Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

[mail4ajo]

I dont see this as a joke. Quite natural. Most of these car sales people are diploma/plus 2 holders. There could be exceptions as well.

They will not be trained well by the dealership either who expects the manufacturer's marketing to work wonders on sales.

As far as I know, these people are also paid very less. You cant expect an Arab stallion for a mule's pay.

I am not trying to boast here. I have been a hardcore sales guy all my career. I would love to sell cars, infact I tried my level best to get into Hyundai Motor Plaza, Chennai after college. But will they pay for the passion, drive, updated knowledge I bring to the job?

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Well still this is irrelevant questioning about power and torque. Automotive IT domain does not mean he should have interest in Automobiles. ECU programming can be done with embedded knowledge and without knowing power, torque, diffrential,etc.

What do you think they do with the ECU, then?

[~~h]

When the limited fiesta was launched (few months back) I visited SC Ford Mumbai... The exchange desk guy was asking whether my Getz is an LXi or VXi... 'cmon, you guys are in the business .
Thankfully I had no intension to exchange the car, else god knows what valuation I must have got.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by mail4ajo

As far as I know, these people are also paid very less. You cant expect an Arab stallion for a mule's pay.

No... very little is being expected.

I have already mentioned the girls in places like Viveks that have, at least, memorised the specs from the brochures: that is the least a car salesman should do.

Of course, we must blame management in the end, but why would they do this? Why would they employ ignorant staff and not train them? I suspect that it is a certain bovine excrement culture that goes with modern "management" (they impress each other with it; that's how they get the jobs) that does not put actually being informed as a priority.

Back in the job, having eventually got rid of some brown-stuff spewing salesman (IT sector), we often used to ask ourselves, "How is it he has a job?". The Only answer we could think of was that there must be plenty of people who buy that approach!

[l_tejash]

I do remember when I had gone to Td the Santro I had asked thd person with us that what was the difference between the Santro and the Accent? To my shock he told me that the Ac vent of Santro made a noise on level 3 of the blower and the Accent Ac vent was quiet.

[sierrakamat]

give these guys a break after all they are not trained are under paid and have unreasonable targets .besides how many of us have actually bought the cars based on the sales talk

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by sidindica

This thread is not meant to create a mockery of salesperson, rather to highlight that how and why and on what basis many persons are recruited at dealerships. And not all persons are bad. But at least you must have decent knowledge of the product that they are selling to us.

They are paid for it, its a profession and when people make a mockery of their profession, openly, why not will we feel bad? After all, we are spending hard earned money in purchasing the car. Whatever replies I got was simply bizarre. Look at the first post and you will know what I will mean.

+1

There's a whole group of innocent people who know nothing about cars and believe these sales persons to put lakhs of rupees on a car.

After an house, the car is the most expensive purchase made by many Indians and here we have loads of clowns dishing out crap.

How would a vegetarian feel when he's offered Sweet Corn Chicken Soup instead of SC Veg soup and when pointed out the server says, "Sar we gave you chicken as compliment...you should thank us instead of complaining".

[kiku007]

My experience with a Ford SR. Not a comedy of error but just to show how different perspectives are.

Me: Will the Figo come with the same 1.4 TDCi as in the Fiesta?
SR: No Sir. Definetly it will a reduced capacity version. May be 1.2 or 1.3 TDCi only
Me: But Why?
SR: Figo is a small car. Doesn't need so much power. They put the 1.4 TDCi in the Ikon and it's so fast (compared to the heavier Fiesta), it flies! The Figo will be even more lighter and we don't people to have a poweful car and meet with lot of accidents.
Me: Appreciate your concern but please pass on the info to your management that this is not the right approach. People out here feel that the Fiesta is underpowered with the 1.4 TDCi and are eagerly looking forward for the 1.6 TDCi
SR: Sure Sir. BTW The 1.6 TDCi is expected only by 2010 end.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by l_tejash

I do remember when I had gone to Td the Santro I had asked thd person with us that what was the difference between the Santro and the Accent? To my shock he told me that the Ac vent of Santro made a noise on level 3 of the blower and the Accent Ac vent was quiet.

A real pro!

I had a friend who used to deliver cars. His ideal was to get a car on a Friday that had to be delivered to the new owner or company-car driver on the Monday. Whilst he was not supposed to go out driving over the weekend...

The noise of the blower would have been just the sort of silly thing we would have judged a new model on. How long the cigarette lighter took to heat up was one of our favourite ratings!

Err... This was London, about 1973, so any blaming would be a little late.

[EssYouWe]

Lol @ Thad.

My experiences:

Called up some Hyundai dealer in Pune. Had to inquire about the Accent executive for my brother. First off they get so baffled at me calling from Delhi that they keep juggling the receiver. When they finally settle down, I asked them how long could the Accent be expected to stay on the shelf.
The wonderful lady remarked that the Accent was a great car and that Hyundai has no plans of ditching it for another 10 years.


The ABS reply is so common! One guy told me that ABS is Anti Braking system! He said "isse brake thodi der se lagti hai".

When I called for a TD of the ANHC, the dealer sent a brand new AT! It wasn't marked as a TD vehicle and their was no number plate. I guess they sold it off to someone after milking a few TDs.

Being a sales man for some car company would be a dream come true if they pay well.

[anujmishra]

Originally Posted by nitrous

What do you think they do with the ECU, then?

Nothing, they do whatever told or designed. Other example of similar question is you are asking question to actor (who only acts in movies or serials) How CCD (Charged Coupled Devices) works? Although CCD is very much integral part of modern cameras.

Well acting and photography or videography are entirely different domain. Programming for ECU is Automotive IT Domain where he encounters bits and bytes. Where he gets certain type of inputs from sensors and he processes it and produces output in digital form. If his domain name contains Automotive it does not mean you should expect him to know all mechanical details about car OR member of Team-BHP.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Well acting and photography or videography are entirely different domain. Programming for ECU is Automotive IT Domain where he encounters bits and bytes. Where he gets certain type of inputs from sensors and he processes it and produces output in digital form. If his domain name contains Automotive it does not mean you should expect him to know all mechanical details about car OR member of Team-BHP.

This is the bane of IT industry these days. They are like a jockey who doesn't want to know whether he is riding a horse or a mule, let alone stallion or gelding or a mare. The term code coolie was coined specifically for them.

[pacman2881]

Originally Posted by siddhu_engg24

I went for TD of i20 CRDi just after it launched.

Dealer : Panchavati Hyundai, Nashik

Sales Rep told me all the Spec's of Petrol i20.
He even gave me Petrol i20 brochure saying that "Tech Specs" for CRDi would be more/less same.

Similar thing happened to me here in Chennai when i20 Crdi was launched. Seems they were running out Crdi brochures

But my ultimate experience was when I was in Maruti showroom. The sales guy was 100% sure that Swift is as tall as Ritz! I had to ask him to bring the specifications of both the cars to show him Ritz is taller.

[Latheesh]

GM dealer sales guy:

Saaar, Spark body is made of pure steel, all other cars are made of iron!!!!

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by Samurai

This is the bane of IT industry these days. They are like a jockey who doesn't want to know whether he is riding a horse or a mule, let alone stallion or gelding or a mare. The term code coolie was coined specifically for them.

Hey, done blame the jockey if the team owners want them to ride mules, or the stallions who have to act like mules because only mules are wanted.

There is a mallu saying "Gathi kettal puli pullum thinnum"

translated- it means if it has to , even the big feline will eat grass