Dealerships Getting Worse?

[04YellowGT]

I've been on the hunt for a used Genesis GV80. I've called around to a few different places and it seems like no one wants to put in any effort to sell a car. I know the market has been a sellers market for some time but things are changing and most salesmen don't realize or care yet. The best (worst) example I have is from this weekend. I found a GV80 spec'd out almost exactly how I want it at a Genesis dealership 2.5hrs away. Not a huge deal but didn't want to make the drive for nothing. I call and talk to a salesman and ask some questions about it. It had just came in so he didn't have a lot of information on it including no pictures. A week goes by and I text and ask if its still available, if they have pictures yet and also if hes looked it over. He says its still available and the car is mint, no scratches or dents with a perfect interior. He also sent me a few pictures of it and it looked clean. I set up an appointment to go see it on Saturday and setup approval with my bank to pull the trigger if I could work a deal. I make the 2.5hr drive and pull into the lot seeing it sitting right up front. Before I even talk to the salesman I look it over and to my disgust the car is a ragged out turd. Scratches, and dents all over including a 2-3ft scratch on the driver and passenger side front doors like someone had keyed it. My 7 year old 100k mile F150 was in far better shape than this 1 year old <20k mile SUV. I walk in and ask to speak to the salesman. He comes up and I ask him to go look it over with me. We walk out and I ask him if this is his definition of mint while pointing out all the damage. When I asked him why if he was blind, lazy, or liar when he told me it was mint he just looked at me with no care in the world. His only response was "We were planning to get it repainted". Yea thats what I want a 65k+ SUV thats been repainted. I told him I was extremely disappointed and that this type experience is what people are complaining about when they talk about Genesis. His final "offer of good faith" was to sell me a new GV80 at sticker like he was cutting me a deal. Apparently they have a 5k markup on them. I laughed and said I could have got the same deal at home while saving $50 in fuel and 5hrs of my time. Not to mention I wouldn't buy one at invoice from a dealership that straight up lied to me. I could tell he didn't care but its still mind boggling to me how crappy some dealerships can be.

TLDR: Went to look at a GV80 2.5hrs away. Asked is car had any damage and was told it was mint. When I got there it was a TURD with damage all over. Salesman could care less that I drove there and he lied.

 

[triple-s]

Nah they just haven't gotten the memo yet cause they're still acting like people are buying vehicles like nothing. I wasted a 3 hour drive last week to look at a saleen only to find out the car had front end collision damage noted on the carfax. But when I had spoke with the salesman the previous day he told me it was clean with nothing on the carfax. I knew right there I wasted my time and wasn't going to buy the car. But I asked out of curiosity okay now that we both supposedly know it was in a accident how much are you going to drop the price he looked at me like I was crazy.

 

[HudsonFalcon]

Set up a fake Tinder account as a hot girl and make him drive 2.5 hours to be catfished. Then the universe will be back in balance.

 

[RedRocketMike]

You just need to threaten the salesman in advance so he knows not to waste your time.

 

[VegasMichael]

Next time please put the TLDR at the beginning, not the end.
(Just kidding.)
That sucks. I'd be pissed. I guess you could be a Karen and start posting bad reviews about him and the dealership but I don't know if anyone actually reads or believes most reviews.

 

[CobraBob]

Very sorry to hear how you were treated by that Genesis dealership! It's not the first time I've heard of similar instances, and this won't be the last one, for sure.

Your experience with the dealership struck a nerve, because sort of related to this, but at the service level, I called my Genesis dealership last Monday to set up a 5,000 mile servicing appointment at 8:30 AM. As usual, nobody answered the phone and I had to leave a message. It said the service advisor would call me ASAP. Monday comes and goes. Now it's Tuesday afternoon and no call back. This, by the way, has happened before (post-Covid). I called for the owner who had once told me to let him know when service doesn't return my calls. I was not irate and left a simple message to please call me back to discuss the service department not calling me back. We now fast forward to last Friday early-morning. I had still not received a service department call-back AND no response from the owner. So I'm thinking that maybe the owner is off that week so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since he always seems/seemed genuine. Nobody answered again, so again, I had to leave a message. Now it's 2:00 PM and no call back. I decided, since I was not working, to drive the 8 miles to the dealership. I went into the service area and there is not one customer at any of the three service counter windows, and none were on the phone. I walk up to the window with the name I remember from that morning, and the advisor is BSing with the advisor next to him. I literally stood there for almost 2 minutes before he finally asked what I needed.

I told him it was crazy that after not getting a callback twice that I had to drive to the dealership to make a service appointment. He started to ramble defensively and I said, "hold on, you're not answering my question why you didn't return my call from this morning". He now gets snarly and says that he didn't return my call because they're short staffed. Really? But you're literally doing nothing right now except talking to your co-worker. At that point I asked for the service manager. The manager (nice guy) comes out and invites me into his office. He's super apologetic and says he knows it is frustrating for customers. No resolutions except that he booked my service appointment for this Wednesday.

It is my opinion that the shutting down of businesses during Covid followed by the hiring back issues later, at-home working, and pushing the excuse of being "under staffed" has caused employees across the board to develop an attitude of "just do the minimum", with little or no accountability since the bar has dropped so low. There is little fear of being fired because they know the company won't easily find a replacement. So the customer usually loses and takes what they can get. The kicker was when I left the service manager's office the OWNER casually walked by me, said 'hi' with his usual smile. He had no idea who I was. So he WASN'T on vacation or away on business. He just didn't find it important to return the call from Monday apparently. What a poor example to set!

My buddy drives a tractor trailer and he told me yesterday that his company no longer promotes a work-hard ethic. Instead, he's told to drop his load off and if the returning load isn't ready, to just drive away and return. Covid, working at home, workers not wanting to work, and worker shortages have seemingly changed the service industries' work ethic forever. It's the new norm.

Rant off! I don't usually complain like this but it surely seems that customer/sales service as we knew if before Covid is gone forever, for the most part. There ARE exceptions, but it's becoming harder and harder to find them.

 

[Blackoyote]

I've been on the hunt for a truck for a few months (very specific, so it's taking a while)...well a month or so ago I broke my cardinal rule of not traveling to buy a used vehicle, because people are ****ing liars and don't understand that words have actual definitions.

Spoke to a salesperson at Hickory Used Car Superstore regarding a Platinum F150 they had. Was assured on the phone it was in superb condition, would not be disappointed, etc; which lined up with the fact they were asking ALL of the money for the truck.

I drove 1.5 hours up there on a Monday afternoon, pulled up to the truck and was ****ing angry immediately, from 10' away I could see it was a ragged piece of shit. The salesperson I spoke with approached and could see I wasn't happy, and proceeded to give me the keys. Opened the thing up and the interior looked like someone had taken a ball peen hammer to all the aluminum/wood trim, inside REEKED of cigarettes. Not light, I smoke from time to time so I'm not sensitive to it. This was a truck with 2 packs a day smoked inside with the windows up.

She asked at what price I'd be interested, and she seemed shocked when I told her I wasn't interested because it was a POS and I'd be depressed driving it. No apology, no remorse, essentially told her to **** off when she asked if I wanted to see any of the other trucks they had on lot. They've been around a long time and made a lot of people happy, but I'm damn sure not one that'll ever step foot on that lot again.

 

[Blk04L]

Some dealers are definitely still in the mindset of a year ago when there was nothing on the lot and you either bought it or someone tomorrow would at that price.
Condition of the car they are selling be damned.

What's annoying is the ones around me that still have those dealer add on BS packages on top of a dealer fee. And it's not like it's just dealers in "rich" areas. The ones also in the sticks do it too cause they may be the only Ford/Chevy dealer in the immediate area.

 

[techi14]

None of this crap happens when I deal with Porsche dealerships. What does this have to do with OP's deal, not much but you need to understand that a Hyundai dealership, was selling $20k brand new vehicles not too long ago. Their target demographic was lower income, lower expectation type customers and is how they geared their sales plan. I'm sure they are changing but it just brings that kind of crowd and service levels.

 

[JPKII]

None of this crap happens when I deal with Porsche dealerships. What does this have to do with OP's deal, not much but you need to understand that a Hyundai dealership, was selling $20k brand new vehicles not too long ago. Their target demographic was lower income, lower expectation type customers and is how they geared their sales plan. I'm sure they are changing but it just brings that kind of crowd and service levels.

I'm not sure this fully explains the current situ.

My usual BMW dealership? Terrible. I want to claw my fricking eyes out every time I have/had to deal with them. Finally, as I wrap up a final few issues, I'll be trying another dealer. At least I have another one within an hour of me.

Similar to other's experiences, can never get anyone on the phone. You never know if you actually have an appointment scheduled. Then when you do the whole appointment routine, arrive the morning of the appointment, and get checked in; the person you speak with has no idea why you're there. lol. Then, typically, you end up with more issues with the car after the service than before.

 

[Blown 89]

None of this crap happens when I deal with Porsche dealerships. What does this have to do with OP's deal, not much but you need to understand that a Hyundai dealership, was selling $20k brand new vehicles not too long ago. Their target demographic was lower income, lower expectation type customers and is how they geared their sales plan. I'm sure they are changing but it just brings that kind of crowd and service levels.

I've dealt with Mclaren, Volvo, Mercedes, and Cadillac dealerships....all high end, all dishonest as the day is long. The problem isn't the type of car, it's the culture of the industry.

 

[04YellowGT]

Very sorry to hear how you were treated by that Genesis dealership! It's not the first time I've heard of similar instances, and this won't be the last one, for sure.

Your experience with the dealership struck a nerve, because sort of related to this, but at the service level, I called my Genesis dealership last Monday to set up a 5,000 mile servicing appointment at 8:30 AM. As usual, nobody answered the phone and I had to leave a message. It said the service advisor would call me ASAP. Monday comes and goes. Now it's Tuesday afternoon and no call back. This, by the way, has happened before (post-Covid). I called for the owner who had once told me to let him know when service doesn't return my calls. I was not irate and left a simple message to please call me back to discuss the service department not calling me back. We now fast forward to last Friday early-morning. I had still not received a service department call-back AND no response from the owner. So I'm thinking that maybe the owner is off that week so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since he always seems/seemed genuine. Nobody answered again, so again, I had to leave a message. Now it's 2:00 PM and no call back. I decided, since I was not working, to drive the 8 miles to the dealership. I went into the service area and there is not one customer at any of the three service counter windows, and none were on the phone. I walk up to the window with the name I remember from that morning, and the advisor is BSing with the advisor next to him. I literally stood there for almost 2 minutes before he finally asked what I needed.

I told him it was crazy that after not getting a callback twice that I had to drive to the dealership to make a service appointment. He started to ramble defensively and I said, "hold on, you're not answering my question why you didn't return my call from this morning". He now gets snarly and says that he didn't return my call because they're short staffed. Really? But you're literally doing nothing right now except talking to your co-worker. At that point I asked for the service manager. The manager (nice guy) comes out and invites me into his office. He's super apologetic and says he knows it is frustrating for customers. No resolutions except that he booked my service appointment for this Wednesday.

It is my opinion that the shutting down of businesses during Covid followed by the hiring back issues later, at-home working, and pushing the excuse of being "under staffed" has caused employees across the board to develop an attitude of "just do the minimum", with little or no accountability since the bar has dropped so low. There is little fear of being fired because they know the company won't easily find a replacement. So the customer usually loses and takes what they can get. The kicker was when I left the service manager's office the OWNER casually walked by me, said 'hi' with his usual smile. He had no idea who I was. So he WASN'T on vacation or away on business. He just didn't find it important to return the call from Monday apparently. What a poor example to set!

My buddy drives a tractor trailer and he told me yesterday that his company no longer promotes a work-hard ethic. Instead, he's told to drop his load off and if the returning load isn't ready, to just drive away and return. Covid, working at home, workers not wanting to work, and worker shortages have seemingly changed the service industries' work ethic forever. It's the new norm.

Rant off! I don't usually complain like this but it surely seems that customer/sales service as we knew if before Covid is gone forever, for the most part. There ARE exceptions, but it's becoming harder and harder to find them.

Thats super sad to hear but not surprising now a days. I really feel like 90+% of businesses and workers just don't care about the customer anymore and I'm not just talking automotive. I work with customer's semi-regularly and our team goes out of our way to help our customers out.

Genesis really needs to step up their game. I know they are starting to open up independent dealerships which should help. They need to audit their current dealers and fine them allocations for poor customer service and or take their franchise away if things are too bad. As a new luxury brand they have a lot of work to do. I love their cars and this is literally the first non-domestic car I've ever even thought about buying.

Some dealers are definitely still in the mindset of a year ago when there was nothing on the lot and you either bought it or someone tomorrow would at that price.
Condition of the car they are selling be damned.

What's annoying is the ones around me that still have those dealer add on BS packages on top of a dealer fee. And it's not like it's just dealers in "rich" areas. The ones also in the sticks do it too cause they may be the only Ford/Chevy dealer in the immediate area.

Same is true where I'm from. Its funny how you can walk into any dealer and they all have went through the same training and use the same packages and sales tactics. Whats even more shocking is some of the guys are shocked when you call them on the BS they try to sell. Like do most people really fall for this crap?

None of this crap happens when I deal with Porsche dealerships. What does this have to do with OP's deal, not much but you need to understand that a Hyundai dealership, was selling $20k brand new vehicles not too long ago. Their target demographic was lower income, lower expectation type customers and is how they geared their sales plan. I'm sure they are changing but it just brings that kind of crowd and service levels.

You are 100% correct in that the Genesis sales teams are mostly the same people who are used to dealing with selling cheap cars to people with low expectations. The two experiences I've had with a Genesis dealerships have been less than ideal. My buddy who has owned 3 new G90s has had the same experience and I have read countless complaints about that issue. More people see to complain about the dealership experience more than the cars themselves.

I've dealt with Mclaren, Volvo, Mercedes, and Cadillac dealerships....all high end, all dishonest as the day is long. The problem isn't the type of car, it's the culture of the industry.

Agree with this as well. I looked at a used GV80 at a BMW dealership and they wouldn't give me the time of day. When I tried to talk to them about the price the guy just kind of rolled his eyes and said they were priced competitively based on comparable GV80s in the surrounding area and weren't willing to budge on price. Keep in mind the next closest GV80 was over 100miles away, was $8k cheaper with 20k less miles and more options. The BMW dealer also put the cheapest set of tires on it they could find and completely ruined the smooth and quite ride the GV80 is known for.

 

[DAVESVT2000]

Complete opposite experience here, back in September I found a 2021 Mach 1 with 700 miles in California with all the boxes checked off I were to order one new. Handling package, technology package, rear seat delete, 6 speed, painted calipers, etc etc

Called the dealer, salesman calls me back same day. Said I’d like more information on the car (I’m in Massachusetts mind you.)

Every picture or question I asked for, I got within the same day or next. He must have sent me over 100 pictures inside and out, on the lift for the underside, owners kit, car cover, glove box Mach 1 supplement, and so on.

I agree to buy the car for the asking price of $65,000 and ask if they want a wire transfer. Nope, we’ll overnight you the bill of sale and some paperwork to sign, with a prepaid return envelope, just throw a bank check in it and send it back.

Done. Then I tell them I’ll need about 2 weeks to arrange enclosed transportation, no problem they put it next door inside the Lincoln dealership locked - less foot traffic.

Car came to me on September 24, and couldn’t be happier with it, it is as clean if not better then the pictures they sent me represented it to be.

 

[dan1982]

I've dealt with Mclaren, Volvo, Mercedes, and Cadillac dealerships....all high end, all dishonest as the day is long. The problem isn't the type of car, it's the culture of the industry.

UMMMMM... what mclaren dealership was dishonest?

 

[jshen]

I bought a Genesis GV70 in Savannah and I have to call Genesis of America (corporate office) file a complaint---and they call my dealership- otherwise I never hear from them.

 

[Weather Man]

Fewer small local owner dealerships left. Most belong to some huge dealer group and the experience is not the same.

 

[CobraBob]

Fewer small local owner dealerships left. Most belong to some huge dealer group and the experience is not the same.

Size doesn't matter for the most part. My Genesis dealership (unfortunately shares the building with Hyundai) is a small local dealership. Service wise, it's a complete 180 to what it used to be. I see NO difference around here between small dealerships (any manufacturer) and dealer groups. The majority....suck!

 

[Weather Man]

Size doesn't matter for the most part. My Genesis dealership (unfortunately shares the building with Hyundai) is a small local dealership. Service wise, it's a complete 180 to what it used to be. I see NO difference around here between small dealerships (any manufacturer) and dealer groups. The majority....suck!

I disagree Bob, dealer groups set the rules and compliance is expected. All wiggle room to take care of issues is removed. All aspects of customer approach are standardized, and deviating will get you fired. I know this because I lived it, it sucked.

 

[13COBRA]

A well run private dealership will always be better customer facing than a well run public or group dealership.

 

[jaxbusa]

Two weeks ago I drove two and a half hours to a motorcycle dealership so my wife could sit on a factory lowered suspension one (she’s short) because they had it on their website. She even called and asked if it was still there the day before we went and had multiple conversations with a salesperson about the bike. We get there and we’re told that they never had that bike, they don’t control what is on the website, the sales person you were talking with is off and we never order lowered bikes. Then the sales person proceeded to show us a bike that was twice the price and so tall my wife could barely get a leg over it. It’s frustrating. Unreal. We did eat at a very cool German restaurant though.


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