Tweet
Nautique lost a new buyer ..Is this how business is done??!
As many times as I've read of great dealers and great relationships on this forum, my frustrations with the dealer in my current area have caused me to post this thread. If nothing else, it may prevent others from my area from dealing with the same thing....
After a demo boat show at Russell Marine Ridge Marina prior to Memorial day I took a test drive on a 230 with the Sales Manager. He had one left and after sitting down he gave me a price and offered a trade in of $66K for my boat. Over the next few days while working on setting up financing, I shopped around to make sure I was getting a decent price on the 230. After finding of this and seeming somewhat unhappy with what I'd done, he re-evaluated the info I'd given and bumped my trade-in value to $70k bc of the trailor. I still continued to shop around and found that other dealers would offer the same trade-in value of $70k. I wasn't crazy about the color of the boat at Russell and told the dealer of another boat at another dealership with identical options and asked if he could get it transfered. He later told me that boat had been sold over the holiday however he was getting 2 more 230s in from another dealer and would contact me with their specs when they got in. Over two weeks past without a word. After a couple attempts to contact him with no return, I finally reached him for him to tell me they weren't in but he would email me the specs....nothing. A couple days after that I called only for him to tell me he'd sold them both BUT had one from the factory on it's way and would contact his rep and email me within the hour of its specs and estimated arrival date....nothing. Still nothing to date and Ive since contacted the dealer of the boat I'd requested a transfer of only to find that it never sold...still available now, over a month and a half later!
If that wasn't enough, I decided to look at a 210 a week or so ago at Kowaliga Marina, another location of Russell Marine, where I dealt with a different saleman. I liked it and even test drove it the following (this past) Sunday. After giving me his price I let him know that I'd dealt with Jeff at the other location and he'd offered me a trade-in of $70k..I even had an email to prove this. So after going between the computer and his desk calculator he said he could only wrap his mind around $67k and turned to show me this final value on the computer screen...never asked me a single detail of my boat other than the yr, make and model. He contributed the decrease in value to the reason that NADA adjusts their values each quarter. Unsure I decided to think about it and checked NADA myself. Adding the basic options my boat showed a value in the same column of $71k+...not including the trailor. The next (Monday) morning I contacted Chris and made my offer at a couple thousand less. He said he'd check and call me back and said he'd "lock the boat down so nobody else could sell it" bc "we'd make a deal". No call Mon, Tues, or Wed (even called an left msg on cell). On Thurs morning I caught him in his office. Seemingly surprised he said he thought Jeff was going to call me about the deal. He explained that after talking with someone he could now only offer me $60-61k for my boat...WTF? I expressed my confusion of how a trade-in value of $70k had been given multiple times by different dealers, including theirs, yet now it was $61k? All I got was "Im sorry" and he'd call me back. That evening at 5:15 he called and told me the best he could do was go with his original offer. I understood and said I'd contact him the following morning to let him know what I'd do. He said ok. That following morning at 10 I called to accept his original deal but before I could even get it out of my mouth, he stopped me to tell me that he sold the boat! Their dealership closes at 5pm and opens at 9 am...how in the **** did it sell?! Extremely frustrated, I said I thought that locking the boat up so nobody could sell it and we'd make a deal meant that the boat would be locked up so nobody could sell it and we'd make a deal! All I got was "I know, Im sorry" and since that was his only 210, he said he had a 226 available....not interested.
I've been in sales my entire career and see the way that Russell Marine treated this situation was subpar at best. I undertand a deal not working but this just seemed to go beyond that. They'll never see a dime out of me. Based on some of the territory rules I read about, looks like Nautique will never see a dime out of me either.
Sorry for the long post...
After a demo boat show at Russell Marine Ridge Marina prior to Memorial day I took a test drive on a 230 with the Sales Manager. He had one left and after sitting down he gave me a price and offered a trade in of $66K for my boat. Over the next few days while working on setting up financing, I shopped around to make sure I was getting a decent price on the 230. After finding of this and seeming somewhat unhappy with what I'd done, he re-evaluated the info I'd given and bumped my trade-in value to $70k bc of the trailor. I still continued to shop around and found that other dealers would offer the same trade-in value of $70k. I wasn't crazy about the color of the boat at Russell and told the dealer of another boat at another dealership with identical options and asked if he could get it transfered. He later told me that boat had been sold over the holiday however he was getting 2 more 230s in from another dealer and would contact me with their specs when they got in. Over two weeks past without a word. After a couple attempts to contact him with no return, I finally reached him for him to tell me they weren't in but he would email me the specs....nothing. A couple days after that I called only for him to tell me he'd sold them both BUT had one from the factory on it's way and would contact his rep and email me within the hour of its specs and estimated arrival date....nothing. Still nothing to date and Ive since contacted the dealer of the boat I'd requested a transfer of only to find that it never sold...still available now, over a month and a half later!
If that wasn't enough, I decided to look at a 210 a week or so ago at Kowaliga Marina, another location of Russell Marine, where I dealt with a different saleman. I liked it and even test drove it the following (this past) Sunday. After giving me his price I let him know that I'd dealt with Jeff at the other location and he'd offered me a trade-in of $70k..I even had an email to prove this. So after going between the computer and his desk calculator he said he could only wrap his mind around $67k and turned to show me this final value on the computer screen...never asked me a single detail of my boat other than the yr, make and model. He contributed the decrease in value to the reason that NADA adjusts their values each quarter. Unsure I decided to think about it and checked NADA myself. Adding the basic options my boat showed a value in the same column of $71k+...not including the trailor. The next (Monday) morning I contacted Chris and made my offer at a couple thousand less. He said he'd check and call me back and said he'd "lock the boat down so nobody else could sell it" bc "we'd make a deal". No call Mon, Tues, or Wed (even called an left msg on cell). On Thurs morning I caught him in his office. Seemingly surprised he said he thought Jeff was going to call me about the deal. He explained that after talking with someone he could now only offer me $60-61k for my boat...WTF? I expressed my confusion of how a trade-in value of $70k had been given multiple times by different dealers, including theirs, yet now it was $61k? All I got was "Im sorry" and he'd call me back. That evening at 5:15 he called and told me the best he could do was go with his original offer. I understood and said I'd contact him the following morning to let him know what I'd do. He said ok. That following morning at 10 I called to accept his original deal but before I could even get it out of my mouth, he stopped me to tell me that he sold the boat! Their dealership closes at 5pm and opens at 9 am...how in the **** did it sell?! Extremely frustrated, I said I thought that locking the boat up so nobody could sell it and we'd make a deal meant that the boat would be locked up so nobody could sell it and we'd make a deal! All I got was "I know, Im sorry" and since that was his only 210, he said he had a 226 available....not interested.
I've been in sales my entire career and see the way that Russell Marine treated this situation was subpar at best. I undertand a deal not working but this just seemed to go beyond that. They'll never see a dime out of me. Based on some of the territory rules I read about, looks like Nautique will never see a dime out of me either.
Sorry for the long post...
Comment