Spoil Sport
Once again, another dealership ruins it for the rest of us. Recently, a customer in Anchorage Alaska was the winner of a 2009 Nissan GT-R on eBay Motors with a bid of $55,100. Now, the dealer (Honda of San Marcos) is refusing to sell the vehicle to them. The bugaboo: It was a No-Reserve Auction.
This is another shining example of how a dealership participates in a platform without knowledge, training, or guidance, and gives our industry a black-eye. The dealership is claiming that they didn’t know about the Reserve feature and our demanding the winning bidder purchase the vehicle for $4,000 more. To me, I think the dealer should have to eat the difference and THAT is the price to pay for not knowing.
I urge dealers to not get involved in platforms (eBay, Craigslist, Social Media) if they DON’T know what they are doing? Read a blog, seek guidance, ask someone from your 20 group, go onto DealerElite and hunt for someone that works for eBay to ask them a question… anything. But don’t try to do it yourself without any preparation as it will always come back to bite you. There are endless discussions and experts that can point you in the right direction. Don’t involve yourself in a new marketing channel without guidance.
Now that the dealership is standing their ground, the winning bidder has been taking his disappointment to the blogs and getting a heck of a backing. (Read the article here - Autoblog article about Honda of San Marcos vs. eBay Motors .
What do you think? Do you think the customer should pay more money for the vehicle after following all of the rules, paying a pretty penny, and STILL winning the vehicle? Or do you believe the dealership should have to suck it up and learn and lesson?
Comment
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Comment by Stan Sher on August 16, 2011 at 9:16am
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I have seen dealerships take a huge loss on cars to do the right thing before leaving the customer very lucky to have a steal of a deal. We all make mistakes and we have to pay heavy for them. In this case, I agree with Joe when he says that dealers need to know what they are doing before they get involved.
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Comment by Andrew Compton on August 16, 2011 at 8:08am -
This epitomizes why dealers need to be fully educated and have an integrated pricing inside their posting software. Like Ben and Manny mentioned education is important. When I read this story I checked my dealers to make sure they weren't using my eBay tool. They weren't but for a few seconds I was nervous. As a vendor you don't want to give your dealers a tool, without the understanding how to use it. Too often I hear dealers say "I want to get on eBay like Texas Direct Auto." When I hear that, I know its time to do a lot of training.
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Comment by Allan R Mullins on August 12, 2011 at 6:29pm
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The real question is, if the dealership had bought that vehicle on eBay from the seller for $55,100.00 and then he demanded an additional $4,000.00. because he made a mistake and did not 'understand the rules', would they agree to pay it, pass on the vehicle or try to 'blackball' and keep that Seller from ever posting anything for Sale on eBay ever again?
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Comment by MANNY LUNA on August 12, 2011 at 2:15pm
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Paul, I care:) its our job to teach and help dealer/ owners more about customer service! I'm not a big believer in beating a man when he's down. And yes I agree there were in the wrong 100 %, but this can happen to any dealer even if there not in the wrong .
There is a video on youtube that a customer posted about a dealer that you and I know very well, He runs a dealer group of 14 stores. He is a class act, and runs his stores the same way. The stores have the best ratings in the market. We know he is and we known that the 100% of the video it's not true. This could happen to any dealer....
Much respect to you Paul.
Have a great weekend and God Bless.
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Comment by Paul Benzler on August 12, 2011 at 12:54pm
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Who cares?
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Comment by MANNY LUNA on August 11, 2011 at 10:33pm
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Update: Dealership Says It Will Honor Nissan GT-R eBay Motors Sale After All
According to the buyer, Xou Vang, Randall Ammons, owner of Honda of San Marcos, has decided to do the right thing and honor the eBay auction price. It's a classy move, if a bit late, but we commend Ammons on stepping up in spite of his employee's mistake in listing the car without reserve.
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Comment by MANNY LUNA on August 11, 2011 at 10:26pm
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The dealer needs to eat it, And thank the customer for there business!
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Comment by Randolph S. Lofgren on August 11, 2011 at 6:52pm
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To me, this blog is great training material for all new hires that work in the Internet departments. This should be posted above all internet computers at each dealership.
When you don't invest in training for your staff, be prepared to still spend money in other ways in the form of training. Unfortunately in these kind of cases, untrained employees from one department can out weight any expense on training from all departments. Now, you are dealing with lost revenue, creditability issues, social media in the wrong way, service retention, and the list goes on, all because of ignorance! Now, $4,000.00 seems cheap!
Apparently, the dealership has no guidelines to follow or approvals by managers to inspect all online sales before they go live on ebay, newspaper ads and/or any other forms of off-site selling. That's scary!
Bottom line is - If, you run your dealership without training processes, plan on selling four to five vehicles extra a month and throw the profits into ignorance fund to afford the careless mistakes you will continue to make.
The Problem is - Dealers like that create more negative press, than good honest dealers can make up for!!! So, dealerships get the bad repetition again.
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Comment by Scott Fitzgerald on August 11, 2011 at 4:47pm
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The dealer needs to stick to his guns. He made a mistake, it happens. It is his GT-R to sell or not to sell. If they ring up your banana's wrong at Walmart, they sure enough will correct it and make you pay for them. A car, banana's, what's the difference?
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Comment by Chris Redmond on August 11, 2011 at 2:49pm
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How long has Ebay been around... how long have auctions been around? Ignorance is no defense. We all do make mistakes, but we are also responsible for our mistakes. The problem is buyers are not as accountable as sellers, how many relistings have dealers paid for because of the disappearing winning bidder.
I will give the dealer credit for not ilegally running up the auction... everyone who has bid has probably seen the mystery bidder that pushes your bid with a few minutes left to go... that is bidding on multiple vehicles at the same dealer. Now that auctions have become more and more private it is harder to see.
EBay is a great way to buy and sell, the rating system tends to weed out the bad EBayers.
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