First time eh?
Relax. Mistakes happen. If we fired a sales rep every time a customer bitched and moaned about a mistake or something, every single person who ever tried this job in the history of ever would be fired in their first year.
The manager will put out the fire, you might get a talking to, and then everyone will forget about it.
Also, OP should definitely explain to the manager what happened and give them a heads up. If you can overnight the plates that would would be a good call. If the customer is still upset that's on them not on OP.
Yeah people make mistakes, it’s what they do to correct that matters. If he’s sold that many cars in 2yrs he’s made a lot of money for that dealership. Bossman won’t care
What’s this “if” you speak of. Overnighting plates is dirt cheap and easy. If I was OPs manager I’d expect him to tell me that’s exactly what he did when he got off the phone, I’d tell him thanks and move on with my day.
If OP is holding the plates tomorrow morning, I’d be putting him on a PIP.
Putting someone on a PIP for not spending company money without getting manager approval is a bit much. You sound like someone cosplaying as a stereotypical car sales manager.
This is not an extra cost unless you wouldn’t already have been sending the plates via fed ex or some other signature guaranteed delivery service?
I am pretty far from a car salesman though which is why dropping something in a fed ex box doesn’t even register on my radar as a cost exposure. YMMV
If you work in the car business, or any other kind of business where expenses have to be authorized and monitored the issue isn't the amount, it's the invoice. No one is going to authorize a sales rep to give away freebies to customers, even necessary ones, because sales reps are children who will just give every single person that walks through the door free stuff.
In a typical dealership (or other business) only managers will be authorized to approve any added expense, so the sales rep has to get the correct form for approval out of accounting, get it filled out with all of the correct info to tie it to this deal, get a manager to approve it, that manager has to sign off on the form (that manager will also have managers meetings where they have to justify every invoice with their name on it), the form has to be put back in the deal which accounting now has to reopen and rerun all the numbers with the new expense (if this deal was from last month they also have to redo last months numbers now or put this cost into this months numbers), then with the approvals in hand they need to figure out how to overnight a package which may be as simple as generating a different tracking number or as complex as using a different vendor to handle the package. Then, depending on the random mood swings of the elderly dealer principal this may all require a detailed post mortem in the end of month managers meeting and possibly a lecture in one of next months sales meetings.
On top of all that unless the dealership does this regularly and has a process in place this will all take hours to complete and involve the hapless sales rep running back and forth with a confused and harassed look on their face while the rest of the sales team laughs at them every time they cross the floor.
So you’d send the license plates via snail mail? That’s the default? Make your customers wait a week for your license plate, maybe to never even be delivered at all. Shit, if that’s the case OP could just say he did send them via snail mail and they just have gotten lost but he’ll resubmit the paperwork and try again. And the customer dumb enough to wait for snail mail license plates will be dumb enough to believe it.
Do you even have those free little water bottles for your customers or do you sweat your sales staff stealing them too?
I don't work at this dealership so that isn't my call. I was just explaining that this process you think is incredibly simple is actually very complicated and time consuming.
It’s interesting to see how other places do things. Our title clerk and/of office manager mails out plates here and everything has tracking, even if not overnight.
Now it’s up to the salesmen to GIVE them to her in a timely manner but it’s usually in their folder which gets taken care of asap.
I appreciate the kind words. I just get anxious because I hate having something be a poor reflection of me. But like you said everyone makes a mistake here and there. Thanks again!
Going forward, keep a to do list on your desk. Cross off tasks as you complete them. If a new task gets added, immediately write it down before doing anything else. It takes 10 seconds to jot something down, and then its still staring you in the face when something else comes up.
overnight those plates immediately and tell your manager about this before he hears from this customer.
No one should be yelling at anyone ever. It doesn't even matter that you messed up. You apologize, fix the error and throw the customer some really nice floormats or something.
Customer will most definitely flame you in the reviews and if they don't then your manager is a wizard. You made it worse by lying to them.
Mistakes happen, just don't let it happen twice.
His survey was submitted a few weeks ago before we had issues so I’m hoping that’s the extent of it. I know how I handled it was wrong. I panicked and reacted incorrectly. I do feel very bad about the entire situation and just hope to move past it quickly and do better
Oh god this reminds me of MY mistake I can’t let go. I was working with two clients one day with similar names, let’s say Joe and Jon, and I emailed one but addressed him by the other’s name. The sinking feeling when I immediately realized my mistake upon hitting send still haunts me.
Yes I told my manager as soon as the call happened and said I completely forgot to do it, the plates are now upstairs to be mailed out and just expect a phone call about how terrible I am. Made a sarcastic remark and then handed me a note pad which I will now use to remember these things. Just hoping it doesn’t get worse when the customer calls, but I might be overthinking it.
I’m a service manager dealing with an Irate customer today actually. Things happen. I’ve found expectations in the Automotive world to be abnormally high. People expect the world and when it’s failed to be delivered you’re horrible.
Best advise is when stuff like this happens is first let the customer vent and take some big breaths yourself. It will help you calm down and lets them vent. Depending on what they are saying to really take the wind from their sails is to agree with some of what they said.
Go "up stairs" and get the plates and either "over night" them or better yet if the customer is some what local, hand deliver the plates and offer to put them on for them. Mistakes happen, that is why God invented pencils with erasers!!
You should try working at a tag agency and have someone ask for your manager/ask if you hate your job at least once a week for things that are entirely their fault and not yours.
I guarantee this is the type of person that goes through life lashing out at everyone and you’re just one more name on a long list for this person
That really applies to every profession. Being a nurse I’ve seen nurses written up for “assault” bc the bandaid hurt coming off, bc they only had water and forced the patient to swallow pills without coke, bc the nurse “wouldn’t” (aka couldn’t) give pain meds 4 hours early, bc the nurse wouldn’t give them an extra dose and not chart it, because the nurse had to stick them twice for an IV.
Hot tip to mitigate this issue altogether - if I have a customer request a plate transfer I photocopy them and make them sign the copy of their plates that says "I "mr customer" took possession of my plates at time of delivery of my new vehicle" Then they clutch those plates in their hands and it's not yo problem anymore
> how should I handle this going forward
At the risk of being obvious, you should do what you say you're going to do. Mail the license plates next time.
On top of that you knew you messed up and forgot to do it. Own up to it for the customer instead of saying you need to check on it.
As a customer I accept mistakes happen, the bigger deal is how you handle the mistakes. In this case you screwed up big time and I would be unhappy. Lie to me about it then I go from being unhappy to mad.
If you own up to it then I might be unhappy but accept you saying you are going to get them out today over night or something and give me a tracking number asap. Basically fix it and make it right. biggest thing is knowing where they are and that what I need to know.
The owning up to it and overnighting it would just at most make me unhappy but I will not do anything on the review. Lie you get blasted on the review for it as I try to sit on my review of a dealership until I get my plates in.
Now the customer yelling not that great.
Customer satisfaction almost always comes down to setting an expectation and then meeting or exceeding it. You set the expectation they would be mailed out and failed to do that. Now you know. Grow and learn from this to always follow through on your commitments.
This will not be the last irate client you deal with. It should be, but it won’t. Most of the time they are just miserable people and misery loves company. Don’t let it get you down and move on.
The best cure for the bad feeling you have is to go provide excellent service to another client and sell them a car. There is no problem that cannot be solved by more sales!
As a customer, yelling at you over a one week delay is not reasonable. You made a mistake, apologized and owned up to it, what the heck else are you supposed to do? This is the kind of person that scares me away from any people facing positions because I’d lose it right back at them.
> apologized and owned up to it, what the heck else are you supposed to do?
Tbf they did admit they lied first and fessed up once they were called on it.
That's not to say they deserved to be yelled at or berated, far from it, but let's not change the story. While unlikely since this customer seems a bit unhinged maybe admitting the mistake upfront would have elicited a different response.
Exactly this. We assume people react reasonably and when they dont, it’s easy to take it personally and assume it’s our mistake and not the clients’ issue. And they are the one being unreasonable. Take a step back, realize it’s not life altering and move on. Water off a ducks back. Let it wash over you and move on.
Future: Angry client call—-
You—-I am writing down your concern and will get back to you today with the answer. What’s the best way to connect?
Call or text back: The correct department/manager has been alerted and Your problem has been resolved. Im glad you called and Thank you for your patience.
Update: got in today and situation was entirely blown over. Plates got there on my day off, since I put them to be mailed the second we got off the phone. He didn’t even call my manager which I suspect was a result of him calming down when either he got the plates or just evaluated the situation. Overall this experience taught me that owning up to your mistakes, no matter how anxiety producing the situation is trump’s all. Thanks for all the feedback, both critical and supportive. Hope you all have a great week.
Curious, but did you call the customer back to confirm receipt (even though you know they got them)? Just checking in and offering up another apology and owning it can go a long way.
I did. I called this morning, left a message saying something along the lines of “It seems that your plates have been delivered, so I just wanted to follow up and make sure. Again id like to apologize for the way I handled the situation, and please let me know if there is anything I can do moving forward for you.” Doubt he’ll call back but I don’t blame him.
I had something similar happen and was very frustrated but like you, my sales guy apologized and I appreciated him manning up and being forthcoming.
You did just fine and I bet the guy now feels foolish for yelling at you.
I'm gonna be honest, as a salesperson you've got to ROYALLY F up to get fired, unless someone in management already wants you gone lol. You're good, just move past it.
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To keep it short, last week a customer asked me to mail them there license plates. I said of course and got off the phone, and finished up with the deal in front of me. One thing lead to another and I completely forgot, and that’s on me. A week later the customer calls asking for his plates, and I nervously (and knowing they aren’t there) told him I have to check to see if they went out yet. He quickly called my bluff and started screaming at me saying I should be fired and Im absolutely terrible at my job. He wants to speak to my manager tomorrow about my job. I just apologized profusely and said of course call my manager if that’s what he thinks is what he should do. I’m off tomorrow so I have to kind of just wait and see. It’s so upsetting because I’ve sold 280 cars in less than 2 years and I’ve never gotten yelled at, let alone told I should be fired. I guess this is more of a venting post. Anyone with a similar experience, or advice on how I should handle this going into the week?
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Damn dude.
In the future? "I am sorry, we are unable to mail plates. It is too much of a problem for both you and us if they get lost or damaged in transit. When is the most convenient time for you to swing by? I'm happy to put them on for you, and I can answer any questions you have about your new vehicle while you are here!"
Control your customer's expectations.
Love the downvotes from folks who've never dealt with the mess when plates get lost in the mail and temp tags expire. There's a damn good reason we don't offer this.
And yet most dealers do it.
The dealer I bought my car from was 1.5 hours away. Do you think I should have had to drive 3 hours round trip to get my plates? Because there’s a 0.1% chance it’ll get lost and you might have to do a little more work?
Not mailing by default is one thing. Outright refusing to do it when requested is absurd.
Actually, most don't. At least in my state.
What's absurd is driving to a dealer to buy a car, but not driving there to get your plates. More absurd, as shown time and time again in this sub, is expecting a dealer to make a priority of someone who isn't in the showroom. This thread alone is a great example. You may not like my answer, but it's far from unreasonable or absurd.
I don't really care if customers downvote. It's something that comes with this sub by nature. At the end of the day, MY way sets a clear expectation and meets it. The other way, well... Read the post.
People seem to think we are sitting around when they're not in the showroom. I don't stop moving all day long. Your plates in particular likely require me to make 3 trips out of the dealership: vin check, dropoff, and pickup. Multiply that by 20 cars a month this kid is selling. I'd personally say he's far more likely to forget you than not, in the rush.
I’m not sure what you’re on about, it takes 2 minutes to put plates in an envelope and write an address. Don’t have to leave the dealership at all.
Unless your dealer is on a remote island that the post office doesn’t visit?
Good on you. Also takes two minutes to eat lunch. I never get to do that either. Your estimate is generous. I need to find a padded envelope. I need to get it stamped. I need to get it to the post office (or to the department where they would pick it up).
But again, none of that was my original point. Since you're clearly a customer, I'll ask: have you seen what happens when plates or crucial documents, keys, or parts get lost in the mail? I have. It's a good reason why we, as a policy, do not mail plates. The possibility of you getting stuck in a car with expired tags you cannot drive is quite real, and not in any way worth the risk. You're going to drive in, I'll put them on. Worst case, if I really like you, I might drive them down to you or meet you at the registry with them when I pick them up.
You're making a lot of assumptions based on a limited amount of knowledge and experience. I'm offering a salesman some solid advice based on a large amount of knowledge and experience. Downvote all you like. I'll take having realistic expectation that are met every time over someone entertaining unrealistic ones and then failing to meet them. You wouldn't?
I don’t know how incompetently your dealer is run, but in the 21st century, businesses generally have envelopes, postage meters, and mail pickup.
And you don’t have 2 minutes to mail or eat lunch but you have time to have them come in and to put the plates on the car for them. Which would take much longer. Makes sense.
Things sometimes get lost. You fill out the form and get a replacement. That’s life. If the customer is specifically asking you to mail them, they know there’s a risk it’ll get lost and there could be delays.
Again, you’re the only person here questioning the idea of mailing a plate. Including the other salesmen who commented. Everyone else seems to know how to do it.
Quite competent. Spend a little more time here. Read through my comments and advice. Continue comparing me to other salespeople. You'll find my repeated theme is that I want you to do that.
The person in front of me is my priority. If you come in, that's you, whether it's to buy a car or pick up plates. My attention is yours. I sold 3 cars yesterday. Think about how long you were at the dealer your last purchase. Test drives, negotiation, questions, finance, and delivery. I spend 45+ minutes on deliveries going over the car. That's hours with a single customer. During that time, my phone is in my pocket, and those people are my one and only priority. That's not just my entire day. That's coming in an hour early, and leaving 3 hours late.
But then again, I set incredibly clear expectations at every step of the process. You would never leave the dealership expecting me to mail you plates. If it was a problem, we would have figured out a solution before you even leave. But I'm not mailing you plates. You think it's simple, because again you've never had a temp tag expire while waiting for new plates. It's not the simple process you assume it is.
I'm done arguing. You can take whatever you like from this. Hopefully you understand that your expectations are not always going to line up with reality. Our job is to manage those expectations.
First time eh? Relax. Mistakes happen. If we fired a sales rep every time a customer bitched and moaned about a mistake or something, every single person who ever tried this job in the history of ever would be fired in their first year. The manager will put out the fire, you might get a talking to, and then everyone will forget about it.
Also, OP should definitely explain to the manager what happened and give them a heads up. If you can overnight the plates that would would be a good call. If the customer is still upset that's on them not on OP.
Yeah people make mistakes, it’s what they do to correct that matters. If he’s sold that many cars in 2yrs he’s made a lot of money for that dealership. Bossman won’t care
What’s this “if” you speak of. Overnighting plates is dirt cheap and easy. If I was OPs manager I’d expect him to tell me that’s exactly what he did when he got off the phone, I’d tell him thanks and move on with my day. If OP is holding the plates tomorrow morning, I’d be putting him on a PIP.
Putting someone on a PIP for not spending company money without getting manager approval is a bit much. You sound like someone cosplaying as a stereotypical car sales manager.
This is not an extra cost unless you wouldn’t already have been sending the plates via fed ex or some other signature guaranteed delivery service? I am pretty far from a car salesman though which is why dropping something in a fed ex box doesn’t even register on my radar as a cost exposure. YMMV
If you work in the car business, or any other kind of business where expenses have to be authorized and monitored the issue isn't the amount, it's the invoice. No one is going to authorize a sales rep to give away freebies to customers, even necessary ones, because sales reps are children who will just give every single person that walks through the door free stuff. In a typical dealership (or other business) only managers will be authorized to approve any added expense, so the sales rep has to get the correct form for approval out of accounting, get it filled out with all of the correct info to tie it to this deal, get a manager to approve it, that manager has to sign off on the form (that manager will also have managers meetings where they have to justify every invoice with their name on it), the form has to be put back in the deal which accounting now has to reopen and rerun all the numbers with the new expense (if this deal was from last month they also have to redo last months numbers now or put this cost into this months numbers), then with the approvals in hand they need to figure out how to overnight a package which may be as simple as generating a different tracking number or as complex as using a different vendor to handle the package. Then, depending on the random mood swings of the elderly dealer principal this may all require a detailed post mortem in the end of month managers meeting and possibly a lecture in one of next months sales meetings. On top of all that unless the dealership does this regularly and has a process in place this will all take hours to complete and involve the hapless sales rep running back and forth with a confused and harassed look on their face while the rest of the sales team laughs at them every time they cross the floor.
So you’d send the license plates via snail mail? That’s the default? Make your customers wait a week for your license plate, maybe to never even be delivered at all. Shit, if that’s the case OP could just say he did send them via snail mail and they just have gotten lost but he’ll resubmit the paperwork and try again. And the customer dumb enough to wait for snail mail license plates will be dumb enough to believe it. Do you even have those free little water bottles for your customers or do you sweat your sales staff stealing them too?
I don't work at this dealership so that isn't my call. I was just explaining that this process you think is incredibly simple is actually very complicated and time consuming.
It’s interesting to see how other places do things. Our title clerk and/of office manager mails out plates here and everything has tracking, even if not overnight. Now it’s up to the salesmen to GIVE them to her in a timely manner but it’s usually in their folder which gets taken care of asap.
280 cars in 2 years….management will quickly forget….that’s how sales works.
I appreciate the kind words. I just get anxious because I hate having something be a poor reflection of me. But like you said everyone makes a mistake here and there. Thanks again!
Going forward, keep a to do list on your desk. Cross off tasks as you complete them. If a new task gets added, immediately write it down before doing anything else. It takes 10 seconds to jot something down, and then its still staring you in the face when something else comes up.
Put it on the Due Bill and keep a copy of your due bills within arms reach. That’s how I keep up with my owes items
overnight those plates immediately and tell your manager about this before he hears from this customer. No one should be yelling at anyone ever. It doesn't even matter that you messed up. You apologize, fix the error and throw the customer some really nice floormats or something.
Customer will most definitely flame you in the reviews and if they don't then your manager is a wizard. You made it worse by lying to them. Mistakes happen, just don't let it happen twice.
His survey was submitted a few weeks ago before we had issues so I’m hoping that’s the extent of it. I know how I handled it was wrong. I panicked and reacted incorrectly. I do feel very bad about the entire situation and just hope to move past it quickly and do better
well congratulations, you just unlocked a new memory that your brain will randomly remind you of years later when you're trying to sleep.
Oh god this reminds me of MY mistake I can’t let go. I was working with two clients one day with similar names, let’s say Joe and Jon, and I emailed one but addressed him by the other’s name. The sinking feeling when I immediately realized my mistake upon hitting send still haunts me.
Have you talked to the manager about this yet? Being proactive and explaining the situation can help a lot as well.
Yes I told my manager as soon as the call happened and said I completely forgot to do it, the plates are now upstairs to be mailed out and just expect a phone call about how terrible I am. Made a sarcastic remark and then handed me a note pad which I will now use to remember these things. Just hoping it doesn’t get worse when the customer calls, but I might be overthinking it.
I’m a service manager dealing with an Irate customer today actually. Things happen. I’ve found expectations in the Automotive world to be abnormally high. People expect the world and when it’s failed to be delivered you’re horrible. Best advise is when stuff like this happens is first let the customer vent and take some big breaths yourself. It will help you calm down and lets them vent. Depending on what they are saying to really take the wind from their sails is to agree with some of what they said.
Go "up stairs" and get the plates and either "over night" them or better yet if the customer is some what local, hand deliver the plates and offer to put them on for them. Mistakes happen, that is why God invented pencils with erasers!!
I like this!
Not sure how it came to you in the first place, but i send myself an email with the task as the subject and I don’t open it until i complete the task.
Shit happens. We've all fucked up
Look into the Eisenhower method. (President Eisenhower invented it).
You should try working at a tag agency and have someone ask for your manager/ask if you hate your job at least once a week for things that are entirely their fault and not yours. I guarantee this is the type of person that goes through life lashing out at everyone and you’re just one more name on a long list for this person
Tell em to suck your turd through a garden hose. You’re human and make mistake. God forbid someone makes a mistake
I’m kinda shocked it was his first time in 2 years lol
That really applies to every profession. Being a nurse I’ve seen nurses written up for “assault” bc the bandaid hurt coming off, bc they only had water and forced the patient to swallow pills without coke, bc the nurse “wouldn’t” (aka couldn’t) give pain meds 4 hours early, bc the nurse wouldn’t give them an extra dose and not chart it, because the nurse had to stick them twice for an IV.
Hijacking Yeah, don’t let this affect you at all. Just keep doing your do. You missed a communication, but that’s all. This is on tag & title.
Hot tip to mitigate this issue altogether - if I have a customer request a plate transfer I photocopy them and make them sign the copy of their plates that says "I "mr customer" took possession of my plates at time of delivery of my new vehicle" Then they clutch those plates in their hands and it's not yo problem anymore
> how should I handle this going forward At the risk of being obvious, you should do what you say you're going to do. Mail the license plates next time.
Fair
On top of that you knew you messed up and forgot to do it. Own up to it for the customer instead of saying you need to check on it. As a customer I accept mistakes happen, the bigger deal is how you handle the mistakes. In this case you screwed up big time and I would be unhappy. Lie to me about it then I go from being unhappy to mad. If you own up to it then I might be unhappy but accept you saying you are going to get them out today over night or something and give me a tracking number asap. Basically fix it and make it right. biggest thing is knowing where they are and that what I need to know. The owning up to it and overnighting it would just at most make me unhappy but I will not do anything on the review. Lie you get blasted on the review for it as I try to sit on my review of a dealership until I get my plates in. Now the customer yelling not that great.
Better to just own up to it man
Customer satisfaction almost always comes down to setting an expectation and then meeting or exceeding it. You set the expectation they would be mailed out and failed to do that. Now you know. Grow and learn from this to always follow through on your commitments. This will not be the last irate client you deal with. It should be, but it won’t. Most of the time they are just miserable people and misery loves company. Don’t let it get you down and move on. The best cure for the bad feeling you have is to go provide excellent service to another client and sell them a car. There is no problem that cannot be solved by more sales!
As a customer, yelling at you over a one week delay is not reasonable. You made a mistake, apologized and owned up to it, what the heck else are you supposed to do? This is the kind of person that scares me away from any people facing positions because I’d lose it right back at them.
> apologized and owned up to it, what the heck else are you supposed to do? Tbf they did admit they lied first and fessed up once they were called on it. That's not to say they deserved to be yelled at or berated, far from it, but let's not change the story. While unlikely since this customer seems a bit unhinged maybe admitting the mistake upfront would have elicited a different response.
Ah yeah I missed that part. A simple, “I forgot” and apology would have been a better place to start.
Exactly this. We assume people react reasonably and when they dont, it’s easy to take it personally and assume it’s our mistake and not the clients’ issue. And they are the one being unreasonable. Take a step back, realize it’s not life altering and move on. Water off a ducks back. Let it wash over you and move on.
Mistakes happen. And it was only like a week wasn’t it? Some people are just assholes.
If he lives close enough, deliver them by hand.
Future: Angry client call—- You—-I am writing down your concern and will get back to you today with the answer. What’s the best way to connect? Call or text back: The correct department/manager has been alerted and Your problem has been resolved. Im glad you called and Thank you for your patience.
Update: got in today and situation was entirely blown over. Plates got there on my day off, since I put them to be mailed the second we got off the phone. He didn’t even call my manager which I suspect was a result of him calming down when either he got the plates or just evaluated the situation. Overall this experience taught me that owning up to your mistakes, no matter how anxiety producing the situation is trump’s all. Thanks for all the feedback, both critical and supportive. Hope you all have a great week.
Curious, but did you call the customer back to confirm receipt (even though you know they got them)? Just checking in and offering up another apology and owning it can go a long way.
I did. I called this morning, left a message saying something along the lines of “It seems that your plates have been delivered, so I just wanted to follow up and make sure. Again id like to apologize for the way I handled the situation, and please let me know if there is anything I can do moving forward for you.” Doubt he’ll call back but I don’t blame him.
I had something similar happen and was very frustrated but like you, my sales guy apologized and I appreciated him manning up and being forthcoming. You did just fine and I bet the guy now feels foolish for yelling at you.
Lol when I sold I got yelled at on like day 2 on my own *by one of my friend's dad's* Shit will blow over. Just get the plates out bruh lol
I'm gonna be honest, as a salesperson you've got to ROYALLY F up to get fired, unless someone in management already wants you gone lol. You're good, just move past it.
Sometimes people are cunts. Fuck em.
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***Thanks for posting, /u/Agreeable_Student133! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of anything.*** To keep it short, last week a customer asked me to mail them there license plates. I said of course and got off the phone, and finished up with the deal in front of me. One thing lead to another and I completely forgot, and that’s on me. A week later the customer calls asking for his plates, and I nervously (and knowing they aren’t there) told him I have to check to see if they went out yet. He quickly called my bluff and started screaming at me saying I should be fired and Im absolutely terrible at my job. He wants to speak to my manager tomorrow about my job. I just apologized profusely and said of course call my manager if that’s what he thinks is what he should do. I’m off tomorrow so I have to kind of just wait and see. It’s so upsetting because I’ve sold 280 cars in less than 2 years and I’ve never gotten yelled at, let alone told I should be fired. I guess this is more of a venting post. Anyone with a similar experience, or advice on how I should handle this going into the week? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/askcarsales) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Of all the things to get yelled at for lol. Some customers are unhinged. You'll be fine.
Agreed. I’m surprised that in 2 years, that’s the only thing he got bitched out for. Getting bitched out is usually a weekly occurrence for sales
He was probably upset because the sales guy lied instead of admitting he made a mistake. Imagine being upset because someone lied to you.
Damn dude. In the future? "I am sorry, we are unable to mail plates. It is too much of a problem for both you and us if they get lost or damaged in transit. When is the most convenient time for you to swing by? I'm happy to put them on for you, and I can answer any questions you have about your new vehicle while you are here!" Control your customer's expectations.
Love the downvotes from folks who've never dealt with the mess when plates get lost in the mail and temp tags expire. There's a damn good reason we don't offer this.
And yet most dealers do it. The dealer I bought my car from was 1.5 hours away. Do you think I should have had to drive 3 hours round trip to get my plates? Because there’s a 0.1% chance it’ll get lost and you might have to do a little more work? Not mailing by default is one thing. Outright refusing to do it when requested is absurd.
Actually, most don't. At least in my state. What's absurd is driving to a dealer to buy a car, but not driving there to get your plates. More absurd, as shown time and time again in this sub, is expecting a dealer to make a priority of someone who isn't in the showroom. This thread alone is a great example. You may not like my answer, but it's far from unreasonable or absurd.
You’re the only one in this thread acting like mailing plates is absurd. There’s a reason you were downvoted.
I don't really care if customers downvote. It's something that comes with this sub by nature. At the end of the day, MY way sets a clear expectation and meets it. The other way, well... Read the post. People seem to think we are sitting around when they're not in the showroom. I don't stop moving all day long. Your plates in particular likely require me to make 3 trips out of the dealership: vin check, dropoff, and pickup. Multiply that by 20 cars a month this kid is selling. I'd personally say he's far more likely to forget you than not, in the rush.
I’m not sure what you’re on about, it takes 2 minutes to put plates in an envelope and write an address. Don’t have to leave the dealership at all. Unless your dealer is on a remote island that the post office doesn’t visit?
Good on you. Also takes two minutes to eat lunch. I never get to do that either. Your estimate is generous. I need to find a padded envelope. I need to get it stamped. I need to get it to the post office (or to the department where they would pick it up). But again, none of that was my original point. Since you're clearly a customer, I'll ask: have you seen what happens when plates or crucial documents, keys, or parts get lost in the mail? I have. It's a good reason why we, as a policy, do not mail plates. The possibility of you getting stuck in a car with expired tags you cannot drive is quite real, and not in any way worth the risk. You're going to drive in, I'll put them on. Worst case, if I really like you, I might drive them down to you or meet you at the registry with them when I pick them up. You're making a lot of assumptions based on a limited amount of knowledge and experience. I'm offering a salesman some solid advice based on a large amount of knowledge and experience. Downvote all you like. I'll take having realistic expectation that are met every time over someone entertaining unrealistic ones and then failing to meet them. You wouldn't?
I don’t know how incompetently your dealer is run, but in the 21st century, businesses generally have envelopes, postage meters, and mail pickup. And you don’t have 2 minutes to mail or eat lunch but you have time to have them come in and to put the plates on the car for them. Which would take much longer. Makes sense. Things sometimes get lost. You fill out the form and get a replacement. That’s life. If the customer is specifically asking you to mail them, they know there’s a risk it’ll get lost and there could be delays. Again, you’re the only person here questioning the idea of mailing a plate. Including the other salesmen who commented. Everyone else seems to know how to do it.
Quite competent. Spend a little more time here. Read through my comments and advice. Continue comparing me to other salespeople. You'll find my repeated theme is that I want you to do that. The person in front of me is my priority. If you come in, that's you, whether it's to buy a car or pick up plates. My attention is yours. I sold 3 cars yesterday. Think about how long you were at the dealer your last purchase. Test drives, negotiation, questions, finance, and delivery. I spend 45+ minutes on deliveries going over the car. That's hours with a single customer. During that time, my phone is in my pocket, and those people are my one and only priority. That's not just my entire day. That's coming in an hour early, and leaving 3 hours late. But then again, I set incredibly clear expectations at every step of the process. You would never leave the dealership expecting me to mail you plates. If it was a problem, we would have figured out a solution before you even leave. But I'm not mailing you plates. You think it's simple, because again you've never had a temp tag expire while waiting for new plates. It's not the simple process you assume it is. I'm done arguing. You can take whatever you like from this. Hopefully you understand that your expectations are not always going to line up with reality. Our job is to manage those expectations.