I just called MD today to see what they could offer based on some posts that I have seen. I talked to a salesman named “Billy.”
Dude would only give me his yahoo email. I asked him four times for his FCA or dealership work email and he would not give it. Acted like he didn’t understand the question and then gave me the website as his email. No one is that dumb. It’s intentional.
I had a service rep at another dealership offer to communicate via text on his cell phone. Dealerships don’t give the service advisor cell phone so it was his personal cell phone. He told me their “email system was down.” That may be true sometimes, but it’s not true all of the time. And even if it’s true you still need to follow up with an email on the corporate server after it’s functional.
I know many of you know this, but on the notion that some may not:
I would urge you to be cautious when a salesman or service rep does this. While some of them may be trying to be more responsive via text (I realize this), some are intentionally circumventing the compliance and accountability that corporate email servers offer.
I realize that some customers prefer text, but just remember that’s a private server and you will not be able to reference that communication in the event you have a material discrepancy down the road. The same is true with personal email servers.
“what difference does it make,” some people ask?
That is especially important when it comes to service in any event you ever have to substantiate a lemon law.
My experience with a dealership was that they were trying to communicate with me on private channels. I realized later all they were running me around long enough to get me out of warranty.
I insisted that all of my notes be notated in the invoice and I took pictures of the dealer copies to make sure they matched the copies I was given.
NOTE: They did not give me carbon copies or photocopy of what I signed. They gave me separateLy generates pieces of paper.
Use corporate email addresses. And if they are not willing to do that or do not respond in a timely fashion then walk their a** and buy from someone else. It takes four minutes to sync your corporate email to your phone and configure it for push notifications, and push notifications are almost as timely as text messages.
I realize that some may consider this comment a bit much, and not every dealer is like this. But when I started watching for this behavior and asking people to communicate on the work email servers it was amazing how evasive some became.
After a very bad experience with a non-RAM dealer I have determined that you receive the level of service that you tolerate.
I’m not saying to be rude, disrespectful, or unpleasant. Everyone deserves decency and respect. But I am encouraging you to protect yourself; especially when they start requiring higher, non-refundable deposits, as was referenced in the comment to which I am replying.
UPDATE:
I just received a PM from Aaron from MD. Apparently one of the forum members brought my post to his attention and he immediately addressed it. That deserves a legit hat tip in my opinion it is to be applauded.
This however validates the very point I’m making, and is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Somewhere up the chain of command there are people who have enough interest in a brand to deliver accountable service.
Unfortunately that’s not always present on the front lines. The issue with the salesman is management’s domain, but most of the time they don’t even know unless it’s brought to their attention.
This is a challenging environment and no team is perfect, but that does not mean you shouldn’t expect and pursue perfection.
What’s particularly interesting to me is that someone on this forum reached out to MD about my comment. That clearly substantiates the fact that this dealership is doing right by people.
There is no better example of that than a customer willing to defend a business at which they don’t even work!
There’s not a single business that doesn’t have weak points. But those should be vigorously addressed by consumers and management alike.
Based on the particular experience, And Aaron’s response in particular,I would actually be inclined to deal with MD, despite not having that inclination about two hours ago.
It’s not about what happens as much is how you respond, and I have to applaud this dealership for addressing this issue.
