Buying a car

Is one of the most time consuming, and tedious endeavors I will ever undertake. There is usually a lot of money at stake as well as a decision that you have to live with, literally, for 3-6 years. I have made some good and bad car buying decisions over the years, but for the most part, little has changed in this "stuck in the 70's" industry.

Today, I can walk into almost any dealership with all the information, Edmunds.com TMV pricing, invoice information, reviews, and I can even search online the dealership's inventory. This still hasn't changed the old school slimy sales approaches of 95% of the dealership/salespersons in this industry. They still push, shove, deflect, then try to rip you off.

I won't share the specifics of our recent experience but here are some highlights:

1) Toyota dealership had so few cars on the lot that we couldn't find one close to what we were looking for. This, we were told, was because they sold so many new cars in the last couple of weeks due to the cash for clunker government programs. The sales guy could care less that we wanted to buy a car. He never even offered his name, or card to follow up. Clearly this guy sold a lot of cars recently and had hit his quota. The reverse of commission sales incentives.
2) Visited a Lincoln dealership and I think we were the first people to visit in months. The old burn outs working there almost had a heart attack when we asked to test drive an expensive Navigator. After which the sales manager kept asking us if we wanted to lease or pay cash...
3) Visited a couple of BMW and MBZ dealerships, and although we liked the cars, they were so expensive that I really needed was to go home and do some serious financial calculations. With all the incentives, interest rates, lease deals, actual invoices, etc. They make it very hard to actually say yes or buy a car.
4) Visited a GMC dealer, and felt like we stepped back in a time warp. Just saying, the 70's want their hair dos and ties back...

Ugh. Is the car industry f*&ked because of their sales process and the dealership model?

United Breaks Guitars

This Rocks!

Reminder from the home of the Big Mac

If you are trying to take care of your health, its hard to justify a trip to McDonald's. Now I know they have made a valiant effort to offer more "healthy" menu items, however; the real killer for them is their inconsistent customer service. For my family, there is only one reason we would go to McDonald's -- speedy service. My 3 year old daughter likes their double cheeseburgers, plain, and in a bind, we cave in to a quick drive through.

We recently went and found ourselves parked out front waiting 15 mins after we paid (in the drive through) to get our order, then they messed it up. So what does this mean for a big, multi-billion dollar company? Well, they might reply that many locations are franchises, and "shit happens". It does, I get that. But knowing a little bit about the fast food industry, and how operations work at a place like McDonald's, its really hard to screw up on this level.

Who cares you say? What if I never go to McDonald's again? I doubt they care if I do or don't. The real lesson her is that no matter how great your business model is, how strong your brand, or how many burgers you sell in a year, you are only as good as your front line employees. In the case of a company like McDonald's, that means thousands and thousands of minimum wage, barely speaking english customer service reps that have no stake in the overall brand's success.

Fix it.

iPhone and AT&T

So like 21 million others, I too desire an iPhone. I don't need one, I covet one. I have even let my 12 year long relationship with Sprint slip past my contract renewal date putting me and my account in play, like a free agent if you will. In order to switch however; I'll need to deal with AT&T.

I'm told by people in the know, that AT&T's coverage sucks in places I frequent, like work, home, and lots of other important destinations. I am also told their customer service sucks, but alas this is hearsay. Then I tried to buy the phone. I was told I couldn't go to an Apple store to do it, because my current number, is of an area code outside of the state in which I currently live. I don't want to give up my number, many people have it and someday someone may call me. I then went to an AT&T store and found out, after waiting 30 mins for the one person that worked there to get to me, that they are all out of inventory. Counting this blog post, this is more time than I should be spending on my mobile phone needs. I guess I'll wait for 4G...

Sirius are you serious?

So like a lot of people, I downloaded the new iPhone Sirius/XM application and upgraded my subscription by $2.99 a month for the premium Internet package. This on top of two cars with Sirius already. Low and behold, no Stern... Seems I can get him online, just not online via the iPhone... wtf? Fix it.

Hollister

So if you are over 25, Hollister has designed just the store front to make sure you never enter. (See picture, how do you get in???) Then if you do, you're likely not to be able to see the tags for sizes or prices. I guess if you have to ask, its too small or too expensive.

Why are brands this dumb? Is it really the time to make it hard to sell your overpriced goods? How about opening the doors to your stores, and turn on the lights.

While your at it, hire some kids that are helpful, not just good looking in skimpy shorty shorts.

Espn.com

I really dislike the fact that every time I visit espn.com and go to a subsection for a sport like Soccer, it starts autoplaying a video. Not good for work day surfing. Fix it.