Anyway, as a part of the display, Ford had their Shift into $50 program running. The premise is that they get my email address, verify that it's accurate, and I take a printed sheet to my local Ford dealership to test drive a car. Following the test drive, the dealer would fill out information on my printed sheet and I would enter the info into a website in return for a $50 gift card.
Well, that's not such a bad deal. I can give them any one my email address (how about freestuff@br...com) and never have to deal with the onslaught of craptastic messages. In return, they get me behind the wheel of one of their cars and try to seduce me into buying one. Now is not a bad time for us as our Mazda is nearly seven years old, about to flip 100,000 miles, and is showing its age -- ignore the sequestration as a deterrent.
Ford is relying on dealers to sell these cars. And this is where it all begins to break down. As soon as the salesman saw me come in with the printed sheet, he immediately brought the sheet to the manager, they filled it out and sent me on my way. I didn't have the opportunity to talk to anyone nor go for a test drive. Was I going to purchase a car today? No, but I might be in the market in three to six months. I now have no intent to go back to that dealer. I feel as if there is no interest in building a relationship with potential customers -- only with those that they are guaranteed to get a dollar from.
Is this my loss? Perhaps, since Ford has a lot of nice offerings out there. However, there are other Ford dealers within 20 miles of here. And there are other brands with just as good or better offerings. Oh well, such is life.
And that brings to a close this moment of preaching on my soapbox.
2 comments:
So apparently you should have hidden the printout until after your test drive, then "sprung it on them"? I wonder if FORD HQ would appreciate reading about your experience? I wonder how many other Ford dealers do the exact same thing across the land? There is no integrity any more in many swaths of our populace. We just bought a new Crosstour from Honda and the salesman's final words were: "You're going to get a survey from Honda, I need 5's in every category!" This mantra has been repeated in three follow-up phone conversations since the sale. My wife told him on the last call that if he called again, she would report him to Honda for attempting to unduly influence the survey. That got him off the phone quickly. Again, it's the integrity issue that is missing in society today. We've kicked God out of our culture, but still expect His blessings? It no worky-worky that way, sorry Charlie. Unfortunately, we will all take that boat ride up sh(t-creek together and find we have no paddle. But that's another story.
Had I realized that they would behave that would, I would have. I was really hoping to test drive one of a few different cars that they had on the lot. My intent is to forward a copy of this post to Ford HQ and to Frederick Motor Co. shortly.
Very sad where this is heading. And when I read your statement about the boat ride, I immediately thought of this song.
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