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Unpopular at the Dealership. Fuck 'Em.
Jul. 26th, 2023 08:05 amWhen a BMW dealership hit us with a ridiculous bill for basic service this week I was incensed. It wasn't just 20% more expensive, as dealerships tend to be, or even 50% more expensive, but literally 3x+ what a competent independent shop would charge. (I know because I called a competent independent shop I've been a customer at for years for a comparison quote.)
I had a few conversations with people in the dealership service department and ultimately negotiated the price down. ...Not to something fair, but to something less ridiculous. Like, not quite 2x what we would have paid at the indy shop. (Why did we even go to the dealership in the first place? It's because we wanted a few things fixed under warranty— which the dealership said didn't apply.)
The conversations I had with the service writer and then the department manager were... tense... at times. The one guy hung up on me and had his boss call me back. I was surprised, then, that when Hawk called me from the dealership as she picked up the car— and paid the new, lower price I negotiated— I could hear the two employees laughing and talking amiably with her in the background. We discussed the situation over dinner.
The thing was, I didn't come out the gate accusing him of rooking us, as relatively modest of an accusation as that was. I started by telling him, multiple times, that the the charge was too expensive for the work performed. He kept responding with, "I don't know what you're saying. Just tell me what you think happened."
As customer (dis)service approaches go he was employing a bad-faith technique. He was playing stupid and goading me to use stronger language. In fact he wasn't just goading but literally asking. Then when I crossed some imaginary line he'd drawn, he branded me unreasonable and used that as justification to end the discussion.
I've witnessed others use this approach before. It's particularly pernicious when it's a company that already has your money or— in this case— has our car. If this discussion were in the morning and the service writer walked away, I would be free to take my car elsewhere (and wish I could have!). When it happens after the fact, my car is still locked in their garage. Him walking away is saying, "Fuck you, pay me."
I did subsequently speak to the department manager. After the service writer being so passive-aggressive with me, his manager quickly offered to apply a coupon and a discount. That didn't bring the price all the way down but it did make a difference of about $250.
The fact that these coupons were apparently floating around is part of why I'm so critical of the first guy's customer disservice technique. Couldn't he have offered the coupons? He could have used them to defuse my objection about price but instead he escalated the conversation at every turn and blew it up.
But you know what? Fuck 'em. I'll never go back to their business. And even though they treated Hawk all lovey-dovey, trying to split us, she's absolutely never going back, either. She's the one they rooked. They lost two customers for life.
I had a few conversations with people in the dealership service department and ultimately negotiated the price down. ...Not to something fair, but to something less ridiculous. Like, not quite 2x what we would have paid at the indy shop. (Why did we even go to the dealership in the first place? It's because we wanted a few things fixed under warranty— which the dealership said didn't apply.)
The conversations I had with the service writer and then the department manager were... tense... at times. The one guy hung up on me and had his boss call me back. I was surprised, then, that when Hawk called me from the dealership as she picked up the car— and paid the new, lower price I negotiated— I could hear the two employees laughing and talking amiably with her in the background. We discussed the situation over dinner.
"It sounds like they were pretty friendly with you."
"They were."
"They don't like me, though, do they."
"No."
"What did they say about me?"
"They said you used... 'words'... with them."
"Did they say which words?"
"No. They implied you cursed a lot, but I doubt you did."
"Rooked. The strongest word I used was rooked. As in, I told the service writer, 'I think you took advantage of my wife's stress about needing to get to work on time and confusion about what was included in the estimate, and rooked her with an inflated price.' That's when he told me he was going to hang up on me."
"They were."
"They don't like me, though, do they."
"No."
"What did they say about me?"
"They said you used... 'words'... with them."
"Did they say which words?"
"No. They implied you cursed a lot, but I doubt you did."
"Rooked. The strongest word I used was rooked. As in, I told the service writer, 'I think you took advantage of my wife's stress about needing to get to work on time and confusion about what was included in the estimate, and rooked her with an inflated price.' That's when he told me he was going to hang up on me."
The thing was, I didn't come out the gate accusing him of rooking us, as relatively modest of an accusation as that was. I started by telling him, multiple times, that the the charge was too expensive for the work performed. He kept responding with, "I don't know what you're saying. Just tell me what you think happened."
As customer (dis)service approaches go he was employing a bad-faith technique. He was playing stupid and goading me to use stronger language. In fact he wasn't just goading but literally asking. Then when I crossed some imaginary line he'd drawn, he branded me unreasonable and used that as justification to end the discussion.
I've witnessed others use this approach before. It's particularly pernicious when it's a company that already has your money or— in this case— has our car. If this discussion were in the morning and the service writer walked away, I would be free to take my car elsewhere (and wish I could have!). When it happens after the fact, my car is still locked in their garage. Him walking away is saying, "Fuck you, pay me."
I did subsequently speak to the department manager. After the service writer being so passive-aggressive with me, his manager quickly offered to apply a coupon and a discount. That didn't bring the price all the way down but it did make a difference of about $250.
The fact that these coupons were apparently floating around is part of why I'm so critical of the first guy's customer disservice technique. Couldn't he have offered the coupons? He could have used them to defuse my objection about price but instead he escalated the conversation at every turn and blew it up.
But you know what? Fuck 'em. I'll never go back to their business. And even though they treated Hawk all lovey-dovey, trying to split us, she's absolutely never going back, either. She's the one they rooked. They lost two customers for life.
