[Ret9580]

Having finalized my order with MacMulkin, the sales rep was trying to locate a dealer for a courtesy delivery close to home. I asked them to contact Moss Brothers Chevrolet in Moreno Valley which they did. I was advised the owner said absolutely NO WAY! Nice, I purchased my 2011 Camaro SS from these posterior clowns and always had it serviced there, as well as using them for my 2014 Stingray warranty work, as Mountain View Chevrolet in Upland has a completely incompetent service department (At least as far as a Corvette is concerned). Talk about being disloyal to a customer and I had every intention of them being the servicing dealer for my 2015. I'm sure a blistering Yelp review is in order. Why would I NOT buy a new Stingray from them? The first one I saw in person was in the Moss Brothers showroom and had a MSRP of 68K and they had it marked up to 88K!!!!!!!!! They had that Stingray for over two months before finally settling for 2K OVER MSRP. Not this kid, no way.

MacMulkin did get hold of my friend's son, who works at Rotolo Chevrolet in Fontana CA and they said they WOULD do a courtesy for $175!! AWESOME!! Good advertising for them, bad for MOSS. The reason I didn't go with Rotolo first is a 35 mile drive compared to 12, but I'll go that extra mile now.

 

[Milliwatt Rob]

We used to call that kind of behavior "picking up your bat and ball and going home" when you couldn't get your way. A poor businessman. Because he could not sell a car for maybe $10,000 more than its value, he gives up on his service revenue.

Say, here is a proposal for you southern Californians who cannot get a courtesy delivery from MacMulkin. If you have the car delivered there, perhaps I can pick it up, and carefully drive it to your home for a thousand bucks, reasonable expenses, and an Amtrak ticket home.

 

[erebay]

Hey Ret9580

I too had trouble finding courtesy delivery in socal. I found one that would do it for $1000. Do you think if I called Rotolo they would do it for maybe $500?

 

[Suzy Cruisy]

Ret9580 - its nice to hear good things about Rotolo. I just sent the sales manager a letter today.

During my Buyer's Tour this week, I spent a lot of time watching the cars behind mine being built as well. Not like twenty, but certainly the coupe directly behind mine and then the vert that was two back. The coupe because if I blinked and missed something, I watched the same process on that one. And the vert because some parts were different and it was just interesting to watch those specific things that were unique to verts.

The vert was from Rotolo in Fontana, so I mailed a letter to the sales manager asking him to pass along my info to the customer of that vert if he wanted to be my Forum friend. Heck, since I'm in NorCal, I could very well get a chance to meet that one at a Corvette event. The coupe right behind me got a similar letter, but that one is in St Louis so I don't expect to ever see it again. Yes, odd. But fun too! My host / guide for the tour thought I was nuts when I asked him to check the window stickers on the cars around me. Since we all had consecutive VIN#, it was easy to keep track of which one was from which dealer he read out to me.



And bummer about the rudeness of the other dealers around you. We had similar challenges in NorCal and there was a huge thread on that drama.

Cheers!

 

[LT1xL82]

We used to call that kind of behavior "picking up your bat and ball and going home" when you couldn't get your way. A poor businessman. Because he could not sell a car for maybe $10,000 more than its value, he gives up on his service revenue....

I totally agree...REALLY poor business decision. Amazing how common place this is in the retail automotive industry. Just dumb for the dealership.

What really gets me is that GM, to my knowledge, has not taken action on the issue. Sure, dealers are independent business people, but the freaking sign out front also says "GM", or "Chevy", or "Chevrolet"... If GM was dumb enough to make me CEO, I'd inform dealers that if they mistreat GM customers in such a manner, we would be having a serious conversation about what they need to do to keep their franchise long term. GM has a club over dealer's heads with respect to customer satisfaction surveys. Do something similar for PO'd lost customer surveys!

 

[glen e]

M

I totally agree...REALLY poor business decision. Amazing how common place this is in the retail automotive industry. Just dumb for the dealership.

What really gets me is that GM, to my knowledge, has not taken action on the issue. Sure, dealers are independent business people, but the freaking sign out front also says "GM", or "Chevy", or "Chevrolet"... If GM was dumb enough to make me CEO, I'd inform dealers that if they mistreat GM customers in such a manner, we would be having a serious conversation about what they need to do to keep their franchise long term. GM has a club over dealer's heads with respect to customer satisfaction surveys. Do something similar for PO'd lost customer surveys!

Gm has no legal right to admonish dealers for courtesy delivery. Thank your state legislature and the dealer lobby. As I say so often, not how it should be , but how it is..

 

[LT1xL82]

...If you have the car delivered there, perhaps I can pick it up, and carefully drive it to your home for a thousand bucks, reasonable expenses, and an Amtrak ticket home.

I am offering a similar service for Z06. FREE!



All the buyer has to do is provide fuel and tires, incidentals like clutches, break pads and rotors, tolls, track entry fees... Call 1-vet-del-ivery today! Trust me.

 

[LT1xL82]

M


Gm has no legal right to admonish dealers for courtesy delivery. Thank your state legislature and the dealer lobby. As I say so often, not how it should be , but how it is..

Agreed "...not how it should be, but how it is."

If the dealer lobby is even close to as powerful as the real estate lobby in New York state nothing will ever change. I read that Tesla tried changing the rules and I think it was in Texas they stepped into one huge bucket of doo-doo. Oh well, I'm going to bow out so as not to go any further down the path of domestic politics...Corvettes are a much more enjoyable topic.

 

[Milliwatt Rob]

Tesla also ran into trouble in New Jersey for direct sales, not through dealers. Supposedly, the requirement that cars be sold through dealers is a "consumer protection" law, so that customers can get their problems resolved with a local business, and not some distant, out of state corporation. Right. A lot of New Jersey dealers are even shiftier than an 8 speed Corvette automatic.

 

[glen e]

The tesla situation is pretty distant from the courtesy delivery question. If i was back in a dealership as the GM, i would do them, but there would be very strict rules so my people did not take long and did not get brain damage.
1. Cost to customer woud be 350-500
2. Customer would have to sign he understood that all selling details still were the resonsibility of him and the selling dealer.
3. If he had a warrany issue we would fix but if it was not warranty, it was the selling dealers problem.
4 because the salesperson is not really making any money, the delivery would be truncated with the customer taking responsibility for understanding the more detailed nuances of the car. We would get him driving, but not the infotainment stuff.
5. I would intro him to the serv mgr and offer service.

But thats just me....and how I'd run out the deal.

 

[Ret9580]

Hey Ret9580

I too had trouble finding courtesy delivery in socal. I found one that would do it for $1000. Do you think if I called Rotolo they would do it for maybe $500?

Quite possibly, if they say no, PM me and I'll hook you up with my friend.

 

[tmcternan]

Interesting how the lack of response on the part of some dealerships in Southern California is similar to the Sacramento Area.... I'm sure it goes on all over the country and unless your confronted with the situation, nobody would know the difference. The dealership in Southern California asking $88K on a Stingray with an MSRP of $68K came as no surprise. I recall seeing one priced just over $100K up north when they first came out. I'm guessing the percentage of people requesting Courtesy Deliveries are pretty low and most of the requests are coming from forum members because they're much better informed.

Like Glen said, it isn't necessarily right, but it is what it is......

 

[Milliwatt Rob]

Back in the day when Anti-trust laws were better enforced, a conspiracy to restrain trade of goods in interstate commerce was a Federal offense. They can refuse to engage in the practice individually. But if they all get together and agree to refuse to provide a service, while trying to demand exorbitant retail prices, that is a problem.

How close can you get a delivery? 1000 miles? I hear of people getting deliveries in Oregon.

 

[rdslon01]

There are multiple dealerships in Northern California who will accept courtesy deliveries. People in SoCal do not have to drive 1000 miles...

 

[tmcternan]

I personally don't believe there's any conspiracy theory involved in any of this, however individual resentment from a few owners may come into play here. After all, many may correlate "Courtesy" with doing a favor for another, therefore dealers more than likely look upon it as optional, which it is. Do they consider gaining future business for their service departments? Very doubtful, if at all. I recall the owner of the dealership that agreed to do mine saying, Courtesy Deliveries is a service they customarily reserve for "Repeat Customers." Not saying I agree with this, particularly considering I was the one that started the previous thread on this topic, but it is often considered an option by many dealerships, and as such can be accepted or denied.

I believe this topic may becoming more and more prevalent the more the service is requested. As the result of such, those requesting Courtesy Deliveries probably need to adopt the idea their requests may very well end up denied by a number of dealerships before they find one that will accept. Might it involve a bit more travel? Sure, but the bottom line here is simply getting it done. Nobody likes rejection, particularly when our emotions, which the C7's evokes enters into it. In the end, the rejection and hassle ends up far less relevant and the enjoyment our new C7's takes the forefront while putting smiles on our faces every time we drive them. Fulfilling our "Dreams" are well worth it.

 

[Milliwatt Rob]

More dealers would be able to make sales, instead of providing courtesy deliveries, if they priced the product in recognition of the fact that the Corvette market is internet driven and national, at least for some of us. Moreover, with the allocation system, many dealers simply cannot provide the level of assurance that an ordered car will arrive on a timely basis, if it arrives at all.

 

[tmcternan]

Rob, you are absolutely correct, but somehow a number of them still haven't figured that one out.

 

[Moxychacha]

I don't understand the shortsightedness by these dealers. They clearly don't care about the margins generated by potentially servicing the car. I can't think of a segment that would want top notch servicing - and be willing to pay for it - more than Corvette owners!

 

[glen e]

Whether you like it or not, deslers see courtesy delivery as a pain in the ass, they dont like working for free, the sales depts don't give a damn about future service revenue, literally a diff company. The system needs to be revamped with some additional monies being given to the courtesy dealer from the selling desler ( which will never happen). When a dealer makes a grand off the deal, the sales guy 250-300, they wont turn them down.

Please Spare me "the dealer should look at future revenue the dealer will get", dealers dont think like that. They just see you buying somewhere else and then asking them to do the time consuming delivery which always has a snag or two.

Not how it shoud be, but how it is.....

All this is rather moot, it only exists on hot cars, when the local dealer can get vettes, this problem goes away, that'll happen in 2016 or so.

 

[Moxychacha]

Clearly the model needs to change.