[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by navin

Dont go to the dealership make them come to you! Trust me try it. At best they wont come and you can continue to do what you wre doing.

That's what I always do. Usually works and if they don't come big deal. I find that showroom walk-ins are not treated as well as appointment to your house especially for higher segment cars.

[aseem]

Unfortunately they can get away with it as in our market we are not spoiled for choice. The day we have other manfacturers taking a serious look in Indian market, only than will Honda change their attitude.

They are walking a very thing line here, their products are good but they are charging a hefty premium. Their customer service is based on profiling. Somehow I feel if they continue like this it will eventually catch up with them.

For now at least we can buy Honda cars from dealers with good attitude as opposed to the likes of Arya like dealers as mentioned on this thread.

[mmmjgm]

Originally Posted by revhappy

Once upon a time the Maharaja of Jaisalmer(I think) wanted to buy a rolls royce and hence contacted them. The company replied that he isnt worth buying their cars as they expect certain standards for their customers.

You know what the maharaja did? He bought a used rolls royce car and used it as a vehicle for collecting garbage in the city




Edit: I just found a thread related to this
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/pre-19...maharajas.html

Cheers,
Nitin

That was HH Alwar, (the princely state of Rajasthan).

Regards

M

[GTO]

An overpriced 25 lakh rupee car that gives a 2 rupee sales experience!! Sure, I can see how many V6 s are going to move off showroom floors. Shame on the attitude of Arya Honda. And we can't blame it on a single person either....it's pretty obvious that discussions were in place with other senior dealership management.

Strange that this episode surfaced on the forum this weekend; last saturday, a friend of mine wanted to finalise on the Civic. He'd asked Arya to come by my office as he was in the area anyways. Arya Honda's salesman was 1.5 hours in arriving, and only finally did after I made a strong phone call.

Needless to say, he booked his Civic from Linkway Honda.

[m-hawk]

i think it s the attitude of the sales guys that needs to b corrected but they are representing honda hence honda should do something soon . Once a company takes up agency of something that sells well it gets quite confident of its performance .
Thats exactly what s happening in here mentioned scenarios .

[Hades]

Originally Posted by flyingspur

That's almost never a solution for anything, my friend.

I think we got off on the wrong foot, mate. what i was trying to say was, whatever happened to OP was the four words,not what he should do to the Honda sales guy and manager. Hope i cleared what i meant.

[FlyingSpur]

Originally Posted by Hades

I think we got off on the wrong foot, mate. what i was trying to say was, whatever happened to OP was the four words,not what he should do to the Honda sales guy and manager. Hope i cleared what i meant.

Sure. I'm sorry to have misunderstood

[Ravveendrra]

Sad to know that flyingspur got treated badly. I have always found him to be knowledgable and restrained in his behaviour on this forum. If he can be denied a TD, I am sure, if I had gone to the showroom in question, the chowkidaar would have turned me away at the entrance itself!

I was amazed to learn from aaggoswami and wind that Honda have joined Skoda in being an economy marque with pretensions of being 'exclusive', 'premium' et al. This is ironic, esp. as Skoda is now trying to get off that particular high horse as evidenced by the pricing of the new Superb at 21L (on-road).

I wish that all salespeople learn ASAP that (probable) customers are the source of their pay!

Cheers,

[amit]

i think its called profiling a customer to identify if the customer is a prospective buyer after the test drive or not!

So what's the profile they are looking for? CEO's and directors? If the business card showed General Manager then what would they do?

What's next? Honda is going to ask people to bring last 3 years income tax returns / audited profit and loss and balance sheets and last 6 months pay slips to be eligible for a test drive?

Just to be sure that this is a dealership and not a company problem, you should take it up with Honda. Lets see what their response is.

[prashanthyr]

I would say the reception you get depends on the salesman in question as also the dealer and not really the car manufacturer, though its the manufacturer that gets hurt the most by way of lost sales if a dealer/salesman behave like this.

I had a very nice experience last month at Concorde on Hosur Road in Bangalore. My friend is evaluating cars in the 7-9 lakh range with a plan of buying around August. Since I was in town, I tagged along to test drive the Linea. We made it clear upfront to the salesman that we are evaluating all cars in the 7-9 range and this TD is not going to result in a Sale. The salesman didn't bat an eyelid. He allowed both me and my friend to TD the petrol Linea (what we were looking for), without the slightest hesitation. At the end of the TD, he took my friend's contact details, wished us good day and promised to call back in Aug. I was taken aback to say the least. Not sure if it was the salesman who is to be commended or the dealership, but both me and my friend left there with a very positive impression.

[sukrit7]

If you really own a bmw/merc or whichever please please do drive by the showroom and give the manager a word, just a word so his day brightens;and also in your mail do include this thread. Hope it gives them the same amount of jitters as those insects did in the hills, personal experience.

[raul]

The least, absolute least minimum that is required in a customer facing role is politeness. Even a hint of arrogance is misplaced and totally needless There is absolutely no reason for any of this profiling and gratuitous attitude.

If a customer wants a test drive and you are offering test drives give him/her one, maybe you will get a couple of folks who won't buy or even have any intention of buying but surely that's business, expected and accounted for by any professional company. its simply not an issue riling up or disrespecting folks for.

Some brands thrive of keeping people out and building an exclusive image for themselves on little more than this but this sort of thing only appeals to adolescents and the immature, but I don't see why Honda or any Honda employee should aspire for this.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by amit

So what's the profile they are looking for? CEO's and directors? If the business card showed General Manager then what would they do?

In that case none of their potential targeted customers would ever go down to the showroom. They rather call the car over to their place.
Irrespective of what the business card says or doesn't the test drive only creates potential for word of mouth marketing. You might not be a potential customers but you being impressed with the car might just indirectly result in several sales for the dealership.

[FlyingSpur]

Originally Posted by raul

The least, absolute least minimum that is required in a customer facing role is politeness. Even a hint of arrogance is misplaced and totally needless.

The sales representative was neither rude nor impolite, just to clarify things. It's just that it was very evident what the real problem was. And he was absolutely speechless when I said what I did to him.

Some brands thrive of keeping people out and building an exclusive image for themselves on little more than this but this sort of thing only appeals to adolescents and the immature, but I don't see why Honda or any Honda employee should aspire for this.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by Sahil

Irrespective of what the business card says or doesn't the test drive only creates potential for word of mouth marketing. You might not be a potential customers but you being impressed with the car might just indirectly result in several sales for the dealership.

....and that, Sahil, is worth much more than an advert in print. Nothing like word-of-mouth recommendations to promote your brand / cause.

[Vid6639]

Something needs to be done. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Another worry is we can't go on like this. So Honda denies us a TS, we stop recommending/buying a Honda. Skoda has poor after sales and so we stop buying Skoda. In the end what are we left with? Only Toyota?