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General Volvo and Motoring Discussions This forum is for messages of a general nature about Volvos that are not covered by other forums and other motoring related matters of interest. Users will need to register to post/reply. |
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Dealership experiencesViews : 3800 Replies : 61Users Viewing This Thread : |
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Jul 10th, 2018, 13:22 | #21 |
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The experiences in dealerships are not confined to car sales, the spares counters are the same.
I have been going to my local Volvo dealer for 45 years and never had a bad experience with the parts chaps. I go in, see a 'normal bloke' behind the counter who is knowledgeable and we both look at the screen to identify the obscure part that I am after. I then walk out a happy bunny. We bought a Mini Cooper for 'er indoors a couple of years ago which necessitated a trip to the local BMW/Mini dealership. I walk in to be confronted with a big open showroom with no signage to the parts desk, I venture to ask a blonde dollybird type where it is and get the reply, ''take a seat and I will get someone to help you'' while gesturing to a black leather sofa. While sitting on the sofa for what seemed like far too long I noticed that all the female staff where 'Barbie doll' clones and all the male staff 'Ken' clones. they all looked like they were auditioning for a new TV series - aren't you lucky to be looking at me as I am so beautiful/handsome. Anyway said little parts chap arrives at a desk and bekons me over where I then have to explain I want an aerial stalk for a Mini Cooper. It takes him forever to find the part in the system, but eventually does and informs me it will be in stock in a couple of days. I ask if he can send me a text letting me know when it is ready for collection - as Volvo do - but no., not a service they offer, just call in in a couple of days. So back in a couple of days later and same dollybird/leather sofa scenario - if I wanted that, I can find more exciting places than a BMW dealership for my money. Little parts chap produces the aerial and then lectures me on how to fit it as if I have never opened a bonnet or seen a spanner in my life. Then having paid for it and about to leave he promptly tries to sell me a brand new BMW of some description. I politely tell him I only need the aerial and as I now have it, I am leaving. I now buy parts on line from BMW as I cannot cope with the trauma of making the dealership showroom look untidy.
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Jul 10th, 2018, 13:43 | #22 | |
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Jul 10th, 2018, 15:00 | #23 |
Grimble
Last Online: Feb 4th, 2019 17:54
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Location: Staffordshire
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My only recent experience of a car dealer was at Arnold Clark when looking for a newish car for my wife. We wandered round for a bit (the whole point of going there was that there was a lot of choice under one roof). She liked a Vauxhall Mokka. Had a sit and poked around, then called over a sales man. He led us out to the yard where there were more of the same and she decided on the colour. He made us an offer on our trade-in without seeing it. We went away for a think and I did a bit of research on the model to see what was what. No real issues so we went back, took a test drive, made a deal with minimum fuss, signed up and the car was available next day.
No fuss, certainly no rudeness, no fake over-attentiveness, just a simple and straightforward purchase deal. No hard sell on finance, just a good deal on a 3 year service plan. Cant say this for all the Arnold Clark group but their local branch was a pleasure to deal with compared to some of the horror stories above. PS other than this purchase, I have no connection to any car retailer.
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Jul 10th, 2018, 19:26 | #24 |
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Jul 10th, 2018, 20:02 | #25 |
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Going back some years (last century) I worked as an agency driver, able to drive an artic but drive anything for the money, one contract that we had was with the local Car Company HQ to provide a driver to assist their training department when they were running courses for new sales people. The sales people came from dealerships around the country so were not directly employed by the car co. but were only from that brand and the variation in their styles was quite marked, in a class of 20 people there would always be a few who gave car salesmen a bad name (or a name that probably wont pass this forum's swear filter). Presumably the trainees reflected the dealership that they came from.
Re the football shirts, whilst I'm not a football fan I can understand it from their end, the football is a big event so don't try to pretend it doesn't exist, use it as part of a promotion if you want but keep it professional, for what it would cost get each salesman a shirt in the team of his choice with his name on the back; the staff may well want to watch it and staff who feel accommodated will have a better attitude to the company, but don't let it get in the way of the work to be done. I've never bought a new car but when we went looking for a newish car for the wife it was a similar experience, some ignored us from walking in to walking out, some had 'odd' sales approaches, and then there was the KIA dealership who were about to close in ten minutes but made us feel important enough that they would stay late to show us around their cars, I wonder why there's a KIA parked on our drive?
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Jul 10th, 2018, 20:40 | #26 |
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Sure he said premium brands so could have been BMW and Merc for german brands.
As to the football being on that is fair enough. Trainers, jeans and T shirt is fine with me. The lack of service is not good and what I would take issue with. |
Jul 10th, 2018, 21:05 | #27 | |
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dealer 2 , they didnt apply pressure or "hover" etc,, which is good,, Not being focused on the customer or working with the customer as "a sporting event" was on,would Appear at first look to be "the sport is more important than the customer",, not the best 1st impression to give. As to the attire of them, that Shouldnt matter a Hoot , as long as its clean (or as clean as the job allows when working). what it Does show is that dealership places a Value on their staff , allowing them to be @ work, and follow sporting events ,, shame they didn't this time get the balance right . I dont get why people get So hung up on "clothes" , its the Skills and manners (or lack of) and interpersonal abilities that matter NOT what cloth they choose to wear,, but thats like expecting bwm "drivers" to use Indicators ,,,,,,
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Jul 10th, 2018, 21:23 | #28 | |
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if your driving down the road, and a T junction is coming,, and a White audi dives out From the T turning right Directly in front of you, so as to Need standing on the brakes,, and you Parp the horn at the ,,,,, blonde/orange Thing driving the car, only for her to turn in her seat , Hurl abuse both verbal and hand gestures at you ,, before Barging her way into the Other stream of traffic,, it isnt much of a wonderment Why certain types cause road rage and get the living kicked out of them,,,, audi/bwm + orange "drivers" need a cull
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Jul 11th, 2018, 09:05 | #29 |
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My experience of Volvo dealerships has always been excellent - knowledgeable parts and service employees, and the sales team are polite, not pushy, and know their stuff.
Looked at a Mazda 6 a few years ago before settling on the V60. Salesman didn't know whether the gearbox was dual-clutch or torque converter, and wanted to make an appointment for a test drive. I asked him to give me a call with some times when I got home but he never called back. Which is one of the reasons I'm driving a Volvo now. I also wouldn't care if someone was wearing a football shirt. Don't know the first thing about it (is something happening at the moment?) but jeans better than shiny suit IMHO. I can make a pretty quick judgement on someone without needing to base it on what they're wearing. |
Jul 15th, 2018, 20:41 | #30 |
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Yesterday and today were an interesting continuation.
Yesterday we visited dealer 4 (another dealer for the same brand as dealer 1), dealer 5, and then today we revisited dealers 1 and 3, as well as visiting dealer number 6. Dealer 4 pretty much matched dealer 1, so it seems that a good dealer experience comes with that brand. Dealer 5 was appalling! The salesman came over and struck up conversation, noted that my husband is American and starting telling us all of the good that Trump is doing! My word that's a risky strategy in trying to sell someone a car. However, in the end it was futile because this brand's products were extraordinary in how disappointing we found them, and the one vehicle they had to offer that might have been ok for us would be a total needle-in-a-haystack to find the spec we required. Dealer 6 was largely a non-event. Dealer seemed ok, but again, products were very disappointing. Getting back into the Leaf after each sit-in or test drive was interesting as it highlighted how poor some of these "premium" vehicles are. This evening I got into the V70 to take some pictures and was really struck by just how much better its interior is than a whole bunch of newer and much more expensive vehicles. Ultimately I think it came down to dealers 2 and 5 believe that their products are amazing and sell themselves. In fact to my experience dealers 1/4 and 3 are the ones who's products sold themselves (and were both spectacular driving experiences). Through it all, my estimation and judgement of Volvo has managed to improve. At the moment there isn't a Volvo that meets our price/spec/requirements, but if there were then I'd definitely consider it (and for example, S90 and new V60 and XC60 all would, if we could get a T5 cheaper). Several other brands that we previously had a better view of we now definitely won't. |
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