I think part of it is the SELL! SELL! SELL! attitude that a lot of dealers take.. the way a friend in the car business explained to me is that long ago you still made a decent salary even if you sold only a few cars, the more you sell the more you make obviously thats commission.. many people had this idea that a car was done, destroyed, no good if it got near 100k miles.. so many people by the time they hit 40,50, 60k miles were off to get a new car.. yes cars have always been expensive but not to the percentage that they are now so in effect new cars were more affordable to the average joe....

salespeople also tended not to jump around - you found a happy home at a dealer in town and you stayed there for a long time... less salespeople per dealer people getting cars more often salespeople that knew if they treated a customer right he'd be back for the next car and the next... my parents bought 3 pontiacs at the same dealer in 10 years.. not bad considering 2 of them were high end GTO's..

so lets fast forward to now... any of us who have walked into a jeep dealer or any dealer lately.. notice the MOB of suited salespeople that meet you at the front door.. the dealer telling them "you are fired if you dont sell X number of cars this week!" yeah so they are busy sending letters to people who just bougth a car (yeah 2 letters from my dealer already.. christ at least let the new car smell wear off my Jeep first???), they are busy mobing the front door, busy yelling at the finance manager wondering why they cant close a deal on a customer with a 478 credit score....

when instead of wasting this time they could be calling the factory saying "Sir i got great news, your jeep is being built today we should have it in a week"

3 days later the phone rings "we are still on schedule, is there anything else I can help you with?"

I do remember those phone calls as an older kid coming to my father on his International Scouts... all 3 scouts.. all 3 that he bought from the same dealer because cust service was excellent...

yes maybe we got new cars more than the average family but it sure seemed like the dealership management cared more for their salespeople and in turn it meant better cust service...

but then who has loyalty anymore? you get on the internet, search the best deal, haggle it down and buy the car from whoever has it cheaper and faster.... im the same way.. ive had 4 TJ's and now a JK and yeah none of them came from the same dealer.... neither did the 2 chevy trucks nor the camaro ive owned new either.. 7 new cars in my Life - seven dealers... 1 used jeep and that would make an 8th dealer to the mix... and Ill bet most ous are in the same category... so no wonder why the dealer doesnt care - because we dont either....
-Christopher

 

My dealer just called me. He wanted to let me know that my Jeep is built but in holding until they have enough to ship out here all at once. When pressed, he said that the information was current as of last Wednesday (7 days ago). I had to tell him that it is already in transit. At least he was embarrassed and apologetic. I then told him about this website so he can actually learn a little about the product he is trying to sell.

 

Cool - please post the details if you can find it. THX!

 

i think this covers most businesses nowadays