Highly pushy and somewhat-judgmental sales reps, especially to students like me. Read my fully-detailed experience below.
I had a test drive appointment booked with Jordan Schneider on June 2, 2020. As a student looking for his first vehicle, I took the transit to get to Harmony Honda, bring my small backpack with me. When I first stepped into their lot, I could see from the window one of the sales rep talking to his colleague. He then turned towards me and just glanced at me walking in their lot towards the door. No greets, no smiles, no welcomes, no nothing: he just watched me walking in the lot. He then walked to open the door for me when I was about 10 meters from the door. At that moment, I knew I was being somewhat judged like, "what is this guy doing here?"
He opened the door for me--no welcomes, no greets or anything. It was me who started the greeting first, "Hi! I have an appointment with Jordan for 2:30pm--I know I'm early cause I got off work early today." He then offered me anything to drink and I told him I needed the washroom. At least he made an effort to welcome me.
I then met Jordan after a small wait I considered negligible. Don't get me wrong, Jordan was a professional sales rep who was doing his job well--more like overly well.
The second question after "what vehicle are you looking for" was "how much monthly payment are you looking for". I may be a student but I knew dealership tactics: I never gave him my comfortable monthly payment even when he repeatedly (but subtly) asked for it. I've gone to multiple dealerships in Kelowna and this was the first time a dealership explicitly asked me for my monthly payment.
Jordan was also very knowledgeable about the Civics I'd test driven. Even the nitty gritties of all three models of Civic. The only question that had him thinking was "is the Civic Coupe door bigger than hatch and sedan?"
All of those said, he tried to get me emotionally attached to the car by repeatedly asking "how do you like it?"
I wanted to get as much financial as possible in the same day and would spend some time to think about which payment would be perfect for me (plus, need to get parent's confirmation, even though I was planning to pay with my own money). Jordan was pushy like crazy: he literally wanted me to make all of those decisions "overnight". My parents lived abroad and they had +14 hours time difference than where Harmony Honda was. Jordan literally said, "Yeah you can call them now". I said, "but they're probably still sleeping, it's like 7am in my home country". "I mean we can wait in 2 hours and I'm pretty sure they'll be awake since they're busy people".
Me: "It's okay I can't be rushed and I need to take some time to think this through"
Jordan: "Well you can call them and it's [the decision] is something that can be decided overnight"
Yea read that right, overnight. If it were his money I wouldn't mind thinking overnight. It's my own money man, let me do the thinking and not you. And let me spend the time I need because I wouldn't want to spend $27k+ as if I were Bill Gates or a billionaire.
Both Jordan and Wes kept repeatedly asking me this exactly-worded question, "the numbers look nice right?". Mind you, I've gone to several dealerships and NONE of them asked me how "nice" the numbers looked to me--all they did was to put down the numbers on a piece of paper and gave me time to think and plan my payments, not rushing me to buy a car within the same day or two.
I could tell how Jordan seemed a little upset as I had too much to think about in my head. I am a thinker and I love thinking. He kept asking me what I was thinking and it was annoying. He just couldn't respect my boundaries. That said, I could also tell that he was trying to be patient with me and kept it calm and cool.
I consider myself a somewhat emotionally-detached, very logical person and I was glad I didn't spend a single penny. To my readers: bargain and do your research well, and don't involve your emotions. Math will be your best friend.
As a Google Maps Local Guide, I can take an oath that everything I've written is accurate and truthful. Review on was written 5 days following the visit.
P.S. I talked to other dealerships about Harmony and one of them said, "yeah, I heard Harmony was very pushy" hahaha. read more
