So, I’m in the process of buying a new car. I’ve done my homework, done my test drive, and picked the car I wanted. I used the Internet and Edmunds to build and price the car I wanted with the options I wanted. And then used the same Internet to request bids from area dealers. (Except the one at which I did the test-drive. They got a nicely faxed letter inviting a bid on my business.)
Several of the dealers sent “come on down” emails. But one sent an actual price quote. A damn good one. So I wrote back to the “come on down” types asking if they could beat that price.
One of them said, well, maybe, but [whine]it’s unfair that you’re treating dealers like ping-pong balls[/whine].
Geez, suck it up man! This is the Internet age. Either deal with the new reality, or get crushed by it. And the new reality is that your days of captive audiences and hoodwinking suckers coming on to your showroom floor are over. We have the technology to negotiate the deals without ever stepping into your palaces of “screw the customer,” and are willing to use it. So deal!