"Out the door price"? or not

[Tranio]

I sold cars for many years and we clearly stated that the fee was an estimate. If it was more they need to pay it and if it was less they received a refund. What they should do is up that fee, as people are much happier getting a check they didn't expect as opposed to paying something they didn't expect. As I'm sure you would have been very happy and felt much differently if you received money back on your OTD price. It's all perspective.

Mad props to Will for stepping in!

 

[xoomer]

I sold cars for many years and we clearly stated that the fee was an estimate. If it was more they need to pay it and if it was less they received a refund. What they should do is up that fee, as people are much happier getting a check they didn't expect as opposed to paying something they didn't expect. As I'm sure you would have been very happy and felt much differently if you received money back on your OTD price. It's all perspective.

Mad props to Will for stepping in!

@Tranio I think it depends on what state you are in. Years ago I sold cars in Houston for a few years and I don't remember ever asking the customer for additional money to cover the license plate and registration fees. However, in Texas a car or boat was registered for 12 months from the day it was purchased so it was just a matter of how much the customer paid to be able to determine the fees accurately. In Florida it is different--everything expires on your birthday so there are 365 possible different fees for any one price paid for a car or boat. In my case, my birthday is in April so they probably extended the registration to April of 2015 and that accounted for the additional fees above the $150.00. (I just realized that there are actually more than 365 possibilities since you have to account for registration periods longer than a year).

If the finance manager had used any customer relation skills and explained the issue in a calm and rational manner the problem would have ended there. Instead he read me the "riot act" about how things are done and that didn't go very well with me. I think you are right about raising the initial fee--that happened when my wife bought a car last year and she was happy to get a check in the mail for overpayment of fees.

 

[Tranio]

@Tranio I think it depends on what state you are in. Years ago I sold cars in Houston for a few years and I don't remember ever asking the customer for additional money to cover the license plate and registration fees. However, in Texas a car or boat was registered for 12 months from the day it was purchased so it was just a matter of how much the customer paid to be able to determine the fees accurately. In Florida it is different--everything expires on your birthday so there are 365 possible different fees for any one price paid for a car or boat. In my case, my birthday is in April so they probably extended the registration to April of 2015 and that accounted for the additional fees above the $150.00. (I just realized that there are actually more than 365 possibilities since you have to account for registration periods longer than a year).

If the finance manager had used any customer relation skills and explained the issue in a calm and rational manner the problem would have ended there. Instead he read me the "riot act" about how things are done and that didn't go very well with me. I think you are right about raising the initial fee--that happened when my wife bought a car last year and she was happy to get a check in the mail for overpayment of fees.

Yeah that makes sense. I of course never asked for more money personally they sent a bill. I don't think it happened much as we charged usually much more then we needed to. As for as customer relations go sounds like they handled it wrong from the beginning. Glad it worked out for you.