How to lose a luxury client… or any client for that matter

So I've been on the hunt for a sporty car for more than a year now. I’ve dreamed of owning one since posters of Porsche 911s and Lamborghini Countachs adorned my walls as a teenager. Anyone remember the one that said "Justification for Higher Education"? My kids are growing up and I would love to share the experience of Sunday drives just for fun with them. Specific make and model are the most important thing here. Suffice it to say I have been eyeing something European.

This past weekend I found a car of great interest. As I combed the dealer's website I thought this would be one to check out in person. So I email on Saturday and receive a reply from a salesman the following day asking how he can help. I replied back and said that I am interested in the car and would like to come take a look at it the following day, which happened to be a Monday. The salesman responded and said he would be happy to show it to me if I told him what time I planned on being there. I responded and gave him a specific one hour time frame when I planned to arrive. He assured me that he would be ready with the car out front waiting for me to see it upon arrival.

I pull up to the dealership and don't see the car out front. No big deal. Perhaps it is in another area. So I walk in and am greeted by the salesman who tells me he is sorry but the car has just been sold. "The buyer is in with Finance right now," he says. Apparently this person came in no more than an hour before, sat down and cut a deal. As I walked back out, mildly irritated, I see the car drive right past me to be parked exactly where I thought it would be when I arrived.

On the way home I proceeded to call the sales manager asking him about their policy to have a car ready if a client makes arrangements to come see it. After explaining my point, which he wasn't understanding at first, I said I made specific arrangements to come see the car only to find it had been sold out from underneath me. He replied, in a somewhat irritated tone, by saying they don't hold cars for prospective customers. Interesting. Mind you every other dealership I have ever worked with in this way has made an informal agreement that the car would be ready and on hold at the time I said I would arrive. If I’m late, even by 5 minutes, then it's fair game for them to sell. If another customer comes in expressing interest, most salespeople would simply said that a client is on their way in to see it and it would be available if I chose not to take the car or if I was late.

Would I have purchased the car? The likelihood was high because, from what I saw online and in person, it was exactly what I had been looking for. The real rub here is that I never had the opportunity to purchase it. The fact that I was dealing with a luxury dealership makes me even more irritated. When you talk about the luxury client they can’t just drop everything to come and see the car - or anything else for that matter - for fear of losing out on an opportunity to buy. We are talking executives, doctors, lawyers, and others whose schedules are sometimes quite hectic, mine included.

So what's your take here? I asked a colleague what he thought after explaining the story and he couldn't believe that the dealership didn't hold the car until I arrived. To me this dealership lost out on a sale and referrals for the future notwithstanding other potential sales I might give them down the road had they taken care of me properly. I even wrote a polite but succinct email to the salesman who helped me, explaining my disappointment. What kind of reply did I receive? Nothing; I didn't receive a reply at all. In my world of luxury sales, even if we lost a potential client, we would perhaps apologize for the situation and ask for another opportunity to earn their business. To this dealership I say “good luck”. You’ll need it if this is the way you try to build customer relationships.