Crest (the auto dealership group) is so crooked it’s unbelievable. I was shopping for a car at one of their Volvo dealerships in the Dallas area and I couldn’t make any headway in playing off one of the dealerships against the other to get a better discount. I finally figured out why when one the sales agents let slip, “We spoke with [The other Volvo dealer in the area] and they told us about the deal that they offered you.”
The Volvo dealers in the Dallas area collude on price! I reported them to the FTC, but people need to stay away from them. This is the reason that Volvo leases are over-priced in the Dallas area when compared to California or Tri-state area.
It doesn’t surprise me that their salespeople resort to such uncouth chicanery to sell cars. When the authorization to bend the rules comes straight from the top, the whole organization is tainted.
Dude, its not a birth-right to get a discount on a car. Sure price collusion is illegal and should be reported. But its not unethical for dealers not to give discounts, if the markets can bear it.
If the other Volvo dealer’s price was better than Crest…then what was the problem if they confirmed what deal you had with them? Unless you lied to Crest about the deal you had somewhere else? I’ve done business with Park Place and Autobahn Motorcar group in the Dallas/Ft Worth area (2 of the other dealers in the area that sell Volvo) and found they were ethical above board dealers. Maybe the salesman at Crest just knew someone at one of the other local dealers.
Both stores are under the same ownership. All stores have access to all inventory and can see customer info. Customers get “assigned” to the first store they contact.
Either he phrased his sentence incorrectly or it’s someone not being honest. Crest only has 1 Volvo dealer in the DFW area. They do own other brands though in the DFW area.
His assertion is that Volvo dealers in DFW collude. Like I said earlier, confirming another dealer’s offer is not collusion. If this guy is legit he’s just ticked off that he can’t get a “Hackr” deal on a Volvo.
Yes…Crest is a Berkshire Hathaway company. Something isn’t totally honest about the guy’s post. He also states that the poor business practices come from the top and trickle down. How would he know that? He states only speaking with a “sales agent.” Once again…odd terminology.
Yeah he doesn’t know if his accusations are true. Especially about it coming from the top. That said, the email from OP is super sketchy. It says there is a discount based on an official government program which is unethical. I don’t imagine a salesman at a well run store with reasonable ethics sends that email. Sometimes there are just a few bad apples but more often the whole house is rotten.
True…the OP was sketchy. I’d be tempted to call him and have him explain those programs and send me some sort of official document outlining that program. There are enough legit programs GM is doing to help get people in the door that they shouldn’t have to resort to tricks.
I think that I did not explain myself thoroughly. First these two dealers are not part of the same ownership group. There are only two dealers in the Dallas area so it’s pretty easy to figure out who the other one was. (Park Place and Crest are the only two authorized Volvo dealers in Dallas).
The reason that I was upset was because I NEVER let on or even told one dealership that I was actively pursuing a deal at the other dealership. I was purposefully keeping them at arms-length from each other to prevent “cross-pollination” and trying to score a better deal.
But unbeknownst to me, they talked with each other (without my authorization) and used my name to look up what kind of deal each dealership was offering to the same customer. The salesperson said it himself, "We spoke with [The other Volvo dealer in the area] and they told us about the deal that they offered you.” If that’s not price-collusion I don’t know what is.
From the FTC website:
" Price fixing is an agreement (written, verbal, or inferred from conduct) among competitors that raises, lowers, or stabilizes prices or competitive terms. Generally, the antitrust laws require that each company establish prices and other terms on its own, without agreeing with a competitor."
These two non-affiliated dealerships were agreeing on the price and the level of the discount that they could offer me without my knowledge or authorization. This was not the case, as some people here suspected, that I said to my salesperson, “So-and-so at XYZ dealership is offering me a Volvo for $349/mo.” If that were the case, then they would have a reason to call and verify such an amazing deal and see if I wasn’t lying to them. But when the dealerships compare deals that they are offering to their customers without me first telling them that I am also shopping at the other dealership in the area, that is patently illegal. If I never let on that I was shopping at the other dealership in the area, why would they have a reason to call them? Frankly, if I were their attorneys it would be a general company policy to completely prohibit phone calls from one dealership to another to avoid any semblance of foul play.
As soon as I heard the salesperson say, We spoke with [The other Volvo dealer in the area] and they told us about the deal that they offered you.”, I shook his hand and walked out the door. He was dumbfounded that his “rock-bottom” price wasn’t enough to get me to sign on the dotted line. Admittedly, the deal was good (not great) but I wasn’t going to sign on general principles when I was being played as a patsy. The only leverage that consumers have in cases like these are to walk away and take their business to reputable dealerships. (Oh, and to report this bulls*** to the FTC).
You can’t get a “Hackr” deal on a Volvo in the entire state of Texas because the “casino” has the deck rigged against you. That’s my assertion and I stand behind it. I wrote a three page letter to the FTC explaining all of the evidence that I found that explains my assertion. Some of it is admittedly circumstantial but some of it is a “smoking gun”. I tried for four months to match the deals I saw coming out of California and the Tri-State area but I ended up banging my head against the wall. I called EVERY dealership in the state, too.
You can’t get a good deal on a Volvo in Texas because the dealerships are manipulating prices behind the scenes. That is certainly the case in Dallas as my experience shows, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case in the whole state since I couldn’t make any headway at any dealership in Texas.
