The Vent Thread
 

Here begins the vent thread to write down out our frustrations to move on. Please respond only with words of encouragement rather than armchair quarterback style criticism.

For Example:

I have a 2005 Lexus RX330 on the lot with 96,000 miles. Fully inspected, newer Michelins, great shape, 1 owner, clean history. Have $11,500 into and am asking $12995. NADA retail is $17000. Guy walks around the car doing his best to point out the most minute imperfections in the black paint and interior, tells me in this condition its only worth $5000 and that's the most he would pay. Who the f*** did he think he is wasting my time with that moronic insult? I kept my cool and broomed him, but still have violent thoughts every time I think of him.

Another from this week...

I was really busy with work and only had time for a fast food lunch. The Taco Bell across the street at the dealership has a lane designated for the entrance and another designated for the exit. Because the exit lane is closer to the actual entrance of the drive thru, many people turn in the exit lane anyway. I pulled in the proper entrance, and was approaching the start of the drive thru when a fat woman in a Saturn Vue came flying into the exit. In a short game of chicken I did not touch my brakes, forcing her to make an emergency shop sending all the garbage in her car flying forward. She laid on the horn and flipped me off. I hopped out of the giant conversion van I was in and pointed at the sign and yelled exit only. She rolled down the window and started screaming, "you wanted to cause a wreck because I ****** went in the wrong entrance, do you have no brakes? "

I replied, " yes, and knew you did too. I didn't want to be cut in line. "

She retorted with something like, " oh wouldn't that have been the end of your ****** world, how pathetic."

This nasty cow was dropping f-bombs and had previously flipped me off even though her 10-12 year old son was in the car with her.

My response, "Well you could afford to miss a few meals anyway." I hopped back in the van, got my food, and never looked back.

That was probably too far, and hopping out of the van to have a confrontation was not wise, but at least in this instance I got the last word.

I'll close with the 100+ times someone has asked what my best deal or bottom dollar was without looking at the car, driving it, doing any research on pricing or even asking any basic questions about it over the phone. Just "Hi, is your x for sale? Yes? How much are you asking? What's your bottom dollar?"

I just told you the GD price! I'm not going to lift my skirt after a 10 second conversation and give it all up.

5K should have been acceptable.... as a deposit.... until he could return with the other 8k.....:D

I'm proud of you for getting out, getting all-up-in-her-$hit, and getting the hell outta there without getting in trouble.:cool:
Sometimes it is impossible to restrain yourself from engaging the DB's of the world....

Have you considered that possibly tire-kicking-chump-change could be married to whole-lotta-wrong-way-rosie??:D:D

RE: "$5,000 bottom-feeders....."
 

Tyler,
I've utilized CL quite successfully in the past in getting top dollar for a couple items - one of them an antique Honda MC. But not always.......

With that in mind, in offering my '99 MB for sale on CL - one persistent shopper used to surface when I ran the ad by offering that same "$5K" that you experienced on the Lexus, a vehicle worth clearly much more.

I wrote him back that at the amount of money he had to buy a year model like mine, that he could probably pick up two wrecks at a salvage yard, and try to piece together one car.

Same guy's email address surfaced on CL months later once again, so I then blocked that email address from further contact from CL.

In another CL instance, an enquiry came in stating that my car was "X" amount over what they could buy one for from others for sale.......my reply; "go buy one from them......"

FWIW, I use a different email address to answer CL ad enquiries that come in to my regular CL contact email address. Makes it easier to permanently dispense with their lame enquiries.

The Taco Bell incident you describe reminds me of this.

Freeway Patrol (Animated Stories of the) - Episode 1 - YouTube

My friend is a CHP and tells me this whole series is pretty much his life.

I like your style Tyler. :D Parting shot was beauty in itself. There is not much of a response to that.

My route to work is 19 miles, mostly on back roads. On the way to work, during the first 15 miles or so there are only 4 places to pass in the opposing lane (not that some people really wait for the dotted line, but I do). It's pretty common for me to get stuck behind a horse trailer, a dually hauling God knows what, or some type of farm machinery.

I live around DC so this morning as you probably heard I woke up to some snow. 3 inches of heavy, slushy stuff when went to clean off the car. Schools are closed, the Feds have shut down and most people are staying home in anticipation of a whole lot more snow this evening. My company almost never shuts it's doors.

Roads are fine, little to no accumulation, just a little slush here and there. I get behind a prosthetic limb colored Nissan Altima about two miles into my journey. They're braking hard at every little thing that even looks like snow/slush and it's getting aggravating that no matter how much of a gap I leave, they always seem to close it. I'm eagerly anticipating and hoping that either they turn right on the major route going South or that the first passing lane will be empty of snow. Nope, they don't turn and there is traffic in the opposing lanes on the first three passing zones. Ugh....

One passing zone left to go, it's an uphill stretch in the woods (no shoulder), only about 1/5 of mile long, with a blind crest on the far end. The speed limit is 35 mph and I can't see a bit of slush on the road.

No oncoming traffic.

I left a gap and then I gunned it (I'm in my wife's 1995 E300)

I make it to 45 mph behind the guy and move on over.

He picks his speed up. Grrrrr....

My front bumper is next to his rear wheel. OMG there's lights coming toward me!

Crrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaap......

I release the pedal, dab of brake and coast back behind him.

He slams on the brakes... Honking while gripping the steering wheel hoping it will help the car stop. I just barely missed rear ending him.

Turns out he freaked out about going through a very insignificant puddle that's in an indention in the road surface.

I end up at a light 2 miles away next to him. He rolls down the window and screams "what's all the honking for!?!?!"

:confused:What!? Are you freaking kidding me?

I kept my window up and drove on. Right after that the sight of a WRX driving too fast and ending up in the median on the highway lifted my spirits.:cool:

Some old man ran into my 190E, low impact to both driver side doors (scrapes/dents but B pillar is good). Now I'm dealing with his insurance. They are considering totaling my car, which obviously I'll fight for to keep the title clean.

He just turned 81 this Saturday too.

Probably too late to buy him a gift. Trot down to the Hallmark store and buy him one of those happy belated birthday cards. Let me know if you need help drafting a few kind words.

I don't know if you have a web-site or not, but if you don't you should. A guy I once knew in Kansas put up a site that answered almost every question anyone could have and he also put up about 25 photos per car. This takes some time, but so does dealing with tire-kickers over the phone.

His lookie-loo rate dropped off to almost nothing after he set up the site and posted a sign outside saying to check out any car check out his site. If it is on the site is is for sale, if not its' not.

As a part of the sale paperwork he makes a big deal of taking down the ad for the car. The new owner can see that his 'new' car is removed from the site; it is all a part of the selling process. Sort of a 'I know you just bought the car but I am still involved with you' sort of thing. This might help build repeat business or it might not, but the ad for the car has to be taken down anyway so why not do it with the buyer there?

You could also post on the site your asking price and the NADA price and let folks know the price is firm. If the car does not sell then let folks know you will adjust the price and they will know it when it appears on the site.

Yesterday I head to lunch. Since I typically walk to work, it was a rarity to be driving around anyway. Place I wanted to go was out of what I really wanted, so I decided to go to Subway, at least that would be healthy (veggie, no cheese, wheat bread, etc.). As I come up on a major intersection (seven lanes wide including a turn lane) I see a guy jaywalking across the oncoming lanes. There is a big median, so I figured he was heading there to wait; besides, there was no way he was going to be to my side before I was well through the intersection. Then, as I got to the intersection, a complete DOUCHE starts jaywalking quickly across the *other* side (towards guy #1). He's really lucky I have ABS, though part of me was sorry I didn't help him complete his suicide wish. To his credit, once he saw me he started sprinting, so he cleared the lane and I was able to proceed without coming to a complete halt in the middle of the intersection. Side benefit: I got a cardiac stress test without having to visit the doctor...

To top it off, the subway parking lot was completely full, also no street parking within a half-mile, so I ended up heading back to work without lunch.

Subaru owners who try to set world rally championship times in any kind of snow.

Although when they crash its hilarious.:D

The Vent Thread
 

That really sucks. They better by total it and then send it off to the classic center for a full restoration

I do that with every one of my ads... Price is firm. If I know its a lowballer delight car I even put "Price is firm. Please no low ballers or tire kickers." It still happens.

Just an idea.....
 

Tyler.

Do you have a car on your lot that is for sale for UNDER $5K? If so, the next time someone offers you $5K on a nice car, just change the vehicle. Walk them over to the car that you will sell them for $5K and ask if they want to test drive it.

Maybe a Camry or a Sentra....;)

Or this one around back....

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...IOCBgn-c0bujeg

The absolute best ones are the ones who modify their exhaust with fart cans. That way, like this morning, when they get stuck they announce it for miles.:D

"I'M STUCK BECAUSE I DROVE LIKE A MORON!"

If worse comes to worst, I'll have to serve him court papers in the mail, and in person. Does Hallmark have a template I can use?

With the lady in the saturn, you won by beating her to the line. In a case like that I would not even look at her or I would look at her then slowly look away without ever betraying that I even saw her. Let her make an ass of herself, you don't need to. Getting into a shouting match with an idiot is like getting in the mud with a pig. You get muddy and the pig enjoys it.

Ask my how I know. (been there done that).;)

I had a speeder tail me for 2 miles after I pulled out off my road onto the main drive ,this part of the road was posted at 30 mph since its a well known corner for wrecks to occur.I looked in my rear view to see 2 cars barreling down the road ,I got up to the speed limit as the car behind became bumper to bumper with my car.I put my hand out the window to show him to slow down ,this drove him insane with rage ,trying to pass me and the car beside me.Did I mention it was a U.S. postal truck ,death by mail is not the way I want to go out ,postal people are charged up to do just that.

I was looking for the Craigslist "system status" information since the site seems to be having some issues relating to searching and such and ran across CL's abuse policy at:
craigslist | about > help > abuse

Looks pretty interesting! Reads in part:

abusive email
If you receive an abusive email response to one of your posts, forward the information to the "abuse" address for the sender's email account provider. In addition, it may help to set up a block against the sender's email address in your email client.

New vent. Share a commercial condo with 5 other businesses, 6 units in all. Each unit heated by single gas fired unit near the ceiling. Guy in the last unit built a two story office, but no provisions for heating the office. Hires anoffice girl who may be the stupidest person in the world. New building has heat detectors near ceiling, girl consistently cranks thermostat to 95 degres attempting to warm the office, result is that it triggers 120 degree heat sensor fire alarm above office structure which creates a small space that gets superheated. I wouldn't call her stupid apart from the fact the fire department has been here 5 times. Currently typing this outside. Bad office design, but solution is get a frigging space heater and give it to this woman.

She still does not understand why thermostat for ceiling gas heater does not heat her unheated office

So go buy her a $15 electric space heater and win a friend for life.;)

Had to bring this back.

Its a 1998 Chrysler T&C LXi- 140k on the clock, leased to a dealer for the 1st 10 years of its life (maybe got good maintenance.
My mom bought it a few years ago, and had an "Joey" lift installed - its a platform for lifting and storing an electric wheelchair - but doesnt look beefy enough to lift the chair with a person still in it. I guess I can see the usefulness.... the lift consumes the 3rd row seating though- which might make it even less desireable.
My mom is now bed-ridden and asked me to sell it - no problem.

Go on CL...
a) I can't find another van with one of these lifts at all - no good price comparasons. They either have nothing or a full-fledged wheelchair ramp.
b) Its still a 10+ year old Chryster product - so the numbers are dismal anyway.

So when I find it (in her garage) it has 2 flat tires and the battery reads 1.0v. I danced a jig.

Get it running and back to my house a few blocks away- my 4A battery charger seemed to get the thing back to life over the course of a few days - I even took it to the car wash yesterday (lots of garage dust built up). Started fine each time.

I've been suspciious of the battery from the start, but it hadnt tripped me up (yet...)

This morning I was going to take it to work (17mi round trip) just to see what its like at 55mph - it should be fine, but you never know (Sorry Chrysler...)

Wouldnt start, nothing, a few struggling relays but nothing.

My jump-start box wouldnt light it up either- WTF yo ?

It was raining this morning so I got in my subaru transportation appliance and took it to work.

Mom said she'd pay me back for a new battery, parts or whatever....but its a $2k - $3k vehicle in the 1st place. I could easily drop that much in repairs/upgrades (HVAC is blinking funny...)

Why can this stuff never be easy ?

-John

Nothing will work right with a bad battery. Unless you're gonna fire sale it for a few hundred you need to put the battery in it so people can drive it. A new battery can be a selling point for you.;)

Good luck!

Could be an excellent candidate for a tax sheltering donation.

Maybe there is a handicap group that would like the lift.

vent about billable hours by professionals.

Had a structural engineer come by to look at a foundation that was heavily cracked. He wasn't overly concerned, though he suggested injecting epoxy in the cracks and putting in a couple steel straps as insurance. Took a few pics, shot the shyte, ect.

This visit took about 15 minutes including conversational segways about wives, kids, cars, ect, yet today I get a bill for 1.5 hours of consultation plus the charge for coming by. :rolleyes:

at 75 dollars an hour, plus the 75 dollar visit fee, they doubled their charge over what was actually done. would have been about 100 bucks, now its about 200.

OK....
We have vent in every room in the house. They are white and have a lever to open and shut them. Vents as a topic is really boring. :eek::D

Wow, my first confrontation with a shipper followed by my first confrontation with a drive up customer within such a short period...

A somewhat tatty looking white family drives up in a beat up mid 2000s Mazda Protege 5 and bolts towards my 2002 Ford Thunderbird. Its a 2002 with 120,000 miles and I'm asking $12000 for it. I did some research and was sure to price it lower than the next cheapest Thunderbird within 300 miles by alot but I did still have some room.

I gave them a minute to look as I don't like to pounce on people. I walked up and started to introduce myself, but the oldest male of the group cuts me off and immediately asked what the mileage was. When I told them 120,000, he gasped, whistled, whatever, and told me my price was ridiculous. I'm used to people spouting off like that without doing an iota of research so it really didn't bother me in the slightest. I replied that I had gone through the car thoroughly, it runs and drives like new, and if it had half miles then it would be priced at $20,000 instead of $12000. It was a slight exaggeration but I was doing a little alliteration.

The man immediately got in my face and said, that's bull$hit, and asked if there was another salesman. He didn't want some "punk kid" to wait on him and talk "bull$hit". T I'm a pretty disarming guy and have not had someone try and physically intimidate, and insult me like that since high school.

Getting hot but still holding my temper I told him the car was mine and I own the lot, and leave my.... but he once again wouldn't let me finish my sentence. He got pretty much nose to nose with me and told me to go back inside before something bad happens. How does an a-hole like you sell cars, or somesuch.

I stood my ground and repeated get off my property now, and was starting to ad that in 3 years of doing business I've never had a confrontation like this, but once again he cut me off, got even closer, and said there was one with 40,000 miles down the road for $18000. Actually they were asking $20,000 as I had done my research, but once again, he wouldn't let me get two words out. He just dept repeating, louder and louder, keep talkin' Keep talkin'. Then, you won't sell me anything, what's the point?

I tried to get the words out a few more times but it was just like Dr. Evil shushing his son in the Austin Powers movie.

The guy was a nut case, I turned around and walked inside. The nut case and the rest of the family, who were dead silent the entire time promptly left. It probably made him feel great that he got me to back down and walk away on my own turf, but I wasn't escalating a situation.

That's quite a run-in with somebody shopping cars. Note the car they're driving, the time of day, manners/lack thereof, and their general appearance = to sometimes fill-in the blanks about someone..

How about the shipper story? I've always thought that a shipper going berserk quite possible, but my one experience with a long distance shipper and truck driver went fine.

Thanks, daw......didn't know this.

he probably was escaping the scene before you called the cops. Guy like that knows how far to push then when to cut and run when he's pushed too far.

I probably would have introduced him to the "boss" the second or third time he got in my face.

You come on my property and look at a car with a fair price in great condition that you probably no nothing more than "it looks nice" and you go from zero to ahole in 2 seconds.. Somethings not right.

Anyone who'd report an e-mail as "abusive" for lowballing is a d'bag themselves. Don't like the offer? Don't respond or counter with a higher one. Don't take it personally -- negotiation is just business even if the starting points are miles apart.

As a New Yorker (who's dealt in business with quite a few Greeks, Armenians, Russians, Persians, Turks, and Jewish people of various nationalities -- all of which have haggling strongly culturally ingrained), I'm USED to hardass haggling and NEVER get insulted. If you lose your cool and take it personal, the other party wins by default.

Example: my initial offer for my condo was about 20% below ask, which would insult a lot of sellers in other parts of the US -- we met roughly in the middle at the end, as expected.

Nothing wrong with backing down and walking away.
In fact, it's really the only option that makes sense to a business owner.
No good can come from escalating the confrontation.
When I writing estimates for my brothers shop (body and mechanical) I would name the price, and if the people wanted to discuss where the number came from, no problem, I would show them all the line items, especially where I had reduced costs to their benefit.
If they wanted to argue, I would tell them sorry that I couldn't tell them what they wanted, but they were perfectly welcome to go to a different shop and inquire there. Then I would turn and walk back to my office.

The best part is when some of those people would come back after getting higher estimates elsewhere (I really did try to make all my sheets as fair as possible, so I was generally lower than most other shops in the area)
They would come in and tell me they were ready to get the repairs done, and if I felt they were DB enough, I would tell them we were too busy and so sorry... just can't fit you in.;)

We also towed for local and State PD... those people were a whole different bag of douche...:eek::eek:

Did he write up his recommendations? Did he have to travel to your location and back? It all takes time. If he is riding to your location in his car he cannot be making money from any other client.

You can always say come on in and the boss will speak to you about how he set the price. Then go in side and sit down at the desk and tell him how you set the price. I really hate it when someone is disrespectful to me but it does not pay to allow yourself the luxury to get angry. He wants you to react that way.

I've done that enough times. It never works. These people are just driving by and have no idea what they are looking at. I never had to deal with this before moving locations. My old space was a warehouse with no vehicles parked outdoors for drive by traffic. Everyone came in from the internet, and generally they had done their homework and saw the value. My close rate was more than 50%. Business has tripled since the move thanks to drive by sales, so I can't complain.

The drive by people often scoff at the prices, but most of these uninformed buyers don't have the cash to buy a vehicle at 10% of the asking price and a 500 credit score so I can't do anything for them. Makes it easy to pre-qualify and broom. Then there's the old crusty old guys that can pay cash but remember paying $5 for a car eons ago and don't know the current market. They are much easier to work with, but they still never buy.

Its not worth my time and energy fixing the stupid in these people. I have a much harder time finding good cars for decent prices than finding good customers these days. I enjoy the challenge of finding cars. I do not enjoy challenging customers.

I'm sure alot of you have tried to shop for cheap cars in the last few years and realized how hard it is to find decent ones.

In this situation he didn't just scoff at the price; I could care less about that. He insulted, belittled, and threatened me. He needed to leave, now.

Should we thank Nobuma or Bearded Bennie for this?

Its beyond cash for clunkers now.

Buy here pay here lots will literally pay retail on a mid-2000s Japanese car and make money on 29.9% financing. People buy these cars because they need transportation but their credit does not improve because the lots don't report to the credit bureau. They can't save $5, let alone plan to lay out several thousand for a car purchase.

I don't think you can blame Obama and Bernanke for people spending more than they make and borrowing money to buy now rather than save money to buy later. Its a cultural issue.

Uninformed consumers is always a problem for someone trying to do things the right way.

It was always a problem in my Architectural business too. With my real estate rentals I advertise on Craigs list and get a lot of phishing emails but they are pretty readily broomed out. They pretty much never come to look at anything and give the sort of stupid comments like your fellow did.

In thirty years of practicing Architecture I had two contractors who tried to physically intimidate me and one or two who came close to doing so. I was in the situation of having the upper hand since I controlled their money supply so it was pretty easy not to get angry. As far as being influenced by it, I always figured not to give in to wrong requests and let the chips fall where they may. If threatened with a gun or knife I would have given in at the moment but gone to the police immediately later.

If one is a crook these sorts can perhaps be manipulated but I never was inclined to try to work with idiots. Life is too short.

I can think of two clients who I accepted on large projects knowing they probably were going to be a pain and a few who started out fine but turned to the dark side when things progressed to a point where they thought they could finish the project without me. In cases like this I gritted my teeth and finished the job correctly so it would be no excuses right and endured their difficult natures for a couple of years.

I have also had a couple of business partnerships where my partner went over to the dark side. In this case I bought them out if possible, the other again, gritted my teeth and finished the job doing my best to protect myself.

Early in my Architectural career I had a partner who went over to the dark side. I responded with legal action and we wrangled for a year or so until there was no money left in it. I avoided legal action as much as possible after that.

I had one business partner I wanted to assault myself.;) Thank goodness I did not.

Read this last night:
" poor people work for their money - rich people let their money work for them."

Lotta truth to it, pertains the habits of "people spending more than they make and borrowing money to buy now rather than save more to buy later," have locked themselves in a position where they will always have to work for their money, just to try to keep up with their spending habit.

People who use a 1/4 mile entrance ramp as a passing lane shortcut when traffic is crawling at 5mph. I've had them play chicken with me trying to force their way back in. Not a good idea against a dirty 15 yr old car :)

Should've just pulled out the cellphone and dialed to local sheriff... especially if you are on a first name basis with your local LEOs.

Once you've asked them to leave, the persistant presence and aggressive behavior are easily considered harassment.

Yep. And from my experience in December I could rant about a few effing car dealers. In fact if it weren't for one particular dealer I'd be of the opinion that they are all the ultimate lowlifes of all time.

Of course, logically I know that's not the case, but man, it's ridiculously cliche'd the way so many of them behave, at least around here.

- Peter.

Logically, you're not that far off the mark.

They will wax and detail any POS they can find to make $1K on it under the lights. They don't even know the problems the vehicle actually has.

Customer just informed me they are choosing to purchase a 2000 Jaguar S type at another dealer over my 2002 Toyota Avalon.

Fail.

While I would never be in a hurry to buy either, at least an Avalon will cheaply and reliably get my butt to where it needs to go. We got a lot of Jags in the last shop where I worked and I can't say I was impressed by anything I saw of that brand.

I've seen some extremely impressive repair bills for Jags....;)

Yes, there are some like that for sure. But I was talking more about bare faced lying and sleazoid dealing. Quite remarkable. Just really pissed me off in the end, and this wasn't just low end dealers. It was some "main" dealers I guess you'd call them as well.

Oh well. Tyler seems like a decent sort. Pity he's so far away. I rather like some of the things he's had on Youtube.

- Peter.