[saisree]

Period - August 2015
Car - Honda Jazz.
Dealer - Sundaram Honda Chennai

This is how the conversation went

Myself to the Receptionist: Can you get me the senior most salesman
Receptionist : Yes Sir, but it may take sometime as he is helping a junior
Myself : No Worries, I will wait, but get me the senior most.
Senior SA : Wished and said, How can I help you?
Myself: I came here to book Honda Jazz and please bring the proforma
SA: Shall we look into the car? I can explain.
Myself: No, I don't want to listen anything, just bring the application and other items to do the booking.

Done with the booking and left.

On the day of delivery:
SA: Sir, you were one among the very few who came in booked the car with out seeing it. Also, learnt you wanted to meet the senior most.
Myself: My first destination was Capital Honda and the SA there explained me inside out and went on to say its the fastest diesel in the market. I shunned him there and didn't want to listen to it again from any one of you here. And for the senior most, generally you people are busy helping the juniors and you have very less time to attend. Saves my time too.
Gave him a sweet box, a Big Bazaar coupon and drove away.

OT: SA is a facebook friend now, he moved to TaMo and is still connected.

[MaheshBapurao]

Few weeks back , contacted nexa for s cross petrol automatic, a random call to a dealer and while going through the costing casually asked him if I can get insurance outside, his immediate response “no Sir” and Maruthi has instructed not to sell if buyer does not get insurance through them” 😂
Heights! he called me back to say his manager has given me exception and okay to get insurance outside

[procrastinator]

These chaps at most of the dealerships are paid less. The talent is mediocre with exceptions who are gems with knowledge and customer satisfaction.

I recall 10 years ago when we were looking for Ritz.
We asked about odd looking rear.
The salesman said, “it’s aerodynamics design sir.”
“The boomerang rear pushes the car forward at move.”

Another one at different dealership on same question.
“It is made like humans”
“Look at our back sir”.

[vivek2652]

There were some good discounts for bs 4 models last year.So I went to hyundai showroom to inquire about grand i10.
SA to me : There is not much diiference between bs4 and bs6 models.A small part in exhaust needs to be changed that will convert old bs4 car to bs6.
Me: Are you sure about this?
SA: Yes sir(very confidently).
Walked out of the showroom and booked grand i10 from some another dealer.Maybe I should go back to that dealer now and ask for bs6 conversion that sa was talking about

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by Chinmay

I go to Nexa for S-cross TD. They don't have a TD vehicle it seems. So they push for Baleno.

I don't why Nexa likes to undersell when you go to buy the larger, more expensive vehicle. My father had a similar experience when he bought a Ciaz.

Needless to say, it is a little insulting to the customer.

Originally Posted by manish84

His reply was - Sir, the [enigne] noise is coming because the music system is off. Once you switch on the music system there would be no noise

Maybe you got the one knowledgeable salesman who was referring to active noise cancellation?

[saisree]

Originally Posted by procrastinator

I recall 10 years ago when we were looking for Ritz.
We asked about odd looking rear.

Another one at different dealership on same question.
“It is made like humans” “Look at our back sir”.

Seriously? This one takes the cake. Manufacturers should go as guests to the dealerships and check how their cars are being marketed and explained to the customers

[DieselTurbo]

A Jeep SA in Mumbai tried to make believe that the Petrol AT Compass is the sportiest and fastest engine I have ever driven. I took a TD - very average nothing special and I told him I’ll take an extensive drive over the weekend when I have more time.
TD at home was scheduled for the day before Diwali. The whole day tried to contact him but he didn’t pick up. Suddenly next day when I was at work for Diwali puja in the day I get 14 missed calls from him in a span on 1 hour. I eventually call him back and he tells me he had a 104 fever and was in the hospital till yesterday. Not wanting to argue I say it’s fine and he says he’s near coming to my house right then and was bringing the car. I hesitantly agree after consulting my father and grandfather. He ends up coming in the complete wrong car. Where as we were looking at the Top end Compass Petrol AT he arrived in a beaten down dirty smelling base diesel manual Compass. Took a 1 km test drive out of formality with my father and looking at the condition of the car. The stains on the seats and the horrible ICE we are done. Over the next one week we turn down the SA telling him we’re not interested but we continued to get 10 calls everyday from 8am to 11pm and eventually we block him. Think this SA spoilt our entire outlook and opinion on Jeep India.

[WhiteSierra]

Back in 2016, my friend was in the market for a new car, their family's first car to be precise. But his budget is set at 4 lakhs maximum. We were exploring all the different cars in his budget, we considered Hyundai Eon, Maruti Alto 800, Renault Kwid and Datsun RediGo. We test drove Hyundai Eon at Talwar Hyundai and Maurti Alto 800 at Varun Motors, IIRC both cars have relatively higher kms on the odo, more than 25 k kms. My friend was happy with Alto and he ruled out Eon for less leg space for the rear seat occupants.

Next, we went to Renault showroom to test drive Kwid, they did not have a test drive vehicle, but was eager for booking amount. We made a point that we would only book the car after test driving it and we told the SA that we already test drove Eon and Alto, to which he said those are much inferior products compared to Kwid, and Kwid is built on duster platform and it is a smaller version of Duster. We couldn't control our laughter, we laughed on his face, gave my friend's phone number and asked him to call us back with a TD vehicle, we never received a call from him so far.

After the fun moment at Renault showroom, we walked into Nissan showroom which is some 200 meters away (Renault, Nissan and Hyundai showrooms are just beside each other on Begumpet, SP road). When we walked into an empty Nissan showroom without any customers, everyone (staff) looked at us, probably they were thinking that they shouldn't let go of us without making a deal. They all had that look. I could only sympathize them. We inquired about Datsun RediGo, I believe it was recently launched back then, they promptly bought the test drive car, I hopped into the driver's seat and my friend in the passenger's seat. The lady SA whom we spoke to and one more SA sat beside us. The car vibrated like hell at just 40 kmph. I know it is a 3 cylinder engine car, but my Wagon R K10 or even old Maruti 800s never vibrated like that. I asked SA what's up with this violent vibration, to which she replied, Sir, this is a test drive vehicle, many people drive it daily but new cars are absolutely smooth, please pay the booking amount, your new car will not have this issue at all sir. This TD vehicle had less than 1500 kms on odo, compared to 25k + kms on Alto 800 and Eon TD vehicles. How can we even believe what she was saying about this RediGo TD vehicle? It did not make any sense at all for a 1500 kms run car vibrating like this at 40 kmph.

Since this is my friend's first car, which is also going to be their family's first car, he did not want to take any risk, we went back to Varun Motors and booked the humble Alto 800, it is serving him and his parents without any issues so far.

[chembilath]

Last year my BIL was in search of a Polo GTI and i happened to find one in OLX which was at a premium used car showroom.
We both went there in his Jaguar ( these premium car dealers don't tend to bother if you show up in a small car). The Jaguar had it's effect and the lady sales rep whom I had contacted, immediately started showing us the car and explaining everything in detail to our technical queries.
Another senior sales guy joined our conversation and the look on his face seemed like he did not like us checking out the GTI, he kept adding weird points which we kept ignoring. We wanted a TD and asked the lady for it, soon the elder sales guy says as this car has only 2 doors and it's seating capacity is 2 people only, the seats in the rear are just for luggage, also if the police sees people in the back they will fine us. We were already irritated by him and this just struck me hard!! I politely asked him to bring the RC and show it's seating capacity is 2 and if it is not 5, we would leave the showroom immediately.

Still remember the look on his face when the RC was bought in by the lady and it clearly showed seating capacity 5

That car had some issues and we ended up buying another GTI from a BMW used car section

[Thatautoguy46]

I'm in the market now for a bike and liked the Suzuki Gixxer SF250, but the VFM factor is not letting my heart to go ahead with the purchase. I went to a Suzuki dealership for the test ride of the and was impressed. But told them that the Dominar400 is a better VFM deal for which they replied "Saar, Suzuki has those best resale value and the spares are easily available when compared to Bajaj"
.
OMG, I just laughed it off . Where in the world does Suzuki Motorcycles has better resale value and ease of getting spares. The Suzuki service for two wheelers has the worst ratings in my city and see what the salesmen here are trying to do

[BANDHAV]

I started my Career as a Sales Executive with one of the Toyota Dealership in Delhi NCR. There was this famous story about a Sales guy in one of the Punjab Dealership of Skoda.

Apparently when a trainer of Toyota walked in as a customer and asked him about the aerodynamics of erstwhile Octavia during the test drive, the sales guy parked the car, opened the front doors, opened the notch back boot (picture this) and then told this trainer, 'Look, Car looks like a aeroplane, this aerodynamic.

I am sure there must be a bit of exaggeration involved but I kind of believe it, I have seen car sales guys up close and personal, I have seen them throwing utter crap on customers in bid to make a sale.

[500ContyCruiser]

This happened in 2012, when I was TD'ing Skoda Rapid at Vinayak Skoda, Palace Ground, Bangalore, I asked the then Showroom Manager, Mr. Manjunath on why Rapid doesnt come with steering controls as opposed to other Skoda cars. He explained that Rapid has steering airbag and the controls hampers with airbag setup. And further the controls can injure driver upon impact.

Anyway I wasnt really interested in steering controls (still not a fan). That story dint affect my purchase.

[Chinmay]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

I don't why Nexa likes to undersell when you go to buy the larger, more expensive vehicle. My father had a similar experience when he bought a Ciaz.

Needless to say, it is a little insulting to the customer.

Absolutely! Its like they know more about what a customer wants than the customers themselves.
And I am also amused by their persistence with a particular vehicle. I mean, in theory, a higher priced car should give a better incentive, I suppose. I may be wrong though. Or it may be so that they are asked to push their most popular models to their customers for better incentives. Either ways, the whole experience in Nexa is funny. And, they are still behind me to buy a Baleno, even though I told them to leave me alone as I have bought another vehicle.

[josesiju96]

This happened a month back. My dad was all set to book a Mercedes C 220d, we didn't consider other options at first since we had bad experiences with BMW and Audi was not doing well in sales (lackluster lineup) also our first proper premium car was a Mercedes. So we were almost sure it would be a merc, they said that we could have the 2019 model at a good discount at about 55 lakhs (2020 model costs 62 lakhs). I had read about Lexus on teambhp and was super impressed about the ES and their ASS, so we did a TD of the ES before the Mercedes and we were really impressed. The Mercedes SA was super confident that we'll proceed and he even brought the team head for our first TD to finalize the deal ASAP. We told them about the Lexus TD hoping they would give a better discount (we were going to buy an almost 1yr old car), they dismissed us off by saying a merc is special and that we were lucky that we got the present deal.

We decided to move ahead with the Lexus and messaged the Mercedes SA to thank him for his time. What followed was totally unprofessional, they started bad mouthing Lexus: "Sir, Lexus is a bad choice, I've heard so many of our customers complaining about Lexus cars, they have bad mileage (Lexus was a hybrid! LOL!). You can buy a BMW sir, but don't buy a Lexus". Later we got a call from the team lead saying we could have the car at 50 lakhs, so much for Mercedes being special. We never attended their calls again and went with Lexus. Was really shocked that even top brands were this unprofessional.

[Thilak29]

Who is this gentlemen forum is using in the link to this post (but not found in thread) , some stock photo ? I feel pity that he is the face we will remember for the stupidity of many from SA community.