I bought a new car recently from a showroom to replace my van.
Like they do, their head office send you a satisfaction survey, presumably for them, in their capacity as head office, to evaluate how good their dealer is.
Before I received the survey, the dealership wrote to me, basically asking for 'the opportunity to put any problems right first', but basically making it clear that they expect 'Excellent' to be answered in response to all the questions.
Whilst I think this is a bit of a cheek, I can understand why they do it, as it is only logical that I go to them first rather than bitching over their head.
However, I have a sort of criticism, basically they offered me a nice discount, but what I didn't realise at the time was that I had to 'complete' (if the house buying term can apply to cars) by the thursday (i bought it at the weekend).
The discount was obviously their drive to get rid of that month's batch of cars, which is why they had to get them out the door by the end of the month.
Really, though, I wouldn't have appreciated them telling me, because I may have not then bought it, which would have been the wrong decision, 'cos as it turns out, it's excellent, and everthing went smoothly and on time.
But I was then a bit worried that if somebody, say, the insurance co., or the royal mail, had f*cked up, the whole thing would have gone TU and I wouldn't have been able to buy it for the agreed price.
I'm now in the dilemma of wanting them to know that such reassurance would have been welcome, in a genuine desire to help them improve even further for the future, but not wanting them to bollock the salesman, as he was excellent and i see him as "the little man", just a guy earning a living, rather than the big I am in his office doing the ass kicking and licking in whichever direction.
What I'm tempted to do, is to write the dealership a letter explaining all this, leaving the box unticked but recommending that i would tick 'excellent', but enclosing the survey so they can actually do it.
or am i reading far too much into this and making a mountain out of a molehill and i should really just tick 'excellent', send it back to head office, not even bother writing back to the dealership, and not think any further of it?
Like they do, their head office send you a satisfaction survey, presumably for them, in their capacity as head office, to evaluate how good their dealer is.
Before I received the survey, the dealership wrote to me, basically asking for 'the opportunity to put any problems right first', but basically making it clear that they expect 'Excellent' to be answered in response to all the questions.
Whilst I think this is a bit of a cheek, I can understand why they do it, as it is only logical that I go to them first rather than bitching over their head.
However, I have a sort of criticism, basically they offered me a nice discount, but what I didn't realise at the time was that I had to 'complete' (if the house buying term can apply to cars) by the thursday (i bought it at the weekend).
The discount was obviously their drive to get rid of that month's batch of cars, which is why they had to get them out the door by the end of the month.
Really, though, I wouldn't have appreciated them telling me, because I may have not then bought it, which would have been the wrong decision, 'cos as it turns out, it's excellent, and everthing went smoothly and on time.
But I was then a bit worried that if somebody, say, the insurance co., or the royal mail, had f*cked up, the whole thing would have gone TU and I wouldn't have been able to buy it for the agreed price.
I'm now in the dilemma of wanting them to know that such reassurance would have been welcome, in a genuine desire to help them improve even further for the future, but not wanting them to bollock the salesman, as he was excellent and i see him as "the little man", just a guy earning a living, rather than the big I am in his office doing the ass kicking and licking in whichever direction.
What I'm tempted to do, is to write the dealership a letter explaining all this, leaving the box unticked but recommending that i would tick 'excellent', but enclosing the survey so they can actually do it.
or am i reading far too much into this and making a mountain out of a molehill and i should really just tick 'excellent', send it back to head office, not even bother writing back to the dealership, and not think any further of it?
bet you wish you had a car. 
