I bought my first new car last night. After sitting through a bunch of BS’ing and haggling, the salesperson shook my hand, then ran up to the counter and rang a bell. I asked other people I know about it, and they’ve experienced it too. My question is why do they do this (obviously to signify a sale, but why the bell, I mean) and where did it originate? Is this something that happens worldwide?
I’ve been in several different kinds of businesses where this was done after a large ticket sale. Heck, there used to be a nice tavern around here called “a taste of Europe” and the German bartender would ring his bell whenever someone left him a tip.
Thanks. Ok, so it’s done in other parts of the world. That answers part of it. It seems like something so silly to think about, but it’s been nagging me.
I thought this thread was about car salespeople and their belts (???)…
Bell ringing is fairly common in the US and I worked for a number of startups in high tech that had the same custom. Somebody closes a big deal, sometimes not even that big of a deal, and the bell is rung. It was intended to build morale in the company by letting everyone know that sales were actually happening, which is always a reason to celebrate! Larger companies tend not to do this I think.
Some people thought it was silly, or worse distracting, to ring a bell during the day. I didn’t have a problem with it.
I had no idea about the morale thing. Very interesting. Thank you!
Our local Arbys asks you to ring a bell as you leave if you had a good experience.
I am a car salesperson, however, my career has been spent in high line German import dealerships. No bells. Higher volume domestic stores experience a very high rate of salesperson turnover so morale is a big deal. The bell and, IME, the salesboard (a board listing the salespeople with “x’s” marking each sale facilitate and encourage competition. Some dealerships display the board so even the customers can see it. Ours is tucked away in the conference room. Image, you know.
Do high end car dealers do all those idiotic things like claim they have to talk to their manager? Do they add $400 for bogus “doc fees” or some other bogus charge they swear they can’t waive until you walk out the door? Do they lie by saying “this deal is only good today!!”
Having never bought a high end car I have always wondered about that. Closest I have come is test driving a few Acuras.Every dealership does things differently, and gives salespeople a different amount of operating freedom. In my 8 yrs in the business since graduating college (a majority of the people I have sold with are college grads) I have only worked in 2 dealerships. I only changed because I moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta. In Milwaukee I handled the deal from start to finish, including setting the price and securing the financing. A customer never had to deal with another person other than me. In Atlanta, there is a little more micro-managing that has taken some getting used to. We do have a dedicated finance department so I no longer handle that part of the process.
Doc fees are pretty much SOP for dealerships and vary regionally. In Milwaukee the doc fee was $118, in Atlanta it’s $399 and we are on the low end. Lexus is $599 here. Technically, according to state laws we can not “waive” the doc fee. It must be on every purchase order or we can be sued for discriminatory fees. We can, however, discount the sale price to negate the fee, but the fee must appear on the contract.
As far as deals being good on certain days, there can be truth to that statement. Lenders change their financing and leasing programs every month, and customers must be approved within the program period to qualify for that program. However, these approvals usually are good from 30 days of the date of the approval and lock in that rate. This does vary by lender. There are also definitely times when I will lose money on a car if it helps us qualify for a manufacturer bonus. For example, I sold a certified SUV on Saturday for what on paper was a $489.23 loss. However this unit put us at our bonus level and netted us the $15,000 manufacturer bonus. If it were the next day, I would have no reason to lose the money on that car. These scenarios are the exception, not the rule. Mostly the statement “this deal is good today only” is a remedial closing tool used by a mediocre salesman.
My great grandfather, Harry Rockefeller Carter Brevor-Howard III was the first car salesman to ring a bell when he sold his first Ford Model T, at a dealership in Flint, Michigan in 1909.
Claims of earlier bell-ringing by others are just plain bullshit.
I’ve bought low-end Hondas, high-end Lincolns, and lots of stuff in between, a mix of used and new, and have never, ever had the bell-ringing experience. It seems kind of hokey, and I’d lose a lot of respect for a dealership that did something stupid like that.
Oh, the only place I ever had to play stupid games with was the Honda dealer. It wasn’t just the stupid fees, but their insistence that they wouldn’t move from the sticker price. They do, but it’s a frustrating experience. That was my last new Honda.
I heard of a bar (was it down here in South Florida I wonder?) where the bartender would ring a bell everytime a coke deal went down.
I’ve never heard of this bell thing either, not at car dealerships or anywhere else.
The salespeople here at work (not a car dealership) are supposed to ring a bell whenever they get a sale. It’s incredibly annoying.