Dealer Apathy

[SD j]

What a load of made up poppy cock. Money is money.

do you give any discount for cash? if so ill be coming your way in future..

 

[Onemanandhisdog]

Totally agree, no one turns up with a suitcase of Cash thee days.

Well they do, my nephew (now just 21) went to school with someone who makes loads on YouTube, he went to the BMW dealership with £30k in cash to buy a 3 Series for his first car. He was educated in the correct procedure, had that for a year and then went back and bought an i8.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

Went to Buy a car for my mum years ago, they charged me extra for paying by cash!!

Someone has to go and pay it in they said

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Last Saturday evening at 20:41 I emailed every Knaus dealer asking if they had a Boxdrive model in stock to view and test drive. By twenty past eleven that night one of the smaller dealers had replied, other of the smaller or caravan only suppliers have replied. It is notable that even now (same time three days later) the one that I think is the largest dealer has not bothered to reply! Apathy or what?
Sad to say that it seems there is not a single one of that model available until early summer 2021!

An idea might be to email Knaus and complain their main dealer is ignoring you. It will either prompt action or Knaus are not going to be easy to deal with.
A few years ago I had £40,000 to buy a car, I visited the Local Audi showroom. The salesman looked me up and down and decided I wasn’t up to it. I complained to Audi and bought a Mercedes. The moral being the garage rang and offered all sorts of deals, but I took it as an indicator of their after sales service.

 

[Simon Select]

do you give any discount for cash? if so ill be coming your way in future..

Cash in a bank transfer or a debit card then yes! My finance penetration in this area is 8% so I would not be around for long on just finance!!
If by cash you mean carrier bags full of the stuff, then no! Stick it back under your mattress!

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[Theonlysue]

Dealers should also put deposits into a protected client money account, so if the company fails, the customer doesn't loose their deposit. Travelworld do this, but many don't.

 

[Sapper520]

We’re due to take delivery of our new van next month, which we ordered before the issues with the virus.

Local Dealers we visited or called were a combination of unhelpful, not interested, overpriced and one tried telling me, ‘You don’t want to have that, you don’t want to have this......this is what you want’.

Some were trying to be helpful but were not prepared to move on prices. Bigger dealerships......predominantly not happy with.

Eventually came across the dealer we’re purchasing our van off (3 hours away). Rang, gave John the full list of our requirements.......make, model, list of extras etc and what price I was looking to pay. He ensured we had done our own research into what we wanted, and checked we’d seen one in the flesh.

He asked me to give him a while to see what he could do. Less than a hour later he rang me back, said yes he could, earliest delivery would be August (this was in January) but suggested hold on for the new reg in September. Deal done.

Plenty of email contact, even during lockdown. The van was delivered a few weeks ago (as per the timetable), we went to have a look, discuss where we wanted dealer extras fitted (and spent a lot more on extras!), now just waiting for pick up date.

Obviously this is only the first half of the purchase. After sales Service is yet to be tested, but hopefully it will be along the same lines as the purchase.

 

[GROGGY64]

Surely we aren’t talking about turning up to pay for your Motorhome with a suitcase full of pound notes! Bank transfer from a legitimate bank account has been accepted full Purchase price payment our last two new Motorhomes 2015 and 2017. The dealers prefer finance because they get their cut of the finance deal too!

 

[BusyBuilder]

I remember going into BMW dealer in Inverness for a new bike. Showroom empty, 3 salesmen sat at their desks, I asked who could sell me a bike.
Oh we don't deal with bikes, none of them would do a deal, so I left and went to Edinburgh.

 

[jockaneezer]

Friend of mine went into our local Mercedes dealer and after being ignored, approached a salesman and inquired about availability of a particular model, but second hand. The salesman said he would take down some details. He reached across and got a leather bound ledger from his desk, opened it to display lots of customer adresses, written in finest copperplate with a fountain pen and proceeded to write my pals details in, in pencil !

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[Clarky]

All this talk of lazy sales staff make me want to cry.
I spent most of my working life in sales but not vehicle sales. Over 30 years as a manager and senior manager of electrical stores.
When I think of the efforts we would go to just for sales of a few pounds and the time spent going through the benefits of one fridge/ washing machine/ television over another so that the customer bought the one best for them.
A sale of a few hundred pounds was to be celebrated and any member of staff who ignored customers wouldn’t be in a job for long.
Look after your customers and they and their friends will be back. We had a great team and a lot of our regulars came back time and time again.
I can only think that these motorhome sales people are having too comfortable a life and must be overpaid if they can ignore £50k+ sales.

Richard.

 

[Jaws]

That’s no use to them, they can only take max £10,000 in cash or it could be money laundering

Yer right.. I turned up at a dealers with a bag of £50's.. They did not like it but it all changed when I stuffed it back in the bag and started to walk !

 

[Flook]

Many years ago I was told about Bill Cherry. Bill is a multimillionaire who now lives in Australia. Anyway he and his wife went into Northampton, she went to have her hair done, Bill decided to look around the RR showroom. Bill was in his usual attire of jeans old jacket etc and did not look the part of his wealth. Bill asked to see inside an RR and made many enquires about the it including delivery. The sales man was so totally not interested in the sale and spoke to Bill as though he was looking down his nose at him. Bill was not happy and asked to see the Sales manager. He explained to him he was very interested in the car and wanted to buy with a shed load of extras. They worked out the costs and and went into a payment plan. Bill told them this was not how he did business, he wanted to pay cash, the smirk was enough to tip Bill over, he promptly opened the brief case and showed the Sales manager the money, then said you could have had that sale, you could have had that money here and now, but, now you won't get anything due to your arrogance and assumptions. With that Bill got up and walked away from a very flustered sales team.

This is a true story as told to me by his son around 15/20 years ago. Only goes to show how sales get it so wrong at times. Bill did buy a Bentley in the end but not from Northampton

Flook

 

[nicholsong]

I paid a Police Sargeant for my MH in cash.

But it was more than legitimate in that I drew it, in a private room, from the local branch of my bank near him, in his presence, handed it to him in exchange for Bill of Sale and to ensure it was 'kosher notes' we walked across to his bank where they checked and accepted the notes, with an explanation, and credited his account.

He knew the source of the notes and I knew they were not going ti illegitimate use - well not immediately.

Of course he was not a dealer.

[Comic bit was him stuffing the bundles into a Tesco bag, tucking it under his arm, pausing on the steps, looking both ways up the street before crossing to his bank. - straight out of Keystone Cops]

Geoff

 

[NoName]

A really good friend of mine ( I was his best man) has just turned 60 and decided to plunge into motorhome ownership and do weekends and odd weeks in uk

He has settled on a new Elddis 155 ( let’s not get into rights or wrongs regarding that), 1st van, no part ex, got the cash

YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE HOW HARD IT IS FOR HIM TO SPEND HIS MONEY

Sales guys dont even take his name or number
The ones that do, then never ring him back

He has rung one dealer, where the salesman failed to call back and has rung again and spoken to the OWNER/MD who Himself promised to ring back and hasn't
A week into it now
The dealers all have stock of the 155.......its breathtaking

Dare I say he's had a lucky escape? If any dealer is so tardy in failing to return his calls, imagine how difficult it might be to get the same dealer to rectify any faults once he had parted with his cash!

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[Coolcats]

Well they do, my nephew (now just 21) went to school with someone who makes loads on YouTube, he went to the BMW dealership with £30k in cash to buy a 3 Series for his first car. He was educated in the correct procedure, had that for a year and then went back and bought an i8.

The question would be if you make money from You tube, which means no actual cash changes hands why the heck would someone draw £30K out of the Bank in Cash , the story may be more along the lines that he paid for the car and told his friend he fully paid for the car and the story has been distorted.

£30K would be far more hassle than a bank transfer with chip and pin on the card

 

[Flook]

We bought our Eldiss 175 from VFL, I happened to see it advertised in the MMM, they had two left at a greatly reduced price, this was due to they were 2014 stock that had not sold and wanted room for the 2015 stock. I rang them made enquiries, told them I was very interested as it was the model that suited my requirements and asked them to keep it buy if I made a deposit subject to inspection. We made the journey in just over 4hours to Prestatyn North Wales. Her indoors was unsure about it due to the cost, however we went in to discuss the price and I said we would have it there and then. We made arrangements for bankers draft and that. All this was early December 2014, I picked up the 175 on the 4th Jan 2015 and not regretted it since.

Simple, I knew what I wanted with layout etc, and once you know that then have a good look around to see what make and model suites your needs.

Flook

 

[Coolcats]

All this talk of lazy sales staff make me want to cry.
I spent most of my working life in sales but not vehicle sales. Over 30 years as a manager and senior manager of electrical stores.
When I think of the efforts we would go to just for sales of a few pounds and the time spent going through the benefits of one fridge/ washing machine/ television over another so that the customer bought the one best for them.
A sale of a few hundred pounds was to be celebrated and any member of staff who ignored customers wouldn’t be in a job for long.
Look after your customers and they and their friends will be back. We had a great team and a lot of our regulars came back time and time again.
I can only think that these motorhome sales people are having too comfortable a life and must be overpaid if they can ignore £50k+ sales.

Richard.

So this is why most car dealerships have disempowered the sales staff, if you buy a car today the sales person's manager will deal with any discount request, they will also check that the salesperson has done all the paperwork and checks it maddening.

Whilst I suspect you may have had some good sales staff, people are not all the same can you honestly say all your sales people where brilliant at their job, I suspect there would have been a few you would like to have removed, that is the reality of life.

 

[Coolcats]

Just reflecting on the 'Cash' discussion, there was no way when I sold our T5 would I have taken Cash

1) I would not know the individual and the notes may be dud
2) unless the cash was handed over and checked at a bank at the time of transaction more fool me, why would i want a wad of Cash in my home.
3) Companies went away from Cash to bank payment as they used to get raided on pay day!
4) 'Cash' can be transferred securely, quickly and easily via bank transfer
5) Most f not all dealers will just let you walk if you turn up with a big bag of cash, its too risky and not just money laundering they would just send you to a bank to pay it in to thier account.

Cash is becoming redundant, I have not spent even £1 in cash since March

 

[Gooney]

It’s not all down to dealers calling you back surely. They are dealing with customers.

If you want to do a deal then get your arse to the dealer and do the deal rather than talk about the deal you might be prepared to do.

All well and good that Chris, last month I was keen on a VW and as soon as the restrictions were lifted a motability guy rang me reminded me my current car was due for renewal, I explained my situation I had just come out of hospital having second part of my foot amputated, what were the chances of them fetching one to my house (5 miles) for me to check for accessibility, he said no need I can do every thing over the phone, but can you check for my accessibility I asked, oh sorry he said I’m not allowed to do that so I said there’s no rush I’ll wait until i can get into my own car and well make an appointment to come to the garage. Time came whenI felt able so I rang him, recorded message “out of office til Saturday’, I waited a week still no reply, rang again and again message ‘out of office TIL Monday’. Come 1st July the forward payment on the car I was interested in went up 1k, guess what he rang me telling me I could come in any time, I told him because of lack of interest on his part to stuff any deals, I’d been to another dealer and got exactly what I wanted.

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[george w menzies]

With vans flying off the forecourts at their current pace then I suspect the dealers will focus their attention (and their priority) on those who visit in person.

Cheshirecat57 There's lots of Elddis vans up our way but sadly not the













the wife and i walked into local dealers we use their accessory shop but had never bought a vehicle there we spotted one we liked spoke to the boss who sent us to a salesman it was a used van
on at 35g he showed us round organized a test drive and full inspection for the following day

we turned up at the arranged time motor home sitting running off we went on a very good test
drive he then left us to inspect the van
we did the deal delivery in 4 weeks they agreed some repairs and a full service got more than i thought i would for trade-in .turned up four weeks later all things agreed done van like new
very satisfied from probably Scotlands biggest dealer.









155.
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[gus-lopez]

It’s not all down to dealers calling you back surely. They are dealing with customers.

If you want to do a deal then get your arse to the dealer and do the deal rather than talk about the deal you might be prepared to do.

But if you remember when they reopened after initial lockdown one dealer had sold 40 mh's over the `phone internet 2 sight unseen during lockdown.

I went into showrooms, totally ignored.

I have had plenty of that. Here I always dress like tramp when buying. With my wife ,the slightest sign of being ignored & she is gone.

That’s no use to them, they can only take max £10,000 in cash or it could be money laundering

They can take what they want.they might have to report you to cover themselves if they think you are dodgy/drug dealer/ have any thought that you might be iffy/ or any though that the money is . I used to do it on purpose .

 

[Clarky]

So this is why most car dealerships have disempowered the sales staff, if you buy a car today the sales person's manager will deal with any discount request, they will also check that the salesperson has done all the paperwork and checks it maddening.

Whilst I suspect you may have had some good sales staff, people are not all the same can you honestly say all your sales people where brilliant at their job, I suspect there would have been a few you would like to have removed, that is the reality of life.

Very true, there were a few lazy gits over the years. Those that somehow seemed to get 'food poisoning' on a Friday night so went sick on Saturday, our busiest day back then. In time they toed the line or were removed.
I took on a few youngsters from school, some hadn’t done all that well at school but had a 'spark'. With coaching and mentoring some of them became excellent team members and went on to do very well.
The management creates a team and a culture within the company. A good sales culture should be visible and rub off onto the customer. In my experience customers like to be 'sold to' and not ignored. If a salesperson is trying to sell to to a customer that customer feels wanted and important. The art is in knowing how much to push for a sale and when to back off. Frequently 'softy, softy catchy monkey'.

Richard.

 

[Garfields]

Last Saturday evening at 20:41 I emailed every Knaus dealer

The convenience of e-mail is part of the problem though
My neighbour has a business where he has removed the ability to make initial contact by e-mail
He was getting a large amount of enquirers and spending lots of time responding but it was leading to very little business
Lots of the enquirers were from will outside the area he covered
Some didn't bother to blind copy the e-mail and sent the same to twenty plus company's that provided the same services
Much easier to gauge potential customers in a phone call

 

[Langtoftlad]

I was told that even before layout, the dealer was the most important consideration.
I have been lucky in my two purchases - both done at the Peterborough show.

The first was a 'cash' purchase with one of Camper UK's trade ins.
Camper UK is not the cheapest around, but can't fault their customer service. When I discovered damp, they came & collected it, fixed it & returned it, all free of charge despite not being covered by their warranty.

The second was with Duncan [of Wildax]. He simply said "are you just looking, or ready to do a deal?" We sat down with a coffee and within half an hour, the deal was done.
Again Wildax's after sales has proven faultless.

But I know what you mean about apathetic dealerships.
When I wanted to buy a Toyota Avensis... went into the local dealership... they couldn't have been less interested in me. When I did, finally, attract the attention of a salesman, the best he could do was look on his computer & say no. Absolutely no attempt to interest me in anything else.
I finally got what I wanted, the price I wanted, from a main dealership via a car broker.
So with my last car, I did my online research, got a printout of the best quote & took it into the local dealership for a price match. Done & dusted.

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[Jaws]

I always dress the same apart from weddings and funerals.. My uncle Peter ( who was a bona fide rich bugger to put it mildly ) showed me the value of the habit..
Always feel comfy in your skin and clothes..
You can be pretty sure the person you are talking to is doing so for no hidden reason
A poor man is likely to get a better deal than a rich one

 

[BusyBuilder]

Last week, on our 25th wedding anniversary I decided to buy the wife a Rolex watch. Went into local jewellers (Chisholm Hunters) to see a few pre owned models, quite expensive but I know what they cost.

I was in my work clothes, jeans with old silcone and paint on them, few rips, dirty boots, raggy sweater.

Sales girl was very polite, showed me the watches I wanted to see, let me handle them and we agreed a discount and purchased one. I asked her what she thought of my appearance, and she said what I always say


never judge a book by its cover.

 

[russ the rambler]

i am so glad i bought my van through a private sale. I had the same expereince with dealers - its like they are doing you a favour selling a van. When i asked them to do a few odd jobs i had to chase up a reply which consisted of no,no,no. Thankfully i'm all set up for MOT, repairs etc and I never need to talk to them again.

 

[nicholsong]

We bought our Eldiss 175 from VFL, I happened to see it advertised in the MMM, they had two left at a greatly reduced price, this was due to they were 2014 stock that had not sold and wanted room for the 2015 stock. I rang them made enquiries, told them I was very interested as it was the model that suited my requirements and asked them to keep it buy if I made a deposit subject to inspection. We made the journey in just over 4hours to Prestatyn North Wales. Her indoors was unsure about it due to the cost, however we went in to discuss the price and I said we would have it there and then. We made arrangements for bankers draft and that. All this was early December 2014, I picked up the 175 on the 4th Jan 2015 and not regretted it since.

Simple, I knew what I wanted with layout etc, and once you know that then have a good look around to see what make and model suites your needs.

Flook

That follows on from a dictum I have been preaching for years. Do your research and draw up a specification. That alone concentrates the mind, and the salesmen's minds to stop them waffling about models that do not suit.

Then like Flook you are in the position where you are tracking one, or two, models and from then it is finding the one at the rght price.

You should end up with the 'right' MH and not 3 different ones in 5 years, an expensive hobby.

Geoff

 

[Euromobil]

Sales girl was very polite, showed me the watches I wanted to see, let me handle them and we agreed a discount and purchased one. I asked her what she thought of my appearance, and she said what I always say

Interesting point, it was a sales lady who took the time. Over many years of buying for our business at big trade shows always found the dealers who had female staff tried much harder than those with a stand full of blokes chatting over last nights footie on TV

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