"We have one on the lot but it's not the nice one."

[Vprbite]

I know this has been talked about ad nauseam but I had my first personal experience with it today. Inept sale reps for dodge/SRT. I was getting gas in my 06 when a brand new ram 2500 pulled into the pumps next to me. The woman steps out and immediately, without even saying hi or anything, says "ready to buy the brand new one? I can sell it to you." She looked like she was barely old enough to drive but I saw her shirt was a dodge salesperson type of shirt and the truck had dealer tags on it. I said how I knew there was a red one at (certain dealership here in town) but it had been transferred or sold. She said she was at (other dodge dealership in town). I said, "I didn't know that was an SRT dealership."

Her response was "I don't know what that means." I said "well, do you sell the other SRT vehicles? The SRT challenger, charger?"

Her response was "well we had an SRT...ummm...one of them, the challenger or the charger"

I said, "well, do you have Viper Techs on site?"

Again...befuddled response. I said that though I very much do want one I haven't found quite enough in the couch cushions yet.

Instead of offering me financing and offering to take my 06 for trade-in and see how the numbers go (ya know, standard salesperson type of stuff) she said "well we have one of the new Vipers but it's not the nice one. It's just the real basic one."

So, instead of offering a current owner (who was engaged in a conversation with 2 people who were checking out my car) a way into the new car, she decides to put down the product as "not the nice one".

I was pretty flabbergasted. I explained that to many Viper owners, the SRT without the GTS options is the more desirable car, and that it had nothing to do with money. Just that a lot of people like the more track oriented vehicle, and that it is by no means inferior to the GTS option package, just different. I then briefly explained the GTS options package but quickly gave up as it was an excercise in futility.

Unfazed by her own total lack of product awareness, she said "well when you are ready, come see me."

It was a bit disdainful too. It had an aire of "well when you aren't such a deadbeat and have your act together, come buy this car from me."

My girlfriend watched the entire exchanged and as we got in the car said she couldn't believe how clueless the salesperson was, and that she would bad mouth her own inventory. She noticed the rudeness of the comment too. The whole thing was very odd, and the people checking out my car were put off by the whole thing too.

I have read the stories from people on here about clueless salespeople and honestly wondered as to their validity. I guess I will wonder no more. I suppose they didnt lose a sale because I am not quite in the market for one yet but I definitely see how it would completely sour someone on the vehicle and the experience.

[Policy Limits]

The car is pretty cool overall. Too bad the average dodge dealer doesn't have experience with it. Both sales and service are lacking. Then there's the few who are competent like the one I contacted today to install a complete carbon fiber exterior. Thing is even a legit place like them are limited by Dodge. I was told I could have everything except the cf x brace as folks are over one month waiting for the part. Since I only want to go under the knife in one shot, I declined to do any of the mods because the x brace wasn't readily available. There went 12-15 k worth of mods. It's officially the second time I tried to spend a large sum of money on this car and was unable to do so. The first time was on the car itself. After waiting 1/2 year on the build I cancelled my order in frustration. I applied my deposit to a dealer car so I didn't lose the deposit. This company needs to get its act together. Otherwise, in addition to not being able to bring in new consumers, it might lose the small group it currently has as well.

[GABOON]

had to lol--- so i take the gts into dealer and have oil change; so now i owe snakedoc for a oil pan, pan gasket cost about $200 and people at dealership act as if nobody cracked the oil pan! not one word about we broke your stuff so we will pay for our mistake--- yeah, i am amazed at the people at the dealership up here in prescott;

[Vprbite]

Shocking. Well, more saddening I guess.

[VYPR BYT]

Detrimentally Embarrassing

[Ohiotj]

Having sold cars for a little while I can tell you that is more of the norm than the exception. Some of the words I heard coming from my fellow salespeoples mouth amazed me. If you don't know the answer that's ok. But they would believe their own lies too and it would snowball from there. One salesperson misquoted hp numbers to the owner. Then the owner was misquoting the hp numbers to one of our customers. I finally stepped in and said the real numbers and everyone thought I was the dumba$$. Stupid is dangerous.

[slysnake]

At least she didn't ask you if it had the Corvette engine in it. That's what one sales person asked me when I drove my car into their Dodge dealership. And he was serious too. I mean, what do you say to something like that?!

[The_Greg]

Salespeople are not gearheads. It's my biggest complaint about them. The people that they talk to most of the time are not like us; interested in the details and knowing what a good deal is. Most average consumers, especially at commuter car dealerships like Dodge, Ford, Toyota, etc., walk in willy nilly and start talking monthly payments. This means a successful salesperson becomes skilled in talking nothing more than monthly payments. Will they learn about the cars? Maybe, but their sales don't depend on it. It's the world we live in. :(

[Stretch]

I've been pretty lucky here, the SRT sales rep at our dealer actually cares about the cars and works hard to try to know everything he can about them to inform prospective buyers. They've only had one gen 5 in 2 years, but he knew all about it. We need more sales guys like him around.

[TitleMine]

Can we all just kick back for a minute and bask in the irony of a woman who makes probably $40,000/yr referring to the $100,000 variant of the car as "not the nice one?"

"Yeah man, that's the crappy Viper." *hops in 06 Camry and leaves*

[Vprbite]

Can we all just kick back for a minute and bask in the irony of a woman who makes probably $40,000/yr referring to the $100,000 variant of the car as "not the nice one?"

"Yeah man, that's the crappy Viper." *hops in 06 Camry and leaves*

Good point. I was just shocked they would deride their own inventory. If the new one is the crappy one I feel bad for making her have to look at my 06. I should be punished for doing that that this poor girl.

[Vprbite]

Salespeople are not gearheads. It's my biggest complaint about them. The people that they talk to most of the time are not like us; interested in the details and knowing what a good deal is. Most average consumers, especially at commuter car dealerships like Dodge, Ford, Toyota, etc., walk in willy nilly and start talking monthly payments. This means a successful salesperson becomes skilled in talking nothing more than monthly payments. Will they learn about the cars? Maybe, but their sales don't depend on it. It's the world we live in. :(

I don't expect them to be gear heads and quote compression ratios and and the merits of forged vs cast pistons, but knowing their product I do expect. Knowing the options is important. A person who feels they got great service and the perfect car for them will probably pay more. We see here that the super respected dealers are not the lowball dealers. They are just the best. And people pay for that.

You would hope that higher ups are hearing about these experiences and sending the message out to dealers.

[ViperDog]

I would have told her "why would I buy from you if you are so clueless about your product?" She might then get a clue that she needs to do her homework.

[Fatboy 18]

The dealership and the sales person needs to be named and shamed, I really hope people from Dodge / SRT read this.....No wonder the production line is closed :(

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

Most importantly: Was she shaped like a Viper, or a Neon?

[Vprbite]

Good question, Jon. Ummmm...how do I put this...I wouldn't kick her out of the garage, but I wouldn't try that hard to get her in there either. And my GF is shaped much better.

[johniew398]

I can honestly say I have only made three car purchases in my life where the salesman knew everything there was to know about their cars.

One was a 1994 Vette I purchased in Ft. Lupton, Colorado from a dealership that, even though in a small town, sold more Vettes than any dealer in the state. The second one was from a dealer in Ohio where I purchased my C6 Z06.

The third salesman was Bill Pemberton when I purchased my TA. In fact if I purchase another Viper or Dodge product for that matter I will contact Bill.

[RT SERPENT]

Most importantly: Was she shaped like a Viper, or a Neon?
:smilielol::t15197::smilielol::smilielol:
Hilarious!!

[det000]

My favorite conversation went something like this (while we were test driving a Challenger).

Salesman: You know a lot of parts on these cars are shared with Mercedes cars.

Me: (Thinking are you kidding me??) Hmm, that's interesting. I know Daimler and Chrysler had merged but I thought all that was out the window after Fiat bought Chrysler.

Salesman: Yeah but you know Daimler owns Fiat.

:facepalm:

[plumcrazy]

99% of dodge dealers are absolutely clueless, its sad.

[Roy]

I would think that if a dealer wants to be a dealer...they have to be able to do stuff...they need the right building, they need to buy a certain amount of cars from Dodge and so on...isn't knowing what kind of cars Dodge produces part of being a dealer? Don't they get obligatory training about every new product ?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe to remember that Tators Dodge lost it's dealership due to certain rules he couldn't live up to...what about not knowing the difference between the both types of Dodge and not even knowing if you are or aren't a SRT dealership...