By Kelly Saunders
Fleet Sales and Tehachapi Resident
The old bait and switch
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The “Old Bait and Switch” is pretty simple: A dealer advertises a very low price on a particular car, but once you arrive at the dealership, they tell you it has already been sold or they try to convince you to buy a different car at a higher price. The whole point is to get you to come to the dealership where they can take advantage of high-pressure sales techniques. This is all legal as long as the dealer actually had the car available and sold it at the advertised price.
I meet at least one buyer per week that was lured to LA or Bakersfield on this old-school technique. They end up wasting a whole day because some dealer continues to use consumer-unfriendly techniques to get your money. The most recent person I spoke to about this spent 6 hours in a sales booth, only to be told the car was sold! Sad part is, the person who brought you into the booth has no control over this and upper management requires them to play this game with your time and hard-earned money.
How to avoid wasting your time: Confirm the car is still available and that the terms are as advertised. If so, tell them you will be heading to the dealership soon and expect the car to be there when you arrive. If the car isn’t there, or if they play any tricks, let them know you will be filing a complaint against them. Once you arrive at the dealership, if they try anything funny, your best bet is to just walk out.
Although the bait and switch scam is less common these days, it’s usually not even worth responding to the ads. Chances are, it’s not a dealership you want to do business with anyway.
At Kieffe and Son’s Ford we utilize the “straight-sell” technique. That means you deal with ONE person throughout the entire sales process. In fact, we rarely join you on the test-drive so you can relax, consult with your spouse or partner, and focus (excuse the pun) on driving your prospective new or used car with no distractions from a talking head in the back seat. After the test drive, we can usually negotiate a price within 10 minutes! That way you know where you stand, where we stand, and we both save valuable time.
Remember the motto: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
