Car dealers and customer service

--amadeus--

Batten down teh hatches, this is a rant...

About a year ago I wanted to change cars. I knew what I wanted - 2 - 4 year old BMW 5, Audi A6, Saab 9-5 or Volvo. Willing to spend up to 30K (though I had a trade in) so while it's not new S Class money we're not talking about a €500 banger either.

I went into Hogans on teh Dublin road to see two cars they had advertised - a 5 series and an A6. I was particularly interested in the A6 but when I rang teh salesman mentioned the BM and said it was worth looking at. Now I had bad experiences with Hogans before but I went for a look. Waited forever and eventually I was passed on to a wet behind the ears muppet who spent a good 10 mins trying to find the keys.

Eventually we go out and he shows me the BM. It's ok but bodywork is tatty and it's more expensive than a cleaner one I'd already seen. Salesman says "Well what do you think?" in a tone that sounded as if he was expecting me to genuflect at the quality. I told him what I thought and asked to see the A6. His reply?

"You can see it if you can find it"

I thoiught he was joking so I lauged and said "Well now, thats your job!". I can't remember his answer but it was snotty enough that I said something on teh lines of "Well if thats the attitude maybe we won't bother looking after all". His answer?

"Suit yourself" and he flounced off back to the office and left me and my wife standing there in the middle of the yard.

I rang to complain and it took 4 attempts before I spoke to a sales manager. Did he apologize? Did he offer to show me the cars himself?

No.

He said "I'll suppose I'll have to look into that" and I never heard from him again.

Earlier this week I went in to look at buying - cash or lease, no trade in - a brand new Saab 9-5 Biofuel from Clareview motors. The salesman didn't even take his ar*e off his seat, pointed out the brochures for us to get ourselves, gave us the (wrong) keys for a model parked outside to go out and look at and promised to call back with leasing costs.

I'm still waiting.

Am I overly fussy or do car salespeople think that I'm doing them a favour by giving them tens of thousands of euro?

krudler

car dealers and good service dont exactly go hand in hand,theyre only out for their comission and its not like its a hard job,id love to sit in an office all day and watch people sit in cars,come to think of it i wonder how hard it is to get a job as one?

ninty9er

ICR and Hogans are specifically reputed to have extremely bad customer service. But there are exceptions. There's a young guy Darragh at Hogans that's supposed to be A1 material on Customer Service (can't see him lasting long out there so:rolleyes: :rolleyes: ) Clareview is slightly, but not totally surprising. I did work experience in ICR with Motorzone on the Dock Road and they general level of service was high. But there was always an element that management was watchin so they had to be.

When looking at cars, you really are better off approaching the rookie who the comission means a whole lot more to! Or else the manager/owner

My uncle runs a main dealership in the city and generally all of his guys are well meaning, if some are a little clueless from time to time when something rare comes in. That said, if I'm ever wanting to have a chat with him there's a half hour queue! that goes for most of the team.

ninty9er

krudler wrote:

car dealers and good service dont exactly go hand in hand,theyre only out for their comission and its not like its a hard job,id love to sit in an office all day and watch people sit in cars,come to think of it i wonder how hard it is to get a job as one?

If you're any good you'll be head hunted

jonski

One of my mates was a general manager of a garage in Ennis and also I have had the need over the last few years to buy two cars . I have done the full days of driving from garage to garage looking for something suitable , hitting most of them in Limerick city , Ennis and the surrounding areas .

In my experience I would rate car sales people right up there with lawyers and George Bush .

Just two instances I can recall straight away are one guy telling me the car he was selling was belonging to a school teacher that only lived down the road from the school , only to be told by the exact same person , two days later when I came back for another look at it , that it was belonging to his friend the local priest who actually lived next door to the church . The other one was a guy trying to sell me a primera with 83k miles on it and well serviced and looked after , when I went over to see it I actually knew the car , it was an ex-taxi with about 350k miles on it that had the clock turned back ( yes they still do that ) .

sioda

Hogans are a disgrace. Would and have travelled out to Pierse Motors in Tipp town to buy a car rather than give Hogans the money.

Ignorant service and worse back up. Really dont know how that place survives

bazz26

sioda wrote:

Hogans are a disgrace. Would and have travelled out to Pierse Motors in Tipp town to buy a car rather than give Hogans the money.

Ignorant service and worse back up. Really dont know how that place survives

Interestingly Hogan's made news a year or two ago about being one of the highest profit maker car dealerships in the country. Probably most of their income is through fleet leasing.

Agree with you though, they are arrogant beyond belief.

Newcastle West Motors are supposed to be decent enough if you want a VW.

yayamark

ya have heard the same about hogans. verypoor aftersales service.
i'm looking at buying an audi a4 04 model wouldn't buy itin limerick ina fit
probably go to engerland