Sales People Should Learn Their Product

[Catskillguy]

I have done almost obsessive research on the Prius. I have talked to maybe a dozen sales people at various dealers.

It seems like they have almost no real knowledge of pricing, features, tax credits. I bring up these topics and they are 'Wow, I didn't know that!?'. Or "Really?" Or, let me check, Oh yes, you are right.

Has this been the experience?


And get this, I ordered Prius in Sept, for 01/06 delivery. A couple of weeks ago, I email the saleperson, then again, then I call and leave a message on voicemail. It was nothing urgent at the time, .,. I just wanted to tell him I was open to more colors than we originally wrote down.

After 2 weeks, I call the dealership & ask where he is?.. "Oh, he left a couple of months ago". I say, you should really redirect his email & change his voicemail... you know, he could be checking VM remotely.. "Oh, the office is supposed to take care of that'. I say, well, maybe, but I have been 'ignored' for 2 weeks because no one knew I left messages/emails. "That is not good customer service" Silence.. no sorry..

I am thinking of ordering at another dealer, even if it means a wait.. I'm #8 on the 06 list here...

[paprius4030]

If you don't mind a little bit of a trip, try Motorworld Toyota in Wilkes Barre, Pa. My salesman Bill was very knowlegable, got my Prius 2 days before it was supposed to come in. They are a good dealer to do business with.

[Graz]

I was exceptionally dissatisfied with both salesmen I worked with. I knew more about the car than either of them. And I still had not found this site yet. The people I did seemed to know nothing about the stock they were paid to sell. Granted that Toyota has many current models for sale. I sure would have put more effort into knowing the products better. I think it is just professionalism. I do think that there is a hierarchy of sales people at this dealership. May be all of them, I don't know. There are some that stand around outside like sharks waiting fr the next "customer" to feed on. They may not even make commission. There are others. Like the sales manager that seemed more informed. May be they had actually received some training on the vehicle.

In any case. I did not find anyone at the dealership that cared enough about this car to do a fraction of the research that I had done. Let the buyer beware. Do your homework. And never ever forget that t is YOUR money you are spending.

[canon]

Don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed. I wish I had adopted that philosophy when I purchased my Prius. The only downside to the purchase was the sales persons indifference and lack of knowledge. All he cared about was the commission. Dealers don't understand the poor reflection that this type of sales people have on their business. I have told dozens of people about the poor experience.

I spent a lot of time completing the after purchase survey sent by Toyota. I gave credit where it was due and expressed my displeasure where appropriate. It took about two months for the survey to get back to the dealer. If I had owned the business and received that report about one of my sales people I would have called the customer myself. The dealer had the sales person call me. Fox watching the kitchen coup?

Waste of my time!

[castinneford]

The first salesperson I spoke with at Toyota of Morristown, in Morristown, NJ, told me at least four times that the Prius fuel tank was six gallons and I could drive from Morristown to Niagara Falls without refueling. I went back to him so I could get a test drive but when I ordered my Prius I went to a different dealer (West Caldwell Toyota) whose salesperson at least knew the size of the fuel tank.

The second dealer's salesperson was upfront about what he didn't know (this was in October) and asked if he could make copies of all the materials I had downloaded and brought with me. I placed the order based on my paying MSRP and delivery after January 1. The sales manager has called me twice to keep me up to date on delivery. I'm happy with this dealer so far and hoping for the best when the car finally comes in.

[nstevens]

Originally posted by Catskillguy@Dec 1 2005, 10:20 PM
I have done almost obsessive research on the Prius.  I have talked to maybe a dozen sales people at various dealers.

It seems like they have almost no real knowledge of pricing, features, tax credits.  I bring up these topics and they are 'Wow, I didn't know that!?'.  Or "Really?"  Or, let me check, Oh yes, you are right.

Has this been the experience?

[snapback]165739[/snapback]

Yes, I totally agree. I should be used to it by now, but it still amazes me every time. I know very little about cars, but if I'm going to spend $25k, I take some time to understand what I'm buying. How can a salesperson not at least know a little bit about the cars they are selling?

I have a 2005 and I'm on the waiting list for a 2006. I talked to a salesperson around a month ago ... the guy hadn't even heard about the $3k tax credit. Just think, he has a potential sale on the line and customers are on the fence about paying $500 to get on the 3-6 month waiting list ... and he doesn't even have enough knowledge to inform them of a possible $3,000 tax credit???

[engunneer]

The dealership I went to had a Prius guy. He's not there any more, but if ANYONE asked about a Prius, they got introduced to Chris. He was in fact pretty knowledgeable about the car, but I didn't ask him about tax credits, etc. They have specialists for Fixing Prii, they should have specialists for selling them.

[Drifter]

About half way thru our first test drive I asked the salesman if he'd ever even sat in a Prius before, and he admitted he hadn't. It seemed to me that he'd never sat in any car before the way he kept looking around, opening up the glove boxes, ect. I then asked him a couple basic questions that I already knew the answers to because of priuschat and he said I probably knew more than him already. Probably? My husband and I then drove an hour to the only other dealership we knew of that had a prius reserved for test drives, just to give it a fair chance (we were deciding between a prius and a civic hybrid). The second salesman was much more knowledgeable at least about the gadgets that come in a package 6, though he still couldn't tell me more than I knew from this site.

[jeromep]

You see, this all goes back to a major problem in auto sales, across the board. Commission sales and extreme transience in the auto sales field (sales in general is that way, but auto sales seems to be the worst).

This is a comparison you can do if you have a little time or a little background experience. Compare the head shuffle at a commission sales dealership compared to a "fixed price" non-commission sales dealership. It is like day and night.

Car salesman on commission are working for money, and as much money as they can get and not much else. On top of that their management isn't interested in their competency with the product, or their ability to tell truthful facts to customers, only their ability to move the product. This is a pretty typical condition at a lot of commission dealerships, but is even worse at high pressure tactic commission dealerships.

On the other hand your salaried dealers at a lot of fixed price lots basically tell you how much they need out of the sale to keep the lights on and pay the employees and let you decided if that is fair or not. We have a Lincoln/Mercury dealer that has that kind of operation and they do very well. They have a lot of customer loyalty built up and never a bad story is told about them. On top of that they have the same dealers year in and year out. Tells you something about tho the company treats their employees even though they aren't working commission.

[kidtwist]

Originally posted by canon@Dec 2 2005, 04:29 AM
I spent a lot of time completing the after purchase survey sent by Toyota.  I gave credit where it was due and expressed my displeasure where appropriate . . .  the dealer had the sales person call me.

[snapback]166000[/snapback]

Wow, you got a call? It was back in April that I filled out that survey and let them know how unhappy I was with one issue and nobody ever called me.