I did not anticipate having to get beat up so bad I realize these guys do this for a living every day. I’m don’t like controversy and argument over every last jot and tittle. Buying a travel trailer with a cash deal. It is new, last years model. Marked down a fair bit. That’s fine. But then all the fees and high costs. $1395 for transportation. I needed a brake controller installed.
Upcharges galore on that, almost $900 - for a $150 item. Then they want to charge $700 for “Prep”. I want to nuke all this, or most of it anyway.
Why do they have to resort to all this fvckery and make what should be a joyous occasion instead one of petty bullshit?
Ok Coach, I’ll read that when the dust settles. Thank you. I need to gird my loins, and be prepared to slayeth the dragon of Extraneous BS Fees and random upcharges.
Have been listening to Hunter S. Thompson audio left for a cable TV installation firm, about a 5 minute tirade, for tips on how to deal with these people.
In brief: you get lured in by a low price which escalates through “needed” parts/fees/documents, etc. At each step, you’re thinking “This has to be the last step, I’ve invested this much(time and/or money) so far and I really want this thing, I’ll lose out if I don’t keep going”.
Pretty much how advance-fee scams work.
What does that mean. Someone has to send an email? To the city? Tough job somebody has to do it right?
It isn’t as if there is a sweatshop somewhere with rows of desks and over-worked harried teenagers slaving away on typewriters cranking out stacks of legal paperwork in triplicate.
When I leased my car two years ago the “closer” wanted to sell me special insurance for the windshield. It seems that modern cars have special marks on the windshield to calibrate the camera and radar that senses the edges of lanes and distance to anything in your line of travel. (The camera is behind the rear view mirror) . The insurance would have been $1000 for three years and woe would befall anyone who bought an aftermarket windshield without alignment and went careening into the hedges.
I have seen ads for replacement glass since then that state the glass companies will automatically adjust the cameras when using their glass.
Yes. They had a spiel on their “insurance”. Don’t want that either. I think we are still too far apart on the price.
This is supposed to be fun, and they got all snippy today when I shot them a price. Tomorrow mqybe I’ll go in and see if they are serious enough to at least go through the motions.
Absolutely key, though that only works when the dealer has invested enough time with you and feels sufficiently close to a deal that this will be a kick-in-the-ass motivator. It won’t typically work if you just walk in off the street with a lowball offer.
Sorry, I have no advice to offer, but it does remind me of the time that my brother (much older and more experienced than me) went with me when I was basically just a kid shopping for my first new car. He negotiated a pretty decent price, then told the salesman that we would look at a few other places but I’d probably be back to close the deal.
When I came back a little later, and the slimeball salesman saw that I was alone, he apologized for having made a “mistake” in the figures, and gave me a price that was way higher than we had agreed on. This immediately set off alarm bells and a feeling that I was being had. There was a bit of brief back and forth but ultimately I felt so uncomfortable that I got up and left. That was when I really got results, with the salesman chasing after me. In retrospect, I should have actually left and bought the car somewhere else as a matter of principle. In those days, though, practically every car dealer was a crook.
There’s your problem. Wherever did you get that idea? It’ll be fun once it’s over and you’re using your trailer, but until then it’s a draining, painful experience, and you’re better off treating it as such.
Because the trickery and petty bullshit makes them money?
The fact it spoils your enjoyment is only relevant to one particpant in this transaction: you. And they’re counting on it not spoiling the experience so bad you walk away.
If they could find a way to utterly outrage you and still squeeze one penny more out of you, you can be assured they would do it.
Similar tales are oft-told of airplanes and ex-wives.
It seems the OP is buying a travel trailer, not a boat. IANA expert, but I bet that’s often true of them. I know I’ve heard RV owners say the same thing.
