Strange Dealership Interaction

[finny1981]

So I had contact with a salesman from our local dealership a few weeks ago when I expressed interest in ordering a GT. We talked on the phone on Saturday he asked me to email him my build sheet off the website and a copy of my license, I was prepared to put a deposit down, however before I even mentioned it he told me they would not need one. The following Monday I received the email from Ford acknowledging the order and on Tuesday I received the build order from my sales guy. Then received the email with a production date and VIN a couple days later.

Fast forward to last week (two and a half weeks after the order) I get a voicemail from my sales guy acting kind of odd and he said his sales manager wanted him to verify we wanted the yellow exterior with the red seats. I sent him an email showing that Ford had it correct with the yellow exterior and the emberglo seats. This is where things started to get weird…he then thanked me and replied back an hour or so later with “my sales manager says we need a $1,000 non refundable deposit since we do not sell many yellow cars and this one is very expensive.” I told him I’d be in Saturday to pay it. Well I go in Saturday and my sales guys looks shocked to see me and says he needs to go figure out how exactly to handle this. Next thing I know the sales manager comes over and very aggressively tells me to come to his office, he takes the deposit with no conversation at all and then gruffly says that my sales guy will handle it from here. When I asked where he is I was told he’s out there somewhere go find him yourself. I have never been treated so gruff when I was ordering something, it was like I somehow offended him by showing up to pay the deposit. Any ideas what happened here?

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[Shadetree43]

Certainly sounds strange. Just me, but I would certainly find another dealer.

 

[BrianJ77]

Yeah, but he just paid a non-refundable deposit. Definitely sounds like the sales manager is a turd. Get your car and move on I say. I agree that's a horrible customer service transaction.

 

[LETHAL]

Likely saw that order and wanted to sell it with an ADM, but couldn't ref custom order.

 

[Chadillac]

Their behavior and explanation towards you is weird, but it’s definitely not unheard of to get asked to pay a non refundable deposit for a customer-requested color combo. The dealer is just assuming if you backed out of the sale they would be stuck trying to move an expensive car in an undesirable color combo for your area. I’ve seen it happen locally with a GT500 ordered.. guy wanted bright orange with kona blue stripes… in Athens, Ga…

 

[BrianJ77]

Their behavior and explanation towards you is weird, but it’s definitely not unheard of to get asked to pay a non refundable deposit for a customer-requested color combo. The dealer is just assuming if you backed out of the sale they would be stuck trying to move an expensive car in an undesirable color combo for your area. I’ve seen it happen locally with a GT500 ordered.. guy wanted bright orange with kona blue stripes… in Athens, Ga…

Ummm... Did he want his car keyed to hell and back? Not the sharpest tool in the shed IMO. On that note...Go Dawgs!

 

[RJV15]

The dealership just doesn't want to get stuck with a car they think they'll have a hard time selling.

 

[Phrawst]

Ummm... Did he want his car keyed to hell and back? Not the sharpest tool in the shed IMO. On that note...Go Dawgs!

I could imagine the thoughts going through the sales team's heads as they hear someone asking for Gator colors on a car in Athens.

 

[Decio]

I wasn't there so obviously I don't know what happened, but my guess based on your description was the sales person/manager looked at you and decided your credit-worthiness based solely on your appearance. I hope I'm wrong, but there are still people out there who will make a snap decision based on looks.

I walked into the dealership wearing shorts and an old t-shirt because I learned my car came in while I was doing yard work. The salesman looked at me in disbelief when I told him I didn't need financing, I just needed the amount for the bank check. The finance guy came over and offered to beat my bank's rate, and again, I explained I had the money just needed to get the amount for the certified check. Not all people in shorts & t-shirts are broke, and definitely not everyone in a suit and tie has big money in the bank!

"You work on commission, right? Big mistake...huge!" - Pretty Woman (1990)

 

[ElektroSmokes]

I wouldn't touch that color combo with a 10 foot pole. That, to me, is like blue with red seats. It doesn't go. That's the reason for the non-refundable deposit.

That being said, there's no excuse for them to act like assholes. I hope the rest of the purchase goes well.

 

[Southpaw78]

So is the color combo Yellow with carmine red or Yellow with emberglo that the OP ordered? Not that it matters I was just confused by the original post. It sounded like they wanted the OP to order the Yellow with the red seats which I think would be way worse than the emberglo. To each his own though..

 

[steveo1960]

I wasn't there so obviously I don't know what happened, but my guess based on your description was the sales person/manager looked at you and decided your credit-worthiness based solely on your appearance. I hope I'm wrong, but there are still people out there who will make a snap decision based on looks.

I walked into the dealership wearing shorts and an old t-shirt because I learned my car came in while I was doing yard work. The salesman looked at me in disbelief when I told him I didn't need financing, I just needed the amount for the bank check. The finance guy came over and offered to beat my bank's rate, and again, I explained I had the money just needed to get the amount for the certified check. Not all people in shorts & t-shirts are broke, and definitely not everyone in a suit and tie has big money in the bank!

"You work on commission, right? Big mistake...huge!" - Pretty Woman (1990)

My wife and I do that same routine every time we buy a car. The idea is to look poor!

 

[Lou Rizzo]

So I had contact with a salesman from our local dealership a few weeks ago when I expressed interest in ordering a GT. We talked on the phone on Saturday he asked me to email him my build sheet off the website and a copy of my license, I was prepared to put a deposit down, however before I even mentioned it he told me they would not need one. The following Monday I received the email from Ford acknowledging the order and on Tuesday I received the build order from my sales guy. Then received the email with a production date and VIN a couple days later.

Fast forward to last week (two and a half weeks after the order) I get a voicemail from my sales guy acting kind of odd and he said his sales manager wanted him to verify we wanted the yellow exterior with the red seats. I sent him an email showing that Ford had it correct with the yellow exterior and the emberglo seats. This is where things started to get weird…he then thanked me and replied back an hour or so later with “my sales manager says we need a $1,000 non refundable deposit since we do not sell many yellow cars and this one is very expensive.” I told him I’d be in Saturday to pay it. Well I go in Saturday and my sales guys looks shocked to see me and says he needs to go figure out how exactly to handle this. Next thing I know the sales manager comes over and very aggressively tells me to come to his office, he takes the deposit with no conversation at all and then gruffly says that my sales guy will handle it from here. When I asked where he is I was told he’s out there somewhere go find him yourself. I have never been treated so gruff when I was ordering something, it was like I somehow offended him by showing up to pay the deposit. Any ideas what happened here?
[/QUOTEtell him to go pound salt.]

 

[Dena]

Give them your driver license and they run a credit check. Within a few minutes they will know if you can afford what you want and if you are wasting your time. They already know the loan they can offer you and how the sale will play out.

 

[Aramis76]

To me, with the shady shit some dealer pull, I think they had another buyer at a higher price and they were hoping you would back out.
There was probably still time to change the color before it's built so they were trying to recuperate the allocation... Hence not being thrilled you showed up...

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