For the past week i've been trying to buy a new Octy II facelift VRS off a new dealership . I made contact with them, The salesman said to come in and have chat the following day. on arriving it was obvious he new nothing about the cars. So he done his valuation of my octy II but couldn't give me the trade in value until he new the prices of the new car. He couldn't tell me the spec cost or anything so i left my details and went home frustrated at his lack of knowledge of the product he was trying to sell. So a couple of days later he phoned with a price to change. which i didn't agree with. so we finally agreed a compramise which he said "are you happy with". It was a good deal so i said yes. But he still had no idea of the specs, extras and costs. But said he'd get back to us. 2 days later his sales manager contacted us and said they couldn't do the finance at 0% which the salesman had offered. But offered the standard 2.5%pa deal which was a bit of a sickener. But I persisted with the good deal even with the goal posts moving. The sales manager then contacted us and said " I can't do the deal agreed" and pulled the plug on the hole thing by asking for an extra grand.So he was then asked what spec the car he had in stock had and his answer was it looks pretty stndard to me. Is it just me or should salesmen in a new dealership know a bit about what they are selling and the finace packages and deals available. This would have been the first Skoda they would have sold new and it was a good 24k miles blue octy vrs for there poor used skoda stock. The major hurdle was their valuation of our car which worked out at £8000 for a mint unabused 07 24000 miles vrs in blue. So needless to say we're travelling the extra distance to shake on a more realistic deal with people who kow there onions. I'm dissapoiinted that I couldn't even give my trade to the new dealer. They didn't have to sell me a car i wanted to buy one.

Edited 26 March, 201115 yr by chrispy 2

You've done the right thing and taken your business elsewhere, i personally would have done that after they dropped the 0% finance.

As a sales manager myself [not cars] it is totally unacceptable to let someone face customers if they know nothing about the product they are selling. That is not the fault of the salesman but the management behind him/her for lack of training.

Good luck with your alternative dealer

Move on to the next dealer.

Do your own research on the valuation of your own car & the price you expect to pay for the new one, too many lazy salesmen & dealers out there.

If you give some idea of where you are inCumbria I'm sure some one here will point you in the direction of a decent dealer.

I agree it is a crying shame that the salesmen were so useless, as you say you were there to BUY the car not to be sold a car and all they had to do was agree a deal with you to both of your satisfaction. I bought my car locally last year and got a decent deal with a reasonably knowledgable salesman if i had needed to travel a large distance to find a dealer i would probably have bought a different car from a local dealer selling different a brand.

i new the real value was higher because our local seat dealer had offered 9500 against a new leon fr with 0 per cent finance and 10 per cent off otr price. I give this info to the sales team but they didn't take any notice. The dealer only starts officially selling tomorrow. I'm in whitehaven. The seat dealer here is good have bought off them in the past the leon fr tdi was an option. But the boot is small when you compare with an octy. Its frustrating when all i had to do was go in and sign up. As a hole skoda dealers have a good reputation its a shame that these really lacked product knowledge.

Edited 27 March, 201115 yr by chrispy 2

When I was shopping for cars last year I was surprised at the lack of knowledge from sales staff on the cars and lack of enthusiasm for a sale. To choose a car I spent a while reading up and had a pretty good idea of different specs, engine figures and model changes for a variety of cars yet people whose job is it to know this didn't seem to have a clue about any of it. I guess part of it is due to the fact I look younger than I am and I'm a pretty casual dresser so I guess some salespeople just think I'm a timewaster but it's no excuse, I was tempted to mail garages back with a copy of the receipt for the Octavia I did buy to point out I was a genuine buyer and thanks to their poor sales staff they lost that sale. It's also one of the reasons I signed up for the Freedom membership on this site as my local Skoda dealer were not particularly helpful whereas I found all the info I needed here and nowhere else which demonstrated how valuable a resource the site is.

Funnily enough the Leon would have been my first choice as well, I bought a Seat Toledo Sport TDI 150 from the garage in Edinburgh even though it wasn't at all the car I was after. However the sales staff were knowledgeable and were more than happy for me to try out a few cars which landed them the sale as I just loved the feel of the Toledo which I hadn't expected. I did look at the Leon as I'd enjoyed my Toledo so much but the boot just looked terrible and of little use. It's the main reason I went for the Octavia as the other mk V based cars are either small at the back or in estate form don't come in a sporty spec. The Octavia makes the other mk V cars look small in comparison and offers a reasonably sport spec.

John

Just out of interest, where's the new Skoda dealer?

Can't say i was to happy with the sales man in the dealership in dunfermline a couple of weeks ago when me and the wife went in to order a new octy vrs diesel. the fact we bought the last one ther,e and was a returing customer didn't seem to matter. then he went outside to inspect my car, and made no comment of it' condition, then offered a crap trade in price. then kept on trying to sell us the petrol one with the vat free offer then gave us a coparison price for the diesel, at that point the wife tryed to sign then and there, until i pointed out to her he has not gave any discount on the diesel, that's why it was looking alot more expensive. now thats what i call customer service, and yes he did know i traveled from morayshire, and would be taking another sale from the inverness dealer.

I guess part of it is due to the fact I look younger than I am and I'm a pretty casual dresser so I guess some salespeople just think I'm a timewaster but it's no excuse

Its annoying when you get pigeon-holed. Unfortunately that's what the salesmen are trained to do. They look at your clothes, your shoes your watch and your car. I'd love to know what they make of me: middle-aged (but don't quite look it), cheap clothes and shoes, watch that looks like a Swatch but definitely isn't and a car that may be worth a fraction of the other I could have driven today, but I just wanted to drive this one today because it feels great driving hard to a Darren Styles CD.

Don't get me wrong, some are good at what they do, but a lot are just into the next commission (funny how they add Supaguard when you've not asked for it) and will try to sell you what they have rather than what you want.

The good ones are worth going back to, and fortunately there are some others within Border who are like that.

So its not just me do you think suk use mystery shoppers? They should defo read the feed back on here. Tip of the iceberg i think. Dealers must try harder

Maybe it was because I rocked up in a hoodie jeans and trainers (they were my bestest ones though ). But it shows how old fashioned people maybe are :S

Edited 29 March, 201115 yr by chrispy 2

Got sorted thanks to an honest debra at telfords. New blue tfsi on blue ordered through them because they new what they were talking about. It wasn't as good as the others in the new dealership offered but it was a real deal not a load of sales flannel

Edited 29 March, 201115 yr by chrispy 2

Its annoying when you get pigeon-holed. Unfortunately that's what the salesmen are trained to do. They look at your clothes, your shoes your watch and your car. I'd love to know what they make of me: middle-aged (but don't quite look it), cheap clothes and shoes, watch that looks like a Swatch but definitely isn't and a car that may be worth a fraction of the other I could have driven today, but I just wanted to drive this one today because it feels great driving hard to a Darren Styles CD.

Don't get me wrong, some are good at what they do, but a lot are just into the next commission (funny how they add Supaguard when you've not asked for it) and will try to sell you what they have rather than what you want.

The good ones are worth going back to, and fortunately there are some others within Border who are like that.

Can I just say (and I am sure James will agree) Salespeople are NOT trained to pigeon hole. In fact you are trained never to pigeon hole. Unfortunately human nature means we all do it occasionally. I once was chatting to a homeless man who often walked past out showroom in Manchester (Bauer Millet in those days) and looked at the Hummers and Rolls Royce. The boss congratulated me for doing so and said you never can tell. He was right. I more than once saw a tatty family car roll up and with a couple of hours a man had bought a £60 K car!. Conversely I saw people in Bentley Turbos haggle over the last penny, change their mind several times and pay from 4 different bank accounts. All the time kicking and screaming about the cost of cars.

Can I just say (and I am sure James will agree) Salespeople are NOT trained to pigeon hole. In fact you are trained never to pigeon hole. Unfortunately human nature means we all do it occasionally. I once was chatting to a homeless man who often walked past out showroom in Manchester (Bauer Millet in those days) and looked at the Hummers and Rolls Royce. The boss congratulated me for doing so and said you never can tell. He was right. I more than once saw a tatty family car roll up and with a couple of hours a man had bought a £60 K car!. Conversely I saw people in Bentley Turbos haggle over the last penny, change their mind several times and pay from 4 different bank accounts. All the time kicking and screaming about the cost of cars.

OK, point taken; and you're right - it's something that we all do a bit. Equally if we're using our own cash, most of us like to haggle - it's natural. I'm a buyer by profession, and some of my best purchasing experiences have been when we've both the enemy(sorry, salesperson) and me have been laughing about the ultimate price, often based on something random (difficult to justify or object to). When you think the salesperson has given you the respect of a worthy "fight" and you're both smiling about the acceptable result, you will ultimately go back to that person for the next deal. Perhaps that's why I've had 6 or 7 of a certain marque you're familiar with, consecutively from the same dealer, with only the last one on finance (locking me in for 4 years @ 1.1%).

Some deals have been better than others, but overall I'm happy and feel valued. Each time I've done a degree of benchmarking, and two of the dealers haven't even got back to me after visiting them in person and expressing an interest in a forthcoming version due to be unveiled at the next motorshow. One dealer lost a sale because he didn't divulge details of some manufacturer stock, trying instead to get me to buy the showroom model he was lumbered with and which I too would have found very difficult to resell 3 or 4 years later. Unfortunately he was sticking resolutely to the cost + options model and not recognising that the price needed to reflect the outdated and undesireble mix of options and old technology.

I accept that each dealer group will have their own parameters, but if they're going to be turned off by discounts, cash (i.e. no finance or GAP etc), and the requirement to factory order a car with a uncompromising spec rather than taking one from thir stock, they aren't a dealer who can service my demands despite being the closest one and potentially winning out on the long-term servicing of the car. However they "qualify" the customer, they are potentially killing off future trade for the dealer that goes beyond the initial purchase price. It's about whole-life costs, not just front end; and unfortunately the commission structure focuses attention on the front end. They need to take a long-term view of the customer (perhaps that's why I'd be no good as a salesman).