That's Not What You Said Earlier...

I believe in being honest with your word. Both in everyday life and especially in business. You say it, you stick to it. In business, the preamble is that the customer is always right (within reason of course). What you tell the customer, if you are the business face, is that my word is like gold, a unwritten contract. And before you open your mouth with any business deal you should have your facts and figures straight and figured out. Your ducks in a row so to speak.

Barry and I went to Denver to find, my then wife Marnie, a $1,000 car in 1996. Something in good shape but not great. We looked all Saturday and didn't find one that was either priced right or in drivable shape to last a couple of years while she finished college. Discouraged we found a VW dealership that was one I forgot about. Mountain States Volkswagen on Colorado Blvd. in Denver. I'm thinking that we were probably wasting our time but Barry said we would glance. I asked the young salesperson if they had any cars around a thousand and heshowed us some behind the building that were not yet detailed and cleaned. Three cars. One was a Chevy Citation, a Honda DX hatchback and the other was a stationwagon. I glanced around and asked about the Honda. The salesman left to get the keys so I looked inside. The windows were dirty, dirt and some garbage on the floor. No dents or major body damage. We jump in for the test drive and I'm trying to listen at the motor and the sound of the car but the goddamn salesman wouldn't shut up. I take it for a 5 or 6 minute drive and return to the carlot. I told the guy to clean it up and I would probably come back to deal in an hour. Barry and I go eat across the street at a Taco Bell while the detailed the car.

Upon returning, we were greeted by the guy who mentioned to us that the cars were around a thousand. He pipes up that he'd misquoted the car I was interested in. That car was $2900. My heart sank then Barry pipes up "Not today, Today that car is a thousand dollars." Before I found out the actual price to the misquoted Honda, I gave the salesman a 100 dollar bill in good faith that the car what I was looking at. He goes, "I'll have to talk with my manager" After haggling with the sales guy for about an hour I get them to come down to 1100. Not bad. Before signing the paperwork the salesman presented the numbers with a transportation fee of 300 dollars. I ask, "What's this? He tell me that it's a standard fee they have. 300 dollars more put me out of range for the car. By now Barry is irritated because of this and tells him that the transportation fee will be included to total tha car at 1100. So in the end I chewed the guy down 2100 on the actual price. Not bad. The salesman knew he fucked up, and by dealing, was trying to recoup some of the cost he lost by the quote. Barry later tells him that you knew we were driving that car out of there for 1000 dollars and he had to of sold it for that spoken price of be in violation of Colorado State Law. None the less I bought Marnie a 2900 dollar car for a third the cost. Even though the guy dealed he knew that his mouth got him in trouble.

Okay, fast forward to a couple months ago. Marnie finds an ad in the paper for a KIA dealership offering new cars for a monthly payment of $189 a month. In her monthly price range. She told the salesman on the phone that around 200 a month. He said we could do that for her on a used Saturn Vue, a 2006 Saturn Vue. Today we went to look at it. Sure it was there, we took it for a spin. The salesguy came along. That's when the bait and switch began. Marnie was told by the salesman when she talked to him by phone was that the Saturn would be in her monthly price range. He did the figuring and the actual cost was 150 dollars more than was quoted on the phone. FUCKERS!!! Needless to say I spoke up and asked why the price was more. No answer. The other salesman asked if we could hand out his cards for 100 off for each person who bought a car from them. Well that's not going to happen. Honesty will go a long way.

The car dealership in question is Billion KIA in Rapid City. Avoid like it's got an STD.