In addition to the 1982 Chevrolet Orange Crate Express Truck that is my hubby’s “toy” he also owns a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Extenda cab truck.
He would like to trade it in for a new truck.
A couple of weeks ago we received a sales promotion flier in the mail, promising top dollar trade in value for our used truck and promising a great deal on a new truck. Basically it was promising that we could trade in whatever we owned on a new truck and have it not increase our monthly payments.
Of course, I knew that was a come-on, and I knew it could not possibly work because we own our current truck outright, there are NO monthly payments!
But, hubby wanted to get out of the house and look at new trucks and fantasize about buying a new truck, and I went along just to make him happy.
I strongly dislike buying vehicles. I do not trust the car sales people at all, and I resent the high pressure sales tactics that they use. I have read a lot of articles about how badly women are taken advantage of when they go to buy a vehicle. So, I go ”vehicle shopping” with dread.
So, we went to the truck dealer, and sure enough, we got a lot of high-pressure from the salesperson, and his manager. Geez, I hate that. They did NOT want to let us out of the building without us signing a contract to buy a new truck.
Of course, they let you test drive a new truck, and they say that while you are test driving the new truck they want to have their mechanics “check over” the truck you will trade in, so they want your keys. The REAL reason they want your keys is so that you can’t leave the place until they let you, so that you have to submit to their high pressure sales until they are ready to let you go. Knowing that in advance, when I handed over our keys, I made sure that the ONLY keys they got were the keys to the truck, not my entire key ring full of house keys and other vehicle keys.
We TOLD them in advance that we were just “kicking tires” and were NOT planning to buy a truck that day. We TOLD them that this was the first dealer we had come to and that we planned to go to at least two more dealers. We TOLD them we were just out getting preliminary information about what we could get for a trade-in, etc.
I want to tell you that they did NOT offer a fair price on the trade-in, and that they wanted way too much for their truck. They were trying to rip us off for sure!
I had to DEMAND our keys back twice, and then I finally told them that “fine, you can keep those keys, I have an extra set in my purse, and I’m leaving NOW whether you give them back to me or not” before they gave me the keys back. (And yes, I really DID have an extra set in my purse, I came prepared!) They were very unhappy with me, I can tell you that!
After we got home they called the house FIVE times trying to get us to come back and “close the deal.”
I do NOT plan to go back there!
