How to Lose a Sale

[jducoeur]

Before I forget, a bit of name-and-shame:

No shit, there we were, at Watertown Toyota a couple of weeks ago. We've pretty much decided that it's time to get a new car -- while the old one still drives okay (and has some resale value), it's ten years old and was pretty bottom-of-the-line to begin with. We've been talking about a Prius for years now, and decided sometime back that this was the year when we were going to upgrade.

I'd done my research, so Kate called ahead, made an appointment, and specifically listed the three models that we wanted to look at hands-on.

So we get there, get assigned a salesperson, and it quickly becomes apparent that:

• Despite claiming to have listened to her, nobody at the shop had actually prepared for our arrival in any way.
• The salesman had absolutely no idea what he was doing -- indeed, he clearly knew less about these cars than I did from an hour of online research. So he kept disappearing to pass questions on.
• Only one of those models was even on the lot, so he kept having to run off for long periods to "the annex" to fetch cars.

During the second instance of the latter, after he'd left us twiddling our thumbs for 15-20 minutes (and we had been there for 1.5 hours of what had been planned as a half-hour visit), we finally gave up and left. Only as we were storming out the door did anybody else show the slightest interest in talking to us.

The most generous interpretation of the situation was that the salesman was brand-new. But even that doesn't really excuse it, because he was clearly almost completely untrained. So while I'm willing to forgive the salesman a little, I'm not willing to forgive the shop.

And seriously: this was a nearly-guaranteed sale. We weren't going to buy on-the-spot, mostly because I wanted to mull it over between the three interesting models, but we were all prepared to write a check in the next week or two. As it was, I left with steam pouring out of my ears, vowing never to enter the place again.

The day was salvaged by Kate pointing out that Herb Chambers Toyota was just down the road a bit. So we walked in unannounced; got assigned a salesman instantly; he immediately took us down to the lot to look at the models we wanted; he was able to speak intelligently about the various options and tradeoffs; and he was able to discuss the availability situation. (Which turns out to be pretty tight: manufacturing has been hit by the crisis, and a lot of people are buying cars right now because they don't want to take the T.) Guess where we're probably going to buy from?

So take this as an implicit side-by-side review of two dealerships. Strictly anecdotal, but wow, the difference was striking...