Back in 2014, when I was first learning to drive, my father, sister, and I went to a used car lot. We were going to buy a car for my sister and I to share. It was going to be my first car and my sister’s third. For me, I was too young and excited to think about the car, but I realized that there was something off with the salesman trying to get us to buy the car. We had the money to buy two cars on the lot, though I forget what the second one was. The other was a 2012 Ford Escape. At first the salesman wanted us to buy it without taking it for a test drive to see if it was in any good condition. Then my father finally convinced the salesman that we wont buy anything if we cannot test drive it first. We took it for a drive, and we liked the car – and it did not seem to have any problems with it. So we then bought it. That was in February, when it is cold out and you have to run the heat in a car to warm it up. But then summer came, and I found out that the AC was not working in the car. Though, I didn’t mind, as I hate the feel of AC, and just rolled the windows down. This fact now has really hurt us as we are trying to sell it. It ended up having way more problems with it than were even seen on the surface, i.e. the AC and the time there was a leak in a tube. There were wires that broke and systems that did not entirely work.
This experience made me think of the conditions that the book, To Sell Is Human, explains as when a used car salesman has more information than the buyer. Then tried to scam the buyer into buying the lemon of a car.
With trying to sell the car, the people who have looked at it have been suspicious of the car, being that it has multiple problems with it, the big one being the AC. And as the book states in chapter 3: Seller Beware. The cause for all this hardship in selling is due to not being an aware Buyer.
BoweryJE22
Cars are a huge purchase which makes them something hard to sell in one sense. I think because many people don’t know a whole lot about cars that often they can feel like they are being duped even when they are not. It is really hard to break the bad car sales man stereotype because there are so many that steal try to cheat people. I think knowing how to truly inform customers on the purchase and make the, feel comfortable with you as a sales person is a necessary skill.
Wow, thank you for sharing that terrible experience. It is important to examine stories like these and learn from them. It is sad to hear of salespeople who seem to have a lack of moral standards. Being an untrustworthy salesperson will result in the effect of repeated dealings and will eventually cost your business dearly due to being dishonest on multiple occasions. Great post!
I thought this was an interesting post. I liked how you used a personal experience. It’s unfortunate that this was your first experience purchasing a car. This scenario highlights that consumers should always be cautious of salespeople who are trying to pressure you into the sale.