She was not their favorite customer

For many of the years we lived in Oregon, Georgia's job took her to a company of car dealerships, spread through many states. With that work it exposed her to a large number of car salesmen (and a few women). During that time she heard them work their wiley strategems to induce the "customers" to buy a car. As she tried to enlist the car dealership employees to participate in the offered screenings, Georgia developed a few wiles of her own. At least she could believe in her product - health and health promoting experiences.
Fast forward to the present. Georgia's car is now almost 11 years old. While it is still working well, we decided to start the process of browsing the market to see what was available for a replacement. Two weeks ago, while we were out and about, Randy suggested that we go to the local Honda dealership to see what they had.

After entering the showroom building we were approached by a young salesman. Randy asked to for him to sit down with us to talk about what Georgia needed in a car. (Wait a minute, Randy didn't tell Georgia that he was going to have her do that.) The salesman started with some new features of the newer models. Did we want hybrid? Were we interested in economy features?

The salesman wanted to tell her about the new economy feature of the new Accord, and started his spiel. That didn't satisfy Miss Picky, she wanted something to read about how the feature actually worked. She knew that salesmen can emphasize one thing, and "actual usage" can be different. He went to find something written. He was gone for a while. Finally he volunteered that all he could find was a video on You Tube about the feature. While Georgia did watch it, she was very much less than satisfied. After a short conversation, we went out to see cars. While Georgia currently has an Accord, that model, like the rest of America, has gotten bigger. It was scratched off the list as being too big.

The Civic was considered long enough to have Georgia sit in it to evaluate comfort. Nope, cross it off the list. The headrest hits Georgia in an uncomfortable place, and cannot be changed. Around that time the salesman's "boss"(?) came out to replace the original salesman in working with this customer. We gave our first names to him while the first salesman disappeared. While Georgia was less than pleased with the first salesman's approach, the second one really drove her up a wall with his sales techniques. The more she felt "pushed", the more Georgia resisted. She did, however, manage to "try-on" more models, and found two that would fit her needs, and were comfortable for her.

Finally we went back into the showroom. The floor manager was introduced to us. Having seen so many dealerships, Georgia knew that involving the manager could mean that they saw the sale going poorly. We conversed a little. Georgia tried to tell the second salesman that she needed a "low-key" approach rather than the one he was using. Mr. Manager said that the second salesman was just "eager". Georgia thought that all he was eager for was a sale.

While walking us out of the building the second salesman asked us for our names. Georgia gave him a "look" and said "Georgia". (Remember, we gave him our first names.) She knew what was coming next. He asked us for our phone number. Georgia would have none of that, she didn't want any phone calls from any of those salesmen pestering her to buy a car, excuse me, "keeping her updated on what was available".

The next Saturday we were out and about again, and went to the Ford dealership. This salesman was low-key from the start, and Randy was encouraged to see that Georgia could deal with one salesman at least. Again Georgia went through what she would want in a car. Again she tried on cars to find what was comfortable. Again, two acceptable models were found. The salesman did ask for her phone number, but promised that he would NOT call her if she didn't want. He promised that her phone number would just be used to help her find him again if she wanted to.

Randy thought things were going well enough that we went to the Mazda dealership. No comfortable car models there, however. So the search will continue another day as Georgia was now tired of trying on cars.