You Snooze, You Lose.

[d962831]

Saw a post about a clerk assuming someone was poor and was reminded of something my brother told me. (He heard it from a friend, who is the kid of our protagonist and was present when this all transpired....)

The guy who is extremely wealthy, for the most part because he doesn't flaunt his wealth, lives in an average sized house for two(his kids moved out, he moved to a new place), drives a rather old car, and is generally frugal. The guy even spends time online a lot when he has some free time and does a bunch of research on how things work and how to repair them(hence why he drives a rather old looking car. It runs fantastically because he fixed it up himself. The guys an absolute genius according to my brother).

The guy went to a used car dealership with his kid, in the old car, and apparently, upon seeing it, all the salesmen didn't even bother trying to make a sale, because they figured he wouldn't be able to afford something they'd make a good commission on. He looks around with his son for a bit, checking out all the cars and then enters the building. Guy walks up to the counter, asks to speak to the manager. Manager comes out...

The guy says he'd like to purchase a car(that was marked at, like $20,000), and he'll pay $17,000 for it... in cash, right now, and then pulls out the money. All the salesmen are looking on bug-eyed while the manager makes the sale, and the guys kid is getting a chuckle out of all the shocked expressions.

I don't know the kid whose father this was all that much, we've met a couple times, but never really talked about anything. My brother though, talks about this kid and his dad quite a bit, and from what he's said, they're loaded, but very humble about it and don't let it get to heir heads.

[LillFilly]

Hee, sounds like something a friend of mine did with a large sum he inherited from a relative. The salesmen were just about licking his shoes after.

What's that about not judging a book?

[Mytical]

Strangest/coolest thing I have ever seen was a person I knew who was a multimillionaire. He was taking me out to lunch after I had worked for him a bit, and we were both in our work clothing (ie not fancy, but not rags/tatters/etc). To say we were treated a bit .. badly.. by the staff would be a mild understatement.

Now this guy was no saint, but I knew he was one of the nicer people to work for. He only had one rule. Everybody you help, you treat the same, period. From the President of the United States to John Q. Public..everybody is treated the same.

He motions to one of the waiters, finally getting one over. "I need to see the manager."

Guy huffs and shrugs "Whatever." and goes gets the manager. Manager comes out.

"Yes Mr. Huffington? ((Not the real name mind, been changed to protect the innocent))" obviously recognizing the guy.

"Fred (again name change), since we have been here .. the waitstaff has ignored us, been both abrupt and rude when dealing with us, and I want to know why."

Guy starts stammering an apology, but 'Mr. Huffington' holds up his hand. "I didn't ask for an apology, I want to know why."

"I .. think it is because of the attire sir. This is a slightly upscale place.."

"Fred, you know my biggest rule..right?"

"Yes..."

"Good. Now..if it were just me, I would just tell you to not let it happen again, but I am with a guest..and he has been treated rather badly. I'll let you deal with the staff, but you are going to apologize to my guest..and make sure the rest of our meal goes smoothly personally."

The manager does so, though I was a little embarrassed at that..any how..the moral was..the guy I was eating with owned the restaurant. He never dressed up a day in his life, and although he was a little hard on the staff and management, I can't say I thought he was a SC about it. Sometimes you just can not tell about people.

[Linda]

Hubby's best man did that - was completely ignored by the sales staff when he went to look at a new car because he went straight from work in overalls and a tatty shirt. He returned to the showroom a few days later dressed up in a suit with all the reg docs for the car he wanted already prepared. He went in and paid for his shiny new Lotus Elise. In unbundled £5 notes. At 4.30pm on a Friday before a bank holiday weekend.

He loves that car, partly because of the story behind it!

[Primer]

I can't say I've ever bought a new vehicle for cash, but this is one of my favorite stunts.

The last two trucks my husband has financed, I've had to cosign for; when I bought my GMC Yukon, I financed it only to get the dealership take care of all the paperwork, then paid it off the moment all the papers were transferred.

In every case, the look on the finance officer's face when they looked up my credit score was priceless! We do not dress up. We were in my beat up Nissan Frontier pick-up. I don't recall exactly, but my credit score is something like 840 (out of a possible 850).

[Arcus]

The last time I went looking to buy a car I went out dressed in a t-shirt and worn jeans. I do this so I can look around at the cars an not get bothered till I want help. Just as I had decided on what I wanted to try and make a deal on I saw what was clearly the new guy coming back from lunch. He looked around and sighed as he headed over to me. He asked if he could help me and I just smiles and said "You are the only one that is willing to talk to me. I'm going to make your day. Let's go inside and talk numbers." As soon as I pulled out the $3000 in cash I had for a down payment, other salesmen were tripping over themselves trying to 'help'. Knowing that if they did they would get a cut of the commission, I quickly shooed them away. After one guy wouldn't take the hint, I stood up, pushed him out of the office and looked at all the salesmen standing there. I really enjoyed the looks on their faces when I told them "Not one of you could be bothered to help me when I got here. Because of that, none of you will get any part of the commission for the sale that is happening now. Stop trying to push your way in or I walk."

Yeah, that was a bit sucky of me, but I wanted to protect the one person that didn't ignore me. He earned that commission. I drove out of there with a brand new car and the sales staff learned a hard lesson.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

One of my favorite stories is the one where a guy goes to a bank to cash something like a 50 cent check, but the teller won't validate his parking. He closes all of his accounts (many millions of dollars), because God damn, you do business in a place, they should validate your parking.

[AccountingDrone]

I can't say I've ever bought a new vehicle for cash, but this is one of my favorite stunts.

The last two trucks my husband has financed, I've had to cosign for; when I bought my GMC Yukon, I financed it only to get the dealership take care of all the paperwork, then paid it off the moment all the papers were transferred.

In every case, the look on the finance officer's face when they looked up my credit score was priceless! We do not dress up. We were in my beat up Nissan Frontier pick-up. I don't recall exactly, but my credit score is something like 840 (out of a possible 850).

LOL I was dressed in scroungy jeans, a Led Zepp t shirt and my old sneekers when I went to get my current 2006 jetta at the CarMax in New Haven.

I had desperately wanted a diesel manual Jetta, and had been browsing a car finder site when I found a diesel auto jetta, 2006, under 50K miles, pristine condition Since it was off lease, it was oddly cheap as well - around $4K under the same year similar offlease jettas [probably because it was diesel]. Rob got home early, and looked at the page, and we decided to go look at it. We had to leave immediately so I didnt get a chance to change to something better as it was getting close to closing time. We hauled ash the 75 miles to get there, got there half an hour before closing. Test drove it, loved it. I had just gotten my annual money from my mom [she is giving my brother and I cash every year so it doesn't end up in the estate so we do not have to pay estate taxes on it.] So I wrote a check for it. I pulled up my bank account so they could see that I had the cash in my account, we did the paper work, and we came back the next day and picked it up [I needed to get the insurance paperwork - my agents office was closed and it took them til the next day to get the car registered and plates for me]

I will admit, I got great service from the guy at CarMax, he didn't try to sell Rob once he found out the car was for me, and my trailer trash outfit didn't seem to bother him either. Previously back in mid 90s I had to car shop while Rob was deployed and our roomie Bruce was with me, and the only car place that didn't try to sell him was the VW dealership. I guess that it is old fashioned but still common to figure that it is the man of a couple that is the one in charge

And plug for diesel jettas - I regularly get 43 MPG on the thing, and I don't need to have exotic expensive batteries that are hazardous materials to make and to dispose of, and do not need to have replaced every 5 years at a heavy price. Only thing you have to do to run biodiesel in it is to change out the fuel filters a couple of times as biodiesel flushes impurities out the first few tanks you run. I might also point out you can make biodiesel at home as well.

[Estil]

The OP's story is just like the story of The Little Red Hen. For those who never heard of the story, it's sort of like capitalism 101 for preschoolers. In the story, it shows the Hen doing all the steps needed to make a nice tasty loaf of fresh bread, and at each step she asks her neighbors if they'd like to help her out; they decline every time, until it comes time for the bread to come out of the oven and the neighbors naturally want some. But the Hen rightfully points out that you had your chance. Just like how the thoughtless salesmen had their chance and the manager (I suppose the Hen in your case) did help out this gentleman and I have no doubt the salesmen must've been just like the Hen's neighbors lusting after her bread that they in no way deserved.

Good work for both the manager and the new car owner and his son!

[Sparky]

Between my previous life driving a city bus and my current life working as a secretary, I worked for a couple of years as a Realtor. It was a bit of a disaster. I loved it, but made hardly any money. Sales is NOT my long suit. But my one triumph....

My company had a listing for a property that had what can at best be called a shack on it. The building did not even have running water and was certainly not habitable. The selling price, which I think was around $5000, was only the value of the lot. This was in the early '90s, by the way. So one Sunday I and another Realtor were on "floor," which means we were taking phone calls and were entitled to try to get any business we could from callers who weren't working with another agent. A college girl calls and wants to see this property. The other agent took the call, but he didn't want to bother with it. Of course if she was looking at this property, she had no money, right? He asked if I wanted it. Sure, what else did I have to do?

I showed her the shack. I showed her a lot of other properties. In the end, I sold her a $105,000 house. Okay, actually her mother, the rich doctor, paid for it, but who cares?

I still feel smug about that one.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

That's an important thing to remember in MyCity. MyState is known for being a 'refuge' for not only the famous, but the rich too. MyCity is the only place in the state where you can get some things from a storefront. We also have many, many jewelery stores, and the highest density of expensive shops. Cars, gems, technology, makeup (which, yes, can be spendy), animals (ranging from cats to cows to horses)-- I've heard stories similar to the above in relation to these products with people I know either experiencing the sale on one side or another, or knowing someone who did (friend of a friend thing, but with actual names). The people who acquire such things in MyState don't dress fancy. There are no five-star restaurants or hotels in MyState, and four-stars are rare, and they come here for the 'atmosphere.' Frequently the only way you can tell if these people are rich/can afford such is how they hold themselves, their levels of hygiene, levels of sophistication... or in some cases, how expensive that unassuming class ring actually is.
And sometimes, it's not even the case that any of the above mean anything! After all, someone who can afford a quarter of a million dollar horse often isn't dressed in a suit to match out on the range...

[Moogles]

Years ago my mother was trying to buy her first ever new car. This was after my parents had divorced, but my mother didn't have a car, so my father drove her. They go to Hyundai, and the sales guy starts talking to my father. My father told him the car was going to be my mothers. So instead of asking HER, he looks at me dad "so what pretty color would she like?" My dad sees the look on my moms face and busts up laughing. The sales guy looked confused, my dad goes "Buddy, you just lost a sale" and they walk out.

They went to the next building over. The sales guy asked them who the car was for. When he found out my mother was paying for it herself, he walked around the showroom with her. He showed her all the models and colors. She bought her first car that day, a red Toyota Tercel. My father went back a few months later and bought a Corolla. When the Tercel got mangled in an accident 5 years later (rear ended by a huge truck), she bought a green RAV4 from the same guy. Had it for 10 years, then leased a Corolla. I bought my first car from him too A Yaris, got a HUGE family discount (cause of my mom getting her whole family to buy Toyotas + the financial manager was my hubby's aunt). When my mom's lease was up, she got a Yaris too.

Moral of the story: Treat someone the right way, and chances are at least 2 generations of the family will buy from you. When our lease is up, we'll be going back to Toyota to get a new car. Likely a Matrix. In fact, we're going to be ordering a used Toyota Supra, cause my awesome mechanic of a hubby is going to fix it up and put a body kit on it for me

[wolfie]

I had desperately wanted a diesel manual Jetta, and had been browsing a car finder site when I found a diesel auto jetta, 2006, under 50K miles, pristine condition Since it was off lease, it was oddly cheap as well - around $4K under the same year similar offlease jettas [probably because it was diesel].

And plug for diesel jettas - I regularly get 43 MPG on the thing, and I don't need to have exotic expensive batteries that are hazardous materials to make and to dispose of, and do not need to have replaced every 5 years at a heavy price. Only thing you have to do to run biodiesel in it is to change out the fuel filters a couple of times as biodiesel flushes impurities out the first few tanks you run. I might also point out you can make biodiesel at home as well.

A bit OT, but have you heard about this site?

[AccountingDrone]

A bit OT, but have you heard about this site?

Yups, but oddly enough the TDI is not the only diesel VW =) I specifically like jettas, the ergonomics fit my fat ass wonderfully, and I can actually get in and out of the drivers seat with reasonable comfort. The proportions on the TDI are different and don't work out with my gimpitude. Although I drove a diesel manual Ford Kuga in Germany last summer and the ergonomics are excellent, it was getting 38-40 MPG [once we converted from that pesky metric crap ] and I love the electric wire front window defoggers. Just no way to get one in the US unless we buy it and ship it back =( The US version sucks ass, it only comes in automatic, and no spiffy wire defroster in the front window