Tales from the Parts counter-Junkyard edition

[CRXPanda]

We all hate those SC's that call in for a quote and play like they never did in hopes the price will me misquoted to a lower price upon visiting in person.

My hubby and the crew had a doozie the other day.

Hubby got a call for a Chevy Blazer rear end, from a very oriental gentleman, he sounded just like Kahn Souphanousinphone Sr. from King of the Hill, so I'll call him Kahn.

Hubby: ******'s Auto...
Kahn: I need niteefi blazah reah en
Hubby: $350 in stock
Kahn: Tree fiffy?
Hubby: 350
Kahn: OK

a few hours later

Kahn: Hi, I needa reah end fo a blazah niteeniteefi
Hubby: You called a few hours ago?
Kahn: No, I no call
Hubby: OK $450 in stock
Kahn: OH NO YOU LIE, you say treefiffy!
Hubby: NO YOU LIE you said you didn't call
Kahn: OH ok, so price is tree fiffy
Hubby: THE PRICE IS 450
Kahn: walks out

a little while later

Owner: ******'s Auto...ok, a 1995 Blazer rear end...
Owner: looks up at sales floor for a price
Hubby: holds up 5 fingers,closes hand,5 fingers, then an "o"'s out of his hand
Owner: 550
Owner: (holds phone away from head)

customer yells expletives so loud thru the phone, we can hear them in the salesroom

Don't play games with us...you're not the first, and saddly, you won't be the last...but we've HAD IT with the games!

It's like the arsehats that call the parts store and play the "i wanna waterpump for a 73 beetle" game on the counter GIRL.

I'm not your joke chick, go do something productive, like jaywalk on the interstate!!!

[Gurndigarn]

Wonderful, except that for the fullest effect, on the third call, you say "sorry, it was just sold. We can have a new one sometime next week, $550."

[allniter]

HAHA That's gorgeous. Glad that place has an owner who can roll with the punches and tough em out as bad as any SC can give it.

[CanadaGirl]

Um, I don't really see the problem here. To me, it sounds like your husband is jacking up the price when the guy that phoned about the piece came into the store, and for no reason? Then he comes back later and he tells him it's $550? Then why quote $350 over the phone? I think I'd get a little pissed off too if I was given a quote of $350 over the phone, then came in and was told it was going to be $450. But maybe I'm missing something here...

[flybye023]

The problem is that the customer lied first. He called, got a price, then came in denying the call hoping to get an even lower price in person. The owner was just beating him at his own game.

We used to run into the same problem when we were farming. My dad sold hay so we'd get calls from customers asking about it. My dad, naturally, was out on the farm working so us kids would usually answer the phone. Every morning Dad would write down what type of hay he had left, how much of each was left, and how much he was selling for. The list was right by the phone for us kids to see. We'd get these jerks all the time who'd call us for prices, then try to tell my dad that they'd been quoted a lower price over the phone just because the phone had been answered by a child.

[Dips]

We get the quote game all the time too. We don't have people come in and pretend they didn't call because we don't have a storefront, but it's not like we sell enough 35-user licenses that we don't know what's going on when we get 5 calls looking for quotes on a 35-user license in 2 days.

I'd love to jack the price up every time they call, but my boss won't let me, even though the idea amuses him.

It also gets really fun when they try to get us into a bidding war with a reseller. I'll start another thread about that soon.