So I tipped
my old manager off that I was writing a “compare and contrast” blog between his
management style and my other manager while in the car industry. True to form he was very thankful of the
praise but humble in his response. With
that kind of attitude I was reminded of a deal I got caught in the middle of.
In the auto
industry the “holy grail” for some guys is a diesel truck with a stick
shift. Why major auto makers don’t offer
this anymore is beyond me, they sold like crazy with HUNDREDS of thousands of
miles on the odometer. We happened to
have a truck like this in inventory one week.
The demand
for these trucks are so high this truck had a unique story to it. A tree had fallen on it during a storm. The tree had dented the fenders, roof, door,
and broken out some lights on the flat bed on the back. (no rails just a flat metal surface) But rather than fix it we left it as is and
sold it that way. The phone rang off the
hook for days on this truck.
I finally
got ahold of a guy who wanted the truck.
He had a truck that was 2 years older and used it for work. He was a (legit) professional cowboy in North
Platte NE. He was a pen rider in the
cattle yards and spent his entire day in the saddle on horseback. In his spare time he made and sold
saddles! His truck had the smaller
engine offered by Dodge and was an automatic.
“You
realize a tree fell on this thing right?”
I said skeptically over the phone.
“Yup, don’t care…its perfect!
I’ll take it!” you could hear the excitement in his voice. So we worked out the deal over the phone and
because he was a nice guy I offered to meet him half way between Omaha and
North Platte. Cutting his 5 hour drive
to 2 ½ and meeting him on a Sunday to boot!
My finance
manager dragged his feet on getting the paperwork for me all week and finally
handed them to me on Saturday night. I
looked through the paperwork and noticed a $1800 charge for undercoating on the
truck. When I asked him about it he said
“Don’t worry about it…it helps her hit her number for the month. You’re good…just get him to sign it.” “Her” in this case was our aftermarket
specialist who was making money for nothing and had her own issues.
“(Expletives
deleted) you’re giving me a hot deal for me to deal with, on a Sunday, knowing
I have to drive a truck that has been used in a cattle ranch back to
Omaha?!?!?” And, he laughed…she laughed
too…they thought it was hilarious and I was stuck with nobody left in the
building to change the documents.
That night
I happened to spend some time with my (good) manager outside of work. He could see that something was bugging the
hell out of me and when he asked it came spewing out of me. I could see he was also pissed about the
situation as he had worked hard to put the deal together on his end.
I decided
to take the truck out there and present the information to him. In the back of my head I knew we could always
amend the paperwork and send him the papers in the mail. I left the next day for my all day affair in
the trucks.
About 30
minutes into the drive an alarm went off in the truck. The diesel particulate filter was
(apparently) full and the truck went into “limp mode” where it “limps” into a
dealership to be fixed. In a panic I get
on my phone and try to figure out what the hell happened, only to have my phone
die…with no charger.
I get to
town a little early and stop by 3 different auto stores seeing if they can fix
it. They weren’t any help and in the
process the drivers side window got stuck open.
Apparently the damage to the door wasn’t allowing it to roll back up.
After
taking a deep breath and buying a charger for my phone I drove over to the
truck stop to meet my customer. He shows
up with his wife and kids. The little
boy gets out, in full cowboy attire, and runs up to his new truck and calls
“SHOTGUN”.
We walk around the truck and he’s
in love. I show him the damage spots and
he’s ok with them because they’ll probably get beat up when he uses it. He even knows how to fix the window and isn’t
worried about it. The diesel particulate
filter isn’t even a problem for him because he’s got a diesel guy at the yard
who can fix it!
After introducing me to the family
and walking around the truck I ask him if they were doing anything else in town
while they were here. “We’ll probably
grab a bite to eat since they’ve got restaurants we don’t have in our town”
“Lets go do
the paperwork at Buffalo Wild Wings then!”
The family blows up with excitement… “On me as a thank you because of
the window thing too”
After a
lunch I’ll never forget where I learn more about cows than I’ll ever need to
know I hand him the papers. He signs
them all and reads through everything.
He even puts his finger on the $1800 charge but doesn’t say a word, my
heart breaks. We wrap up the paperwork
and I swap keys with him. The kids give
me a hug and he gives me the kind of solid handshake you would expect to come
from a solid guy like this.
His trade
had at least 1” of “dirt” on the inside along with horse hair, cow hair, dog
hair, and god knows what. I drove home
with the windows open so I could see through the tears in my eyes. Oh yeah, did I mention he drove his truck
home, with the window stuck open, in 35 degree weather for 2 ½ hours?
On the
drive home the base of my skull goes numb.
I’m so angry at what had just happened I felt like I was on the verge of
an aneurism. I get back and call my
manager and he calms me down. “Don’t
worry buddy…I’ve got a plan for Monday”
Monday
morning comes in and I literally throw the deal in my finance managers
face. I have a few choice words for him
too but you can guess what I said. As I
walk out of his office I’m met in the hallway with my (good) manager.
He’s got a
copy of the deal in hand and has the charge highlighted. He closes the door and has a long
conversation with the finance manger. I
never get to find out what was said but things changed from that day on with
our finance department.
We call the
guy who has since noticed the strange charge.
I agree that the charge shouldn’t be there and we give him a few
options. We could send him a check for
the amount or we could buy a brush guard/cow pusher bumper for him with the
money. He was planning on putting one on
the truck when he had the cash and we could get a discount on the deal.
He ends up
taking the bumper and uses the remaining money to buy a second hand exhaust to
fix the diesel particulate filter issue.
We fix the paperwork and everything goes back to the way it should
be. When I call him a month later he
invites me to stay with his family and go Coyote hunting sometime. The kids are in the background and I can hear
them ask “Is that Justin?! Tell him hi”.
The way
that deal went down the (evil) manager could have made it stick. We delivered papers and the customer accepted
them with the vehicle. “Congratulations,
you’re an owner” goes the line from the movie Suckers. But instead the (good) manager and I found a
way to work around the wrong doings of others and in the process put a stop to
future shenanigans. From that deal on
our “shoot from the hip” finance manager cleaned up his act and never pushed a
dirty deal through me again. Finding an
ally when it comes to doing the right thing is always important. I was so furious my “options” at the time
were to punch the finance guy in the face or quit, or both. Cooler heads prevailed and while the process
was a bit painful, and smelled terrible, it worked out benefiting the rest of
our group.
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