Dealing with rude salesman

He's a (poor) salesman, not an enthusiast, whose focus is only on the sale.
Not the guy your dad wants to deal with.
Better to find that out early.

 

We all know you were the salesman and you drive a Plymouth Reliant. You may as well admit it.

 

Awesome story!

 

Don't let one bad dealership experience make you too bitter.
You don't want to carry a chip on your shoulder for the rest of your life.

You may end up buying hundreds of cars in your collection and not one of them will be a Ferrari or Maserati.
Don't be "this guy"!
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Did you not read all the posts in this thread? A salesman does not have an excuse to be rude, and you never know when some poor kid will be rich some day and ready to buy a car. I'm kind of in between. I have been that poor kid that has come a long way. Can't afford a new Ferrari now, but can certainly afford a new Mercedes, which I've purchased 3, from nice salespeople. I will remember my good experience at the Ferrari dealership I went to until I am actually able to buy a new Ferrari.

 

Look, it's been a while since I've done pure sales.. but it's darwin type ****. Survival of the fittest, the best get the sale. Salesmen don't have to be nice to you, you don't have to be nice to them, etc. In this country we seem to "expect" a saleperson to be all nice to us. They don't have to be. They could profile you as a non-client and blow you off, as happened here.

One of two things will happen, he will be "right" in his profile and the customer will drive used BMW's. Or, the customer will give a contrite smile and buy the car from someone else... maybe even meet the GM of the dealership at a C+C and laugh at him, tell him that his sales guys are lazy and couldn't sell a winning lottery ticket.

As an agent for your dad, I would have announced myself as such, and given they blew you off.. buy from somewhere else. Don't take it personal, its business.... darwin type S#it.

Real salesmen BTW view everyone who walks through the door as a potential customer.

BTW Leno NOT being a customer or looking favorable on the Ferrari brad really hurt sales..

 

FAF is commonly associated as being Fiat Alpha Ferrari...the cars they were selling... if memory serves correct

 

Out of curiosity how many Ferrari/exotic buyers need to "talk" to a salesperson? I imagine most people, perhaps skewed by sampling a population here on Ferrarichat, are well-informed buyers; know what they want and all that remains is negotiating the price. I suspect a seasoned salesperson knows within the first two sentences what type of prospect they are dealing with, some will be rude, and others will be welcoming - either way both will be memorable.

FWIW, if I walked up to a salesperson, of any make, they would drop a dollar in my coffee cup and send me on my way; I don't take offense (other than ruining my coffee).

 

Bit of an "Elitist" Attitude? Maybe?!? You never know who you are dealing with, especially in sales. You will be surprised how many of these "Kids" can buy high end cars. Example - My father dresses in Levis and t-shirts - its how he chooses to dress. Many times he has gone on a lot to look at / purchase a car and is treated like sh*t, so he would leave. Not to any of his doing but these guys try to pre-qualify you in the first minute to decide if they are going to spend anytime with you. Crazy thing is, he writes a check for the car he decides to buy. BTW he has published 14 books and several hundred magazine articles. Go figure he would get treated like crap. Again, you NEVER know who you are dealing with when you are in sales, respect does go ALONG way!

Also, I had been looking for about a year to purchase my F-Car. I had two salesmen who were amazing, spent time with me, answering my questions and putting up with my frequent visits. I ended up buying a car from another place who never saw me before, because the car I was looking for was hard to find. I sent the two guys gift baskets as a thank you, because the time they spent with me "Educated" me on the car and helped me make a well informed and better educated decision. I do plan to purchase another / upgrade one day and I would purchase a car from them in a heart beat! (as long as they had the car I was looking for!)

Just my two cents.....

 

Alfa

 

I was at a car show here in Birmingham in 1989. There was a little section set up by Ferrari South over in Mississippi and they had a TV with a VHS tape of a ride in a 308 playing over and over. Again, I was simply a twenty year old college student - not a potential customer - I couldn't buy a car but I REALLY wanted a copy of that tape. Badly. Again, I remember him being very friendly and he took my name and address.

Mixed ending. I never got the tape. Maybe it was copied and never mailed, maybe it was lost in the mail, maybe he never bothered/forgot, etc. I did get a cool Ferrari South postcard a couple weeks later from him apologizing for not mailing it out yet. I posted it just last year down in the Southeast section (I think there). My point being that a salesperson in another state took five minutes out of his day to touch base with a kid who he knew wasn't going to be a customer anytime soon that he met at a car show booth.

Either way is was thoughtful.

I just think it pays to always make people feel like you give a ****, even when you may not. Just fake it - whatever.

I kept that post card under the glass on a desk for 25 years.

 

Post card here, post number 25

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/south-central-usa-tn-ms-al-ga/74354-ferrari-south-jackson-ms.html

 

There is no need to be rude or an ass to anyone in this world even if you will never have anything to gain from them. I believe in Karma and have found that sometimes the person that you think is unimportant and will never impact your life in anyway will someday. If I owned a Ferrari dealership and saw the salesperson treating people badly they wouldn't work there anymore.

 

A number of years ago during my college days I visited Rolls Royce of Beverly Hills. I spend quite a bit of time with a salesman discussing the marque and the cars he had on the floor.

Before I left I thanked him for his time expressing surprise that he would spend so much time with what seemed to be an unlikely customer. His reply was that you never know what a customer looks like.

That's even more the case today with all the young tech money walking around in very casual dress.

You never know.

 

But wouldn't you agree that being nice, or at least polite, is a part of being one of the "best" salesman you refer to? Nobody wants to do business with a prick.

 

I would just find a different salesperson to talk to. Some people only "act nice" if they see cash coming their way. Avoid them and move on. Don't feel entitled to be treated well, but don't feel obligated to take your business where it clearly isn't welcome either. And when they do get uppity, just remember, those hired goons wouldn't be able to afford it either.

 

That's true. It's an experience and after its all said in done you want that experience to be the best that it could be. I know that I will do business with people that are great to work with.

I get it. My moment was at Wide World in 2000. I stood by the 355 in the showroom and held out my 928's key and had my friend take my picture "pretending" its mine on delivery. 10 years later, I did the same shot in my garage with my 360. Did any of the sales people even remotely consider giving me a ride? No. Did I expect them to? Not at all. If they don't sell you a product, you go somewhere else. (Worst part is I can't find that digital picture! arrrgh!)

 

the best revenge to take on rude or indifferent salesperson, is give commission to someone else. and if nobody at the dealership/store wants to take care of you , walk out and go somewhere else. I come upon this situation quite a bit, as i am young, spanish, and do not dress in a showy manner ( i.e. expensive brands splattered all over myself) last instance was at rolex store, walk in with my wife two sales people are working , look kinda busy so i look around a bit, when one comes free from customer i approach and as ask to see a certain piece, " oh the other guy will be right back, he can take care of you, im still busy with another customer" ok i think fair enough , while i am waiting a young couple walks in , and he goes up to them and asks them if they need any help, meanwhile i am still waiting for the magic salesperson to appear, my wife was getting upset, long story short, other salesman shows up asks if i am being helped , helped me with my purchase, he was so helpful i got his and hers, dropped over 25 k , other sales people who would not be bothered got no sales from the customers they chose to serve. And i smiled while they looked very upset that they lost an easy commission.

 

This is a pretty interesting thread about how people can be. As for the original poster, I can totally understand how a salesmen could blow you off I don't in any way agree with it. Before buying a Ferrari or any other higher end car I am probably correct in saying that 99% of us wanted one way before we had the means to do so.

I've actually been treated worse at Honda dealers. The first time I went to look at the Mondial T I literally was wearing jeans, converse and a t-shirt with a jacket. I just looked at the car because it was snowy out. I went back a week or so later to take it for a ride. The salesmen took me out first for a quick spin just so I understood how the Valeo transmission worked, etc. and then after that got out and I sat in the drivers seat and he stayed behind. I took the car out for a short ride and came back to the dealer. When I got out of the car he said what did you think? I told him it was great and bought it. We went in started filling out the paperwork and I paid a deposit to get them started doing the major service of changing the belt, etc. It was at THAT point if he asked if I had a drivers license. Until then he knew nothing of me other than my first name.Of course this was far from the most expensive car at the dealer but it didn't matter, it may as well have been as far as I was concerned. That being said I will continue to have all of my service work done there and hope to trade up sometime in the future. That dealer was LFSC and the salesmen was Tyler. I felt like I was treated no differently than a guy buying a 458.

So it's the salesperson, not the dealership or type of car. I hope you don't let that Maserati salesmen change your opinion of the car.

 

When salesmen are rude, it's not always a situation regarding them "qualifying" you as a buyer. The perfect example of that is Leno being treated poorly. I'm pretty sure that the salesman knew who he was and chose to treat him poorly anyway. Some people are just born Dic.s! Maybe it was a macho ego thing, who knows.
There is also the opposite problem. When I bought my 360, I was treated like a king until I handed the check over to them. Then it was all smiles, stroking and lies from that point on. I was being constantly lied to all while still being friendly. I think that's worse because it's like a stab in the back instead of making it obvious that they don't want you as a customer.
At least they got the point across to me, and I will NEVER buy anything from them again! (nor will anyone who knows me)

When I was just over 30 years old, I was a victim of "pre qualifying" the customer when I bought my new Porsche in 2001. At that age, I looked about 20 years old. I walked into the dealership knowing exactly what I wanted, how much I was willing to pay (a fair deal), and ready to buy that day. The only thing I needed help with was to decide between 2 colors. I went in with casual clothes along with my wife and 2 young girls. The first salesman walked by and saw me in the corner of his eye, then walked away, making believe he never saw me. I normally would have walked out at that time, but I really liked the service dept. of that dealer compared to the other local dealers and wanted to buy from them if I could (I know I could buy anywhere and service there, but I preferred to buy there if I could). I decided to wait 5 or 10 more minutes just to give them a fair chance. A few minutes later another salesman walked over and spoke to me briefly and looked a little upset. I'm guessing that he was upset that he would probably lose his round for a "buying" customer by "wasting his time" talking to me. I give him credit because he still acted professionally even though he thought that I was wasting his time. After briefly talking to me for a few minutes (I didn't even get a chance to ask about color availability at that point), he gave me a card and said "when you're ready to buy, come see me". So I responded "I'm ready to buy now, and I'm here to see you". He thought I was joking at first, but when he saw my face he was taken back a little. Well, long story short, he wound up being a great guy, and the whole process was VERY pleasant. Service dept. was awesome also. I actually prepped my own car in their shop (I'm very anal and didn't want swirl marks in the paint)! They said it was the 2nd time that someone has done that. I even became personal friends with one of the mechanics there. The best part of the whole thing was to look at the face of the first salesman when he saw his buddy writing up our deal. I wish I had it on video.

I also ran into what I believe to be "prequalifying" issues when I was buying my Ferrari. I went to at least 4 different dealers that deal with Ferraris (One is an authorized dealer). None had what I was looking for, but I left my name and number for them to call me when they get one in. 2 Years later, I'm still waiting for a phone call. I know for a fact that there were at least 3-5 cars that passed through these dealerships that fit what I was looking for...not a single call back! I guess they didn't think that I was serious. In all fairness, the salesman that was at the authorized Ferrari dealer did see my car during an event at the dealership, so he knew that I had found a car already, so no need to call. He was actually a really good guy and I won't hesitate to try to buy from him again when it's time for another Fcar or Mas.

To the OP, if you think your father would be interested in that car, don't rule it out just because the salesman didn't treat you how you feel would have been appropriate. Another salesman (even in the same dealership) may treat you guys completely different. If you don't like the way you are treated, don't give your hard earned money to that salesman, give it to his co-worker.

 

Similiar story happened to me whenI bought my first BMW M3. If I were you I would have went back to by a keychain like I did, so the salesman who thought I was wasting his time could see the nice new car he missed the commission on. Yes I am vindictive like that. Lol

 

Great idea, but I doubt the salesperson still works there. Lazy salespeople don't last very long in this business.

 

I'll never forget how rude a Ferrari salesman was to me, I was new to Ferrari and had gone in to a Ferrari dealer to ask some basic questions on the 430. Guy acted like I was bothering him, I had to force information out of him, and it was quite the negative experience… so much that my wife didn't want to buy a car there.

About 6 months later, I bought a Scud from one of the other salesman in the dealership.. I totally ignored the salesman that was rude to me. Too bad he didn't get my business and never will. He sure was nice to me when I was buying my car and of course knew I could afford one.

 

After decades in sales put me down in the no excuse to be rude category. As said by others it is a good policy in life, not just business. You have no idea how being polite kind and helpful to someone can pay off in the future..and you never will if you are rude. You never know who will become a customer or more importantly refer someone due to their good experience, whether or not they purchase goods or services from you. If you practice this self discipline you will discover over time that it pays off as you will have a very solid reputation.

Even if you are busy-you can always politely explain that to someone, tell them they are important and ask that they give you a bit of time to help properly assist the customer ahead of them. Most people respect that and understand it. If they don't well that is a warning sign about them.