The below statement is what Bell Road Toyota does to their employees, from my experience.
I worked for Bell Road Toyota, at one time. I thought it was an OK place to work. One thing I tried to figure out, when I first started working there was, why most of the car sales people that they hired did not have either an acceptable level of product knowledge, or acceptable sales experience. They even have a name for this. Sales people that are new to the car sales business are called "GREEN PEAS."
It also seemed to me that Bell Road Toyota was very secretive when "desking" all of their car dealers. "Desking" refers to how deals are written, to include the commission to the sales staff. They keep their employees in the dark as to how they crunch the numbers before and after a car deal is completed, so they can improve profits for the dealership and minimize the commissions they pay out.
In other words, what this means is that they were hiding information from their sales people on how they structured car deals. It just seemed strange to me, that I worked for the car dealer and was not allowed to see how the desk manager was calculating the deal. Why was this information so well guarded? I have a theory and believe I have the evidence to prove it.
In the automotive sales industry, they have what they call "Front-end gross" and "Backend Gross". The sales people get paid on the profit of the sale of the car and they also get paid more money if they get the car buyer to accept $5000 for their trade-in that has an Actual Cash Value (ACV) of say $10,000. If a salesman were to get a car buyer to accept the deal, the salesman would get $1000 in commission if he was on a 20% commission program, and $1,250 if he were on a 25% program. Additionally, the salesman receives either 20% or 25% of the profit of the sale of the new car, minus the car dealer's hidden fee they call "a PACK." A Pack can be up to 1,000 bucks, which is deducted from the commission.
Then the Finance manager, who gets paid on the Backend gross, would get money in his pocket if he has the ability to sock the car buyer at a higher interest rate or sells a warranty for $2000 for which the dealer paid maybe $500. F&I managers also have the ability to do what is called "Float the front-end gross profit to the backend, " which is actually stealing from the sales people.
I remember one time that I tried to look at the computer when one desk manager was "desking" one of my deals. One desk manager named Roger asked me, "Do you want a day off?" I said, "no." So he threatened me by saying, "Then don't worry how I structure car deals!"
There were many sales people complaining that their pay vouchers should have been bigger. After thinking about this for a while, I figured out that that this Toyota dealership takes money that is not theirs.
I remember one other time I had a nice lady come in and ask to see 4 Runners. I was more than happy to show her what she wanted. This lady had a Toyota Previa All Track 4X4 minivan that was in mint shape and ready to put on the lot. She told me that she wanted to trade it in for a new 4 Runner.
Her Toyota minivan was paid off in full. She also had her title and was ready to make a deal. I sold her the 4 Runner and she was on her way. Later that month, I got what car dealers call a "Mini" pay voucher, at that time was $50.00. I asked Roger how I could get a Mini when this lady had a free and clear trade.
He said, "Stick. Don't you remember, we had to pay off her van." I thought, "Oh, OK." So I called this lady and did what is called follow up. I asked her "How do you like your new 4 Runner?" She said she loved it. I asked her, "Did we get your Previa paid off?" She reminded me that it had no lien.in other words it was FREE AND CLEAR.
I felt that Bell Road Toyota floated the front-end gross of my deal to the back end. I figured that her van had an ACV of at least $8500. At the time I worked for Bell Road Toyota I was being paid on a 20% commission program.
I felt I was entitled to at least 20% of $8500, which is equal to $1700 dollars. Additionally, I was entitled to something from the sale of the 4 Runner she bought. How could I have gotten only a $50 voucher?
Now, one can see why I help usacomplaints.com go after bad car dealers.
The photo (to be posted shortly) you see on the back of my truck says what I FEEL. It will not be removed from the back of my truck until this issue is resolved. Just think how many people in Phoenix will read what is posted on the tail gate of my truck.
I wonder how many of their current sales people feel similarly about their car deals. The consumer complaints has recorded conversations with current employees that say they feel this is going on right now.
I will send copies of this consumer complaints by snail mail to the following:
Toyota Motor Corp.
Yoshimi Inaba President, CEO
19001 S. Western Ave,
Torrance, CA 90509
Phone # 1-310-468-4000
Fax # 1-310-468-7800
The American International Automobile Dealers Association
211 North Union Street, Suite 300,
Alexandria, Virginia 22314.
Phone number (703) 519-7800,
fax number is (703) 519-7810.
Howard Keyes, Owner
Bell Road Toyota
Arizona's EEOC.
Arizona AG's Office
Automotive News.
New York Times.
The Chicago Tribune.
The AZ Republic.
Stick B
Phoenix, Arizona
0 comments