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| - Internet buyers beware! Please read this.
I told the "Modern" staff that their dealerships probably do well in the local market with a "good old boy" system of physical sales and service -- but that "Modern" might not be a good label for them.
A glaring disconnect, and disregard -- or even negligent disrespect -- of the online buyer negates the opportunity for a win-win here. PLEASE ... if that is you, then proceed with discernment -- and don't assume "Modern" is investing adequate operating funds or sales commissions in anyone or anything to protect your interest as a buyer. We drove six hours to buy a car that we believed they were reserving for us through a consistent stream of email, text, online chat and phone calls.
Either by incompetence or intention, the sales management team sold the car just minutes before we arrived. As we were not recognized as sales customers when we arrived, service at the receptionist desk was less than encouraging after she finally got off the phone and pointed to the sales desk "over there on the right."
We had been corresponding for 2 days with the sales manager and the Internet department.
Steven Cunningham was the salesman they assigned to drop the bomb: "I have bad news for you," he said. "That car has just been sold." The ink was barely dry on the sale.
Was this incompetence in their business process, or was this intent in sacrificing their own "Internet department" and going for the sure sale instead of holding the car? Or did they actually think I would buy something else if I drove all the way down there? It's unknown at this point, but it smacked of "old school sales technique" -- not catering to the Internet buyer who has spent hours poring over the screen and already knows what he or she wants and drives several hours to buy it.
Steven tried to provide us tremendous service and make other deals, but there was nothing his sales leaders would do to eat their profit on another distantly possible buy -- and we came for that one car anyway and would never had driven there for the alternative, which I had seen before I left home but discarded as an option.
Steven did fight for four of their $25 credits to pay for my gas. Other than that, they wouldn't budge to provide us any recompense. Kudos for Steven Cunningham at least. He behaved like a man of character. He understood our value as consumers. He fought for us.
"Modern", please know this -- today's Internet buyer has done the research, and is there to buy the car that was advertised the way it was presented online. They know what they're doing. The Internet exposes your business in ways you've never needed to adjust for in the past. Make sure you cater to that market, or do a favor for everyone including yourself and your reputation, and just get off of the Internet. If not, you simply strengthen the stigma of "bait and switch" and "cheap sales" and general incompetence otherwise, all characteristic cliches the car industry is already plagued with.
"Modern" is among those "brick and click" companies only partially retooling for the Internet and attempting to squeeze low cost value from it, who need to realize instead that INTERNET SALES ARE NOT FREE. "Modern" needs to pay attention and possibly even pay necessary commissions to their Internet department, to provide incentives for people to close deals and protect buyers.
"Modern" is not modern in this way. I'm not saying don't buy a car from them, because I have no experience in actually doing that LOL (!!!) ... but what I am saying is that if you're interested in a car advertised online from them, you'd do well to make sure you are the one that is making it happen, because they display no evidence of a business process to protect your purchase. They haven't invested enough strategy and training and made the necessary shift in their business to provide this, and so you'll need to protect your own interests -- or better yet, go into it knowing you have no representation -- until they figure out how to play effectively on the Internet.
"Modern", I would recommend you stop selling cars on the Internet, and just go to a static site with a "calling-card" type approach, something like an online brochure. Depend on your physical sales force and stop poking at the Internet with a stick to see if it's still alive. It is -- but not for you yet! For now at least, don't try to sell cars online, it's just out of your league.
When you finally invest in the Internet side of your business, do it right. Realize your responsibility to protect your customer. Until then, you disgrace Internet eCommerce and your own shop -- and you continue to taint the already flailing reputation of the entire car sales industry.
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