This Site Was Built With You In Mind!

Dealership Sales Scam

by Eddie Carrara

Dealership Sales Scam;  Maintenance on your vehicle is inevitable. So while you wait at the dealership, the service adviser will escort you to the waiting room where there's coffee, tea, hot cocoa, doughnuts, muffins, and entertainment, like magazines, games, and TV. Can you see it? Do you have a clear picture in your mind?

Some dealerships will have a TV monitor in the waiting room, which sends a message to the waiting customers. This message says something like, "Our used car inventory is running extremely low! Here is a list of vehicles that are in high demand but low in our inventory". The vehicles that are low in the dealership's inventory just so happen to be the vehicles coming in for service, YOUR CAR!

Because these used cars are in such high demand, the dealership is willing to give you the very best trade-in value for your vehicle and put you into a brand new car for the same low monthly payment! See one of our sales professionals for more details. Who wouldn't fall for this scam? You're driving around an older vehicle, and you would love to be driving a new car with fewer problems. Who wouldn't? For the same monthly payment you're already paying, and you get the very best trade-in price? It's a no brainer!

 

Dealership Subliminal Messages 

This dealership sales scam is not ripping you off. They are offering you to trade up your vehicle for a newer one, it's quite ingenious, and it's almost like using subliminal messages in their advertising. The only problem I see with this advertising is the trickery to the unknowing customer. The waiting room customers have no idea that all the vehicles on this list come from the list of cars coming in for service on that day. It doesn't matter if your car is only two years old. It will show up on the screen.

I had no idea this was happening in our dealership. Then, one day my mom was in the waiting room while I service her car. She would usually wait in the garage and visit with me, but it was scorching that day, so instead of staying in the garage, she decided to have a seat in the air-conditioned waiting room with all the free goodies.

 After I finished, I went in to get her. She pointed to the TV and asked if she should trade her car, then she pointed out the message on the screen. That's when I notice the dealership sales scam. I wasn't surprised, but it sure opened my eyes to a whole new way of marketing.

Being wise to what's going on around, you can facilitate your decisions. If you knew the list of vehicles up on the screen were from the service appointment schedule, I bet you would have second thoughts about trading in your old car. As I said, the dealership is not ripping you off, but it's a sneaky way of doing business, so buyers beware of dealership sales scams like this!

 

comments powered by Disqus

Leave Dealership Sales Scam and return to Simple Car Answers homepage