My 10 RV sales techniques that really make me sick

[The Gritz Carlton]

This rant, while very accurate, sounds like an after-the-fact experience. Hopefully you'll do better at controlling the purchase process next time around. Most all of them are the same.

[The_Breeze]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

General RV? Isn't that the company being investigated for changing sales/financing contracts after the fact?

That's correct. The one in SLC, UT comes to mind. I believe the buyers won but then GRV appealed...so there it sits.

[Scubawise]

Montana here is $9 for 62 and older and no hookups..we use state parks 99% under $20 and spread out

[RSKDSK]

Originally Posted by The Gritz Carlton

This rant, while very accurate, sounds like an after-the-fact experience. Hopefully you'll do better at controlling the purchase process next time around. Most all of them are the same.

Nope, in each of those "rants" ... once the red flag went up ... I walked away. I have really pissed off quite a few people because I just will not bend over.

[ducksface]

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

Nope, in each of those "rants" ... once the red flag went up ... I walked away. I have really pissed off quite a few people because I just will not bend over.

I truly doubt anyone is pissy but you.

Who would be pissed?

It isn't anyone here at the forum, it isn't anyone at the dealership.
At the dealer you were just a dice roll to them.
They made their number or it's
E-O eleven.
Wrapped up like a deuce.
Next roller.
They didn't remember you personally beyond their next cup of coffee any more than a station attendant remembers you pumping gas.

You left the lot, the salesman walked to the point and shouted, 'comin in!'.
The finance guy walked to the point and said 'dont bring me in people like those. You know better. Go park that unit. Then go buy me lunch because you wasted my time'.

It isn't about you, even in the slightest way...except to you.
I'd zuggest you find zomething you can afford, say yes when it's suitable, then lay down and enjoy the purchase.
Or
You can keep on the path you've mapped out for us and HATE that rv even before it's yours.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

Nope, in each of those "rants" ... once the red flag went up ... I walked away. I have really pissed off quite a few people because I just will not bend over.

Of course every situation is different, but bending over can have it's advantages

[happy]

Negotiated the price and put down a deposit to hold

Now, When doing the PDI and you find problems, what do you recommend?
Do most larger dealers try to fix them before you leave with unit?
Do you treat it as warranty work and comeback later?
Tips???

[Scubawise]

Stay there get all fixed..or document appt

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by happy

Negotiated the price and put down a deposit to hold

Now, When doing the PDI and you find problems, what do you recommend?
Do most larger dealers try to fix them before you leave with unit?
Do you treat it as warranty work and comeback later?
Tips???

Kind of depends on the problem. But in most cases, if they say they gonna fix, what is the hurry. Let them fix and then sign the papers. You see a leak in the roof, it is no way Jose until fixed, You got a scratched hub cap and they put in writing one is order, sign the deal.

[happy]

Sounds like common sense.....just the thing I seem to run short of.
Thanks.

[RSKDSK]

Originally Posted by happy

Negotiated the price and put down a deposit to hold

Now, When doing the PDI and you find problems, what do you recommend?
Do most larger dealers try to fix them before you leave with unit?
Do you treat it as warranty work and comeback later?
Tips???

In todays RV and RV parts market, getting things fix can be several months down the road. I will not sign off and any paperwork until all issues are corrected ... a scratch here or there, no problem. But anything that requires a part or requires a visit to the dealership ... fix it first, then I'll sign the papers.

The awning in my last video would not work properly and needed a new motor and limit sensors ... I refused to sign and walked away because the parts were on backorder for months. The next guy behind me decided to buy it with the promise from the dealership that they would fix it someday down the road.

It really depends on you tolerance for back and forth trips to the dealership. Me I just want everything to work from the start, especially at $125k out the door.

[happy]

Heres to hoping for a good unit from the start!

Really enjoy reading of folks that fix, modify, make better and otherwise do for themselves. Reading this forum has helped . But Still want it pretty good to perfect from the start.

[Bob Denman]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

Of course every situation is different, but bending over can have it's advantages

I want to video your next buying experience...

[HMCSW]

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

10 sales techniques:

1) You need to put down a deposit in order for the salesman to present an offer to the manager (General RV)

2) Pressured to sign purchase documents before even seeing the RV (La Mesa & General RV)

3) Negotiate a great price only to find $2K in PDI fees, 1.5k in freight fee, $500 in doc fees, etc ... (General RV)

4) Sorry, we will not give you a buyers order showing all the numbers without you first giving us a deposit (General RV & La Mesa)

5) I promise to have everything repaired from the PDI ASAP, (even though the parts are on a month backorder) ... But you have to sign the purchase documents in order for us to get working on it (La Mesa)

6) You walk in for the dealership to conduct a PDI ... and you are taken directly to the finance department to sign documents before you go to the PDI. (La Mesa)

7) The person conducting the PDI knows less about RV's than my cat. (La Mesa)

8) The finance person has already concluded that you need the tire protection, interior protection, exterior protection, and all the other snake oil. (La Mesa)

9) Your 800 credit score only qualifies you for the 8% interest rate

10) Oh sorry, I forgot you had put down a deposit. I'll need to redo the paperwork

I could literal go on and on .... I am truly sickened to see how these places operate.

We came from boating: typically you don't even get to test "drive" until there is an offer and deposit. The test drive is know as a sea trial and part of the survey (pre purchase inspection. I guess I compared buying an RV more like a boat than a car. : We told them that they needed to find better interest rate or we would find our own lender. Funny, they did.
Used internet to show comparable pricing to lower the price. Ended up with 30% off MSRP this past Feb. Closed March 4th.
1: Always be able to walk away from any deal
2: ZERO emotion..

[Bob Denman]

Originally Posted by HMCSW

...
1: Always be able to walk away from any deal
2: ZERO emotion..

AMEN: ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by HMCSW

We came from boating: typically you don't even get to test "drive" until there is an offer and deposit. The test drive is know as a sea trial and part of the survey (pre purchase inspection. I guess I compared buying an RV more like a boat than a car. : We told them that they needed to find better interest rate or we would find our own lender. Funny, they did.
Used internet to show comparable pricing to lower the price. Ended up with 30% off MSRP this past Feb. Closed March 4th.
1: Always be able to walk away from any deal
2: ZERO emotion..

aye aye Captain;

When we were shopping for our new 242 Limited Yamada boat we had a dealer about 5 miles from the house that just would not budge on the price, one day we get a call from a Dealer in Oklahoma that made us an offer we just couldn't refuse on the EXACT same boat. Being the guy I am I go back to my local dealer and came clean, told them I wanted the boat and actual price I was going to pay, they still would not budge. So we get all of the paperwork, cashiers check, and take a full day off to go to Oklahoma. Somehow the Dealer had never got around to cleaning the boat up!!! It was completely covered with spider dung and bird poop Even the plastic covered seats were dirty. I opened the hatch and saw a 3 inch spider and that was it. The apologized profusely asked me to give them two hours and present it to me. So I was flexible ( I won't say "bend over backwards" 2 hours later the boat was sparkling clean; so we take it out to the lake; it ran rough needed adjustments, tower frame was not mounted properly, so they take it back, I wait about an hour and then go to check it again when I noticed in the bathroom there was red markings all over the wall It was as if a little kid had been in there with a Permanent red marker. So another hour or so I was willing to wait while they try to clean it. While waiting they decided to give us some free stuff life Life Jackets which was kind of cool; but the red markings would NOT come off.... They wanted me to give them a week, but I told them I was not driving back to Oklahoma. So I leave having walked from the deal. On the way home I stopped by the local Dealer and told them the story. The GM came out and offered to sell their boat just like for $2,000 less that the Oklahoma dealer plus they through in a free Yamaha Custom cover that was worth $800. The rest was history as the local boat was perfect on lake test.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by Bob Denman

I want to video your next buying experience...

For you Bob, there is video but I believe it is only Pay Per View (PPV)

When I bought my son's Camaro, Stonebriar Chevrolet in Frisco Texas videotaped the entire process with Finance. 3 times in what seemed like 2 hours he got up to confer with his bosses. There was paperwork that I refused to sign and he was telling me I had to "or else", I kept choosing the "or else" option and it kept disrupting his script For example, he wanted me to sign for them to do Credit Check, I was paying cash; so I didn't see why they needed. I really believe had I bought everything they were trying to sell it would have cost more than the car. My son was in the room and of course he kept getting nervous with all of the up and down emotion of deal being on and off again. The way I view it, I don't make the rules of the game, but I play to win so that everyone wins or walk away happy; it is like gambling, you have to know when to fold them

[Cpd]

We didn't have any of those experiences but the salesman did try to tell us the price I'd seen on our unit was an on-line only price. I told him we weren't paying a cent over that price. We now own the rv in question. My hubby was so proud....

[petef]

definitely stay away from the "we will fix it after you buy it"

[AJMike]

I guess these things vary from location to location and, perhaps, from sales person to sales person.

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

1) You need to put down a deposit in order for the salesman to present an offer to the manager (General RV).

We have bought 6 RVs in our lifetime and never came across that at any location.

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

2) Pressured to sign purchase documents before even seeing the RV (La Mesa & General RV)

We have bought 2 RVs from LaMesa here in the Phoenix area (the Mesa location) and never came across that either time. Both times at LaMesa we spent the day looking over RVs before we even talked about buying.

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

3) Negotiate a great price only to find $2K in PDI fees, 1.5k in freight fee, $500 in doc fees, etc ... (General RV)

Freight and doc fees, yes. PDI Fees? I never saw those in any RV I bought, and I would just have declined the RV if I had.

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

5) I promise to have everything repaired from the PDI ASAP, (even though the parts are on a month backorder) ... But you have to sign the purchase documents in order for us to get working on it (La Mesa)

I just insist that the PDI and fixing of issues precede the finance processing. Of course this is easier if you are buying a used RV, but that was how we got all of the stuff from the PDI fixed in about a week with our last RV purchase. Without that it would have taken a lot longer to get the stuff fixed.

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

6) You walk in for the dealership to conduct a PDI ... and you are taken directly to the finance department to sign documents before you go to the PDI. (La Mesa)

Just say NO.

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

7) The person conducting the PDI knows less about RV's than my cat. (La Mesa)

Yes.

We were at an RV show and the sales guy, when showing us an RV, said that this RV had both an automatic leveling system and stabilizers. I asked why an RV would need stabilizers if it had an automatic leveling system and the sales buy looked at me, frowned and said something like 'You know about RVs?' When I said we have had several already and were looking for a new one he lost interest and left us alone.

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

8) The finance person has already concluded that you need the tire protection, interior protection, exterior protection, and all the other snake oil. (La Mesa)

Yes. These are big money makers for the dealer. Just tell them NO.

When we were financing our previous RV they tried to sell us an extended warranty. When I asked them how much they said $8000, and I laughed and told them "No thank you". I was then asked if I was a veteran and when I said I was I was told there was a special veteran price of only $4000. I smiled and said "That is nice, but no thank you".

We had to come back for something else to finalize the sale and then I was told they had found a "special coupon" and that I could get the warranty for only $3000. They had lots of wiggle room because there is such a high markup on those warranties. When I looked at the webpage for the warranty company I clicked on the "RV Dealers" link and found a page where they talked about how much the warranty would increase the sales profit.

Originally Posted by RSKDSK

9) Your 800 credit score only qualifies you for the 8% interest rate

I have not seen that, but they make money off of selling your loan to banks. When we bought our last RV a couple of months ago we got a 2.74% loan and I suspect I might have been able to get a slightly lower rate if I had tried, but the savings were not worth the trouble. And, in any case, my policy is to pay off those loans as quickly as possible, so the money that goes into the interest is really rather small.