[quickdraw]

My BMW dealership and service centre is closed on Sunday. And I cursed them for it. How does it make sense to supposedly have asia's largest dealership and service centre but keep it closed on Sunday.

[veyron_head]

This could be a little OT, but on a related note:

Piqued by the interest in the Tiago, I recently went to a Tata Showroom on the day of Ugadi. It was a state holiday and I was just hoping the showroom would be open, and it was! Full marks for Tata, I thought. After all, Tata is really making great cars these days. There were several customers waiting to TD the Tiago and I was last in the queue. Not wanting to wait, I asked for a TD of the Zest, which again was a car of interest to me.

The first question I was asked by the over-enthusiastic lady at the counter is "Sir, do you know driving?". This, after I submitted my license copy for the TD!. She also saw me parking my car just a while ago, yet couldn't help asking me this inane question. The same over-enthu sales rep rode with me in the Zest. She couldn't answer simple questions like the difference in features across variants. She even claimed confidently that the zest we drove was the top end (which it wasn't). Finally, she confessed she doesn't even know to drive and nothing about the cars at Tata. Alright, I thought may be she was a receptionist doubling up as a sales rep on a holiday. Fair enough, I was not upset!

I was pretty impressed with the zest and asked them to send a quote to my email. They promised to do so "immediately". From then on, they religiously call me every week to 'follow up'. And every time I tell them that I still haven't received the quote and that I need the quote to make a decision. They apologize and promise to send it "immediately". The next week, the cycle repeats. Now, its been over a month and I still haven't received the quote.

Another incident was with the GM showroom near my place. It was a huge sprawling showroom with just one guy sitting at the extreme corner of the showroom. It took me a while to figure out there is indeed a human inside that haunted place. There were three cars on display- a beat, sail hatch and sail sedan.So that's all of one guy and three cars in the showroom. Now this sole gentleman came to my rescue. For every simple question of mine on the 2016 beat (like which variant has ABS and Airbags) he would call someone else reluctantly and get details from them. Unable to handle this bridge-communication, I thanked him and left.

The point I am trying to make here is, it could help a Maruti or a Hyundai to keep the showrooms open on Sunday. For someone like a tata or a GM, they first need to address a fundamental issue urgently - 'attitude'. Customer service is a lot more than being polite. Both the tata and GM guys were very polite and courteous. But that doesn't help. They need knowledeable reps who can help customers buy. Unless they address that, There is no point in keeping the shop open on sunday or new year!

[Hemant_Joshi]

Definitely agree, Showrooms remaining open on Sundays is a good idea, I experienced this couple of times.
When i was buying my Car, I wanted to Test Drive Ecosport, and the dealership were totally uncooperative when I checked If I can come on a Sunday,
After pressing the Guy a couple of times, and MISSING the appointment on a weekday, They reluctantly asked me to come on a Sunday - before 12,
When I reached at 10:30 - priorly informed, the usual story, SA is on way, Only support staff in the showroom - nobody who can at-least provide me with brochure, when asked, Sir Today is Sunday no...

Even my Skoda dealer Accessories Guy was pretty reluctant when I told him, It would be difficult for me to come on weekdays and whole purchase / fitting will get delayed - I could NOT come on Sunday, but, I was asked to TRY to make on a weekday,,
After that, I dropped for going to get the Chrome windows linings fitted and its still pending from couple of months...they lost some business.. Maybe they are ok with that happening,


I fail to understand, Its a service business, why are they so bent on NOT being open on Sundays.

Imagine Theaters, Restaurants CLOSED on Sundays

[govindremesh]

I remember one Sunday back in 2011 when we were shopping for a car. The place was Navi Mumbai and surprisingly, all showrooms were open (though they opened later than their scheduled time) ! We were in Nerul and managed to visit Honda,Maruti,VW and Tata-Fiat showrooms!

Fast forward to the year 2013 in Cochin, Kerala. The day for delivery of my bike was close enough, but my dealer told me that he will not deliver on a Sunday at any cost! Further all showrooms here close by 6 PM.

I thought it was a phenomenon specific to Kerala, but am amazed to see that the practice exists elsewhere too, specially in a metro city like Bangalore!

PS: Delivery is handled differently though. When we took the delivery of our Honda City in 2015, the showroom was open just for us! The SA later told me that he and his manager took a Sunday shift to deliver our car and they would make some sales too! It was a different experience though to take delivery with just 7 of us (4 from my family, 3 from the showroom with the security guard included! )

[vgsr]

I totally agree. Working folks are free only on weekends.

Like all restaurants and hotels do, the staff can be given a weekly off on different days of the week., in such a way that all the marketing staff is present on the days of heavy rush, like the weekends.

I should know because i also run a restaurant. My entire staff is present on weekends and they take turns for their weekly holiday from Monday to Thursday.

[Grace]

I too have worked in a dealership for 3 years.

Like you, I've also looked forward to Sundays with holidays because thats the day you wash clothes and prepare for gruelling Monday to Saturday 6 day a week job. Even as you would want to laze around, we too looked forward to do the same, afterall are we humans like you too?

The life in a dealership is absolute rat race. The CEO expects you to work 24/7. Even when a customer is able to yank out a free perfume or idol out of you, your salary gets duly debitted not a at cost price but selling price of the item.

When the principle company decides to award you with some cash/white goods, the dealership like a true 'pujari' taxes you to death, I was selected to go to Bangkok in Apr 2002 for a great sale in March, the dealership large heartedly gave us 10k each to spend, however on return our salaries were debitted to that extent for next 3 months.

A dealership looks only glamorous on the outside, there is absolute filth in the minds of sales managers, their cronies, financiers and even lady collegues being opportunists at the cost of their conscience.

I have worked with a very large dealership in Bangalore for 3 years and theres a lot of filth at every level that deteriorates if you speakup your mind.

Sundays are the day of free labour. The sales managers puts you onto mall duty wherein a car is parked at a mall, and suitably tells you that except to answer few queries, you dont have significant job, so you are as well 'on leave' that day as you get to oggle [This is what they say] the fairer skin.

Dealership staff including the test drive vehicle drivers do need the ONE DAY holiday as we too have family and committments, the dealerships that do open, it is because of some obligation, the staff are bored, are disinterested, skeletal attendance, reason as many that they too want to go home and enjoy family life.

How would it feel to you if your boss at the office expects you to take one sunday off but work other 3 sundays? How will it feel when you have parents visiting / inlaws visiting / relatives /wifey and children wanting to catch up the movie or just go visiting a cousin or probably go to the park to play on the swings and you are slogging at workplace on a sunday. Money is not the motivator all the time, there are things beyond that like imagine a family member being sick and its your turn to sit at the hospital, but then you are expected at the dealership too, for what?
so that customers come window-shopping bellyfull and belching and asking joyride?

The dealership management takes us to task if the TD car runs more on holidays, they say that you are taking joyride in company car. If you did not know, theres a security guard who reads out and notes the cars metre after every time the car return from the test drive.

Dear Sir and everyone of you complaining that dealership are disinterested lot, please consider human angle when you accuse us of giving you lame excuses.

Best Regards
Andy

[VW2010]

My tryst with Honda two wheeler showrooms in Chennai especially, no test drives post 5 pm and no customers post 6 pm and showroom locked on Sundays. This makes me think, is this reluctance a symbol of market dominance?

Most two wheeler showrooms are like that. These show rooms run at less than required man power. A sales guy also pitching in as service adviser etc. Its simply cost equation a dealer wants to manager to maximize his own pocket-able profit.

KTM showrooms are closed by 6 also i guess. Its just the norm and nothing to do with market dominance.

I would say border line arrogance and is visible when they start your sale with financing options rather than explaining about the vehicle itself. Only in KTM did i hear about the bike while even in honda while approaching for CBR 1000 they didnt even have interest to show the bike or talk about it but were ready to talk about financing.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by Grace

Dear Sir and everyone of you complaining that dealership are disinterested lot, please consider human angle when you accuse us of giving you lame excuses.

I think it's a perfectly good plan to go car shopping on sundays.

No one blamed the people working in the dealerships either.

The dealership management should be aware that due to this 'closed on Sundays' plan - they may be losing customers.

To remediate this, they should hire more staff so as to keep the showroom staffed adequately 7 days a week without overworking the staff.
How do you think 24x7 BPOs work? They have people in shifts ! People who come in on sat/sun get days off on other days.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Grace

How would it feel to you if your boss at the office expects you to take one sunday off but work other 3 sundays?

Dear Sir and everyone of you complaining that dealership are disinterested lot, please consider human angle when you accuse us of giving you lame excuses.

Best Regards
Andy

Very very valid points. Sorry for not replying to other posts but only this one as I'm browsing from mobile.

Just to let you know that my work schedule includes 9 hours per day of regular office work, 15 hours per day of on-call support for any major issues, and 24 hours of weekend on-call support including 6 hours of regular work every alternate weekend. Have been working almost every other weekend ever since I joined my IT career.

So I very well do know the pain of working weekends. Do I try to avoid it? No. Imagine your ATM card not working on Monday, your dealership software going down on Monday morning when you want to make the fresh Monday start, your cellphone network going down when you try to book that Monday cab. Or as I mentioned earlier, a simple example of a/c maintenance being carried out on a weekday. Or as another member mentioned above, the restaurants where we chose to eat out on weekends. There are people who slog it out on weekends to ensure weekdays remain stress free for many others.

I'm one of them. Probably you would have seen or heard about Siebel software and databases on which most dealerships run. I make a living out of maintaining it and enhancing it over the weekends (for other industries mainly telecom) so that you guys can make the most out of your weekdays.

If it's more convenient for the larger audience if a dealership is open on Sundays, I guess companies will need to take initiatives to strike a balance between these two. If you're anyways asked to do casual work like standing at a mall, why not as well make it formal work so that another day can be availed as compensatory off days? And this duty cab be rotated among members on a weekly basis.

Best regards
Sujai

[adg_andy]

I too concur that the Automobile showrooms should be open on weekends(preferably Sundays). The staff could be given a holiday on Friday/Saturday. Logic:
The RTO is open for half day on Saturday and closed on Sundays. By this technique, if a person books a veghicle on say - Sunday- the readily available vehicle goes for registration the next day!! Win-win.
In my case, Kropex had kept their showroom open on Sunday, the SA was enthusiastic and even the AC was on full blast. In contrast the hyundai showroom across the road was a dire contrast: Less disinterested staff, AC not running. Adding insult to injury, the first thing they wanted to know was my "Take Home" salary.Needless to talk about the brand I went for

[7heaven]

Originally Posted by Grace

I too have worked in a dealership for 3 years.

Like you, I've also looked forward to Sundays with holidays because that's the day you wash clothes and prepare for grueling Monday to Saturday 6 day a week job. Even as you would want to laze around, we too looked forward to do the same, after all are we humans like you too?

Dear Sir and everyone of you complaining that dealership are disinterested lot, please consider human angle when you accuse us of giving you lame excuses.

Best Regards
Andy

I empathize with you Andy, I for one strongly believe that the greater care you take on employees, the better they serve the company. Sad to see that your experiences have been the opposite so far. You people are the vital link in the sales chain with the company, you should be compensated with double wages, free lunch etc. and weekday off when you work on Sundays... the management must give incentives in such way that there should be a race among the employees to take the Sunday shift. As many of our members said Sunday will be the most important day to close a deal and earn additional sales incentives.

Myself and a friend had gone to check out the kuv 100 on a Sunday in the month of March, my friend's brother in law wanted to buy it out of sheer good experience he had with his earlier Bolero, we were there by 10.30 and was greeted by just 2 persons, one security guard and one sales guy who was busy with a client already, we were just browsing the showroom and the kuv 100 in particular, after 30 mins or so the sales person with whom we had spoken earlier arrived and got the TD, it went on well he was able to answer all our queries without any issues. We asked about the availability and he gave us two options and we booked the silver colored one the third variant. overall the experience was good, my friend and his brother in law dropped in the next day to finish the payment part and took delivery of the car by March end after registration.

Coming to the main point by the time we came back from TD there was huge crowd and other sales executives were there. It looked like a party hall with all the crowd on a Sunday.

[blackwasp]

Working in a dealership, I have totally opposite experience. Its actually profitable to work on a Sunday. We can come a bit late, and leave early and we get a comp off as well that can be used later. Staff is less, and many are reluctant, but I will always try to get myself on the Sunday rotation! This way, when I want to do actual work - pay bills, visit some office etc, I can take a leave during week day and do all my chores.

I've done deliveries on Sunday as well. The customer feels good knowing we accommodated his request. TD are available on Sundays as well. Since the RTO is not working, no paperwork (back office ) is done on Sundays. And generally the mood in the showroom is casual and the seniors are in a jovial mood as well. This is a good opportunity for a new person like me to develop a rapport with seniors.

[Tanveer_2558]

For some reason, I have always avoided going to any dealerships on sunday, Reason? Lot of people! Long queue for test drives, Its difficult to spend as much as time you want in the display vehicle, Check everything out peacefully, Hence i have always visited showroom on the weekdays, Where everything can be done peacefully, From test drive, To checking out the display vehicle etc.


Edit : I have avoided checking out, "Newly launched cars" On sundays.

[govindremesh]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Have been working almost every other weekend ever since I joined my IT career.

your cellphone network going down when you try to book that Monday cab. Or as I mentioned earlier, a simple example of a/c maintenance being carried out on a weekday.

Adding to the above, I work for an IT major. I have spent many weekends in office with just a fan to cool me down since the air-conditioning is inoperative on weekends. I don't get any overtime nor appreciation as it's part of my duty.

I also worked for a telecom company where I have done many 9AM to 11PM shift and 7 day weeks, sometimes both together. All for peanuts in return since I was just an intern there.

I felt bad, but it's my personal policy to deliver quality in whatever I do, so I do it even though the family guy inside me is horribly disappointed.

Every profession has its downsides. I empathize with the sales persons who have impossible targets to achieve and and paid less. Further, they have to tolerate to the "nakhra" and demands of the customers which sometimes are unreasonable.

However, that is not an excuse to not living up to the call of your duty specifically when you have a lot of potential to achieve your workplace goals. If one finds it unacceptable, they should probably switch jobs

[kiku007]

Forget about Sundays; even during weekdays one has to take time off work to visit a dealership or rush in the evening praying they don't close before you reach. So I prefer calling the dealer and let them bring the car to my place in an agreed time. Saves time (Travel and wait time) and I get to test the car for a longer time.

Car dealerships seem to follow the working hours of Banks than retail stores.

Fair argument that dealerships may not actually make real sales on Sundays but why can't I take delivery on a Sunday? I've paid them, the sale is already made.