A Stereotypical Car Salesman

I never ceases to amaze me how short sighted some salesmen can be.  I had an experience today with a car salesman who embodies the typical complaints people have that make us hate to go shop for cars. My wife is looking to replace her car and we have been looking for some very specific models to consider. We are looking at getting one that is about a year old to avoid the dramatic depreciation that often occurs the first year. There was one specific car  we found online (a Nissan) that was at a local  Ford dealership. So we went to have a look.

The first thing the salesman did is to try and divert us into buying a new Ford version of the type of car we were considering. Rather than accept we had no interest in that car, we had to endure the sales pitch before he would take us to look at the car we came to see.  That  was the first mistake that made it much less likely I would want to buy from him.  He seemed unmotivated to take us to see the car we wanted to see, I suspect because his potential commission was not as much.

However, the thing that really made me certain I would not buy from them was his response to a question I asked. I recently bought a 10 month old Ford F-150 from a  Chrysler dealership where a friend works. I had gotten a great deal on  a very nice truck. However, I had been unable to figure out how to use one particular feature of the navigation/audio system.  Being that the I bought it from a dealership that did not typically sell  Fords, I had been thinking that I would stop by a Ford dealership the first chance I got to ask someone who would probably be able to explain to me what I needed to do,  or tell me if there was a problem.

I mentioned to the salesman I had a question that maybe someone there could answer and briefly explained the problem .  His first response to me was  "Where did you buy the truck?" When I told him that I had gotten it at a Chrysler dealership he showed absolutely no interest in helping me locate someone at his dealership that I could speak with about the problem. He just insisted I needed to go back to that dealership to ask them about the issue. Amazing! It would have taken him maybe a minute to point me in the direction of someone there whom I could ask about the problem since it was a Ford vehicle, but he wasn't interested in making the effort to do even that. He essentially was taking the "not my problem" approach. He then went on to try and sell a car to my wife. What he did accomplish to was make absolutely certain we will never buy a car from his dealership!  He was an amazingly lazy and short sighted salesman. Remember this story the next time someone asks you about something that might not make an immediate sale for your business.