evening fellow forum readers,

thought i would share my dads afternoon experience

my old man is the most laid back person i know nowadays , especially since he retired 20 years ago, he has a 5 year old XC90 which he is looking to change

he has more money then sense but spends it propery hense "more money then sense"

he rings me last friday night to ask if i still have my skoda, to which i said yes why ? he says he is looking to swap his XC90 and liked what i had, but didnt know what he wanted , i explained about octavia vrs (thinks he is the stig sometimes) , superbs (he is a big guy and rather posh) and yetis (he does like his 4x4 because of where my parents live), he then asked if i had any contacts which i said yes and gave him said details and left it at that

he has just phoned me to say "thanks son .. not" he had spoke to said dealership where the saleman called him matey and mate .. not that it botherd him that much not very professional though .. and then after explaining his situation and asking about what deals there was got told .. There are no deals on the Yeti,and never has been as they sell all the yetis they get, sales guy wasnt in tomorrow so couldnt get brochures away untill friday or the weekend so would be easier if he went in .. (dad lives in devon dealer good couple of hours away)and when asked if could send the 3 brochures got told It sounds like you need to make your mind up which car you want ... to suprise suprise my dad said forget it and put the phone down ..... guess what parents to tomorrow going down to exeter tomorrow to buy a new car but wont be a skoda .....

Good on you

Some dealers are like that, I think the good press that Skoda has had has gone to their heads however there are some good ones out there. There are no deals on the Yeti and afaik never have been but to encourage custom a decent dealer would have put the news in a way that wouldn't have turned your dad off them straight away. It may be too late and to be fair I don't blame your dad if it is, services and suppliers need to realise that the customer is king especially in the current economic climate but I feel confident that he would have liked the Yeti or perhaps a Scout and it'd be good to find a dealer that would bring one to them for a test drive or find a dealer that would allow them to take one home for the weekend.

Hope they get sorted anyway and whatever he gets serves him well

Can you really base your decision on what car to buy, on the attitude of one salesman at one dealership? Your dad can't have really been that keen in the first place really?

Break the English tradition and complain.

Service will never improve if they aren't aware how bad they are.

To not buy a Skoda based on one inept salesman seems a little drastic, especially as it sounds as though a Skoda may meet his needs.

Brochures are now available to download on Skoda's website.

If you're not dead set on a specific brand/car/dealer, and you have say a top 3 or 5 that you would like to try out, a smirk, a refused test drive or just plain ignorance can cause you to walk out. Not everybody goes into a dealer knowing exactely which car and which options they want, some people shop around.

Selling a car to someone who has already decided is so easy a trained monkey can do it.

Selling a car to someone who is very much undecided is where a good salesrep stands out.

They obviously have primates employed at that dealership.

My boss has just bought a ranger over evouqe from a local dealer ship, he got no money of the the new car and a shocking trade-in offer for his minted freelander, even when he phoned round other garages to ask how much they would give him for it. The closet offer was a £1000 more and the best was £3500 more. I think I can say they have lost his custom in the future, giving he has bought a range rover sport v8 diesel 2 high spec freelanders and now the evouqe, in the past 4 years.Now that's what I call bad service.

no offense sihaworth but me old man was ready to travel a couple of hours to see someone i had put on to him to spend £20k+ on a car , i think you will find he was keen on buying a car ....

FAO silver1011 thanks for your advice, i said i would get some brochures and take them down to him the weekend (excuse to have a long weekend in devon in the middle of know where, where the kids can run around and i can have a beer and a meal with me folks) but he said dont worry about it (the brochures not going down to him)

FAO too tall , i think you are spot on .. and very clean with your language describing the employees ...

I would love to be a Skoda salesman for a few weeks just to see how many cars I could actually sell!

Can you really base your decision on what car to buy, on the attitude of one salesman at one dealership?

Sounds like a good reason to deal with and give his money to the Skoda dealer in Newton Abbott rather than the one in Exeter...

I wouldn't let bad dealers win - that's how I see it.

If he's interested in a Skoda then I'd go to a dealer that wants to provide good service. Not sure how plentiful those are in that part of the world, but a few trips further afield for something as important and costly as a new car doesn't sound too unreasonable.

And I'd contact Skoda UK Customer Services to provide feedback on the user experience to date....

Personally, if a salesman rubs me up the wrong way, i give them short shrift and turn on my heels. I don't have time for that kind of unprofessional, apathetic style. I'd rather give my business to someone else. It's happened to me in the past, where I've had a pocket full of cash to spend on my chosen item, and the salesmen didn't even engage me in the 10 mins I looked around. Now I know, that they must get a lot of casual shoppers (time wasters) but can they really afford to lose a sale by not talking to customers?

Yup, agree with lots on here. I was BOOKED IN for a test drive at Toyota in Reading for a Verso cos a bloke who's into his cars at work had one and said he liked it quite a lot. Turned up, was told the salesman would be with me very shortly, 15 minutes of no communication and no sign of ANY sales staff at all later I walked out and ended up with my L&K.

F*ck 'em if they can't be @rsed to even bother!

As it would have been my local/most convenient dealer for aftersales, repairs and whatnot, I didn't want to hang around to find out if that side of things was going to be as dreadful as the sales side! Voted with my feet, they lost £16k+!

Told the guy at work, who then told his dealer in Bracknell which was the sister dealership of the Reading one, and the sales guy there was disgusted and said that obviously should never have happened, and was a bit p1ssed at the loss of a sale. C'est la vie.

I know its at the other end of the country to you guys but i can't reccomend specialist cars skoda in aberdeen highly enough. The sales guy came in on his day off to see me and finalise the sale after about a week and a half of phone calls backwards and forwards. (was away at the time) Even when i was getting the finance sorted out i was told that if a better deal came out i would be transfered on to it. I even managed to haggle some more money off my blackline as well. I got about the average price for my trade in so overall i can't complain.

I have to say that I have been very pleased with service and sales from both Ingram in Ayr and Chatham in Edinburgh... Both have made my ownership of a Skoda very pleasurable... Seems like we have the cream of the crop North of the Border! lol

I know its at the other end of the country to you guys but i can't reccomend specialist cars skoda in aberdeen highly enough. The sales guy came in on his day off to see me and finalise the sale after about a week and a half of phone calls backwards and forwards. (was away at the time) Even when i was getting the finance sorted out i was told that if a better deal came out i would be transfered on to it. I even managed to haggle some more money off my blackline as well. I got about the average price for my trade in so overall i can't complain.

On the subject of decent dealers, I'll throw in my local - Beadles Skoda Maidstone (actually based in Aylesford) - bought my Octy from there last year, salesman was enthusiastic (not sickeningly so), knowledgeable about the brand and couldn't be more helpful in arranging for some options to be added to the car for a decent price (car was 12 months old when purchased). Add to this the two times the car has been back since (once for some remedial work, the other for a service) the staff in service have been excellent and very helpful, I feel quite fortunate to have such a good all round dealership close to hand.

Throw these into the dealer reviews section guys, if you've not already

Bad/poor/mediocre service should be noted in there too really, so others can hopefully avoid the same pitfalls!

I walked out of Farmers in Nottingham two years ago when the dealer was an arse. He tried to tell me that I didn't want/need an estate, there was no test drive of a VRS, his attitude was rather poor to say the least.

Later went to Ingram in Ayr and the sales guy there couldn't do enough. Test drive, there's the keys, here's a route off you go. Later bought a brand spanker VRS specced up. The guy phoned every 6 months to see how things have been with the car. Recommended him to our friends, guess who got another sale...

When the time comes to change and Skoda have something suitable, guess where I'll be going?

I've generally found the further north the better the sales people are.

Silbury Skoda north of Newcastle are excellent. Just ask for Justin, his dad owns the place so it's family owned hence better service than these bigger dealers.