OT: Name some things that drive you fucking nuts

[dash]

Hey IPW, Consumer Reports says go for the '91 Volvo, but the '89 LeBaron was previously owned by John Voight.

 

[IPostedWhat]

Hey IPW, Consumer Reports says go for the '91 Volvo, but the '89 LeBaron was previously owned by John Voight.

I could always use another chewed pencil.

 

[DragonfromTO]

They sound hot, I want to be in them.

I know, right? They sound naive enough to fall for all kinds of panty-droppin' tricks too

 

[DragonfromTO]

If only. Europe is a prime example of how it should work. Their higher education is tied to secondary and primary school though. In Germany (at least this is what I learned in German class in HS), they take a test before HS that basically points them toward college or toward the trades. What's not good in the US is that society makes it seem like college is better than trades. That's not true at all. The jobs each person does are vital in their own particular way. Become an expert in what you do, do it well, have passion for it. But because of that pressure, everyone assumes they have to go to school, so people force themselves through college who have no place there. College started as a place to LEARN more, not a job placing degree. If we want college to become job training, that's fine...but cut out the liberal arts crap that's not necessary. Students are paying THOUSANDS of dollars in classes that are irrelevant.

For sure. There are tons of classrooms you can walk into across the country where the only thing the students are truly being prepared to do is teach the subject that they're currently learning. Unfortunately there's only room for one or two people in the whole class to have that job in the future.

 

[Dacks]

Three weeks ago, we agree on a price with the car dealership salesman on a new car. We're sent to financing to do the paperwork.

Finance manager: So, how about this rust protection package? Blah blah blah...
Me: No thanks.
Finance manager: Really? It's a good deal, blah blah blah...
Me: Really, no.
Finance manager: Tell you what. I'll put it in the loan application just to make sure you get approval. If you don't want it, we take it off.
Me: It's okay.
Finance manager: Well, why not, can't hurt, right?
Me: You can if you want, but we're not buying it.

(Nothing signed at the time, because they had to find the specific model and colour we wanted.)

Car arrived yesterday, we went today to pick up. Doing the inspection, I see the rust protection installed. I tell them we're not paying for it, they can remove it. He says we agreed to it. We haggle a bit and then I show him the email I sent him three weeks ago saying we didn't want anything extra - just the price we agreed upon.

Finance manager: Well, I'll tell you what. It's already installed, but I can give you the employee rate. That's half price - $1000. And we'll throw in your oil changes for free - that's worth $1500. You're basically making money!
Me: No thanks. We didn't want it then, we don't want it now, we're not paying for it.
Finance manager: Well, it's already been installed, I can't really uninstall it.
Me: *tough shit for you stare*
Finance manager: ...
Me: ...
Finance manager: Well, I guess I can have service remove the module, but the spray-on protection can't be removed.
Me: Lucky me.

***

They can go fuck themselves. I was told beforehand that they'd try a stunt like this, and they did. Stuck to my guns, stuck to the original agreement price, and we'll pick it up tomorrow.

 

[IPostedWhat]

 

[Dacks]

Damn, I didn't know the rust-proofing scam went that far back!

Keys? lol...

 

[Comeds]

Earlier this year after a nice easy agreement and sale on a car the finance manager almost had me walk out the door. Salesmen love that....

 

[Dacks]

Earlier this year after a nice easy agreement and sale on a car the finance manager almost had me walk out the door. Salesmen love that....

That was exactly our situation. Salesman was great. Once we got to finance, no returned emails, no quick answers, just endless frustration.

We've signed the papers, but we still have to pick up the car tomorrow. Hopefully no more shenanigans.

 

[elocomotive]

Finance manager: Well, I'll tell you what. It's already installed, but I can give you the employee rate. That's half price - $1000. And we'll throw in your oil changes for free - that's worth $1500. You're basically making money!
Me: No thanks. We didn't want it then, we don't want it now, we're not paying for it.
Finance manager: Well, it's already been installed, I can't really uninstall it.
Me: *tough shit for you stare*
Finance manager: ...
Me: ...
Finance manager: Well, I guess I can have service remove the module, but the spray-on protection can't be removed.
Me: Lucky me.

***

They can go fuck themselves. I was told beforehand that they'd try a stunt like this, and they did. Stuck to my guns, stuck to the original agreement price, and we'll pick it up tomorrow.

Haha. I had the same conversation about pinstripes at a dealer where they put pinstripes on all their cars. I used the exact same line you did - "well I don't care if you leave them on or remove them, I'm just not paying for them."

Yeah, I think this game is old hat...

 

[Dacks]

Haha. I had the same conversation about pinstripes at a dealer where they put pinstripes on all their cars. I used the exact same line you did - "well I don't care if you leave them on or remove them, I'm just not paying for them."

Yeah, I think this game is old hat...

I was a little more level-headed than that, lol. But my wife got the deathstare when she gave me the "should we consider it?" eyebrow raise when he dropped the price. I wasn't gonna budge.

They initially were charging $1800 for the service, which included a couple of years of rust warranty. I have no idea how much the actual coat they sprayed on costs, but obviously not much because they gave up after ten minutes.

On another "things that drive me nuts" note - jetlag. Just got back from Hawaii and I'm not adjusting.

 

[elocomotive]

Just got back from Hawaii and I'm not adjusting.

#firstworldproblems

How did you like it? Which island(s)?

I've been to Oahu and Kauai - both were great but the latter was simply spectacular. Most relaxing day of my life was probably a sailboat trip down the Na'pali Coast on Kauai. (if you've seen Jurassic Park, it's the ridiculously gorgeous coastal mountains with waterfalls spitting out of them)

Hope you enjoyed it. First day back is always the toughest.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

We played hardball on the protection package a few months ago too (in the south they don't call it a rust package - no road salt). We already had partner pricing through my wife's work, so the price that we got from that alone was about 3% less than what our research told us would be a fair price.

On top of that, we had gotten a "personal offer" for $750 cash back OR .9/1.9/2.9% (depending on length of loan). They were pushing the protection package hard and we kept saying no. Finally the finance manager, who apparently has sales numbers related to the protection package that he has to hit, offers to give us the financing deal AND the $750 cash back if we take the protection package.

Still no deal...until he offers us employee pricing on the protection package, which, conveniently, worked out to about $780. So we essentially paid $30 for the protection package. Not that I really care one way or another because I don't think they really work that well. But still. Little victories.

 

[forty_three]

Just got a voice mail from the body shop. They want to be sure I was pleased with their service.

Oh, you mean the service where you said five parts needed to be replaced that didn't, wanted to charge me 600 bucks for headlights (that were not broken) that I just put in 4 months ago for 120 total, and the fact that you said a wheel was scratched beyond repair without realizing that was existing damage when we bought the car, or the fact that I found every single part you quoted for as much as 75% less online but gave up and agreed to let you total the car, devastating my teenage daughter and forcing me to deal with car salesmen for the second time in a year, while one of YOUR body shop techs just bought the "Junker" at salvage auction two days ago?

That service?

This is gonna be a fun call back.

 

[dash]

Just got a voice mail from the body shop. They want to be sure I was pleased with their service.

Oh, you mean the service where you said five parts needed to be replaced that didn't, wanted to charge me 600 bucks for headlights (that were not broken) that I just put in 4 months ago for 120 total, and the fact that you said a wheel was scratched beyond repair without realizing that was existing damage when we bought the car, or the fact that I found every single part you quoted for as much as 75% less online but gave up and agreed to let you total the car, devastating my teenage daughter and forcing me to deal with car salesmen for the second time in a year, while one of YOUR body shop techs just bought the "Junker" at salvage auction two days ago?

That service?

This is gonna be a fun call back.

 

[Comeds]

I took my existing car to get appraised at another dealer before I went to buy my new one. The salesmen I dealt with just kind of hung out with me for a while, didnt try to sell me anything. He was making fun of dealerships selling clear coat finishes and rust undercoating. He claimed undercoating can actually cause rust problems if not put on properly. I wish that dealership would have sold the brand I was looking at, I would have bought from him.

My problems with the finance manager were she automatically had printed out the papers for me to sign at a much higher interest rate than I qualified for claiming not all the credit bureaus had responded. She also figured all kinds of warranties into my price without ever asking me. Oh and a 6 year financing length too. As I told her to take the warranties out, one by one, she fought me with each one. Then amazingly despite her saying it wouldn't matter, when she ran my credit again she was amazed to find out I did qualify for a 1.9% rate instead of a 4.4%. Great day in the morning!

My father sold cars at the beginning and end of his working career and told me at the end it was relatively easy as a salesmen. People were coming in with online quotes and research and had clear ideas what they were going to pay. So while there was going to be less profit for the salesman, there would be a lot less work. So he and other wise salespeople focused on really being nice and making things easy hoping for the customers hoping for them to refer friends and family members to them. At the same time, according to him at least, finance managers became more shady because that was one of the only ways left for the dealerships to make a lot of profit on a lot of sales. He said a few times there were almost physical altercations because a salesmen would have a deal he and the customer were happy with then the finance guy would anger them and make them leave. Fun stuff.

 

[forty_three]

I took my existing car to get appraised at another dealer before I went to buy my new one. The salesmen I dealt with just kind of hung out with me for a while, didnt try to sell me anything. He was making fun of dealerships selling clear coat finishes and rust undercoating. He claimed undercoating can actually cause rust problems if not put on properly. I wish that dealership would have sold the brand I was looking at, I would have bought from him.

My problems with the finance manager were she automatically had printed out the papers for me to sign at a much higher interest rate than I qualified for claiming not all the credit bureaus had responded. She also figured all kinds of warranties into my price without ever asking me. Oh and a 6 year financing length too. As I told her to take the warranties out, one by one, she fought me with each one. Then amazingly despite her saying it wouldn't matter, when she ran my credit again she was amazed to find out I did qualify for a 1.9% rate instead of a 4.4%. Great day in the morning!

My father sold cars at the beginning and end of his working career and told me at the end it was relatively easy as a salesmen. People were coming in with online quotes and research and had clear ideas what they were going to pay. So while there was going to be less profit for the salesman, there would be a lot less work. So he and other wise salespeople focused on really being nice and making things easy hoping for the customers hoping for them to refer friends and family members to them. At the same time, according to him at least, finance managers became more shady because that was one of the only ways left for the dealerships to make a lot of profit on a lot of sales. He said a few times there were almost physical altercations because a salesmen would have a deal he and the customer were happy with then the finance guy would anger them and make them leave. Fun stuff.

When I bought my car, I still found a lot of old school sales guys and it was frustrating. But the guy I bought from was like what you described. He knew I knew what I wanted, and he was really cool about it. But his sales manager almost blew the sale for him by trying to cut my trade value in half.

Knowing that "trades" are essentially discounting the new car a certain amount and getting the trade essentially for free to resell or auction, I wasn't going to budge. Used cars are PURE profit at a new car dealer. Then the Sales Manager left me in his office alone and I could see the sales guys and the board listing all the sales for the month. He said he "really tried" but could only give me a certain amount in trade and said that there were "prep costs" to get it ready for sale. To which I responded, "You and I both know a VW with 200k miles is not going on your used lot, it's going to auction. And I see on the board that you are 3 days away from month end and have sold four cars this month. It's snowing outside and all your sales guys are practically asleep out there. You will give me what I ask for, or I leave. Oh, and when I leave and you call me tomorrow saying you 'got it done', my offer on the new one goes down by 1000."

And I got up to leave. He practically dove at my ankles to keep me there.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

When I bought my car, I still found a lot of old school sales guys and it was frustrating.

We had some of those the last time we looked at cars (didn't buy during that round). My wife was the one needing a new car. The one sales guy especially kept looking at me. I kept telling him it's not my decision. My wife wasn't ready to buy that day (still had 1/2 dozen others to look at) and the sales guy kept telling me to "talk to her" and convince her to buy. We didn't work with him anymore.

Went to a different dealership, looked at the only car on the lot of the model we were interested in (new ones were coming later that week), asked for a test drive. Sales guy said they were too busy for a test drive, even though we had seen 3 or 4 other test drives start or end while we were there. He then asked us to come inside and put a deposit on one of the new ones coming in. We left there in a hurry. A week or so later, my wife gets a generic email from the general manager of the dealership checking to be sure we were happy, etc. The response she sent back was epic. A day later she gets a call from the owner (not the GM, the owner) of the dealership offering to accompany her on a test drive personally. Didn't take him up on it, but we were pleased the message at least got across.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

My wife was the one needing a new car. .

oh noes ... hopefully you guyse didnt deal with Scott

 

[Darkstone42]

It drives me nuts when I walk into the bathroom to see someone left their droppings in the toilet...

Gross.