Online sales... a good idea?
It's been a while since I read these forums regularly. When we bought our 2004 Jayco and later a 2009 Heartland there was still a lot of debate about on-line sales. Was it a good price? Could you g...
Forum Discussion
Other than the trend of small dealerships getting bought by chains it sound like little has changed in the last 10 years. These posts reminded me of the games we played with buying our Cyclone...
We went to see it at a dealership 60 miles away, and had a price in hand from an on-line dealership with the 1000 mile ride to pick it up. After being treated wonderfully... seeing the rig, even hitching it to my truck to measure how much it squatted we started talking price. After letting the sales guy posture and make his best pitch I told him he was off base by more than 5 figures, was he sure. He told me my price was SURELY wrong and missing options so I said THANKS.
I guess we walked so fast they had not been ready for that because while we were driving home they called to tell us that we were... in fact... correct on the bottom line pricing and they could match it "just for us". So I gave them a verbal on a deposit against a credit card with the promise of a contract to follow. When we got the contract there were a dozen items not clear so I sent them back my list of written questions. Apparently they were unfamiliar with actually doing business because after two days I called to find out why my questions were not answered. I was told that my contract was completed and my deposit was not refundable. Since I had never signed anything I called the credit card company, disputed the charge and signed a contract with the on-line folks. I got several calls from various managers and general managers there and told them all that I no longer cared if they beat the price - their business practices were unacceptable to me.
So now to today... I guess the drive up to Indiana is do-able and I might consider on-line direct sales one more time if we decide to pull a trigger on our third (likely last) RV.
We went to see it at a dealership 60 miles away, and had a price in hand from an on-line dealership with the 1000 mile ride to pick it up. After being treated wonderfully... seeing the rig, even hitching it to my truck to measure how much it squatted we started talking price. After letting the sales guy posture and make his best pitch I told him he was off base by more than 5 figures, was he sure. He told me my price was SURELY wrong and missing options so I said THANKS.
I guess we walked so fast they had not been ready for that because while we were driving home they called to tell us that we were... in fact... correct on the bottom line pricing and they could match it "just for us". So I gave them a verbal on a deposit against a credit card with the promise of a contract to follow. When we got the contract there were a dozen items not clear so I sent them back my list of written questions. Apparently they were unfamiliar with actually doing business because after two days I called to find out why my questions were not answered. I was told that my contract was completed and my deposit was not refundable. Since I had never signed anything I called the credit card company, disputed the charge and signed a contract with the on-line folks. I got several calls from various managers and general managers there and told them all that I no longer cared if they beat the price - their business practices were unacceptable to me.
So now to today... I guess the drive up to Indiana is do-able and I might consider on-line direct sales one more time if we decide to pull a trigger on our third (likely last) RV.
