When Female Customers Perplex Male Techie CEOs

[WOT?*]

Jul 24, 2014 22:43:44 GMT -5 sushi said:

Jul 24, 2014 12:57:42 GMT -5 IIOY said:

You can have fun with car salesmen, though. The first thing they always ask is, "what color do you prefer?" The look on their face when I respond with, "I don't care about color, I want to look under the hood" is priceless. I once argued with a salesman about the HP of a model I was test-driving. He insisted I was wrong; we got back to the dealership, looked it up, and it turned out I was right. I live for that sort of gotcha.

That's me at best buy and formerly circuit city. Sometimes I can have fun with it.

What's especially galling (beyond me knowing more than the guy on the floor) is I'll ask a technical question and they give the answer to h. Of course I usually know the answer to my question already because I do my research

I hate that with a flaming passion. I was buying my first post-divorce car and DH (well, he was BF back then) was with me (he drove me since I left my car with XH).  Salesperson at the first dealership pulled the "you'll look great in this car, the color matches your eyes. It's a very popular color" BS and then tried to push a car on me that had been rear-ended (like I couldn't tell it had been repaired and repainted...especially since the trunk was painted and still smelled like fresh paint).

We went to a third dealership; I'd narrowed my list to car model A, B or C and they tried selling me model X, Y or Z, none of which even met my criteria and all of which were cars I hated (think Tempo and Skylark). We were leaving when the sales rep suddenly remembered "the other lot" where they had more cars.  Shockingly, they had three that met my criteria. I whittled those three down to one I wanted info about. I decided to buy and it was "let the negotiations begin."  I decided on the price (with my handy NADA and other research at hand) and *I* made an offer. They countered - to *DH* who told them "talk to her.  It's her car."  I responded with "nope, this is what I'm paying."  At which point they again turned to DH to continue negotiations because I was being an unreasonable little lady. He simply turned to them Every Freaking Time and told them "It's her car, talk to her." Which they would, and then turn right back to him.  It was at the "let's go back and buy the red one at the other dealership" that they decided to get more serious.

I did get the car at the price point I wanted...and then they tried to sneak in some additional charges to jack up the price, which I called them on as well. They tried to tell me the charges were required (service and warranty), at which point I told them "not according to the state Attorney General."  I won that round as well.

I hate car dealers and love beating them.

[Deleted]

Jul 24, 2014 12:57:42 GMT -5 IIOY said:

Jul 24, 2014 12:52:21 GMT -5 CrazyLucky said:

Last time I went car shopping, by myself I might add, the Honda salesman showed me how to work the sun visor.  Ohhh, so you pull it down?  Uh huh, and then what happens if the sun is on my left?  Oh it pivots!  Thank you for showing me that.

You can have fun with car salesmen, though. The first thing they always ask is, "what color do you prefer?" The look on their face when I respond with, "I don't care about color, I want to look under the hood" is priceless. I once argued with a salesman about the HP of a model I was test-driving. He insisted I was wrong; we got back to the dealership, looked it up, and it turned out I was right. I live for that sort of gotcha.

I enjoy tem for the opposite reason. When I bought my car, the guy banged on abut horses and injections, and when he finished his blah, I said "I have no idea what you are talking about. I think this car looks pretty, so I want to drive it" - the look on his face was priceless. To this day, I still dont know, and dont care about cylinders, horsepower, brmmm brmmm ability etc. It drives right? Its not broken? Fine then.

[hopecounts]

Jul 24, 2014 12:44:59 GMT -5 @majorwife said:

"The women hated it," he says. They wanted the technology to be hidden and the machine to look spare and clean.
He also tried packaging that was printed with the technological specs and cloud-software capabilities. Again, rejection: They wanted to see the images of the crafts they could make.

At times, he would come home from work dejected, telling his wife, "I find my instincts consistently wrong."

this could quickly turn into a head-patting, show the women the cup holders when selling a car, i fear

I think this is something of a know your audience issue.
My mom has a cricket as do a number of her friends, I'm sure she prefers the images because the specs would mean nothing to her.
she'd have to call me or my brother and have them explained.
For her the images tell her more.
A younger demographic may change the preferences as their avg age of user changes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pinkdutchtulips]

Jul 24, 2014 18:29:40 GMT -5 elleblue said:

Jul 24, 2014 16:53:14 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

as a fellow resident of the SV (fringes of SV but close enough for me to be part of focus groups re SV), its the biggest problem in SV. they want to reach out to women but they don't have the first clue on how to do it absent GASP !!! hiring women. lord knows there are enough women in SV chomping at the bit to do work like that.

But isn't it still one of the most notorious "boys club" type area around? And my impression is that they like it that way, though hopefully I'm wrong.

VERY boys club ... sadly rich and well educated (Public Ivys and Ivys need apply only, Stanford grad gets you an auto pass in!)

they prefer it that ... friends helping friends ...

[anastasia517]

Jul 24, 2014 13:04:40 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I'm an insult to women everywhere because when DH's friend came to show me my new car that he's selling to us, DH stayed inside with the baby and I was left looking like a deer caught in headlights every time he asked me if I had any questions and/or wanted to see anything. I just liked the color and the cup holders.

Shut up, I've only been driving consistently for like 2 months and I still don't know what I'm doing!

This was me when H and I were looking at cars earlier this year.  I felt like a stereotype, but I only have what would be a learner's permit in the US.  I hate driving, it makes my anxiety shoot through the roof.  I pretty much was just at the car dealership to choose the colour.  *hangs head in shame*

[wawa]

Jul 25, 2014 20:44:51 GMT -5 anastasia517 said:

Jul 24, 2014 13:04:40 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I'm an insult to women everywhere because when DH's friend came to show me my new car that he's selling to us, DH stayed inside with the baby and I was left looking like a deer caught in headlights every time he asked me if I had any questions and/or wanted to see anything. I just liked the color and the cup holders.

Shut up, I've only been driving consistently for like 2 months and I still don't know what I'm doing!

This was me when H and I were looking at cars earlier this year.  I felt like a stereotype, but I only have what would be a learner's permit in the US.  I hate driving, it makes my anxiety shoot through the roof.  I pretty much was just at the car dealership to choose the colour.  *hangs head in shame*

Dont feel bad. I tell people i got married to have somebody else there to buy cars. I fucking hate car dealerships. The whole haggling thing gets me all deer in the headlights.

Also I love Reeve.

[blink]

This reminds me a whole lot of Mad Men and how Peggy was supposed to be great with every single product geared toward women, because you know, she's a woman.