lovely people

[have a word with the wife 299]

In this forum we tend to forget the "lovely people"  these are customers that don,t gripe, accept its a used product, and they recommend us to other folk, the cheapest form of advertising, i have met some lovely people in this job, and learnt a lot from them, some of us actually use there services too [ plumbers etc] i have a customer that brings me a bottle of wine every visit for no reason whatsoever,other than hes a decent bloke, my mot station at christmas you cant move in the office for tinned biscuits !

lets face it, if we didnt have these lovely people, we would all jack it tommorow 

any stories ? 

[MattGM 12]

Too new to this game to really have any stories worth telling since setting up, other than one customer who phoned me up (was my 3rd sale after going full time infact) to say that he was really glad he bought off me and I was a 'pleasent young gentleman'

But when selling from home, did have one couple who bought a Focus off me, it was only for £1k or thereabouts, send me a Christmas card with a £20 Argos gift card, and a photo of them with their car on the Milau viaduct in the south of France earlier that year. Thought that was a very nice gesture, and I've got that photo in my office at the gaff.

Trouble is the couple are a year or two older than me, and my insurance rep clocked the photo and asked if they were my kids! The photo was roughly 3 years ago

[M.J 35]

Aren't they all lovely until something goes wrong??

I had a 'lovely' gentleman buy an Astra and he was over the moon with the car and my service, rang me to thank me etc, etc. 

A month later i get a call screaming down the phone from him telling me i'll be hearing from his lawyer, not to even bother trying to respond as the legal proceedings have already started, etc. This was all because the locking wheel nut was missing.

I have had some lovely customers but unfortunately the amount of unreasonable lunatics out there nowadays outweigh the genuine and realistic customers.

Speaking of lunatics, last week guy buys a van from me, next day he calls me demanding a full refund as the van only has 3 seats in the front and he has 2 kids and a wife, how are they all meant to get in!  

[justina3 518]

I have lots of these kind of customers and often find when things go wrong then its time to set yourself apart from other dealers, picked up a KA last monthwith a water bottle fault as they do, changed the bottle and cap for new delivered it back grand parents where over the moon, so much so they have bought another car this week for there other grand daughter.

 

 

[trade vet 697]

I agree with Justina.There is a lot on this forum about difficult punters and while the worst ones you get will stay with you forever,the majority are lovely people.If you do it right, a lot of them return and are easier to deal with.....However,I am not sure this happens if you major in sub prime business !

[Trident 24]

Lovely post to boost the spirit, on a ratio, what bad to good do you get we must be 1:100 but it's always the bad ones that make it feel like the other way round, top gift to date was a bottle of boxed champagne...all very nice nice, till we googled it out of interest to see it's value...£160  i kid you not...went from very nice to bloomin lovely... these people are blessings in our day's and your absolutely right, we should shout about them a whole lot more... last week's lovely gift 8 x 12 new boxed 12 ton jack stands!!!!! also had a carrier bag of brand new - unworn white men's vests  you can't make this stuff up....

[justina3 518]

4 out of 50 for us but we do sell a bucket load of first time motors to young drivers so clutches are a common thing, but thankfully nothing major all dealt with in house.

 

[grant8064 219]

I don't think i'd go quite as far as some of you guys but i'd agree that on the whole most of them are pleasant enough. We get quite a few recommendations from customers which is always nice and a fair few repeats.

Had more than a few that start off all sweetness and light but turn into monsters as soon as they get the most minor of issues so I try to keep it business like these days. I've already got friends, you're here to buy a used car, i'll offer very good personal service and you'll leave satisfied hopefully but we're not gonna start exchanging numbers and going for a pint.

[justina3 518]

totally agree I keep customers at an arms length, facebook is answered until 7pm and thats it, mobile phone is a company one not my own ect, otherwise we be working 24-7 

[It's me 611]

 

the ones you love turn out to be the ones you end up hating

i call it the being too nice at pos scenario

of course this is not always the case

i dont do percentages

 

[CJ Underhill 34]

There are some lovely people out there, as you mention, the bottles of wine, tins of beer & mince pies/biscuits at christmas go down really well.

The ones that i appriciate the most tho, we have had a few customers who have come in, said they are looking at buying XXXX car, and can we service/look after that vehicle, as if we can't then they won't buy it. Touching that the most important issue for them buying a vehicle is that they can still use us for servicing etc, can't get much better than that in my mind

[grant8064 219]

I had a good one today;

Nice couple turn up on a mint Auris I have had in stock for a while. FSH, nice miles, top spec but silver (urgghhhhh)...cars probably one of the nicest bits of stock I have in.

Really pleasant people, really realistic about budget, buying a car that fits their needs perfectly (nothing winds me up more than someone buying a car that doesn't fit their brief because they'll end up disliking it and it'll become an object of hate). Test drive is a joy, no speeding, driver lets people out at junctions, doesn't go too far but far enough. Get back and they admit they have seen three already and ours is a standout car.

Say they want to haggle but can't see any reason why I should budge on price which I concur with. 

Gave them a £200 reduction anyway because they were such genuine people.

Makes such a difference when a punter turns up with the right attitude and is honest from the get go.

(For once i'm actually looking forward to the handover)