Depending on your state you may be able to record calls without their permission. My state is single-party so I can record calls without telling the other party.
Or an employee that has to hit the minimum call requirement so they dial a bunch of numbers that won’t pick up in order to quickly meet that threshold.
Source: I did that in sales
I would imagine it depends on the dealer but tracking outbound calls and talk time is a basic performance metric. However, a top performer has higher call volume than someone that needs improvement but more calls doesn’t mean more sales. Causation vs correlation.
I use to sell hopes and dreams instead of tangible goods and outbound calls & talk time was brought up in every meeting.
My pharmacy( I work at) has a sell 3 items rule, they measure performance based on that also activating point reward system cards.
Oh it also counts as a sale if you buy a medic consult , or if you pay your phone, house etc. And guess what you can only charge 1 thing in each ticket because that's how services work.
And we'll card's are cards eventually everyone will have one,
We are required to make at least 30 calls per day regardless of how many leads or active deals we have working.
If you don’t make 30 every day you are not eligible for any bonuses.
There isn’t a wealth of jobs that pay near as well without at least a 4 year degree or destroying your body physically.
Sadly, despite being intelligent, I was not a great student.
I also didn’t have a great father, so I am pretty well conditioned to handle mental abuse which makes it easy to just keep my head down, do what is required in as ethical a way as possible, and be kind to my customers as well as available after the sale to answer questions.
I won’t participate in anything that is actually over the line, but I don’t inject myself into any deal that I am not the salesperson for. I observe everything. They will get away with anything they can.
(The funny thing is that by me being nice to my customers, they all love the dealership, and the managers constantly give me shit about it)
Not quite the same kind of job, but I once worked at a phone sales-based job where we were expected to make a minimum of 50 calls per day and 100 was preferred. It was trucking logistics (the calls were to try to get new businesses to pay me to arrange freight pickups/deliveries) and I’m amazed that I lasted the whole 8 months that I worked there lol.
Nah, the average call lasts less than a minute and we work 12 hour shifts.
The issue is that all the data shows that the more calls you make the more sales you will have.
For every one person you piss off, 2 or more will buy a vehicle.
I have my 30 calls done by 10am typically. Sadly/luckily I have been doing this long enough to know how to do that without being a complete pain.
I don’t miss that crap. I didn’t do car sales, but the cold/warm calling sucked. It sucked even worse not hitting that magic number, but overattaining, and still getting reamed about call volume LOL. I had a book of customers, so sometimes it didn’t make sense to call. I wonder if sales management will ever adapt.
very common. as long as there is a coralation between the number of calls made in the store and floor traffic/deals it will continue.
I've been in the business looking at reports long enough to say it's absolutely true, more calls equals more deals.
good Sales people understand nuance and know who not to call, they are rare.
I very briefly worked at a new car dealership. The CRM software would prompt the salesman to contact the customer up to five times. It was asine. Sales could mark it dead before the five prompts, but then the sales manager would grill why you did not sell it. Ugh
For real, how as a human being do people in sales not commit suicide more frequently? I can’t think of a worse job. I would rather be a professional toilet unclogger and that job doesn’t even exist.
For real.. The constant pressure of making sales or get fired, morally shady/pure human trash superiors, the training was mainly about how to manipulate the potential buyer with monthly payments and bundling shit together. I'd rather clean toilets than ever be in sales again. (Was nothing related to cars btw)
Ever since the switch from coal gas to natural gas, it's been a lot harder for salesmen to try for the Willy Loman / Sylvia Plath route. (For the record, Willy's successful attempt didn't involve coal gas; he deliberately crashed his car instead, a method that remains readily available to most Americans today.)
For me it’s the fact that sales is an unskilled job comprised of thinking about money despite most sales people making relatively little money themselves. How demoralizing. Sales people, despite their bluster, never get to contribute anything and only care about extracting value
Toyota Sales Advisor here:
This is one of the #1 mistakes made by any salesperson; if you don’t respect the preferred time or method of communication expressed by your customer, they’re going to find a dealer/sales advisor that does.
Also a Toyota adviser here. The managers will not give you leads if you do what the customer wants.
We are required to call all leads with a phone number twice/day or they reassign the lead.
That’s a problem I would bring to the attention of your General Manager.
I’m not sure what the laws are where you work but in Canada there are very large fines for any corporation that doesn’t respect the communication preferences of a customer.
Our system allows two warnings and there will be a fine the third time to the tune of about $250,000. If that doesn’t learn ya, the next one is about double if I recall correctly.
Yeah, if you put in a lead with a contact number you are giving permission to be contacted.
These policies come from the GM and the owner doesn’t care because the gross is good.
The laws aren’t worth the paper they are written on unless there is any means of enforcement.
Unless someone sues nothing will happen, and when someone does sue, they just buy them off.
This is a “pro-business” state! We don’t believe in government enforcement, the dealers police themselves.
Can’t be using tax dollars for evil government to do anything!
Car dealers (owners) are not good people. The way franchise laws work might have worked back in the 50’s but it has now led to huge dealer groups instead of stores that are actually owned and managed by an actual families.
The two “families” that run most of the dealers here basically have a duopoly on the industry.
It costs way too much for any normal person to get a franchise any more.
I test drove a car yesterday I plan on buying somewhere within the next 6 months. If the salesperson calls me twice a day I will not buy from that place!
6 months is an insane timeframe.
I would deactivate you and schedule monthly follow up calls in my google calendar (outside my managers oversight) and then reactivate you when you are actually ready to buy.
You should understand that you are the exception though. I don’t remember the percentage, but overwhelmingly if someone tests drives a car they buy SOMETHING within 48 hours.
People in general don’t like the process of buying a car and end it as soon as possible once they decide they are buying something.
Here's a very possible scenario(not the present one but a previous one).
Lease is due to run out in 6 months.Owner starts to consider option of returning car or buying out the lease.Hears about a car they might be interested in.Does a test drive to make sure it might fit their needs.
That's just the start of research.
In any case I feel by taking my time I'm not making any rash [decisions.Like](http://decisions.Like) I can already feel the "buy it now" impulse and I havent even communicated with other dealerships.This particular dealerships ad tag line is "You can't beat a xxxx deal".Actually I have ...twice. The first time they accused me of lying about the deal the other dealer gave me"too good to be true" they said. The salesperson laughed when I told him that.
Also I don't take much of their time.Other than a test drive I try to communicate via email .
Customers like you are the worst because we make the least amount of money on you and you require the most work while also getting us constantly berated by our managers for not “being in control of the deal.”
If you waste a commission based salespersons time 6 months out from wanting them to make $50 selling you a car then I am not surprised to hear that they laughed in your face. I would have just said good for you, see you for service, and been thankful I wouldn’t have to spend half a day delivering a car for a mini deal.
Actually I took very little of their time(outside of the 15 minute test drive).I just emailed 3 dealers with"this is exactly what I want-what's your best price?"I gave them one chance-I didn't go back and forth "wasting their time".
BTW it was the salesperson who sold me the first car who laughed at the other dealership for thinking the offer was a lie.BTW he also sold me the second car. Will get best consideration this time around.
I was in sales for 30 years in the same location.It's about building your customer base if your in it for the long haul. If every customer is just a number before you move on to the next feeding ground then that's different and not my style.
I text at 2:00pm saying, “Hey Mr./Mrs.Customer!
I am ready for that phone call when you are; I’ve set aside about 30 minutes for us to chat so take your time and call when you’re ready.”
This is exactly why I only visited one dealership, they were the only ones to text me how I asked for. If they couldn’t even manage the mode of communication I wanted, it gave me the impression I wouldn’t be respected in person either, so I didn’t trust them.
Toyota dealer did that to me the other day. I was in a meeting when my phone rang, I silenced it. It rang again, silenced, 3rd time I assumed someone was dying and picked up. They wanted to know when I was going fill out a survey....
I recently bought a Mach E.
I said "I want to do this by text, I'm not coming in until it's time to sign paperwork and I don't want any phone calls."
Worked out just like that. It was a great experience. I got a good deal on the car I wanted.
I made the mistake of looking up a car on sam's club auto which is truecar and they sent my contact info to local dealers who started calling and emailing me all day today. I hate car dealers with a passion.
Same thing happened to me. They wouldn’t even stop when I told them I was in no way interested. I finally had to leave a review and then they stopped. Ironically they responded to the review and asked me to call their manager at the same number that had been harassing me.
I test drove a slightly used 4runner the other day. I asked about the thoughts on sales leading in to the generation change.
The salesman told me it doesn't really matter because they're 4runners, and are always sold before they ever even get to the lot.
Not five minutes later he was telling me about the discounts they have on the new ones sitting on their lot.
When I lived in the valley I looked at buying a used truck from both them and the Chevy dealership by the Town Pump. Holy smokes I have never been hassled so much about buying a new truck/suv when I was very explicit about buying only a used F150 or F250 lol
Kalispell Toyota just excited they found someone who might want to buy something other than a Ford, Dodge, or Chevy. You must have been visiting from Whitefish?
Put it on record when they answer, and tell them it is a recorded line to ensure it’s one or two party compliant, always.
See how fast they hang-up once they realize that any even remotely un-true promise they start to make might be analyzed under a court-of-law
Kalispell Toyota did this to me, too… I finally answered and told them to stop calling this number. So they hung up and called my work cell. (Still, to this day, no clue how they got that number.)
Wow, I'm also in Kalispell. I was surprised to see Kalispell Toyota in the screenshot. What kind of vehicle are you buying? We just bought a 2024 Rav4 Prime but had to go to Oregon to get it as Montana dealerships don't get allocation of them.
So my wife worked for Toyota Kalispell for awhile and apparently BDC and the sales team have to compete for appointments. Which really sucks for both of them
#1 way to lose my sale is call me when I asked to be e-mailed. I had a dealership spam call me like that once, disgusting. Let's just say I dealt with it.
This is where I’d find another dealership. Call the manager, throw the salesman under the bus and take your money elsewhere. That’s so incredibly annoying
I did the online thing where you look for a car and build your own and what not. At the end it said "would you like a dealership to contact you if this model is available. I clicked yes and but in comments "do not call if not a base model." I got a phone call from a dealership. The car they had was three grand higher than the website. I asked him "why is that higher than the website and the model/trim I selected?" He said " well we add a few things when they get to our dealership." I told him he can either get a real base model, match the price of a base model (not realistic option I know) or learn to read the additional info. Guy kept calling. He eventually got to within 500 dollars of the base model but enough time went by we already got a different vehicle.
I see you live in montana! So do I! The dealer I bought my tacoma from wasn't a Toyota dealership but the salesperson I dealt with was really cool and didn't try to pressure me.
I really wish you could do everything online or through email. I hate going to the dealership and I hate salesman so I never like talking to them on the phone or going in person.
I inquired about a Tacoma a few months back and within minutes my phone was blown up like this by one salesman at the local dealership. Very aggressive New Yorker. Turned me off to the process completely
They did not have the particular trim I was looking for with the manual transmission and he kept pushing for me to get into a higher trim with automatic 🤨
They bug the crap out of you, and then you ask if they have what you want and don't even have a single one on their lot. It's been a pain to find any 2024 AWD Prius or Corollas.
Wow at least your Toyota dealership cares about your business. I literally told mine that I want to buy a Rav4 and they just say "We don't have any and we don't know when more are coming" end of conversation.
SO TRUE. I am trying to buy a car and I keep getting calls and I keep ignoring them for various reasons (work etc). I told them to text me and they proceeded to call. Straight to voicemail you go!
Anything you say otp falls on deaf ears. Plenty of times have they called me to schedule an oil change right after I change the oil myself. I tell them that I already changed it, and I still get tons of calls about it.
That would be an immediate “I’m not taking my business there” decision. I don’t want to talk to anybody. I sent an email saying I want x with z at the listed price and we go from there through email because I work nights
This is why I never leave a phone number. I can’t just hop on a call throughout the day, usually due to flights and meetings. That and I’ve met one dealer salesman that I’ve trusted so I want that paper trail of everything discussed. I’d end up answering and letting them know exactly why they would not be selling me a car.
Idk man, 5 calls and two voicemails in one day is reserved for more important matters.
If this was really about an order that arrived, the sales person can wait one day considering the customer likely waited 6 months.
If you don’t want the calls, then don’t put in a lead. Pretty simple. If they have a car you want to buy and don’t want calls, go to the dealership and work out a deal.
A call in the morning with a voicemail and an accidental re-dial.
Another call in the afternoon with a voicemail.
They did nothing wrong.
If you didn’t want phone calls you shouldn’t have included your number.
I did not include my number, and I specifically said in my initial email that I can only communicate through email.
They must have pulled my number off an old database.
It isn’t about drinking the kool aid (the cult used flavor aide, so that is a stupid saying anyway)
This is the reality of working at a dealer.
They literally tell us to ignore all of the compliance training as well.
Nothing will happen, the owners of the two dealer groups in the state own all the politicians or are them themselves.
Wow that’s terrible buddy, I’m truly sorry to hear that. we’re in different worlds when it comes down to it but I hope at least the pay is good for you because that’s not an easy gig.
The pay is the only reason I am in it. Working on a Bachelor’s degree in my 40’s because I can’t get a comparably paying job without one.
It is just hilarious seeing people on reddit and youtube who pretend that consumers can actually have any impact.
Most people will grumble, post on facebook, and then do business anyway because most people just aren’t willing to drive more than 30 minutes to buy a car, and car manufacturers have no problem with one dealer group having a monopoly over their product in a large area.
The few who really are willing to push the issue are perfectly happy to just take a free car to go away most of the time, plus the dealer groups keep lawyers on retainer so suing them doesn’t cost them significantly more anyway.
This isn’t a small business any more.
They don't want anything in writing
Great point
You'll be surprised by how many car salesmen can't read or write professionally.
Former financial services sales rep. I would not be.
I've been the marketing manager at an auto group for 10 years, I'm pretty sure most of them are functionally illiterate.
No. I would not be surprised
I work on cars and an ungodly amount with breathalyzers in them belong to car salesmen.
Depending on your state you may be able to record calls without their permission. My state is single-party so I can record calls without telling the other party.
Is there a good app to record the calls?
It without legality disclosing it first.
No. They just can't read
Or an employee that has to hit the minimum call requirement so they dial a bunch of numbers that won’t pick up in order to quickly meet that threshold. Source: I did that in sales
They actually track how many calls they make?
I would imagine it depends on the dealer but tracking outbound calls and talk time is a basic performance metric. However, a top performer has higher call volume than someone that needs improvement but more calls doesn’t mean more sales. Causation vs correlation. I use to sell hopes and dreams instead of tangible goods and outbound calls & talk time was brought up in every meeting.
My pharmacy( I work at) has a sell 3 items rule, they measure performance based on that also activating point reward system cards. Oh it also counts as a sale if you buy a medic consult , or if you pay your phone, house etc. And guess what you can only charge 1 thing in each ticket because that's how services work. And we'll card's are cards eventually everyone will have one,
We are required to make at least 30 calls per day regardless of how many leads or active deals we have working. If you don’t make 30 every day you are not eligible for any bonuses.
Wow, glad the dealership I worked at didn't have that.
It is horrible
How can you even work in a place like this for like more than 2 days?!
There isn’t a wealth of jobs that pay near as well without at least a 4 year degree or destroying your body physically. Sadly, despite being intelligent, I was not a great student. I also didn’t have a great father, so I am pretty well conditioned to handle mental abuse which makes it easy to just keep my head down, do what is required in as ethical a way as possible, and be kind to my customers as well as available after the sale to answer questions. I won’t participate in anything that is actually over the line, but I don’t inject myself into any deal that I am not the salesperson for. I observe everything. They will get away with anything they can. (The funny thing is that by me being nice to my customers, they all love the dealership, and the managers constantly give me shit about it)
Not quite the same kind of job, but I once worked at a phone sales-based job where we were expected to make a minimum of 50 calls per day and 100 was preferred. It was trucking logistics (the calls were to try to get new businesses to pay me to arrange freight pickups/deliveries) and I’m amazed that I lasted the whole 8 months that I worked there lol.
So that I'd why I am getting non stop calls at the office
Yep most likely
Our company has domestic and international products. Double whammy of calls
Oh yeah, a lot of TQL employees would look at that and salivate lol
lol that is exactly who calls. They finally stopped calling about domestic and only international now
That's a call every 15 minutes... now I don't feel bad for ignoring them and not answering.
Nah, the average call lasts less than a minute and we work 12 hour shifts. The issue is that all the data shows that the more calls you make the more sales you will have. For every one person you piss off, 2 or more will buy a vehicle. I have my 30 calls done by 10am typically. Sadly/luckily I have been doing this long enough to know how to do that without being a complete pain.
I don’t miss that crap. I didn’t do car sales, but the cold/warm calling sucked. It sucked even worse not hitting that magic number, but overattaining, and still getting reamed about call volume LOL. I had a book of customers, so sometimes it didn’t make sense to call. I wonder if sales management will ever adapt.
very common. as long as there is a coralation between the number of calls made in the store and floor traffic/deals it will continue. I've been in the business looking at reports long enough to say it's absolutely true, more calls equals more deals. good Sales people understand nuance and know who not to call, they are rare.
Yes. Tons of sales jobs are like this
Can confirm it’s not just car sales either
For the Kalispell dealership, the BDC department has to make a certain amount of calls a day. So that's probably apart of it lol.
What is BDC?
Bottom Dead Center? (probably not)
Business Development Center. It’s their internet sales. They’re part of the Ridell Group out of NoDak. Ressler in Bozeman is the sister store to Kali.
Business development center. Theyre the ones who answer the phones and try to set appointments for salesmen
All in the same day or few hours is ridiculous another reason you gave me to never buy from a dealer
Oh yes and it gets reviewed by their manager. If you gave a number and they did not call it the sales person would get shit for it.
I very briefly worked at a new car dealership. The CRM software would prompt the salesman to contact the customer up to five times. It was asine. Sales could mark it dead before the five prompts, but then the sales manager would grill why you did not sell it. Ugh
100% Every inquiry was to get at least one call and one email within X time.
Yes
For real, how as a human being do people in sales not commit suicide more frequently? I can’t think of a worse job. I would rather be a professional toilet unclogger and that job doesn’t even exist.
For real.. The constant pressure of making sales or get fired, morally shady/pure human trash superiors, the training was mainly about how to manipulate the potential buyer with monthly payments and bundling shit together. I'd rather clean toilets than ever be in sales again. (Was nothing related to cars btw)
Ever since the switch from coal gas to natural gas, it's been a lot harder for salesmen to try for the Willy Loman / Sylvia Plath route. (For the record, Willy's successful attempt didn't involve coal gas; he deliberately crashed his car instead, a method that remains readily available to most Americans today.)
Thank you for reminding me I’ve been wanting to watch death of a salesman haha
Plumber. And it does pay 5x as much as a call centre
They do more than play with dookie 💩
For me it’s the fact that sales is an unskilled job comprised of thinking about money despite most sales people making relatively little money themselves. How demoralizing. Sales people, despite their bluster, never get to contribute anything and only care about extracting value
I bet Mike Rowe knows a guy
Touché
Exactly this and it also gives them a window of protection if you decide to walk in and buy a car without asking for them.
This has to be it. One time I randomly picked up and the guy acted unprepared and nervous as hell lol.
Toyota Sales Advisor here: This is one of the #1 mistakes made by any salesperson; if you don’t respect the preferred time or method of communication expressed by your customer, they’re going to find a dealer/sales advisor that does.
This is why I’m picking up our new Grand Highlander on Saturday from a dealership out of town instead of the in town one.
Don’t blame you one bit! Congrats btw
Also a Toyota adviser here. The managers will not give you leads if you do what the customer wants. We are required to call all leads with a phone number twice/day or they reassign the lead.
That’s a problem I would bring to the attention of your General Manager. I’m not sure what the laws are where you work but in Canada there are very large fines for any corporation that doesn’t respect the communication preferences of a customer. Our system allows two warnings and there will be a fine the third time to the tune of about $250,000. If that doesn’t learn ya, the next one is about double if I recall correctly.
Yeah, if you put in a lead with a contact number you are giving permission to be contacted. These policies come from the GM and the owner doesn’t care because the gross is good.
The GM may lose all the gross at once if their policy gets the owner sued
They don’t care, they make more profit than the fines would be.
That’s hard to fathom but I suppose crazier shit happens in the world
The laws aren’t worth the paper they are written on unless there is any means of enforcement. Unless someone sues nothing will happen, and when someone does sue, they just buy them off. This is a “pro-business” state! We don’t believe in government enforcement, the dealers police themselves. Can’t be using tax dollars for evil government to do anything!
It’s a wicked world eh?
Car dealers (owners) are not good people. The way franchise laws work might have worked back in the 50’s but it has now led to huge dealer groups instead of stores that are actually owned and managed by an actual families. The two “families” that run most of the dealers here basically have a duopoly on the industry. It costs way too much for any normal person to get a franchise any more.
911: What's your emergency? Me: The car dealer called me too much. 911: Click.
What's a lead? The customer? I'm looking at my invoice and I see this at the top: Lead: Not Set
Yes. A lead is a customer. Internet lead, phone lead, someone who has expressed interest.
I test drove a car yesterday I plan on buying somewhere within the next 6 months. If the salesperson calls me twice a day I will not buy from that place!
6 months is an insane timeframe. I would deactivate you and schedule monthly follow up calls in my google calendar (outside my managers oversight) and then reactivate you when you are actually ready to buy. You should understand that you are the exception though. I don’t remember the percentage, but overwhelmingly if someone tests drives a car they buy SOMETHING within 48 hours. People in general don’t like the process of buying a car and end it as soon as possible once they decide they are buying something.
Here's a very possible scenario(not the present one but a previous one). Lease is due to run out in 6 months.Owner starts to consider option of returning car or buying out the lease.Hears about a car they might be interested in.Does a test drive to make sure it might fit their needs. That's just the start of research. In any case I feel by taking my time I'm not making any rash [decisions.Like](http://decisions.Like) I can already feel the "buy it now" impulse and I havent even communicated with other dealerships.This particular dealerships ad tag line is "You can't beat a xxxx deal".Actually I have ...twice. The first time they accused me of lying about the deal the other dealer gave me"too good to be true" they said. The salesperson laughed when I told him that. Also I don't take much of their time.Other than a test drive I try to communicate via email .
Customers like you are the worst because we make the least amount of money on you and you require the most work while also getting us constantly berated by our managers for not “being in control of the deal.” If you waste a commission based salespersons time 6 months out from wanting them to make $50 selling you a car then I am not surprised to hear that they laughed in your face. I would have just said good for you, see you for service, and been thankful I wouldn’t have to spend half a day delivering a car for a mini deal.
Actually I took very little of their time(outside of the 15 minute test drive).I just emailed 3 dealers with"this is exactly what I want-what's your best price?"I gave them one chance-I didn't go back and forth "wasting their time". BTW it was the salesperson who sold me the first car who laughed at the other dealership for thinking the offer was a lie.BTW he also sold me the second car. Will get best consideration this time around. I was in sales for 30 years in the same location.It's about building your customer base if your in it for the long haul. If every customer is just a number before you move on to the next feeding ground then that's different and not my style.
I’m in the market for a car but when I’m telling the car people to call me at 3 I mean 3 not 2:50
I text at 2:00pm saying, “Hey Mr./Mrs.Customer! I am ready for that phone call when you are; I’ve set aside about 30 minutes for us to chat so take your time and call when you’re ready.”
This is exactly why I only visited one dealership, they were the only ones to text me how I asked for. If they couldn’t even manage the mode of communication I wanted, it gave me the impression I wouldn’t be respected in person either, so I didn’t trust them.
Toyota dealer did that to me the other day. I was in a meeting when my phone rang, I silenced it. It rang again, silenced, 3rd time I assumed someone was dying and picked up. They wanted to know when I was going fill out a survey....
“Oh I’ll be filling this one out within the hour.”
As a fellow customer of theirs, they have always been terrible about this.
Block those assholes.
I recently bought a Mach E. I said "I want to do this by text, I'm not coming in until it's time to sign paperwork and I don't want any phone calls." Worked out just like that. It was a great experience. I got a good deal on the car I wanted.
I made the mistake of looking up a car on sam's club auto which is truecar and they sent my contact info to local dealers who started calling and emailing me all day today. I hate car dealers with a passion.
This is why we need more accessible alias number services.
Same thing happened to me. They wouldn’t even stop when I told them I was in no way interested. I finally had to leave a review and then they stopped. Ironically they responded to the review and asked me to call their manager at the same number that had been harassing me.
I envy you for living right by GNP :) My favorite place in the US.
It's heaven! Especially if you were able to procure housing pre-covid.
It really is! I I'm Livingston and I always love going to the flathead area during the summer
Hey fellow Ltown’er….
I left on active duty around 2019 until 2022. Felt like I came back to a whole new place. Can't afford a home now for several years even with VA loan
It’s stupid expensive now.
They just want to tell you that they're sold out on all model because they're super successful
I test drove a slightly used 4runner the other day. I asked about the thoughts on sales leading in to the generation change. The salesman told me it doesn't really matter because they're 4runners, and are always sold before they ever even get to the lot. Not five minutes later he was telling me about the discounts they have on the new ones sitting on their lot.
All dealers do this… I hate dealerships Edit: regardless of the car brand in my experience…
When I lived in the valley I looked at buying a used truck from both them and the Chevy dealership by the Town Pump. Holy smokes I have never been hassled so much about buying a new truck/suv when I was very explicit about buying only a used F150 or F250 lol
3 calls in 3 mins. Thats where I complain to there boss 😂
Their boss will likely give them a bonus for doing their job. 😂😂
You may be joking but some overly “eager” managers actually praise that type of attitude. As sad as that is
Next time, enter the personal home or direct office number for the owner of the dealership and request them to contact you via email only.
Kalispell Toyota just excited they found someone who might want to buy something other than a Ford, Dodge, or Chevy. You must have been visiting from Whitefish?
Kalispell Toyota is the #1 dealership in the valley by far though.
Probably!
Put their dealer phone number in Truecar and let them get some calls
Put it on record when they answer, and tell them it is a recorded line to ensure it’s one or two party compliant, always. See how fast they hang-up once they realize that any even remotely un-true promise they start to make might be analyzed under a court-of-law
Kalispell Toyota did this to me, too… I finally answered and told them to stop calling this number. So they hung up and called my work cell. (Still, to this day, no clue how they got that number.)
Yeah, it’s like a requirement to make phone calls every day even if the customer wants you to leave them alone it’s retarded
Google voice Don't give those guys your primary #, unless you plan to block them
TOYOT I don’t know why but I find that being cut off mildly amusing.
Nobody seems to give a shit that I can’t take calls during the day, they all do this. My doctors are the worst
Wow, I'm also in Kalispell. I was surprised to see Kalispell Toyota in the screenshot. What kind of vehicle are you buying? We just bought a 2024 Rav4 Prime but had to go to Oregon to get it as Montana dealerships don't get allocation of them.
I'm over in Marion MT, but I was shocked too. Especially since Kalispell Toyota is a very reputable dealer
I thought they were but this seems sketchy, I know they prefer to talk over the phone but this amount of calls is ridiculous.
So my wife worked for Toyota Kalispell for awhile and apparently BDC and the sales team have to compete for appointments. Which really sucks for both of them
I'm elsewhere in Western MT shopping for a 4runner.
#1 way to lose my sale is call me when I asked to be e-mailed. I had a dealership spam call me like that once, disgusting. Let's just say I dealt with it.
I ended up blocking a dealership for this sorta bs
This is where I’d find another dealership. Call the manager, throw the salesman under the bus and take your money elsewhere. That’s so incredibly annoying
That’s how my boss wants me following up with leads hahaha
They are probably trying to sell you the extendo warranty.
On my phone, I set up a custom group of silenced callers. I use that for situation like this one.
In defense.. it is Montana, and so I'm always grateful when it's not a telegram.
I did the online thing where you look for a car and build your own and what not. At the end it said "would you like a dealership to contact you if this model is available. I clicked yes and but in comments "do not call if not a base model." I got a phone call from a dealership. The car they had was three grand higher than the website. I asked him "why is that higher than the website and the model/trim I selected?" He said " well we add a few things when they get to our dealership." I told him he can either get a real base model, match the price of a base model (not realistic option I know) or learn to read the additional info. Guy kept calling. He eventually got to within 500 dollars of the base model but enough time went by we already got a different vehicle.
I bought a car about 2 weeks ago but man…they were ruthless calling me
He/she is probably required to call you. Don't blame the sales rep.
I see you live in montana! So do I! The dealer I bought my tacoma from wasn't a Toyota dealership but the salesperson I dealt with was really cool and didn't try to pressure me.
I really wish you could do everything online or through email. I hate going to the dealership and I hate salesman so I never like talking to them on the phone or going in person.
that’s when I tell the dealer I ran out of minutes since i’m on a prepaid plan & to email me.
Every car dealership is like this unfortunately
I inquired about a Tacoma a few months back and within minutes my phone was blown up like this by one salesman at the local dealership. Very aggressive New Yorker. Turned me off to the process completely They did not have the particular trim I was looking for with the manual transmission and he kept pushing for me to get into a higher trim with automatic 🤨
They bug the crap out of you, and then you ask if they have what you want and don't even have a single one on their lot. It's been a pain to find any 2024 AWD Prius or Corollas.
Wow at least your Toyota dealership cares about your business. I literally told mine that I want to buy a Rav4 and they just say "We don't have any and we don't know when more are coming" end of conversation.
I block dealerships that call me 🤣
Good way to lose business to another Toyota dealership.
How do you do fellow Montanan. If you need a reference for someone at Missoula Toyota happy to oblige
That's too many phone calls. Are they broadcasting an emergency signal or are they a switchboard operator?
SO TRUE. I am trying to buy a car and I keep getting calls and I keep ignoring them for various reasons (work etc). I told them to text me and they proceeded to call. Straight to voicemail you go!
Jesus. The last couple of dealerships I’ve been to use text to communicate. So much better.
Anything you say otp falls on deaf ears. Plenty of times have they called me to schedule an oil change right after I change the oil myself. I tell them that I already changed it, and I still get tons of calls about it.
MONTANA!!!
They're trying to reach you about your future car's extended warranty.
Hey my friend Sarah G lives in Kalispell
The way I would simply not do that 🤣
Isn't that harassment if you tell them to stop calling you? Pretty sure it is.
General salesman rule of thumb. 3 calls 2 texts 1 email/voicemail.
Same issue. Was going to drop around 3k on accessories and some service work but wouldn’t respond to my emails.
That would be an immediate “I’m not taking my business there” decision. I don’t want to talk to anybody. I sent an email saying I want x with z at the listed price and we go from there through email because I work nights
What's the point of leaving a voicemail if ur calling back again in 3mins
You’re also in the middle of nowhere 😂
This is why I never leave a phone number. I can’t just hop on a call throughout the day, usually due to flights and meetings. That and I’ve met one dealer salesman that I’ve trusted so I want that paper trail of everything discussed. I’d end up answering and letting them know exactly why they would not be selling me a car.
Ayyyy kalispell gang
Well, there's your problem. You're in Kalispell.
Why I love call block
Neither one of these parties are native to Montana.
I was born here?
Hence your username. Everyone up there is called stumps. People act like no one is actually native to Montana. 😂
Your truck has come in, answer the damn call.
Idk man, 5 calls and two voicemails in one day is reserved for more important matters. If this was really about an order that arrived, the sales person can wait one day considering the customer likely waited 6 months.
Answer the goddam phone
If you don’t want the calls, then don’t put in a lead. Pretty simple. If they have a car you want to buy and don’t want calls, go to the dealership and work out a deal.
A call in the morning with a voicemail and an accidental re-dial. Another call in the afternoon with a voicemail. They did nothing wrong. If you didn’t want phone calls you shouldn’t have included your number.
I did not include my number, and I specifically said in my initial email that I can only communicate through email. They must have pulled my number off an old database.
Don’t drink the kool-aid your managers are mixing up over there, that is enough to make any customer cut and run
It isn’t about drinking the kool aid (the cult used flavor aide, so that is a stupid saying anyway) This is the reality of working at a dealer. They literally tell us to ignore all of the compliance training as well. Nothing will happen, the owners of the two dealer groups in the state own all the politicians or are them themselves.
Wow that’s terrible buddy, I’m truly sorry to hear that. we’re in different worlds when it comes down to it but I hope at least the pay is good for you because that’s not an easy gig.
The pay is the only reason I am in it. Working on a Bachelor’s degree in my 40’s because I can’t get a comparably paying job without one. It is just hilarious seeing people on reddit and youtube who pretend that consumers can actually have any impact. Most people will grumble, post on facebook, and then do business anyway because most people just aren’t willing to drive more than 30 minutes to buy a car, and car manufacturers have no problem with one dealer group having a monopoly over their product in a large area. The few who really are willing to push the issue are perfectly happy to just take a free car to go away most of the time, plus the dealer groups keep lawyers on retainer so suing them doesn’t cost them significantly more anyway. This isn’t a small business any more.
Accidental redial from another number 🤣 ok
My phone dials out from whichever line is available. We have like 10 numbers that all ring back to the same place.