You flamed our dealership a month ago and I just noticed it. What you forgot to mention is that you offered what amounted to $500 over invoice for a Y2K A4 order... What were you smoking?

Everyone who reads a forum such as this should really sit back and consider the source before formulating an opinion about what certain individuals say about certain dealers. Now, here's a guy that's already been working with a dealer for months - he already has a deal negotiated with a selling price of $1,700 over invoice for a '2000 A4 order (this was back about a month ago)... He stops by our dealership to see me and gets upset because I refuse his ridiculous offer. I'm sure that he really enjoyed comming back here to post about his
experience.

Kind sir...lol. You might want to consider the source of your comments as well. There have been numerous posts of quite a few dealers accepting lower offers than this on Y2K A4's, myself being one of these people. Business is business and if you won't accept the offer, there are obviously many other who will. What's the big deal..lol. You might want to turn the "self importance" knob down just a tad. ROFL

The point was that, "in reality" he paid $1,700 over, yet he flamed us because we "let him walk" at $500 over...

Jon,

If you have a problem with what I wrote, then you should contact me about it. If you had read the entire thread, you would have seen my posts between Steve S. Also, I didn't say anything negative about you personally other than you turned me over to a salesman who was less than caring.

If you wish me to take you seriously, comments such as "What were you smoking?" do not help. I was certainly NOT making a $500 offer. I'm not sure where you came up with this number as I left the dealership after your $1650 counter-offer. (For anyone wondering why I gave up a $1650 deal for a $1700 deal it is because Los Angeles/Santa Barbara has to pay an advertising fee which amounts to about $350 to Audi that San Diego dealers do not. As this is added to the invoice cost of the car, the same Audi in SB costs $350 more than it does in SD.) As for your follow-up posts to you original post, (couldn't you just post everything together?) I made my current deal AFTER visiting Cutter Motors. While it is true that I have had a long standing relationship with Alex at Miramar VW/Audi, that really has nothing to do with my experience with Cutter. In fact, it should show how willing I was to keep my business in Santa Barbara (being a fourth generation Santa Barbararin and Santa Barbara business and property owner).

The fact is that I received poor customer service from Cutter Motors. This was certainly not the first time for me or my family. After bringing my mom's 740i in a couple of times for service, we now bring it to Steve Thomas in Camarillo (40 min drive) for major service and have my brother-in-law, who is a mechanic at Hughes Volvo, do the minor work. I will add that these problems existed when Cutter Motors used to be Gregg Motors.

Jon, if you would like to discuss this feel free to e-mail me.

Brian

First of all, he is the customer. He has every right to come say what he wants about anyone in this forum. Wether I will take or leave his opinion is my choice.... I will also get to read from other people about your dealership. If I read from him, that your dealership sucks and I shouldn't buy a car from there.. I will want to know why. Then I will also look for more articles... from other customers. If they posted that they were satisfied, then yes I will probably think he was exaggerating.
You have to crank the brain once in a while. A customer is the customer! What the customer is offering to you is what the car is worth to them.... And what you accept from the customer is what YOU can take for the car. That's were the term bargaining comes in! Dealers sometimes see a 20 or 25 year old and think... "He is BSing me" On the contrary, there are a lot of us out here that don't fit the stereotype but are smart enough to have a good college degree and make 50-60-70k per year and afford that car.
In a similar situation, I decided to buy my car. I went to the local Audi dealer (10 blocks from my house). The dealer had talked to me before, my salesguy was working as a service manager now so he asked another dealer to work with me.....and he said "Take care of this guy...he has bought a few cars from here!" (my family has bought 4 cars from there .. 4 VWs) The new guy, says what are you looking for, and I reply a white or silver 1.8TQMS with sports cloth seats. He says, I don't have that but if we can deal tonight I have a red, 1.8TQtip with leather. I told him, it's a new car and I want what I want. I gave him my card and asked that he finds one, and I would pay sticker price! He never called back after 3 weeks. I drove 1 hour away, found what I wanted and bought it. Then, driving around my neighborhood I saw his manager.... he said, I see you bought a new car. Then he sees the dealer tags and realizes it is not his car. He said, "I thought you were working with us". and I happily replied, yes I tried but noone was listening.

Stop being a crybaby...

you f*ckin loser...get a life!

The point of my posy is that there are (2) sides to every story...

You are doing yourself harm by complaining about Brian flaming your dealership. Last I checked, freedom of speech (i.e., opinion) is a allowed. Your decision to personally go after Brian is misguided and unprofessional and will be viewed that way by many of us A4.org'ers (remember, we represent the 'consumer').

Personally, I would have considered the following approach if you wanted to do some damage control:
-Post a message on the forum that said something like:

Hello. My name is Jon Shafer and I am the Sales Manager at Cutter Motors in ____. As an Audi enthusiast, I regularly read these forums to keep up with the latest thoughts on Audi's products - this is a great site and A4 owners are lucky to have this resource. I was recently dismayed upon reading a thread where our dealership was 'flamed' for not being able to close a sale for a customer. I just wanted to state that we are committed to each and every customer and our business is dependant good customer service. However, there are cases where we just cannot meet the terms of every prospective buyer. Different dealers use different variables to determine final sale prices - and I am sorry when we lose a sale to a competitor - but, it does happen.

If our salespeople are unprofessional or rude at any point during the sale process, that is not acceptable and I will personally take responsibility and do whatever I can to resolve the situation to the customers satisfaction. So if anyone was turned off by the previous post regarding our dealership, I hope you will give us the opportunity to change your mind.

I am aware that some of you may view this as SPAM - however, I wanted to personally respond directly to a post that focused on this dealership.

nt

Maybe we should have a dealer etiquette FAQ...

I've seen too many reports (in addition to my own experience) of dealer's crying and complaining when customers price shop or when customer's state that they were treated poorly.

To dealers (not just Audi): If you don't like an offered price, then say "No thanks." There's no need to whine and complain and offer up snide comments. And if people are posting that you have bad service, then maybe you ought to consider that you do and look into correcting it.

I am not the only person on this board who drives 40-50 miles away to get good service instead of going to the more convenient local dealer.

-- Paul

nt

The whole point of the original post. Yes, I agree that attituded is everything... Precisely...

I also chose a dealer that is the 4th farthest from my house/work based on feedback and experiences I had from those dealers. This experience from you would turn me away from your dealership.

turn it around and blame it on "dealer bashers." People on this board regularly post their experiences with dealers - GOOD and BAD. By responding the way you did (confrontational, negative language - big business no no, bu the way) you alienated the objective readers and attracted the onslaught of people who have had bad experiences with dealers.

You should be trying to foster goodwill, but all you do is complain. Why would ANYONE here want to deal with you now?

Too bad,
Mark

Some people can hide behind their computers and slander a dealer... The point of my post is that you shouldn't believe everything that you read...

You obviously don't get it...every response you have posted after your original message has shown us more and more how stupid and insensitive you are...bet you'll be looking for a new job within six months! You loser...

too funny for words. talk about shooting yourself in the foot. lol.