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Voted No. Have had the good fortune not to ever have had a bad Sales experience so far, in the purchase of about 7 cars that I have been directly involved in, starting from the humble Alto K10 and the original Santro, to my current Octavia vRS.
Have always had test drives when I requested, although I have always made cold calls directly at a dealership. Whenever said car was not available, the dealership stuck to its time committed to provide the TD car on another day.
My experience with the Sales execs have been mixed in terms of their knowledge of the car that they were selling, but never unprofessional.
All the above being said, I have always let the car decide whether we buy the car, rather than the person / dealer selling it. Else, we would never have ended up with the Linea which is still being used in the family after 10 years and almost 1 Lakh Kms driven.
Voted No.
When I was in the process of buying my Car, I visited Sai Sakshi Ford showroom in Pune. I got a cold response from Sales rep and no test drive.
This didn't stop me from buying a Ford, I got a Ford Figo from Talera Ford and service was good.
Voted yes
That's because of Toyota (Lanson) dealer in Chennai, way back in my life around 10 years ago ..where the sales lady was treating me with prejudiced mind (this guy ...innova !!). I came out and decided whatever it takes, i will not buy toyota. even after buying Xylo, Wagon R, Getz, Figo and Ecosport, never regretted my decision.
A bad sales(wo)man can be a rotten apple in a basket !!
Voted No.
I remember in 2007, I was in the market to buy a new Santro. I encountered cold response from first two dealerships that I visited. In the first showroom the sales officer did not even bother to come up to us and ask which car we were considering. He was busier in pleasing a female colleague. The experience at the second place was radically different. The sales person was enthusiastic only up to the point when he figured out that we would not avail any financial assistance from the bank of his preference. But then we continued exploring other dealerships and struck a deal with the one which came up with a more appealing offer.
A similar situation surfaced in 2016 when I was into the market for a Ciaz. The first dealership that I visited had a very stodgy sales guy. For some unknown reason, the guy kept refusing to take my booking and kept asking me to come on any other day. I visited this showroom at least 4 times with cheque for entire amount in hand only to be sent back each time. Coincidentally (was it so) no higher officers in the dealership were available at the times that I visited, so that the matter could be elevated. Finally I wrote an e-mail to MSIL giving details of the whole incident and booked the same car at another dealer. Next day the GM of the dealership called me to apologize and requested me to reconsider my decision. He also offered to forthwith allot the variant and color of my choice. However it was too late for him to rectify.
Usually a decision to buy a specific car is taken after deriving preferences, followed by extensive research of the market and selecting the one that fits the bill to the max. Once a car is selected, then disregarding it under pretext of a reason for which it carries no attributes would only mean buying a compromise.
In nut shell bad behavior by a sales guy will only force me to shift dealerships but not the car.
Yes.
TVS Apache RTR in 2008. Dealer Anton TVS.
Mahindra Scorpio in 2015. Dealer TVS Iyengar & Sons.
I bought Polo GT instead of scorpio. Different segments I know, but would have bought Scorpio but dealership thought they were doing me a favour.
In towns with monopoly over sales and service its better to just forget the brand in case of a bad experience and move on unless the requirements are very very specific with no alternatives. Exception to this rule is Toyota, even with monopoly they are good.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nibedk
(Post 4572369)
I may skip a car where the dealers are notorious for cheating like VAG group in India.
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Tell me about it! Been there but didn't skip buying my VW Polo.
So here is my story.
It was June 2014 and the whole family resting after dinner and I bring up the topic of buying a new car. Took a lot of TD's and settled in for a VW Polo.
Initially made the booking for a polo petrol paying Rs.25.000/-. After a week I call up the Sales Manager and ask him to change the booking to Diesel since our usage was going to be more and Diesel seemed apt. Started reading about the after sales service of VAG and how to handle them. And there I stumble upon a facelift version being launched post May 2014. The Sales Manager did not even utter a word regarding this. I call him up next day for a clarification and he confirms the same.
Changed the booking to the facelift 1.5L TDi. He said the car would be delivered in August. One fine day cars arrive and the SA calls and informs that a white polo (the colour I booked) has been alloted to me. I insisted that I wanted to see the car.
The protective stickers on the bonnet and roof were peeled off. SA said the PDI was done. The stickers inside the cars weren't there. Absolutely did not look like a new car to me. ODO reading was 40kms. Straight away told the SA that I wanted a different car. He said "Sir, this car is alloted and booked for you. You have to take this car only". I wasn't satisfied at all and yet they forced me to buy a used one.
I go meet the Manager and explain my ordeal. After listening to me he says "Sir, first you pay the full amount only then we can give you a different car". I rejected his terms saying without seeing the car not one penny would be paid. He shows a different car where all the protective stickers were intact and says this car is booked for another customer. He says again "If you pay the full amount I will order a car like this".
I knew what they were trying to do. Register a used car in my name. Spoke to the customer care and informed them about the same. Next day manager calls and asks why I informed the customer care while I was being offered a new car. I said "Sir, the car you are offering me isn't new and I want a refund of my booking amount in full."
He said the cheque would be ready in two days since the owner was out of town. The day I went to collect the cheque manager says full refund cannot be given since I was cancelling the booking from my end. All I told him "If you give me a new car I wouldn't cancel my booking." He murmured something left his room and got a cheque for Rs.25.000/-. I happily left that place and took delivery of my VW Polo Diesel facelift version from Chennai on September 4th 2014.
I have a rather different take on this.
If I get a bad sales experience, I take it as a failure on the part of the brand because if the brand is really interested in selling its car, it should take care of all the aspects, including the sales experience.
Now if I escalate a bad sales experience to the brand and do not get a response, I would never buy from the brand simply because I prefer not to do business with someone (or brand) who doesn't value my business.
I belong to the 'endangered' minority who are not ok with "People will buy my product even if I am arrogant because my product is so attractive".
Voted Yes!
If your shopping list have multiple cars from the same segment and you cannot go wrong with any of them.
The experience matters, as I am getting into a relationship with the dealer that is going to last a few years at least.
An unenthusiastic sales experience to me is an indicator of how the after-sales is going to be and in some cases whether the brand is committed to stay strong in India.
I dropped ecosport at one point although there wasn't any other sub 4M crossover at that time simply due to poor sales experience. I dropped Hyundai as well once because they were too busy to be bothered. Tata was a mixed bag, I dropped it once when it was bad and I did buy after many years later when the experience was good enough.
All this can happen only for vehicles that have plenty of alternatives.
Of course I am not buying a vehicle purely based on sales experience, but it does make me nervous to write that cheque unless I am confident about the brand and the dealer.
I do make the sales team work for it, I will demand the vehicle to be shown to me before I pay the booking and I don't pay a lot of money on booking , etc etc, so a good salesman who can make it all happen is a must.
My Tata Tigor's entire process from sale to delivery was an absolute disaster, almost made up my mind to get an used automatic from the above segment since Tigor was the only decent auto option within my budget, somehow pushed and got the car delivered and right now happy with it most of the time. Happy that I didn't change my decision :)
I had this experience with one of the Hyundai showroom when I was buying my i10. The sales guy was too pushy and made few comments which was totally uncalled for. Did exactly as suggested by GTO. Cancelled my booking from the showroom and got the car from another one. I badly wanted the i10 at that point of time and no Salesman, no matter how bad he was, could stop me from getting my hands on the i10.
During my hunt in 2017, having zeroed on the Ciaz auto, went to Bimal Nexa and though the sales team was pretty effective, the sales guy who I was interacting with, came across as a chatty one with a really big motormouth who promised everything until I made the initial deposit! Things changed right after this, my calls were being ignored, even after a personal visit, this guy showed up as a really busy chap with absolutely no regard to my requirements. Simple, I just requested for a faster delivery and the color option of my choice and a visit to the stockyard. All I kept hearing were excuses after excuses, went on for almost close to 10 days and finally I said 'thank you' to Bimal Nexa, got my booking cancelled and went to Garuda Nexa.
I am on the verge of opting out due to horrible dealership experience from none other than the mighty Maruti. Somehow, I always find it easier to navigate my way around less reputed / troublesome brands than the typical mass market brand where to have haggle and shout to be heard. Mahindra was a pleasant experience and I just traded my beloved Thar (3 year old) for a Swift Zxi plus amt so the wife could drive. In fact this is my first sensible car purchase! and somehow, it is turning out to be the most difficult so far with none of the dealership guys speaking the truth regarding anything. The purchaseband ownership experience could be a separate thread but just to state my voes, I was told the documents were uploaded for registration last Monday but after I traveled back from Bangalore hoping to collect the car, I am told that neither was the document uploaded but the car itself is not with the dealer. It is not even in transit yet!
Voted No!
The only car which I finalized based on test drive was Polo GT TSI. Otherwise I was pretty sure what I have to buy regardless of the dealership experience. Even if my dealership experience would have been bad I can simply move on and try another dealer.
Voted Yes. If there is only a single dealer for that vehicle in your town then a bad experience would be a deal breaker for me since I know that usually the same management is handling the service department too. A vehicle is not a like mobile or laptop where you purchase once and possibly never have to go back to the dealer, instead you almost have to visit the dealer periodically for services, maintenance, denting, painting etc and if they can't provide me good service when I'm trying to give them money for a car then I doubt they will do much when it comes the time for them to give me good service for a product that I am very well locked to for the foreseeable future without a chance to change the vehicle without severe financial loss in the form of depreciation.
Hello Everyone, This is my 1st post on Team-BHP and i am quite enthralled to be a part of the largest automotive community in India.
Well, In my opinion, i would never drop a car just because sales experience is bad. Rather, i would change the dealership. But, one question i would ask everyone, if you are getting a damn good deal but sales experience has been nothing but terrible, would you change the dealership then?
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