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I went to a dealer last week to look at a car that was advertised. I sent their internet rep an email and she said they just received the car and it's in the shop as they get it ready. I go in the evening and the car is on the lot but it's a different color than what they advertised.
While I was there, I test drove a couple of cars but was not interested in either (one had too many miles and the other was the wrong color).
So now they apparently have the same color car that was advertised on their site. The salesperson has called me three days in a row and left a message.
First question, do dealers normally gather your personal info as soon as you hit the lot? When I arrived, the salesman couldn't wait to get me inside to get my name, number, address, etc. Unfortunately I didn't have my Google voice number memorized so I gave him my regular #. Next question, I changed my mind and want a different model vehicle so I am not interested in the vehicle he is calling about. Should I call him back or just let him keep leaving messages until he gets tired of it?
Why won't you tell them you are not interested anymore, and that you will contact them in case you will be. I did it once and surprisingly it worked ;-)
Why won't you tell them you are not interested anymore, and that you will contact them in case you will be. I did it once and surprisingly it worked ;-)
Yeah but surely they will attempt to convince me otherwise.
The main question is this: is this a normal practice for dealers to get your personal info right away? He wouldn't even show me any cars, saying that they need this info to do business.
Yeah but surely they will attempt to convince me otherwise.
The main question is this: is this a normal practice for dealers to get your personal info right away? He wouldn't even show me any cars, saying that they need this info to do business.
Absolutely, dealers want all your contact info. so they can play games. Tell them they bothered you enough and you already bought a car elsewhere.
If you want to get scammed with dozens (hundreds!) of emails and plenty of phone messages, use TrueCar and ask dealers to get back to you.
The worst irony of my car shopping experience is that I'm looking for a relatively hard-to-find car, and not one of the return calls/emails has been from a dealer who actually claims to have one in stock. I tell every dealer the same thing - quit emailing me until you have a car on your lot for me to look at! Ironically, now that the emails have died down I check autotrader and find that several dealers in Houston have gotten the car in. How many of them have called or emailed me to let me know? Zero!!
And don't even get me started about the dealer ~an hour away who confirmed on the phone that they had the car in stock, and only bothered to check that it was still there once I had driven all the way to the dealership. "Oops, we sold it yesterday, it wasn't updated in our system yet".
I went through the numerous phone calls when i was shopping for a car for my Mom, Seems many dealers wont talk to you until you give your name address and phone number first, i finally found a dealer that wasnt interested in my personal info, we got along fine and we ended up buying a brand new Rav4 sport edition. I'll give you my personal info if and when i decide i want to buy your product,until then my personal info is none of your business.
To add/ i'm still getting advertizing brochures from some of those dealers that i did give my personal info to and that was 10 years ago..
It is "common courtesy" to return phone calls for something like this.
Perhaps if you were to COMMUNICATE with the salesperson and tell him you are no longer interested, then he will stop calling? (Or not given him your number in the first place.)
If you are afraid to do this, maybe you can get you mom to call for you?
You reached out to them wanting to buy something, so of course they're going to try to get back to you. Business doesn't conduct itself; it's an active process. If you're not interested any more, tell them so they won't keep wasting their time or yours.
How about telling them your finances changed so no longer interested. That would help them and you. Next time be absolutely sure what you want and let them know you won't settle for less. Sounds like they did try.
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