[Bonjour]

Quote:

Originally posted by oldnell
I thought it paid the difference between your insurance write-off value and the cost to replace with a new car.

Erm, and I said?

[Shamster]

Quote:

Originally posted by oldnell
Shamster, are you in the car business, or do you just like changing your car extremely frequently? I presume you're selling each car before buying the next. If not, you must have a seriously big garage!

no - I'm in IT. I prefer to buy the new car before selling the outgoing one - but I'm a believer in variety - my boredom threshold is quite low with cars unfortunately.

[SilverGAGT]

Quote:

Originally posted by oldnell
I thought it paid the difference between your insurance write-off value and the cost to replace with a new car.

In the US, it's called Gap insurance.

Does anyone know if MINI USA offers this?

[oldnell]

Quote:

Originally posted by shamster
no - I'm in IT. I prefer to buy the new car before selling the outgoing one - but I'm a believer in variety - my boredom threshold is quite low with cars unfortunately.

Wow. Obviously in a much more successful sector of IT than mine!

[deej]

Interesting read this

Im a strong believer in treat people/customers as you would wish to be treated yourself

deej

[Bullett]

I also have a low boredom threshold with cars!
About every 18 months I tend to change, hopefully now however I will be happy for a good few years with the MCS and the classic Porsche. My babies...

I'm also in I.T.

[Bonjour]

An awful lot of the poeple on this board are in IT (or similar technical role). It's just some are in more profitable IT areas than others.

[GTmini]

Quote:

Originally posted by motorer
That's pretty dumb, and you missed the point.

The MINI reps were overwhelmed. BFD. They help customers that deserve it. BFD,

Actually, Pebble made a pretty good (and humorous) point...especially with the terms and conditions.

Plus, what exactly is a customer that "deserves" it? The second you walk in the door, you should already get fair, quality service unless you yourself are making some sort of unreasonable requests/demands. Once you order the car, you definitely deserve to get what was voluntarily promissed to you. Just agreeing to pay MSRP should already be enough "bribery" for them to be more than happy while serving you.

As for the original post, being lied to on multiple occassions, getting half-hearted service, and then asked to scam MINI to save the salesman's *** so he gets more money isn't someone I'd give high or even decent marks to either. To sweeten the deal, the guy promissed to go the extra mile, but apparently never even left the starting line. I wouldn't exactly trust that a person/organizaiton like that to be there later on when I really need it, so I'd be way too wary about trying to negotiate a future services/benefits deal with someone like that either. I'm quite happy to see a salesperson like that lose part of their reward for non-rewardable service.

[Bonjour]

Quote:

Originally posted by motorer

I've been "working with" my dealer for just about a year now. I got one of the first MCSs delivered to San Francisco, I smiled as I wrote the check including $3k above MSRP...

Am I the only one that finds writing a cheque for 3k ABOVE MSRP so that they look after you quite laughable?

I presume the salesman was smiling even more than you were.

Oh, BTW, a tank of petrol is more like $50 (£30) over here, not $25.

[mtnMINI]

Unfortunately in my MINI buying process I learned that my salesperson couldn't care less about me, as the buyer...only the money. After making a error in price, he initially refused to adhere to the contract. Rather than fix the problem for me, he told me to walk away from my MINI when I put up a huge fuss about it. In my business, if I make a mistake, I eat the cost or my company does. In an attempt to "calm me down" had me speak to his sales manager. Unfortunately for him I realized right away that he put me through to a FAKE sales manager (his buddy). Things just got worse from here...long story. I didn't want to give him my business but I wanted my MINI. Tough moral decision. Thankfully, in the end it all worked out for me...but he never apologized for his evil behavior - only asked that I give him a good Review on the Survey. I think NOT!! Not even close. Let's hope he lost some commissions on this one too.

[Neil Curtis]

For the record. The salesman definatey doesn't earn £2000 per sale commission. He will be on commission but not even 10% of that amount. The commission he would have lost woudl be the quarterly customer satisfaction bonus. If he scores a high percentage he gets a nice bonus, although when I worked in BMW sales, it used to be a team thing.

Either way, it's not right for him to phone up the customer and complain unless he honestly thought the customer was lying, although even then there are certain moral issues. Fortunatly i've never been in this position but it is worth remembering that these questionnaires are not confidential and the dealer does see exactly what you tell BMW on the phone so you should be honest if you want to enjoy a good service from the salesman in the future.

BTW, Chunky, i'm not implying you weren't honest.

NC

[Neil Curtis]

Quote:

Originally posted by oldnell
I thought it paid the difference between your insurance write-off value and the cost to replace with a new car.

While i'm here.

Two types:

Finance Shortfall pays out the difference between insurance company payout in a total loss situation and the settlement figure for the finance outstanding.

Return to Invoice(RTI) insurance pays out the difference between insurance company payout and the original invoice price.

Both are called different things in different places. The finance one is usually about £195 and the RTI about £395. Generally the second one is the one to have if your car is not financed through BMW financial services.

They are sometimes called GAP and GAP PLUS or shortfall plus etc. Make sure you know which one you are getting and have it clearly explained to you by the dealer.

nc

[MINImeat]

Wow! I'm just amazed everyone is going into an auto purchase these days expecting the salesman to be honest and morally upstanding!
My apologies to any car salesmen reading this who are indeed honest and morally upstanding (I have met some of you and it's always a pleasure), but my experience having worked in two or three car dealerships (in the service departments) and having purchased a few new cars is that most salesmen are scum.
I didn't give my MINI salesperson a good rating because she got me all kinds of free stuff or discounts but because she simply sold me a car for an agreed-upon price and either delivered on her promises or improved on them (and she was nice). And the dealer got a good rating because I got a desirable new model for MSRP when I've seen and heard about so many people having to pay ridiculous mark-ups.
If they're gonna act like scum knowing they're gonna get rated, they're gonna have to pay the price. If they get dinged, they can a)do better in the future, b)go to work for a manufacturer that doesn't use a rating system, or c)start selling used cars.
Maybe car salesmen are alittle better in the UK, but in the US I think most of us are amazed when we leave a dealership with our pants on...