OT: Are Internet Car Sales Dept. not local?

[Melaine]

Just curious if these are outsourced like telephone sales departments might be? I'm asking because we have emailed several local car lots with specific questions and their responses are neither specific nor grammatically correct. I was expecting someone who is physically near the cars in question to respond but that does not seem to be the case. Would they outsource this job? (makes no sense to me!)

[KLD313]

That hasn't been my experience. I did all negotiating through the Internet when I bought my car. I didn't step foot into the dealership until an acceptable price was set.

[AnnieW625]

If they are not large dealers and small one location non affiliated used car lots then English may not be their first language (at least based on my experience when I visited a few in Nor Cal) a lot of them were Indian. My dad bought his current car from a used car lot (not a dealer) and he said the owner was Indian or another middle eastern nationality.

Also a lot of dealers use pre worded form emails, but IME those a grammatically correct.

I have bought two cars using Internet/fleet department with no problems and the fleet manager has contacted me both times and been the person I worked with at the dealer.

[echoesofspring]

I submitted a bunch of requests this past week to various dealerships. It seems like they are all just sales people at the dealerships, we even did a test drive with one. However, I understand your frustration b/c they frequently write back with emails with absolutely no relevant content, prices on cars that aren't the right trim option I asked for, no information about availability after I asked for it, etc. Or they don't put the fact that we did a test drive with them together with the email discussion we've been having about a particular car (even though I said it was nice to finally meet you in person after all the emails). Another salesperson kept sending me an email asking if this was the right email address to send info to w/out ever sending any info. Um, yes, the email address I gave you was the right address and if it wasn't you wouldn't find out by emailing me, right? Sigh....I felt better yesterday when I read at Edmunds that a lot of folks complain about the internet quote process being fraught with weird emails. It's amazing to me how stuck in the 80's it all feels to me...it's not like the internet just came along yesterday.

[Melaine]

Poor grammar and organization in professional emails drives me crazy! I just can't wrap my head around the idea of buying such a pricey item from a company that doesn't represent itself better!

[stillplayswithbarbies]

Yes this was my experience too, but they were indeed all local salespeople at the local dealers. Buying via emails was incredibly frustrating. Getting off their email lists was even more frustrating.

Don't call yourself an "internet department" and answer every email with "call me so we can discuss your email". Um, no.

[California]

We just bought a car and with several dealerships ran into what you are describing. When I questioned it the salesperson explained that they outsourced the Internet advertising so the sales people didn't always know what had been posted online- thus the vague response. Huge pain, but in the end we did find our car through an online ad. The sales person went out and physically found the car and confirmed the ad (which I read to him over the phone) as he looked through the car.

[codex57]

Very few dealers have a true "internet" dept. Yes, it's supremely frustrating.

[wellyes]

Car salesmen hate email and will try to deter you. Just keep on going, it is to your advantage.