Jesse sent us a copy of the letter he recently sent to CarSoup.com about the treatment his mother received at the K2 Auto Group car lot in Bloomington, Minneapolis.The salesmen who “greeted” them employed a novel sales technique whereby you treat the customer like she’s not rich or smart enough to even own a car, much less one of your beauties. Oddly, it didn’t work, and they left without buying anything. Read on for the salesman’s amazing technique in action.

I don’t normally waste my time with registering complaints, but my experience today was so upsetting that I cannot contain myself. My mother is in the process of car shopping to replace her current vehicle. While on CarSoup.com, I found a few cars in her price range that were priced very reasonable. I contacted the K2 Auto Group in Bloomington this morning by phone to see if we could stop by and take a look. I spoke with a very nice gentleman named John. My mother also spoke to John when we were having trouble locating the dealership. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a very rude elderly man who never did provide his name. From the moment we walked into the door, he began speaking down to us.

He asked us what brought us by, and the car I had really hoped to have her look at was sold. The man then asked what she was looking for. My mother, being rather lighthearted simply said, “A Car!” We were asked what our price range was and we told him between $10,000 and $15,000. The elderly man said, “So, what you really mean is you want a $15,000 car for $10,000.” Assuming he was not intentionally being rude, we asked if to look around at their inventory. He simply said, “Yeah, whatever,” as if to completely dismiss us. There were a few cars she liked. After we had looked at the inventory, we proceeded to the front of the dealership again where the man was seated. Not once we were ever asked if we needed help while looking at the cars.

When we got to the door, my mother jokingly said, “So what happens if I want to drive the car in the back? You’d have to move everything!” The man forcefully replied, “Well, if you want to drive something, go to the bank and get a cashier’s check for the amount of the car and we’ll let you drive it.” Feeling a bit insulted and amazed that someone would be speaking to my mother in such a tone, I unfortunately let the conversation continue. He asked her what kind of a car she had in mind. Not having anything specific, she said, “I’m really open to anything that’s not American, but I did like that 2002 Jaguar.” With what must have required some real guts, the man said, “What the hell would YOU want with a Jaguar? Really, what are you doing here?” The man asked what kind of a car she had and she told him she had a 1997 Audi A6 but also liked the A4. He proceeded to arrogantly tell us how much he knew about the Audi and that she would only be happy with an A4 if she could, “Manage to afford one.” This man also said, “You really shouldn’t be making such a production about this. It’s a used car.” He then told us that if we wanted to look at a car, he had a 2004 Volvo outside that was, “A nice enough car for you and it’s only $14,000, why don’t you go take a look at that.” Not only was this car more expensive than the Jaguar she inquired about, the tone which this extremely rude person spoke to her was completely uncalled for.

I highly doubt that this is the correct venue to lodge such a complaint, but having used CarSoup in the past to look at cars and contact sellers, I was extremely disappointed. I know this is not the kind of service or experience that is typical of dealers affiliated with your web site, and I hope to continue using CarSoup.com, although my mother definitely will not. This much I can say, I will NEVER step foot in K2’s “showroom” ever again. Not only that, I will be sure that I inform everyone I know and even those that I don’t that K2 is a terribly place to shop for a car.

(Image: Getty)

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