I've had a stereotypical Pre-Sales experience with the Gwinnett Audi dealer in Duluth Georgia.

By 'stereotypical', I'm referring to the technique used to try and capture a sale. Here are the highlights. Decide for yourself if you want to do business with this facility.

- Sales interaction was done via email and phone only as I'm out of state
- Salesman told me I was competing against a Foreign buyer
- Salesman told me they'd hold the vehicle for me for a refundable $1K deposit
- Salesman put me on hold when I asked what their rock bottom price was. He came back and told me the list price was rock bottom.
- I didn't believe in their list price being rock bottom so I made my offer after getting more questions answered. The salesman talked with the manager and came back with a counter as expected. It was mid-way between their list price and my offer, as predicted and thereby landing at the price I was willing to pay.
- We were in the midst of making arrangements to get the refundable deposit paperwork in place, and the figures locked down when I found that the deposit was NON-REFUNDABLE. I inquired as I was told earlier the deposit was refundable. (I was already flying to Georgia next week for other purposes and happened to find the make / model I was looking for about an hour away from where I'll be staying. Fortuitous I thought.)
- I walked away from the deal since I wanted an assurance that since I'm short and sometimes have difficulty with the design of accelerator pedals and the space beneath the steering wheel where my knees are sometimes very close to the trim, that if the vehicle didn't fit me, that I could get my money back. They refused.
- After letting my blood pressure settle back to normal, I told the salesman that I may call him to arrange an appointment when I'm in town and if they still have the vehicle, fine. If not, fine. We parted ways and my search continued. I had told the salesman about another vehicle I found elsewhere which was listed at a lower price and in the exact color I was looking for interior and exterior. Theirs had my 2nd choice interior color. He proceeded to snoop and found the car I was talking about.
- The salesman followed up with me with a phone call and two emails that evening, continuing to hound me by telling me what a better deal theirs was. In the back of my mind, I kept wondering where their foreign buyer was in this whole discussion. They allegedly already had someone ready to purchase the car and I had only 'a few hours' before they were going to finalize their deal with the other person. Honestly, I think there was nobody else all along. Even now, the car is still for sale. Go figure.
- The salesman treated me as if I was some uneducated, unaware consumer who was buying a car for the first time. His continuous canned lines streamed at me like syrup oozes out of a squeeze bottle atop a stack of pancakes. It was sickening since I know more about cars than most salesmen and definitely more than 99% of the female population due to my background being in automotive components and systems which covers an array of systems including masters degree studies in automotive technology. Having torn down and re-built engines and transmissions, he had no idea who he was talking to nor did he adjust his sales pitch as we progressed our discussions.

I was thoroughly insulted by how I was treated in this interaction and after I sealed a deal with another dealership of which I'm flying out today to go pick up the car (no deposit and the salesman is picking me up at the airport!) I let the salesman know I was insulted when I sent him back a final email telling him not to expect me to call next week while I'm in town.

So you decide... Is this dealership worth the aggravation or not? Sometimes, it's worth biting your tongue and finishing up a deal when you know you won't set foot in the place ever again just because they have the inventory. If I were local, I might have considered the same but I had to fly out anyway so why not work with a dealership that sets the bar for customer treatment. I'll post a follow-up on the dealership I'm picking my car up from today when I get back into town provided the experience in this case has a happy ending.

 

I am an Audi Brand Specialist and would love to hear more? Sorry you have had so much trouble.

 

There isn't much more to add since I didn't hold anything back. In the end, I emailed the salesman and told him exactly what I thought of my experience and told him my husband and I flew out to Tulsa to buy the vehicle I had told him about during one of our phone conversations. He didn't reply which is probably the right thing. In fact, when I wrote to him, I blamed his manager for the way their dealership represents themselves to the customer. Management sets the tone and the rest follow.

Something I just remembered though is that the manager had taken the salesman off the phone with me to show him something on his computer that didn't have anything to do with business. The salesman put me on hold for a minute to go take a look at what his manager wanted to show him, then came back and told me it was nothing and that he just wanted to show him something funny. What sort of manager interrupts a salesman who's on the phone with a customer to show him something funny?! That was quite rude if you ask me but par for the course with the way this facility portrayed themselves.

Feel free to PM me for my phone number and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

 

something weird happened and I ended up with the same post twice...