Zag Dealers That Low Ball or Any Internet Quote that is a Low Ball

[danoneil]

With Zag leads getting quotes from dealers within a 120 mile radius, we have been having alot of run in's with one dealer 100 miles from us with low ball quotes. We have found that there is a "bump sticker" on their vehicles that charges excessive amounts for accessories and protection packages that are not disclosed.

We explain to customers about these extra sticker price and been sending links from edmunds.com which help explain invoice minus dealer cash and average price the vehicle is selling for.

Does anyone have a better way of explaining low ball deals ?

How do you prep customers or explain to customers that a quote is a low ball ?

It seems that recently that this scenerio is coming up alot.

 

[danoneil]

Here is a negative dealer rater on this scenario. The review was posted, but some how was taken down. We cache the link and found it


My Review of Honda of sburg:
On Sunday 06/05/2010 my wife and I spend about 4 hours at the Honda of sburg location looking for and test driving minivans. We finally decided on a new 2010 Honda Odyssey, after debate over the price the final offer from the sales manager was as follows:they were selling the new Honda at the USAA discounted price of about 24,700 then giving us 11,000 for our trade at a fixed rate of 4.9% for 60 months. Everything about the offer was written on paper. I told the Salesperson I would think about the offer and call him later. Around 6:30 pm I called the salesperson to inform him that I was going to purchase the vehicle. After signing the paperwork they brought me back to the finance office where they informed me that the selling price we had agreed on in writing was not the sales price they were going to be able to sell the vehicle to me for. They now wanted 1500 dollars more than the original asking price. I told them no I was interested in the purchase of the vehicle and that this tactic was very deceitful and not a good business. I consider this nothing less that false advertisement and neglect for honest business practices. After they explained to me their "philosophy" of sorry but that's the way it is take it or leave it, I gathered my things and left and will never...

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Dan, this is happening across the board with Zag/USAA leads and I'm not sure why Zag is allowing these dealers to get away with this.

Zag is supposed to be a service to USAA and their customers but it's truly a dis-service. Only the customer looses out.

All you can do it stand truthful with the customer and hope they get pissed enough to leave the dealer and then contact you for being upfront.

 

[danoneil]

I appreciate the response. I am hoping that another IM has fiquired out a termplate or wording that can be shared that may at least help out.'

I think sending the links to invoice etc... is helpful.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Have you considered a personal Video email response to these customers?

Use this opportunity to differentiate yourself, build transparency AND while taking this time to explain to the Zag/USAA customer what might to expect from other dealers when getting a price quote through ZAG.

I would also encourage you to get some of your previous Zag customers that have been through this same situation but came back to you due to the lowball experience at the other dealer to write about their experience on DealerRater - take it step further and get a video testimonial from these customers.

 

[danoneil]

Good Suggestion. However, we are not seeing the customer come back. Think of it this way. They drive 100 miles to the dealership. Do they really want to drive all the way back and admit we were right ? " oh, you were right , we are going to buy it from you now" . It doesn't happen.

If they drive 100 miles, they are coming back with the vehicle. Even the customer who wrote a negative dealerrater review, didn't come back to us. They went someplace else. Now that may be a result of our price structure. Right now there is low inventory/availability of Odysseys.

What good is dealerrater when the dealer had the negative comment removed ?

 

[CAORYAN]

I am with USAA and trust me if they found out that is how their people are being treated they would not have it. You may want to go to the head at USAA. They have an internal department still....i think.

 

[Shereef]

Good Suggestion. However, we are not seeing the customer come back. Think of it this way. They drive 100 miles to the dealership. Do they really want to drive all the way back and admit we were right ? " oh, you were right , we are going to buy it from you now" . It doesn't happen.

If they drive 100 miles, they are coming back with the vehicle. Even the customer who wrote a negative dealerrater review, didn't come back to us. They went someplace else. Now that may be a result of our price structure. Right now there is low inventory/availability of Odysseys.

What good is dealerrater when the dealer had the negative comment removed ?

Dan

Whoever gets the most people to their door in this game wins. When you have the client on the phone, or email, briefly mention your doubts about the other dealers pricing, and confirm that you have not seen these type of deals offered below dealer cost. Confirm with the client that all dealers pay the same amount for each vehicle. Ok, here is where the car salesman in you must shine to win the game. If you are not able to rationalize that this pricing is a low ball tactic to the client, the only way to win is to be better at the game then your competitor. It's time to do the If I Could Would You! The bottom line is whoever gets the client to their showroom face to face has the best chance at delivering a car, so you will need to insure if the client is on a low ball, that yours is lower than your competitor. There are many different ways to do it without losing face. Simply say that you never want to lose a deal over price, and that your owner is very competitive. Ask what would we have to do to sell you a car? Let the client give you their number. If the client puts the ball back in your court, keep dropping until they commit to come in for an appointment. This whole conversation is based on what you will do your best to get done for the client, and if you do a good enough job building a relationship and sell them on you, your product, and why they should do business with your dealership, you can win the game and deliver the car.


.

 

[NTIV10]

I am so tired of ZAG dealers ignoring the rules that I almost dropped them as a vendor. Then I thought about it, and I only pay for the cars I sell, so I just changed my tactic. I put up my real, "I'll sell it to you at this price but not for any less" pricing, and just left it at that. If someone submits a lead at that price, well they've seen the other prices. If they're going to try to get me to drop my pants by a grand or more (it happens, but not often), I'll tell them to go try to buy the car from those "other guys" for that price. I've had several people, after explaining to them what the other dealer is doing, come back and buy a car from me.

ZAG is a disgrace to the car business, and that is saying something given the reputation we all are burdened with! They claim to be the pinnacle of honesty and disclosure but they let their dealers get away with flagrantly ignoring their rules.

In my area and with my brand, the problem I have is dealers including rebates and incentives in their ZAG pricing. Well, you're not supposed to do that, so if you do your price suddenly looks up to $3-4k lower than your competition. I've called to complain about that, explained exactly what the other dealers are doing, and given them the math showing that the other dealers could not POSSIBLY be selling the cars for that price (I don't care how desperate you are, a $3k net net loser? come on!) and ZAG has blown me off. The answer I have gotten is "Well, no members have complained about this happening." No shit. Of course they're not going to complain after they've already bought the car. Wouldn't you feel like a total idiot after being bumped for $3k from some stupid low ball price? I would...

ZAG is just another example of one of those companies that WE GIVE MONEY so that they can help customers PAY US LESS. How does this business model make sense?

And so, my ZAG prices take into account that I'm going to have to pay them $300 and I have a reasonable margin built in. If customers want to go fight with other dealerships who straight up lie to them, more power to them. I don't do business like that.

 

[danoneil]

I understand the frustration with Zag leads. I personally do not mind having ZAG leads. I'm just searching for better ways to handle low ball quotes.

If a customer contacts me and says I got "this" from a dealer and I know it's a low ball price, I try not to be critical of what the customer is seeing and say to myself and the customer " hey that price is impossible, there is no way they are going to sell it for that".

The thing I try to do is use the information provided by edmunds or other sites to confirm the information I am trying to relay to the zag customer.

I try to spell out that the dealer has a "bump sticker" that charges for a protection package and inflated accessory prices".

I only hope the customer responds vs just driving to that dealer 100 miles away.