Great way to deal with the low ball brigade

[Rory RSC 596]

1 hour ago, Mat C said:

We all pay through the nose for advertising, All I read is people moaning about how much it costs, and then you get an enquiry from your expensive advertising who is a chancer who low balls you and you send him abusive messages or just completely ignore him? It just baffles me. Courtesy costs nothing and a reply takes seconds. I guess i'm different. I reply to every enquiry, low ball or not, with a quick, courteous response. Sometimes.....believe it or not....... they come and buy a car.....

Shh don't tell everyone 
 

Mat the amount of our customers who are happy we bothered to respond to an email vs numerous other dealers who don't return calls or emails is still staggering in this day and age.  I always think of it in the sense that if a lead came in whether that was a walk in on the pitch, an email, call etc and I was employing sales staff if they ignored them I would be raging.

Just come off the phone to a chap enquiring about one of our most expensive cars, in stock after I said I would call him back to run through the finance quotes with him. He said I was the first place to actually get back to him and what should be an enjoyable and fun buying experience is actually proving to be quite a drag for him.

[andymc1973 199]

That's because you're Rory "the punter's pal* Anderson

[Rory RSC 596]

[BHM 994]

With all respect Rory, I think discussing finance options on a car with a gentleman who can string together a sentence and has some basic courtesy is somewhat different to responding to an arsehole emailing at midnight on eBay offering £500 for a £1200 car who hasn't even got the basic manners to start with "Hi" or "Good evening", finish with "Thanks" or "Thank you", and omits their name. Something along these lines;

500 cash m8 4 ur car 

Sorry, but anyone who thinks that's worth responding too is kidding themselves.

[MrC 142]

1 hour ago, BHM said:

With all respect Rory, I think discussing finance options on a car with a gentleman who can string together a sentence and has some basic courtesy is somewhat different to responding to an arsehole emailing at midnight on eBay offering £500 for a £1200 car who hasn't even got the basic manners to start with "Hi" or "Good evening", finish with "Thanks" or "Thank you", and omits their name. Something along these lines;

500 cash m8 4 ur car 

Sorry, but anyone who thinks that's worth responding too is kidding themselves.

Agreed

[Arfur Dealy 823]

1 hour ago, BHM said:

With all respect Rory, I think discussing finance options on a car with a gentleman who can string together a sentence and has some basic courtesy is somewhat different to responding to an arsehole emailing at midnight on eBay offering £500 for a £1200 car who hasn't even got the basic manners to start with "Hi" or "Good evening", finish with "Thanks" or "Thank you", and omits their name. Something along these lines;

500 cash m8 4 ur car 

Sorry, but anyone who thinks that's worth responding too is kidding themselves.

Absolutely agree.  

[It's me 609]

On 24/07/2017 at 2:00 PM, CJ Underhill said:

On 30/07/2017 at 3:37 PM, tradex said:

Plus another

and another

[andymc1973 199]

Booooooo to Rory x

[Arfur Dealy 823]

On 30/07/2017 at 10:06 AM, Mat C said:

We all pay through the nose for advertising, All I read is people moaning about how much it costs, and then you get an enquiry from your expensive advertising who is a chancer who low balls you and you send him abusive messages or just completely ignore him? It just baffles me. Courtesy costs nothing and a reply takes seconds. I guess i'm different. I reply to every enquiry, low ball or not, with a quick, courteous response. Sometimes.....believe it or not....... they come and buy a car.....

Mat  you are exactly right "courtesy costs nothing" when an anonymous inquiry comes through by text or email which is discourteous DELETE. Would you sell a car to someone who walked onto your forecourt and spat in your face ? I don't think so, with that in mind.....that is exactly what these people are doing to you by email / text. They're Scumbags.

[XFS 70]

1 hour ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Mat  you are exactly right "courtesy costs nothing" when an anonymous inquiry comes through by text or email which is discourteous DELETE. Would you sell a car to someone who walked onto your forecourt and spat in your face ? I don't think so, with that in mind.....that is exactly what these people are doing to you by email / text. They're Scumbags.

I think that's perhaps an extreme view. People take advantage of the anonymity of modern communications, they are perhaps inconsiderate and thoughtless, but not necessarily scumbags. They could well be fairly polite and mild mannered in real life and are simply bolder behind a keyboard, it's a common trait online, not exclussive to this arena. I,m with Mat, I tend to politely reply to all communications even if it's to tell them to fuck of and stop being ignorant  but in truth I'm more likely to say that face to face than online.

I,m pretty old school. My writing is polite and middle class and seldom rude. In person I,m a working class grumpy Scotsman and not inclined to accept bad manners or rudeness with good grace.

Edited August 1, 2017 by XFS

[Arfur Dealy 823]

Too add, by replying you are saying to these scumbags it's acceptable / ok for them to try and bring us down to their level. 

[XFS 70]

2 minutes ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Too add, by replying you are saying to these scumbags it's acceptable / ok for them to try and bring us down to their level. 

I prefer to think of it as being on my own level with my own standards. 

[BHM 994]

1 hour ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Too add, by replying you are saying to these scumbags it's acceptable / ok for them to try and bring us down to their level. 

I couldn't agree more

[Mat C 77]

15 hours ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Mat  you are exactly right "courtesy costs nothing" when an anonymous inquiry comes through by text or email which is discourteous DELETE. Would you sell a car to someone who walked onto your forecourt and spat in your face ? I don't think so, with that in mind.....that is exactly what these people are doing to you by email / text. They're Scumbags.

You are saying that someone Texting a cheeky offer, just because they haven't said 'Dear Sir' - Or 'Please can you consider this'  = Being spat in my face????

I'll agree to disagree and continue doing what I feel is right by replying to every enquiry I get courteously and quickly. Seeing as i've paid ££££ to get the enquiry in the first place

And we wonder why our industry has a bad rep...... 

 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

13 minutes ago, Mat C said:

You are saying that someone Texting a cheeky offer, just because they haven't said 'Dear Sir' - Or 'Please can you consider this'  = Being spat in my face????

I'll agree to disagree and continue doing what I feel is right by replying to every enquiry I get courteously and quickly. Seeing as i've paid ££££ to get the enquiry in the first place

And we wonder why our industry has a bad rep...... 

 

Manners maketh the man. By responding you are encouraging them. You are lowering yourself to their level. These people are scummy low life's, they are showing you such little respect and you don't even realise it...... I find them deeply offensive and you are encouraging these morons. You are making the job harder for all of us decent hard working Motor Dealers.

[Mat C 77]

14 minutes ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Manners maketh the man. By responding you are encouraging them. You are lowering yourself to their level. These people are scummy low life's, they are showing you such little respect and you don't even realise it...... I find them deeply offensive and you are encouraging these morons. You are making the job harder for all of us decent hard working Motor Dealers.

I wasn't trying to get into an argument about it, I was simply stating my difference of opinion in the way I like to treat my ( potential ) customers.They way some of you speak about your customers is disgusting, no matter how hard you think you work or how decent you think you are, treating your enquiries as low life scum is unacceptable ( in my humble opinion )

You are making my job easier, by pissing off potentials makes me look like a hero when I actually reply.... oh and I work my arse off too thank you very much. 

 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

42 minutes ago, tradex said:

Different courses for different horses.

I'll concur that in the 8 years of our fleabay account I have never sold a car to one of these low ballers....really, never. 

....even after accepting the offer for a bit of sport

Absolutely 100% agree with you. 

1 hour ago, Mat C said:

I wasn't trying to get into an argument about it, I was simply stating my difference of opinion in the way I like to treat my ( potential ) customers.They way some of you speak about your customers is disgusting, no matter how hard you think you work or how decent you think you are, treating your enquiries as low life scum is unacceptable ( in my humble opinion )

You are making my job easier, by pissing off potentials makes me look like a hero when I actually reply.... oh and I work my arse off too thank you very much. 

 

To call these scumbags customers is insulting to real "customers" who are polite and treat us with the respect we deserve. 

[Rory RSC 596]

Genuinely quite surprised you feel these people are 'spitting in your face'. Its just some chancer trying it on, a bit of humour can sometimes result in selling them the car. 

 

Mostly they are just daft leads which go no where but ultimately I don't take it personally or feel any massive type of way about it.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

Rory, admittedly it is a harsh term, but these people are showing us such little respect for what we do, it is IMO highly offensive and justified. 

Now, I'm not talking about healthy banter and general negotiation, that isn't what's being discussed here. I am talking specifically about the pig shit ignorant 3am texter / email from mr Anonomous saying "give u 8k cash" on a 13k car. DELETE

[BHM 994]

1 hour ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Rory, admittedly it is a harsh term, but these people are showing us such little respect for what we do, it is IMO highly offensive and justified. 

Now, I'm not talking about healthy banter and general negotiation, that isn't what's being discussed here. I am talking specifically about the pig shit ignorant 3am texter / email from mr Anonomous saying "give u 8k cash" on a 13k car. DELETE

+1 on this.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

2 hours ago, BHM said:

+1 on this.

+1 again on my myself, just because I can

[XFS 70]

I hate scumbags as much, probably more, than the next man. But having dealt with real scumbags in previous occupations I probably have a lower or higher (whichever) threshold for the definition. 

Thoughtless or rude people...or low-ballers are simply an irritation but seldom get anywhere near scumbag status.

I think a lot of people see motor dealers as fair game for behaviour they might not consider when dealing with vendors in other arena's but then to be fair, there are a lot of scumbags in this business. Just go to the local auction and they are swarming around like flies around the proverbial turd.

A lot of people we deal with are time wasters of some form or another, but most are no more than that.

[metcars 394]

No, I think its a general trend now regardless of the area you work, and there are 'scumbags' in all walks of life (there always has been?). My mother in law ran a toy shop for many years, her shop was always full of 10yr old "time wasters"