way. a few days into the second week, my sales guy called me and told me that it had came in.
I bought my TW sport Fit from there last July, traded in my VW. Went to test drive another Fit the day before. The next day I went back and my new fit was being washed as I spoke to the salesman.
No problems YET with this dealer, but then again...unless its a warranty part or major service I don't go to the dealer.
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