Ford salesman doesn't like his cars (apparently)

[Tote]

Originally Posted by mrnsx

i guess the requirements to be a sales person these days are "*** hole" cauz when i applied for many sales jobs (got solid experience and university degree) i get turned down (propably cauz im young).

either way, its much better to have a stupid sales person that a very good 1, that way u dont spend ur hard earned cash lol.

No, it's probably because you aren't "sales focussed" enough. I'm in the computer industry and as best I can tell "sales focussed" means the ability to sell the customer a solution they don't want, doesn't work and leave it up to engineering to cobble together a bad fix so that in 3 years time they can be blamed for the customer going elsewhere.
Regards,
Tote

[Brent]

I think it must be a Ford salesperson thing. I recall looking at an EF XR8 and I was a bit ho-hum about the 165kw Windsor at the time. Well, the saleguy was quite bemused, suggesting that it was madness that I'd want more power. Ooooh yeah, could almost launch a car into orbit that old 165kw V8 could.............

[henry_ford]

shucks. umm. not all of us are like that. I work in a small to medium dealership in sydney. The sales team are all good mates and all like Fords. you would have to actually work hard to get bad service here.

[henry_ford]

one of the lads just said "or be a total di&^ head." that will get bad service real quick....... Dont talk down to the salesman, we want to help you, just honestly tell us what you would like to see/test drive/get pricing on.. and yes i know that there are plenty or morons on the bricks selling. sorry on behalf of them. there are way more like us who love watching the v8's race and having a beer after work at the bosses house!!

[AussieJason]

Originally Posted by Kenster

After reading all this, it starting to wonder why Ford sale are going down and you dont see much of them on the roads.

Yep, I can't believe what I'm reading. I'm amazed any Fords get sold to private buyers at all.

[pb02]

Originally Posted by Brent

I think it must be a Ford salesperson thing. I recall looking at an EF XR8 and I was a bit ho-hum about the 165kw Windsor at the time. Well, the saleguy was quite bemused, suggesting that it was madness that I'd want more power. Ooooh yeah, could almost launch a car into orbit that old 165kw V8 could.............

Not just a Ford thing. I've had fun with Holden and recently Toyota. In fact the best service I have had so far has been with my Ford dealer who gave me keys to test drive to vehicles and pricing on the spot.

I've been to three Toyota dealers recently and only had decent service from one. One guy even told me that Toyota don't make extra cab Turbo diesels. I pointed out that they had two sitting in there yard. His come back was, "when your ready to buy and sign up just come back, here's my card."

[henry_ford]

Easier to tell the bad stories than the good? just a thought.

[pb02]

Originally Posted by henry_ford

Easier to tell the bad stories than the good? just a thought.

I think when you are looking to spend a bit of money you expect good service. When you get it, you automatically think that it's normal. But when you don't get it you feel like you have to say something because it's not normal or what you would expect.

People are quick to forget the good but always seem to be able to remember the bad.

[henry_ford]

agread pb02.
have to say sometimes you just dont get other people... customers or not. if i see 60 to 70 people a month ( i wish, its more like 30 to 40) there is going to be at least one who no matter what i can not understand.. to the point where i dont even know why they are at the yard. are they having a bad day? wife problems? hungover? are they on drugs? is it me having a bad day? who knows.... but it happens. i wish it was perfect every time but it is not. We keep coming back for more though.. see you all this weekend again.. we will do our best to answer the same questions we get asked every weekend, then drive the same cars on the same road as every weekend. if we are lucky we can sneak into the bosses office and watch the races. chuckle. and you know what... Its still fun after doing it for years.....

[T3ts50]

I was at a Holden dealership with a mate of mine. Delaer comes up and asks if he can help. We say we are just looking at the moment, he turns around ands says if you just want to look at cars there are plenty in the carpark at knox city shopping centre. We just left straight away.

When the Fiesta first came out I went to go check when out as a daily driver. The salesmen seriously couldnt be bothered helping me out. He didnt even ask if I wanted to take it for a drive.

[XWGT]

Unfortunately this is all too familiar. However I am happy to report that after my initilal terrible experience with Ford, my most recent one was a lot better, when it excluded the FPV range.

I started a thread about this a long time ago basically wondering how the hell Ford sells any car at all. However not targeting the FPV stuff this time the experience was a lot better. The dealers knowledge was good. The buy price was good however the trade price was rubbish so the deal couldnt be done, however it was a much better experience than trying to buy an FPV was about 12 months ago.

However, once again we had the opportunity to use some other dealers and I can tell you the service was once again at a level far above what you would expect. Drove 6 completely differnet cars in one day, thrashed out a trade and bought two cars in 5 hours. Overall made the local brand look a little avarage once again.

[T3ts50]

Originally Posted by pb02

People are quick to forget the good but always seem to be able to remember the bad.

Its the same in the hospitality industry. You go to a good restaurunt you tell a few people about it, go to a bad one you tell everyone about it.

[bathurst77]

I have a BA XT SR, bought new Dec 03.
WHen the territory first cam out my falc was less then 12 months old I dropped into SINCLAIR FORD Penrith one day on a whim. Told the sales guy I wasnt planning on buying for a couple of years, but was curious about these new Territories.

HE told me they were selling like hot cakes and the rush was on. THen threw me the keys and asked me not to keep it too long as they had someone else wanting a drive that arvo.

When i got it back an hour or so later, he asked what I thought of it, and if I think I might get one in a few years...

Thats good service and the bloke knew he wasnt gunna make any money, just cost him petrol and prob need to wash it again.

[henry_ford]

i dont think he should have thrown you the keys. no copy of license? and you told him you were not buying? and he didnt go with you?

He shouldnt have a job there. as nice a guy as he was.... sales people like that are dangerous. they lose cars....

[bathurst77]

Funnily enough I didnt buy my falcon from them, as Another Dealer did a cheaper deal (bya couple of grand). Sinclair's tried realy hard, but in the end said, "we cant match these numbers. sorry. IF these details are correct, i would grab it, the absolute best we can do is $X "

Turns out the other dealers figures werent correct ("we made a mistake with the GST") but still cheaper then sinclairs and they were crap to deal with.

[bathurst77]

Maybe the salesman at the beginning of this thread didnt want to try and move an AU V8 trade in? They could be hard to sell?

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by henry_ford

i dont think he should have thrown you the keys. no copy of license? and you told him you were not buying? and he didnt go with you?

He shouldnt have a job there. as nice a guy as he was.... sales people like that are dangerous. they lose cars....

Yes, they DID take a copy of my licence, and he didnt actualy THROW the keys at me. more sorta handed them over nicely

[henry_ford]

i actually thought that he didnt want to sell a V8 ghia because they are so hard to source and was trying to place a car that was in stock (possibly with a bonus for him) he would have been better pushing a xr8 me thinks. a AU V8 is not a hard sell. there are so many people who just want a V8 regardless.

[flappist]

I have had some classic idiots over the years say some really stupid things.

In 2001 I was upgrading my EL Fairmont to a new car, Fairmont Ghia was the facoured choice.

1) Dealer Allan Powell Bundaberg; I wandered in to look at a Fairmont Ghia. Salesman says they are crap and I need a Fairlane because he has one there to sell. Idiot, if I wanted a Fairlane I would have asked for a Fairlane.

2) Dealer Metro Ford Bris; Asked about Ghia, looked at XR8 and Ghia. Asked why they didnt make a Ghia with XR8 engine as that would be perfect. Was told no such thing and then pressured to sign for a Ghia that day. Idiot, as soon as pressure is applied I walk and they were a FTE dealer but this guy was a Ford only salesman so he did not mention the TE50 and TS50 in the other showroom.

3) Dealer Tarrants Maryborough; Asked about Ghia, told they are crap and I should buy the red XR8 they just received. Idiot, I want all the luxo junk.

I ended up going to Huston Ford in Kingaroy just by accident. They fell over themselves to help. They didnt have one to show. They borrowed one from a customer to show me. They kept in contact until they could get what I was looking for. They drove over to show me (200km) and then delivered it. EXCELLENT service.

In 2002 I was contacted after the local show by a sales guy from Tarrants trying to sell me the SAME XR8 wging was now a demo and had bonuses. I took it for a drive. Was half convinced until he said and I quote "You this this is good, wait until you see the new model, it has the Mustang engine". IDIOT.

In 2003 I was interested in a new GT. I specially went to the Bris motor show (400km) to look at the new FPVs. I was approached by a salesman from Bryan Byrt in Bris. He arranged for me to test drive a XR8 to see what the V8s were like. I turned up the next day. He was still at the motor show and the sales guy at Bryan Byrt was not interested in me because I now "belonged" to the othe sales guy. I walked out.

I rang the Kingaroy guy. He said he had now bought an additional dealership, Tarrants in Maryborough and they were going to be a FPV dealer. I ordered a GT-P the next day. It arrived on a Saturday and they bent over backwards to get it to me. They have contacted me almost every time they get a new demo in (this is why I have driven all the different FPVs, Turbo Terri, LTD, G8 etc) and just give me the car to play with until I am bored.

I have now bought 3 FPVs, a ute, a mondeo, 3 ghias, a fairmont and a falcon from them. (not all new)

They are VERY good at selling me cars because they treat me like an important customer not a target.

[ford_baute]

Not to do with fords but my girl friend bought a Nissan Tidda last year very good little car im 6ft6 and i dont have any probs with fitting in it. Anyway they guys at Hornsby in Sydney were hopless they tried to sell the car for x ammount then when i went back to them with a price 3k cheaper they said we can do that and all we wanted was a fair price to start with and we prob would of got the car from them. We ended up buying from blacktown with very good experence in some areas and vary bad else where. As soon as we told the finance we where getting our own finance he didnt want to know about us and said if you go else where i cant help you if that finance doesnt work out. Then after we were talking a bit he must of got thinking he was going to loose a potention finance customer he changed his tune completely but it was too little to late.
The last bad thing they did and this was very bad the sales man was on holidays the day we were picking up the car the funds had been wired to there account the afternoon before and they couldnt find the money and because it was a saturday they were trying to tell us they cant give us the car untill they know its been paid for even though we had all the paper work on our end done. Ended up getting sorted out on the monday and we took the car home on the saturday as a loaner with 5k deposit that was how much she saved the rest was finance.
Even though this is about nissan and not ford it still shows how customer service lets the yards down.
Maybe that is why you dont see many Tidda on the rd when really they are not a bad little car

[Kenster]

after reading your story ford baute my dad had a smiliar in looking at a 03 Honda CRV but got snob off cause he was in his work clothes. Didnt end up getting the CRV but when to dandy Nissan and got the X-trail and never look back after getting it.

[XlR8TED]

My experience with Ford dealerships is definately the opposite to what I've read here...

Prior to purchasing the XR, I was keen on a new 2 door Astra. Rang the Holden dealership and booked in for a test drive. Arrived on the morning with mum & let one of the salemen know that I was here for a test drive and had called ahead yesterday. After waiting an hour, we walked out. Absoloutely fuming.

A couple of days later, I found the XR6 sitting in the yard at John McGrath Ford...very helpful bunch. Took it for a spin and the rest is history. They even remembered my name when I went in a few weeks after picking it up to buy some headlight protectors.

[AussieJason]

When I decided to upgrade my Falcon, I went to the Ford dealer and noticed four new XR6's in stock, in Yellow, Blue, a Grey and dark Grey.

Me: "I'd like to order a RED BF XR6 please."

Salesman: "Yes, sure sit down etc..."

Salesman does his sales chat bit then looks at his computer.

Sales: "Hmm, oh, hmm..."

Me: "What?"

Sales: "Well there are four XR6's here, but no red ones. You sure you want red?"

Me: "yeah, I took ages to decide the colour, and red is it."

Sales: "Ok. Just let me look again..."

Salesman uses computer again...

S: "Hmm, oh.... hmmm..."

M: "What's up?"

S: "Well, there are no red ones anywhere in the state. I think you will have to take one of the colours we have here."

M: "I'd really like a red one please. Even if I have to order it and wait."

Salesman takes me to another office, where a lady looks at her computer.

Lady: "Hmmm... will be a very long wait, no red ones going to be made for ages I'm afraid" may have to get one of the other colours we have in stock."

Sales: "The Blue and Yellow ones are really nice."

Me: "Look, I want a red one please. I don't mind waiting."

Lady: "I don't like red ones myself. The grey ones we have in stock are really nice."

Sales: "Yes, very nice. Want to have a look?"

Me: "I looked at them all the other day. Can I order a red one ?"

Lady goes on the colour selector part of Ford website, and shows me XR6's in (you guessed it) blue, yellow and grey.

Me: "Look, either you get me a RED one or I'm not buying anything. Ok?"

Sales: "Oh, ok. So you'd like a red one then?"

Me: "Yes."

Lady and salesman use computer again, I walk out of office and start looking at the blue one...

Sales: "Good news. We found two brand new red ones just delivered to a Ford yard in Perth. We should be able to have one here in a few days."

Me: "Miraculously appeared huh?"

Sales: "er... maybe we were using the system wrong the first few times we looked."

Me: "Ok, thanks. I'll have one of those red ones please."

A few days later my RED XR6 arrived with 4km on the clock. Been a great car, but very hard to get in red apparently.

[mrnsx]

Originally Posted by Tote

No, it's probably because you aren't "sales focussed" enough. I'm in the computer industry and as best I can tell "sales focussed" means the ability to sell the customer a solution they don't want, doesn't work and leave it up to engineering to cobble together a bad fix so that in 3 years time they can be blamed for the customer going elsewhere.
Regards,
Tote

maybe, maybe not, successfull sales persons are those who solve the customers problem not those who push for a one off sale and not think about return business.

anyhow, an old story about a sales person in peter warren ford 5 years ago when we wanted to buy a focus for my mum (short version)

me: ok mate, you said that you will give us $5,000 trade in for the lancer and the focus is $25,000 or so.

sm: thats right, you get $5,000 off.

me: great, lets do the paper work.

sm: (after using his calculator and blabbing for 30 minutes about how great the new focus is and also getting a person to check out the car were trading in), the total will come to $27,000.

me: so how u work that out mate? $25,000 - $5000 = $20,000

sm: well u see, the problem with trade in is that the more discount we give you for the trade in, the more we have to raise the price for the car since your not paying in cash.

me: so why do u raise the price for the car? its called a trade in for a reason?
(by this moment my mum was having tears in her eye from the frustration and time wasting).

then the a*shole walks away without saying goodbye or anything


2 hours later we go to a toyota dealer down the road and bought a corolla.


the next time my mum got a car (a few months ago) was a mercedes and we had great sales person.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by Cooper69S

me: yes but i also go to the drags - most people look at these cars because they enjoy the extra power - otherwise may as well just get an XT
him: well i think you'd be better off with an XT. I have one and it has all the power you need. a good driver in an XT can get around a track just as quickly as a bad driver in a XR8
..

What a load of crap, then what happens when the 'bad XR8 driver' becomes a 'good XR8 driver'

[blackahcdx]

Most car sales people really don't care too much for cars and are just in the job for the money.

Sad but true.

[ford_baute]

And its ment to be a good experence getting a new car untill it gets wrecked by people just after $$$ and Not giving a S#*T about the product they are selling

[henry_ford]

ye of little faith. there is good and bad in every job.

[ford_baute]

Thats very true there is good and bad in everything. Ive had good experence with my local ford dealer and now that the service department is open at nights its good dropping it off at night and getting it back first thing in the morning

[DODDO]

One of my mates from work went to a Ford dealer in Sydney, not naming names, to look at buying a new 2004 model GT. He walks in, asks all about it, and things are going great, the bloke was really helpful. Until the salesman asks if he's using it as his weekend car. My mate said no, he will be driving it to work during the week.
The salesman then says that "thats not what GT'S are for, you should be buying an XR8", my mate says, "no, i want a GT". The salesman then says that "they have no GT's in stock to test drive and that he will have to look at an XR8".
My mate walked out and never went back. He eventually did buy one, from someone else.