Car Rant

In an effort to test drive the Hon.da CR.V yesterday, I went to two different dealerships. I went to one at lunch, but the salesman was clueless and useless, and I gave up pretty quickly. I went to the other at about 7:30 last night, on my way home from work. As I got to the second one, another couple also arrived. One salesman was tied up with a third couple, but two more salesmen were sitting inside.

So, I walked over to the car I am interested in, and peered around. The "way back" is roomier than I would've expected, and there might even be enough room for my dog. Despite my peering, no salesman appeared. Ditto for the other couple that got there when I did. I walked back and forth down the row of cars, looking at the Ele.ment and the Pi.lot. Nothing. I walked around the building, down the row of minivans, past one salesman's desk--TWICE. Nothing. He kept looking up at me through the glass wall of the sales room, but didn't get up from his desk. Through the glass wall, I could also see he was checking out MLB stat's. Nice.

Apparently, my hovering was bugging him, because he then went into an interior office (also glass) and started using the computer there. One of the other salesman then went in and started hanging out with him in that office.

And I'm still standing there, looking at cars. The other couple was still standing there, also very clearly needing attention. Finally, I decided to just leave. I could've gone inside and asked to be helped, but they were very clearly reluctant to do any work at that point, and I just wasn't interested in doing business with such lazy salesmen. I shouldn't have to make people do their job, when I'm the one spending the money. It's not like they're doing me a favor. As I walked past the sales floor a final time, I looked very pointedly at the salesmen hanging out in the office, who had now been joined by the third salesman who had previously been waiting on customers. His customers had by now left. As I looked at them, I shook my head in disgust.

As I got into my car, the third salesman ran after me (and I was parked waaaay down the end of the building), and asked if he could help me. I told him that I had been interested in buying a car, but wasn't overly impressed with the service at the dealership. He apologized and said that there were only three of them working. I let him know that this might have been a better excuse, had I not seen one of the saleman surfing the net. He didn't know how to respond to that, so I left it at that, and left the dealership. I live in suburbia, and there are plenty of Hon.da dealerships around. Times are tight in this market, and there are plenty of dealerships who actually value customer service, I'm sure. One of them will be getting my money and my time.