Car Buying Game

At the end of the entire sales experience, (I am tired just writing about it) you will be informed that you will most likely be getting a survey about your sales experience. The Salesperson will tell you that this is his/her report card and that they get paid on the way you fill the survey out.

Guess what, this is true. Surveys are a huge deal right now and will be for some time.
Personally, I am sick of being surveyed but you can use it to your advantage.
A large majority of dealerships and salespeople get paid by the scores they receive from returned surveys manufacturers send to customers who have purchased from that dealership. You may have several options when grading the different categories of Sales and Service experiences provided by the dealership. It could be from 1 (Poor), 2 (Fair), 3 (Average), 4 (Good), and 5 (Excellent) or just Poor, Fair, Average, Good, and Excellent. In the eyes of the manufacturer, Excellent is passing an anything below that is a failing grade. Even if a salesperson gets a #4 Good on the survey it is a failing grade. The only passing grade is Excellent. Nonetheless, if you hold the survey over the dealerships head, they will do a lot more for you. They may offer to give you an additional free tank of gas and or oil changes if you bring the survey into them. This practice is absolutely forbidden by the manufacturers but it is done everyday.

If the dealership has been dealing with a particularly difficult customer, it is possible that the dealership may not want to take a chance that the customer will return a, “less than Excellent survey” so they may change the customer’s address in the computer system or give a bogus e-mail address that will be sent to someone at the dealership. The survey will then be filled out in the customer’s name, of course, all Execellents. This is the case in Sales and in Service. I cannot tell you how many times I dealt with angry customers that would have given the dealership a bad survey. I would ask the Sales or Service Manger, “Aren’t you concerned that the customer will not give you a good survey?” He would just laugh and say, “That customer will never get a survey.”