2006 ford mustang for sale
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Q: Why is it somehow “wrong” to make a car salesman play by your rules when making a purchase?
My boyfriend of 6 months went with me to look at a 2006 Ford Mustang at a dealership today. He says it was “wrong” for me to make the salesman treat me a certain way and play by my rules.
Here’s a little background on me; I’m a 38 year old woman and have been an ASE certified auto mechanic for 18 years. I’m part owner of the shop my dad founded in 1980 and I serve as the general manager in charge of 10 mostly male employees so I’m used to getting respect. Although, if you ask any of my guys, I’m not an evil slave driver, I’m really cool about a lot of stuff. They just know they better show the utmost respect to customers and don’t do anything dishonest. Whenever I go to buy anything big I like to keep the upper hand with the salesperson, unless its a private party sale where there’s never any need to anyway. This is also the first time I’ve ever really dealt with a car dealer on a sales basis before; I usually drive whatever the shop is selling for unpaid mechanic’s liens (I’m a single mom of 4; 1 in college, 1 in the Air Force and 2 at home and I don’t make THAT much) but I just paid off my house (after 15 years) and I want something nice for once. I’ve saved for years for a newer car.
Well, when we went into the dealership the salesman I talked to immediately tried to steer me towards buying a new Focus, a car I wouldn’t buy if my life depended on it. I told him that I was only interested in the Mustang and unless he had an older Camaro or Firebird in good shape (for possible restoration) on his back lot, I wasn’t interested in anything else. He then proceeded to call me “Missy” which I HATE being called. I may be female and reasonably attractive but “Missy” sounds like something you would call a little girl. My name is Sandra Elizabeth and the guys who work for me address me as various forms of those names (I’m not picky, one tech jokingly calls me Lizzie Macguire because I look like an older Hilary Duff and it doesn’t bother me a bit) but would never, ever call me Missy and expect to keep their jobs. I told the salesman that if he wanted to earn a sale from a cash buyer he’d better address me as ma’am or by my name, take me to the car I wanted to see, not try to sell me anything else and keep his comments to himself while I inspected the vehicle unless I asked him a question. I even explained to him that I am a mechanic and I know exactly what I’m looking for (and probably a lot more about cars than he does) so his comments would be useless anyway. My rules with salesmen are basically show me respect, don’t lie to me and let whatever you’re selling sell itself. He wouldn’t keep his mouth shut and kept treating me like a kid so I walked off and directly into the manager’s office and explained to him that I didn’t like the way the salesman treated me and that if I didn’t get a full apology from him I was not going to purchase the car. The manager called the sales guy in and it sounded like he was getting a major talking to. The manager came out, apologized for the salesman and handled the details of the sale for me.
My boyfriend says that I was too rough on the guy and I should have just let him do what he was doing. I’ll admit that I am one tough cookie; who wouldn’t be after raising 4 kids on their own and managing a shop full of men? I just felt I deserved reasonable respect. When I sell lien cars I basically leave the potential buyer alone until they have a question; its less intimidating particularly for inexperienced buyers. I want them to feel comfortable with me because if they do, they might use my shop in the future.
A: I’m going to skip your ridiculously long explanation.
I saw a few key words, like that you’re a mom with a kid in the Air Force, and a few other things that don’t matter in the slightest to your question. Which tells me you want people to know a lot about you. Because you feel it’s relevant.
It’s not.
To answer the simple question of why it’s not fair to make them play by your rules: Because you’re being damned selfish and full of yourself, is why.
They’re not “sales people”. They’re human beings, just like you, trying to make a living. They have certain quotas to meet, and certain rules that have been instructed to them by their bosses.
More than likely, he is NOT going to get spoken to. Instead, he’s going to be told that you were just “one of those customers”, and to not worry about it.
So you’re a mechanic? So? What do you do when a customer comes into your shop, and tells you how to run things? And expects you to do things their way, instead of your way?
I’m going to guess you’d bitch about that too.
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