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Smart Shopper Stories from the Sales Frontlines
47317 messages, Last post on Nov 10, 2009 at 4:53 AM
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Does this make sense?; How to lock your car safely While traveling my son stopped at a roadside park. He came out to his car less than 4-5 minutes later and found someone had gotten into his car, and stolen his cell phone, laptop computer, GPS navigator briefcase.....you name it .. called the police and since there were no signs of his car being broken into- the police told him that there is a device that robbers are using now to clone your security code when you lock your doors on your car using your key-chain locking device.. They sit a distance away and watch for their next victim. They know you are going inside of the store, restaurant, or bathroom and have a few minutes to steal and run. The police officer said... be sure to manually lock your car door by hitting the lock button inside the car, that way if there is someone sitting in a parking lot watching for their next victim it will not be you. When you hit the lock button on your car upon exiting...it does not send the security code, but if you walk away and use the door lock on your key chain- it sends the code through the airwaves where it can be stolen, something totally new to us. Be aware of this and please pass this note on..look how many times we all lock our doors with our keys...just to be sure we remembered to lock them....and bingo someone have our code...and whatever was in the car...can be gone. Got an email and I don't know if it is true?
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Replying to: driver100 (Nov 12, 2008 2:11 pm) http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/lockcode.asp
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Replying to: kyfdx (Nov 12, 2008 1:57 pm) 
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Replying to: graphicguy (Nov 12, 2008 1:33 pm) I've just got to help you out here. My last offer was $4K and you drove it over to me in NY, right? Well forget that, I've got a better offer. What I'll do is still give you the $4000 but I'll take care of the shipping. What I'll do is sent you a check for $6000 and you then send the extra $2K to my shipper in Nigeria. He'll then come and ship the car to me. Whatcha say, deal? Just came back from a long week-end in the Tampa area. That place is awash in car dealers of every size and shape. All seem to be screamer types with flags and banners and wirrly-gigs flying about. The only thing missing were customers. In the few days I was there I drove past numerous car lots and NEVER SAW A CUSTOMER. I mean it was like a ghost town at store after store. I thought I might brighten some poor sales guy's day by window-shopping but my wife had the crazy idea that we hadn't flown 1500 miles to look at used cars. Go figure. I really wanted to see for myself if the Florida car market is the shark pit some of you guys say it is. The prices I saw in the local paper seemed very attractive but I don't know if they would slam me with a bunch of fees on top of that. I always toyed with the idea of buying a nice rust-free car in the south and then taking a driving vacation back home. I usually get "that look" from the wife when I mention that fantasy. I guess I'll just have to wait until GG's car comes by boat from Africa. 
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Replying to: smallcar (Nov 12, 2008 2:17 pm) Good luck! |
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Replying to: kirstie_h (Nov 12, 2008 10:30 am) Tell me, if you have one guy telling you $75 and three others telling you $500 would you expect good service from the $75 dollar guy?
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Nov 12, 2008 3:51 pm) |
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Replying to: michaell (Nov 12, 2008 1:11 pm) You gotta really find a collector who wants that specific model. Like gg said, run an ad and see the response you get. Put it on craigslist, but you'll have to somehow squeeze into the title that it only has 28k miles, otherwise people assume it's a high mileage overpriced unit and won't click on your ad. Good luck, |
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Replying to: graphicguy (Nov 12, 2008 11:39 am) the only time i sold a car on my own, i put and ad in a couple of publications for 2 weeks. on the last day, 2 people showed up just about the same time. told prospect #2, i would talk to him after done with prospect #1. car sold immediately to first buyer with no haggle. after #1 left, #2 said "a lot of those young guys can't come up with the money. here's my number in case he doesn't." i will only say this since you seem to be making an honest effort to sell a decent car, come on, we are talking 5 grand or less. talk to one of your neighbors about driving up as another prospective buyer while someone is looking at the car. 
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Here is a story from my sales guy (which means I tell in first person story from point of view of the guy who just blew my sale). This foreign guy calls me. He's been our service customer for last five years and tells me right away he saw '08 Subaru STIs have a blowout sale from mfr. It's zero percent and (darn) he already knows about the tiered bonus program. Moreover, he wants the VIP program (which is 2% below invoice minus all incentives). So I come to his place, give him full 360, we drive around, he likes the car. We talk a lot, he makes a few market condition remarks, but all is nice and smooth, I sort of deflect that comment with all our "everything is great" mantra, you know the drill. We make an appointment to show his car to my UCM. It's a nicely maintained WRX, which was all serviced all in our garage, so I make all these nice comments to keep him interested. He brings the car this evening (I wasn't there), the UCM put a number on it. We pick it up next day for a full quote. As I said, he takes away everything (as VIP requires) - it's practically a tripple net (2% under invoice) for us minus all bonuses, Subaru pays us a fee for the delivery. So I quote him that and our used car number - bastard said no. Stupid KBB and Edmunds  . They say it's over 8 grand, close to $8.5K. We put $6K on it. I know it's a little stingy, but you know those books are always wrong and they don't send checks - and the guy looked like he will take that STI. Well, if it's not meant to be ... What a stroke  Now note from the author (the stroke customer in this story): I understand they want and need something to sustain them and "program" sales take away pricing power. So the trade is the only place to make real money. However, I must say 6 grand was a theft attempt. First they give me all that talk that when if it's about the money, there is no problem and my car is so great (uh and ah), because it looks so well and they have all records in their file and then ... $2200 below "good" $1100 below "fair" in KBB (btw KBB is kind of a king when it comes to all price comparisons in our region, together with Black Book)  . When I think back, I did expect something like $8500 (just because all the uhs and ahs and "we will take it to our lot" statements), but that probably was unrealistic. I would probably accept something like $7500-7800, which means anything above seven grand, while a lowball, would keep in in the game. BUT SIX ???? Who do they think I was? I was quite clear that I CAN take that STI, but I DON'T NEED IT, i.e. I really like my car and can keep it for a while - that STI was a good upgrade, but not a necessary and most desirable one anyway. After all it was all about the price and I made it clear. Yet - they practically slammed the door and took out a possibility of a "refinement". This much apart on a 30K deal I just don't see happening. I don't get offended by people thinking something is worth less that I think, but that six grand was as close to an insult as it gets without actually being one. So - I'm a stroke at the end Well, but to eying that BMW for 15 grand more  Lesson for salespeople - don't make statements you can't back up. Don't say "price will not be a problem" without some kind of qualification (like "reasonable" clause) because you put ideas in customers' heads. Don't uh and ah a trade car if later you put some lowball wholesale value on it - again, you put wrong ideas in peoples' heads.
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