Sales People

The other day we drove past a car dealership where Jamie and I had looked at a used van that was for sale. Which started us talking about the silly things that we have had sales people tell us over the years:

In 2005 when we wanted to purchase a used van:
"If you are going to buy a used car you should buy it from a dealership, and if you are going to buy a Toyota, you should buy it from a Toyota dealership, if you want to buy a Honda, you should buy it from a Honda dealership." And then he started telling us about his family. Ugh!
Personally, in all my research while looking for a car, I found nothing to substantiate this claim. The deal was that we were at a Toyota dealership looking at a Toyota sienna. I'm sure that when they had a Honda for sale at this dealership that this sales man didn't say this to a potential purchaser of that Honda.

In 2004 when we were looking to buy a home and had a down payment of 20% of the homes we were interested in and after we told the salesman this:
"keep it, you'll be better off getting a zero down loan and paying on it for five years." NOT! Our interest rate would have been higher, our monthly payment would have been higher, and the area that home was in would not have developed enough by the time we need to sale to increase the value of the home enough to make up or exceed the difference. And we wouldn't have been able to get the no down payment loan anyway because Jamie is still in school. The salesman should have listened more.

In 2001 when looking for a new washer and dryer:
"Plastic tubs are just as good as stainless steel tubs." Um, plastic forks are as good as stainless steel forks! How may stainless steel forks have you broken in your life while eating with them? How many plastic ones have you broken? Get my point? I guess that this person made more on the purchase of the Whirlpool washer, with the plastic tub, that I was looking at than the Amana, with the steel tub, that I was looking at because they were about the same price and she wasn't too keen on answering my questions about the Amana washer.

In 2001 when a Cutco sales representative came to our home:
"My husband was skeptical, but we figured out if you bought 3 sets of cheap knives a year for 30 years, you'd spend just as much." I must say that Cutco knives are really nice knives, but who purchases 3 sets of cheap knives every year? Our first set of knives were really cheap, but we used them for 4 years before we had to replace them. Not a great selling point really.

In 1999 when looking for my wedding dress:
"You won't remember what you ate at your reception, but you'll remember what you wore on your wedding day." My entire wedding, including the honeymoon and rings cost about $2,000. What did we have for refreshments at my reception? Homemade cookies and sprite (well it was actually the shasta lemon lime stuff). How much cheaper can you get? Here is the thing, I really liked the dress that I was trying on and was about 80 percent sure I wanted to buy it, but I wanted to look at a few more dresses. When this sales lady went on and on about how much more important my dress was than what I served at my reception (how could she know?) my interest automatically dropped to zero. If she had come and suggested other dresses for me to try or complimented how I looked in the dress, that would have made the sell. (and I still remember what I ate at my reception)

What was the problem here with all these sales people? They assumed that I hadn't done my research for one thing. Why in the world would I not put 20% down on a house when all the advice from financial experts (who interestingly enough were not trying to get my money) said that I should. Then I also think that they were trying to play off of emotions (which is disgusting to me) or they decided that they knew what I wanted before I got there. I guess what would sum it up is that they assumed that I lacked some basic form of intelligence. When you are trying to sell me something what is going to work? When a sales person focuses on what I need and what my concerns are. That is why we ended up buying the things that we did. We purchased a van from a private person, we purchased a house from someone who saw the value in putting money down on a house, we purchased our washer and dryer from a company that cared about my questions and my problems, we didn't buy the knives ($600 dollars for a set of steak knives, hmmm, can't afford that right now) and I bought my second choice wedding dress from someone who took the time to help me find someone to tailor it and to do my hair while I had it on, and gave me suggestions for other dresses I might like.
I guess that I just like the old fashioned kind of customer service. Too bad this seems to be going by the wayside, I guess that I will just have to keep more of my money.