After 27 years at it, at like ~ oh, maybe 5 different dealerships, and dealing with whatever blows thru the door, one is bound to have several "You ain't never gonna believe this......#&**# kinda story" ~ So, here goes one of my 4 best. Hope ya all enjoy.....
__________________________

I am a greenhorn. It's 1968, my very first job. I am with an ICP dealership (Imperial/Chrysler/Plymouth). The General Manager makes all of the sales force (8 of us) go to a local MALL every Saturday morning, like around 11:00 AM and go "tagging" {Tagging SUCKS major} Tagging BTW, was outlawed many many years ago, now. Tagging is when you have a bunch or pre-printed advertisments, with your name on them. Each salesman takes two rows of cars and runs up & down the two rows sticking these things under people's windshield wipers. That's Tagging. Imagine it on a hot summer day in July humid and all & there ya are in a suit 'n tie runiing up & down lanes, holding onto 100 of these things & puttin' 'em under wipers :tisk:
So,
the General Manager one day fires our SalesManager, and hires a new guy who sold him a bill of goods.... yada yada yada.... So, once agin (1968) and out we go tagging. So, the new Sales Manager seem to like me! :bouncy: and he confides in me that this tagging sucks major and that HE used to work for Monster Mega Wowser Motors in Long Island (N.Y.) and tagging is a waste of time, unless you cross the line. He tells me that if I keep his confidence, in what he's gonna do, I will "win the prize" ~ Now, I'm 23 and like from a foreign country in this business, so not knowing how shrewed this shady character is, I'm all kinda "Ya, Okay, what we gonna do" mentality.
So...
The others are all running 'round tagging, and Sandy & Mr. POWERHOUSE are together. Mr. Powerhouse calls me over and says, "We are looking for a 5 year old Chrysler or Plymouth in so-so shape. "Find Me One" ~ Sandy produces what will be (unknown to Sandy) THE VICTIM ! It's a 1964 Plymouth Fury II Sedan (middle model) Akin to a Bel Air not Impala....
My boss goes over & places the advertisment under the wiper arm , and then bends the SOB arm like a pretzel nearly breaking it off the car.
Immediately he blows the whistle,calling everyone back to the 9-passenger Town & Country Wagon we arrived in. Homeward Ho we go. When we get back, Mr. Powerhouse signals me to his office. He tells me - "Mr. Broken wiper will know exactly WHO broke his wiper. It's on the flyer. He'll be crusin' in here at some point today, ready to kill. Stay out of it. Keep your trap shut. All day everyone is calm and happy, Sandy is scared to death. At 3:03 PM (somthings ya never forget) into the driveway comes flying THE offended Plymouth. My boss sees and comes over to me & says WATCH! We are now gonna sell him a new car.
(Sandy thinks, if he don't shoot us up, first, ya, right). So, the beet red 50-ish Polish American guy bounces into the showroom, and is cursing & arms all over asking for my boss. Boss man appears. Wild broken wiper man is screaming & yelling at what happened to his wiper and and and and we had no right and and blah blah this & that and the old standard song called "Sue You". After he has spend his wind, my boss fesses up the truth. He apoligizes profusely and explains that when he placed the advertisment there, his suit jacket sleeve got caught on the wiper blade and he didn't know and in fast removing his arm that happened and he actually got his arm caught on it and that he got bady CUT ! ;) he then produces his right arm which is now adorned with band-aids (like 5 or 6 or them). :rolleyes: Mr. Bent Wiper is fast calming down and my boss tells him how deeply sorry he is and calls in the Service Manger who is clueless to all of this. He tells the Service Manager that this man's car is outside and the dealership is treating him (My Boss is actuallly paying) to a new wiper arm, a set of new wiper blades, an oil change, a lube, an oil filter, and air filter & a fuel filter - in other words, a full service ! Reason? it takes a long time. Now that Mr. Bent Wiper has totally calmed down and is getting a whole lot of freee service for just a bent wiper,
he's in a pretty friendly mood. My Boss (with bandages) appears and strikes up a friendly conversation with him about sports and "where are ya from" kinda talk and family-talk and and and bowling I recall, and they both turned out to have Polish backgrounds and and and. By now Mr. Bent Wiper is a kittycat. My boss winks at me to come over & "joint the party" & he introduces me and tells Mr. Bent Wiper that I am new & a rookie and to allow me to show him some new cars, so that I can practice..... Mr Bent Wiper doesn't wanna say no, after getting all that free service that's going on in the back, so he agrees. Sandy shows him the new 1968 Fury line and the Belvideres (mid size) and whatever else. Little by little Mr. Bent Wiper is geting interested. 45 minutes later he & I are out on a demo ride in a Belvidere 4-Dr Sedan. When we return Mr Powerhouse takes over. More B.S. and frolcking around and we're quoting prices with his car in trade. Exactly 30 minutes later, We have a DEAL, & Mr Bent Wiper is signing the sales contract. The following Monday AM we delivered him his new car, and he was happy as a pig in mud. We took a picture of him in his new car and posted it on our "Happy Owners" board, sent him a dozen bakery cupcakes as a Thank You, too.
We put the trade in on the used car lot and added the interrnal expense of the shop work to our cost involvement on the car, and sold it 4 days later for a large profit !
Mr. Powerhouse says to me, "I am giving you that deal - Sandy" ~ The commission is $107.00, and THAT'S HOW ya sell cars !
(He was the ONLY person to come in of the 200 flyers we stuck under wipers, BTW.)

That's absoloutely great!!!!

Great story. :D Mr POWERHOUSE must have been quite the salesman.

ETA: I hope you didn't make a habit out of bending wiper arms. ;)

Great story!!!

Thanks for sharing it...

I dunno why, but it reminds of the show thats on cable right now, Bravo I think.... "King Of Cars".

:)

No, Rolex, I am way too timid (to this day) to carry out such a fiasco ! Mr. Powerhouse was so smoooth, like melted churned butter, could think on his feet in a milliSecond and never missed a beat. I heard several years later that a divorce caused him to drink more than he should have and one rainy night he drove his Imperial "demo" into a tree. Neither survived. I felt a loss, and was sad. He was like a sales magician.Charm, personality, smarts, devilment, quick of wit and slick all describe him. I left there shortly thereafter to go down the road to sell Dodges at a rather large pay increase. I stayed at the Dodge store for 6 years, and did exceptionally well. The place was then sold, and I went to Chevy (which I hated)....

I LOVE IT !!!

oh man that was great ....

Thats AWESOME!!!!

Wow that's good... so sneaky and underhanded...

That's awesome man. Great story!!!

Maybe tomorrow night I'll do the next of the 4 classic stories, IF I have the time. "Sandy Sells Hells Angels a Car"

Maybe tomorrow night I'll do the next of the 4 classic stories, IF I have the time. "Sandy Sells Hells Angels a Car"

Oh what a teaser! Now you've got to post it!

Sandy, you should keep this going and join forces with Stoney, Blaze, and Dbartman in the story telling businees.

I dunno why, but it reminds of the show thats on cable right now, Bravo I think.... "King Of Cars".

:)

Yeah, on that subject, I just had a quick talk on the phone with my mother, amidst another conversation with her, about that show. We both agreed, without a DOUBT, that we'd never on our lives even think of buying a car from a place like that...a million people running around everywhere, occasional TV specials where salespeople dress up in costumes, ringing a gong bell when you buy a car, etc.

Granted, they're a huge place and probably have the best selection of everyone, but it just looks like too much of a cheesey, childish, and just more of an annoying "show" of a place place to buy a car...I'll take a nice, quiet, well stocked place with knowledgeable and professional salespeople and easy deals anyday over a place focused on putting on some kind of a stupid act.

On another note, this show also shows how HORRID people can be when buying a car...I especially love (NOT...:thepan: ) the people who walk in with barely 3 pennies in their pocket, who "gotta have" a $40k car, and just cannot fathom why the dealer refuses to sell it to them for $20k...like it's some kind of a yard sale, or something, where the salespeople just pulled the cars out of the corner of their attic junk pile...:rolleyes:

That, or the "payment people", who go in not having really though about anything like what they can really afford, but would rather just find out "how much a month", regardless of how strange the terms are (like a 6-7 year loan or something).

Enough venting...:)

We don't have HBO, so I never saw THAT "King of Cars" show ~ but from your description.....I LIVED IT !!.

Yeah that "King of Cars" dealership is way too childish and juvenile for my tastes. My favorite dealerships are Lexus ones. So curteous, warm, professional, knowledgeable. When I buy a car from a dealer, I want a professional environment, not the gong show.

Yeah that "King of Cars" dealership is way too childish and juvenile for my tastes. My favorite dealerships are Lexus ones. So curteous, warm, professional, knowledgeable. When I buy a car from a dealer, I want a professional environment, not the gong show.

EXACTLY. They seem like pretty nice people (I'm only basing this on what is shown on camera), but it's all just a screwball operation...which was actually the reason why they were first featured in a TV special on sales people a couple of years ago, and how they now got a show.

There's a few places like that around here in the Philadelphia area I think, too, and strangely enough, they're also Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep places.

Oh, and Sandy, it's on basic cable channel A&E...Tuesday nights...not that I watch:rolleyes:

i Will Definately Watch & Thanks

Keep 'em coming, Sandy!

Its a good story but its also a story of nothing more than sleazy salesmanship. Obviously this guy was not looking for a new car or he would have come on his own free will. This would never happen to me, Mr. Powerhouse would simply have eaten the repairs and service he did to my car thank you very much. I worked at car dealerships as well. I've seen sleazy tactics from making someones credit look better than it should to outright lies about what kind of car people would be qualified to get financing for. For instance, back in '95 when I worked at Mitsubishi, a minority couple comes in wanting a small 4 door car with automatic transmission and A/C. At the time we got a shipment of leftover '94 Mitsubishi Mighty Max trucks all base model with 5 speeds and no A/C. Anyway, the dealership had massive incentives for the salesmen that sold em cause here in Florida its almost impossible to sell any vechicle without A/C. Salesman tells the couple that they could not get financed for the Mirage they wanted but he could work it out so they get financed for one of the Mighty Max trucks!. They fell for it. He comes back lauging at how slick he is and how he got them to buy a truck with a 5spd and no A/C when what they wanted was a car with auto and A/C. That was just one of my experiences, but it was also an indication to me that I have no place in this business, cause I could not screw people like that and worse.

That is poor salesmen ship, some real greazeball shit! I'd never fall for any of that shit!

Great stories, Sandy! Haven't had much chance to surf the forums, so I'm catching up. Yes, the broken wiper arm was sneaky and underhanded, but 40 years later, it's a funny story.

I'm with Rolex; if you ever make it out to the Pacific Northwest, I'll cover your bar tab just to hear your stories.

BTW, your story about exacting revenge with a certain 76 Dodge Royal Monaco Brougham (http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/509263-post23.html) is still my favorite.

__________________
If I had known this is what friends are for, I would have signed up as an enemy! — Ethel Mertz

http://www.gdwriter.com/images/ethel.jpg

That's very funny, because I went looking for that story, and COULD NOT find it, so I substituted the eldrely gentlemen who brought me the six hundred dollars for his Rambler story, which was pretty entertaining too.

I have two more. My Fav is #1 ~ BUT everbodies favorite HERE will be the next, or #2.

That's very funny, because I went looking for that story, and COULD NOT find it, so I substituted the eldrely gentlemen who brought me the six hundred dollars for his Rambler story, which was pretty entertaining too.

I have two more. My Fav is #1 ~ BUT everbodies favorite HERE will be the next, or #2.


I'm really looking forward to these!

Sandy that story about the '76 Dodge is hilarious!!! Thats my favorite one ever!!! That car sounds damn nice for a Dodge! $3,000 to fire you! Hilarious!

'Ya, it woulda been darn nice in our 50th State, Alaska!!
Northern Maine, Northern Michigan, Wyoming, North Dakota or Northern Washington, but...best in Alaska! I wish I could been the fly on the wall when the transport truck dropping that car off !

I could just hear them! "Is it Sold"? "Who Sold It"? "Where's the original order copy to Chrysler" ? "We can't find the original order, anywhere" ?
"Is the order signed?" "Yes, Mr._______ signature is on it" ?
"Holy Crap ~ it's GOT TWO window Stickers on it!" ~ ~ It's Got 35 Options ON IT" !! !!"

"Uh Oh" I have an idea >>>:stirpot:

'Ya, it woulda been darn nice in our 50th State, Alaska!!
Northern Maine, Northern Michigan, Wyoming, North Dakota or Northern Washington, but...best in Alaska! I wish I could been the fly on the wall when the transport truck dropping that car off !

I could just hear them! "Is it Sold"? "Who Sold It"? "Where's the original order copy to Chrysler" ? "We can't find the original order, anywhere" ?
"Is the order signed?" "Yes, Mr._______ signature is on it" ?
"Holy Crap ~ it's GOT TWO window Stickers on it!" ~ ~ It's Got 35 Options ON IT" !! !!"

"Uh Oh" I have an idea >>>:stirpot:

Sandy that really is one of the best stories I've read.. ever, not just automotive, the best. Full stop!!

It wasn't funny when it happened. I did very well there, had a decent demo, liked the residents who bought from us. If only the sales manager wasn't such a dickhead. He hated blacks asians, jews, italians, the irish, the polish, he just hated everybody. He hated fat women, fat men, people who walked funny looking dogs, he hated cats, and he hated most customers.

As I'm sure you know now, there is always someone in authority who is going to have a problem with you. I get the same, I'm fat. I dont deny it, and there is always soemone who'll have a problem with that. It makes you wonder how they get into those positions.

It wasn't funny when it happened. I did very well there, had a decent demo, liked the residents who bought from us. If only the sales manager wasn't such a dickhead. He hated blacks asians, jews, italians, the irish, the polish, he just hated everybody. He hated fat women, fat men, people who walked funny looking dogs, he hated cats, and he hated most customers.


What a D-Bag, he'd hate me too, seeing as how im 1/4 irish.

I'd be loathed, I'm fat and 1/4 Scottish.