What the hell is going on?

(12-06-2012 10:15pm)ED209 Wrote:  What is going on?

You are expereincing the normal standard of customer service thats what!

so I am beginning to understand. it's a disgrace.

(12-06-2012 10:15pm)ED209 Wrote:  What is going on?

You are expereincing the normal standard of customer service thats what!

Sadly ED is totally spot on.
Hang in there though as the evoque is fantastic, it's just a pity the dealers aren't

just go in demand to see the DP and kick off in the showroom, it worked for me!

(12-06-2012 09:38pm)leeselee Wrote:  Last month he told me my place in the queue.

so far this month they have had no car allocation - so no movement for me at all ( no cancellations either to move me up)

I don't want it any quicker than I was first quoted. I want to know the reason the goal posts have changed.

I will hopefully find out from LR what is going on

At what point in this process were you told that you would not get your car in September ?
I ordered mine last Oct for April 2012 delivery, I didnt really hear anything re progress untill a couple of weeks before I took delivery at the end of march

It seems everyone is getting told a standard '6 months' from order to delivery. It's up to each dealer how they manage this 'standard' period to manage customer expectations and ensure build slots are allocated fairly. It's a shame your dealer is not keeping you informed.....Take your custom elsewhere! You might hit lucky with an alternative dealer that might have slots available.

I'm lucky that my salesman is keeping me informed regularly. I'm pretty sure they are managing the waiting list fairly and are pretty strict about it all...

I know the wait is frustrating, but try going to an audi or BMW dealer to discuss a new q5/x3... In the unlikely event that you can get someone to actually speak to you, they will tell you to come back in a year and you might have a car....

(13-06-2012 08:15am)speary Wrote:  At what point in this process were you told that you would not get your car in September ?
I ordered mine last Oct for April 2012 delivery, I didnt really hear anything re progress untill a couple of weeks before I took delivery at the end of march

Speary,

Although the salesman isn't very talkative, until yesterday he said "September" each time we asked a question about stock. Literally the one word answer to everything.

Yesterday he said they have not had an allocation for June and when my husband asked if we were still on for September he would not answer! - just said everything seems to be going abroad.

I don't want to embarrass myself by going into the dealership and demanding to see the DP.

I cannot bring myself to talk to the salesman and will email him today as he hasn't managed to send an email yet to confirm the deletion of the car mats from the order which we requested yesterday.

If I do not get any answers by Friday, I will call the DP and see if I can shake things up.

I have looked at every other car in this price range and could not honestly say I would want to take any out for a test drive. That's what's upsetting. I am locked into an order of whenever with a salesman that is not doing anything at all.

I have never had such a poor buying experience - whether it be a house, car or supermarket weekly grocery shop. The fact that LR sales have a poor reputation is just appalling.

I will be making waves once (IF) I ever get the car.

(12-06-2012 09:53pm)leeselee Wrote:  Thanks so much. I have managed to calm down a bit - and did my usual of trying to see if I would like another car - NOPE - still want an Evoque!

It's useful to understand the internal structure of motor dealer sales departments - and the mindset that drives them...

Many dealers employ sales people as little more than order takers - smartly dressed and presentable with limited product knowledge or power to cut a deal for you (there is a sales methodology that goes with this). It's often the case that these people have so little power or influence that they have little incentive to make customer contact because they won't be able to answer the inevitable questions anyway. Those of us who have bought from the German brands have all come across 'order takers'.

In the back office of the dealer there are two significant players - the Business Manager and Sales Administration. The Business Manager has real power and will be responsible for eeking all the profit out of the deal - so the part exchange price and and finance actually comes from here.

When you have a new car on order it's Sales Administration that control/manage the relationship with the factory and that critical order list/slot in the queue...the sales person is absolutely powerless.

So you can grumble all you want to the sales person and even the dealer principal but in actual fact it's Sales Admin that hold all the answers...

I hope this helps

(13-06-2012 09:29am)Straydox Wrote:  It's useful to understand the internal structure of motor dealer sales departments - and the mindset that drives them...

Many dealers employ sales people as little more than order takers - smartly dressed and presentable with limited product knowledge or power to cut a deal for you (there is a sales methodology that goes with this). It's often the case that these people have so little power or influence that they have little incentive to make customer contact because they won't be able to answer the inevitable questions anyway. Those of us who have bought from the German brands have all come across 'order takers'.

In the back office of the dealer there are two significant players - the Business Manager and Sales Administration. The Business Manager has real power and will be responsible for eeking all the profit out of the deal - so the part exchange price and and finance actually comes from here.

When you have a new car on order it's Sales Administration that control/manage the relationship with the factory and that critical order list/slot in the queue...the sales person is absolutely powerless.

So you can grumble all you want to the sales person and even the dealer principal but in actual fact it's Sales Admin that hold all the answers...

I hope this helps

Thanks for the reply.

I do agree to a point.

I understand who is in control, etc - BUT - 'sales people' in any capacity should help, call back and act professionally.

I and other people on this forum have also found that these order takers / sales people are totally unprofessional and ignorant to the point of being rude and offhand.

My brother has been in the car trade for the last 20 plus years. He started in VW and has been with two different BMW dealerships for the past 17 years.

He is one of those sales people that even if he has no news, still services his customers with calls and any reassurance that he can give.

He counts each customer as a customer and a recommender/reference. We all know how valuable word of mouth can be.

My brother laughs when I mention my salesman as he says he works with people like this and they wonder why he is more successful.

BMW are currently having booming sales with their X3 Sport (no amount of convincing will make me change to one of those). They have 6 / 7 month waiting lists and he knows what I am going through.

My brother has also advised that my husband call and speak to the DP. (he knows what I am like when I get angry and shouty ).

My husband has just left a message for the DP to call me back. There will be no shouting or screaming, we just want to know where we are and if we are still on course to get the car in September.

The easiest way is for you to go into the dealership - preferably when its actually busy so people can see that you have an issue and the dealer doesn't want you complaining when other people are around as they will lose more sales.

If you don't want to do that - go in, get your deposit back and go somewhere else. There's also plenty of cars available if you are willing to compromise on some things.

You're spending a lot of money buying this car - if the service at the dealership is crap - go to another one. Even if you have to drive 200 miles to get a dealer that will make the effort - do that.

You may have to wait - but knowing that you car will actually come in say.. November.. is better than sticking with your current dealer just hoping that it will come in September.

Knowing is better than Hoping in my opinion.

Its going to be more frustrating for you and your husband if you try to e-mail, call but then don't get a response and the situation will only get worse. Why not ignore all that lack of communication and just go in and talk to them. It doesn't matter if you make a scene, you have a right to - don't be concerned about what others will think cause guess what you have a right. Just go in and talk to the DP or the salesman and tell them to sort it out and end it at that - if they keep saying we dont know, we dont know - get your deposit and go elsewhere. Situation over.

Chiggy is absolutely right Leeselee - all I have done is explained what the internal structure of a typical dealer is like. It's a people thing and if you don't like/can't get on with the people in the dealer then don't buy a car there - imagine what the aftersales service will be like?