[carnutpa]

If I was a salesperson at an auto dealership, I would educate myself on every aspect of the cars that dealership carries. I would study the dealer manuals and read forums like this one. If you are going to do something for a living, try to be the best at what you do.

I walked into a Buick dealer last week to get the new color brochure on the Enclave (which of course I read on online forums were available). The salesman didn't have a clue. The only thing he knew was Buick is coming out with a new model called Enclave. When I arrived, he was busy showing someone how to properly grip a golf club. That was more important than educating himself about the cars. When I told him there were new brochures out, he said they didn't have them. Luckily someone overheard him and told the guy where they were. Then we had a short discussion about the Enclave and he knew no details about it. I mentioned that I wanted to wait until the rear center console was available in August or September and he didn't even know of that issue.

This ignorance is a real turn off for me. I will go to another dealer or find a different salesperson there.

 

[raftdoc]

Exactly. It has always been a pet peeve of mine that after doing some basic research about a possible purchase(of anything), to go into the store or dealer to learn more and find out I know more about the product than the salesman. How do these guys manage to feed themselves?

 

[linuxtwit]

Exactly. It has always been a pet peeve of mine that after doing some basic research about a possible purchase(of anything), to go into the store or dealer to learn more and find out I know more about the product than the salesman. How do these guys manage to feed themselves?

Simple. They make their money off the clueless majority that walk thru the door with more money than brains who can't
be bothered to do even the smallest bit of research. Unfortunately, those of us that actually do even a tiny bit of
research before making a purchase make up a very small percentage of the buying public.

 

[coopermine]

I was in HomeDepot yesterday to pickup some plants for the yard and ask few of the HD employees working in the garden section some questions, none of them knew the answer or "clue", they were just passing the buck to the next person. I wasn't looking for some real hard questions, I just needed some basic info, whether I can plant these in sun/shade, what kind of fertilizer do they need etc.

Meanwhile their commercial is always how helpful they are etc etc.

I have similar experiences at the electronic stores such as BestBuy, CircuitCity etc. Infact, a couple of times, their shoppers had started questions to me instead of the salesperson standing there!

 

[zman]

I was in HomeDepot yesterday to pickup some plants for the yard and ask few of the HD employees working in the garden section some questions, none of them knew the answer or "clue", they were just passing the buck to the next person. I wasn't looking for some real hard questions, I just needed some basic info, whether I can plant these in sun/shade, what kind of fertilizer do they need etc.

Meanwhile their commercial is always how helpful they are etc etc.

AMEN. HD has really gone downhill the last few years when it comes to the knowledge of their employees.

I am not a defender of automobile sales people by any stretch of the imagination. One thing to keep in mind however is that many of us endlessly research the vehicle we are interested in. They have many different manufacturers and models that they must know. I can not forgive not having a basic knowledge of a vehicle, but to expect them to memorize something such as option packages, etc would seem a bit unfair to me. Just my $0.02.

 

[Guest]

This is just my opinion, and there are probably many who don't fit this stereotype, but I believe that those people who go into sales and are willing to do the things you are talking about (extensive research, reading manuals, basically going above and beyond the minimum necessary effort to get by) simply don't stay car salespeople for long. Those rare people would excel at selling and would probably move on to more lucrative sales positions in other industries. Again, I'm not saying every Buick salesperson is a slacker, I'm just guessing that the majority of the people still pushing cars on the lot are there for a reason. Of course, you always stand a chance of getting the new, hungry, smart salesperson who IS doing those things you mentioned and he or she probably won't be there when you go back to purchase your next car.

 

[budi]

If you work for HD or Lowes for a living you can not afford a single-family house in a major metropolitan area especially on the east or west coast.
Hence you have no practical experience fixing stuff yourself. Most of the sales people in the big box stores are just warm bodies. That is why I research and purchase on-line as much as possible. Nothing worse than being behind somebody at home depot trying to figure out the self checkout for the first time. :banghead: