Holden are super desperate these days

[figjam]

Do we really want to see the whole brand gone......??

No !! But they have huge hurdles to overcome.
Getting us to believe that their imported vehicles are better than, and more value than other imports.
Getting sales persons who ‘know’ their product, rather than just selling it. How many times have you asked a sales person a technical question, only to be shown a blank face, and a disinterested “Sorry, I don’t know.”
Getting their service department up to speed with trade knowledge, rather than just replacing bits, at your expense, until it is fixed.
Getting rid of the uncertainty of current models for the future. Where will they be built, and by who.

 

[tml678]

But they have huge hurdles to overcome.

Absolutely and the loss of the local industry has hurt immensely. But both sides need to cut the other a bit of slack. Remember, they have only
been a full time importer for just on a year. It's a massive, fundamental change to the way they do business from relying on local product to moving to the imported side of things

Getting us to believe that their imported vehicles are better than, and more value than other imports

I don't know of any business that doesn't try and convince potential customers their product is better than the competition?

Getting sales persons who ‘know’ their product, rather than just selling it. How many times have you asked a sales person a technical question, only to be shown a blank face, and a disinterested “Sorry, I don’t know.”

This isn't isolated to Holden, but yes it needs improvement. To be fair however, information is at the fingertips these days and very easy for them to find when customers ask. I think the days of expecting them to have a photographic memory are gone.

Getting their service department up to speed with trade knowledge, rather than just replacing bits, at your expense, until it is fixed.

I've always had good experiencs with their service departments. That's not to say that others haven't had a poor experience. It's like the panel beating industry, it's cheaper to replace parts than get the hammer and dolly out.

Getting rid of the uncertainty of current models for the future. Where will they be built, and by who

They are at the mercy of GM in this area. They announced 24 new pending models after VFII production stopped. I don't think that's too bad.



The point I am making is if we all just write them off as underperforming, giving us rubbish or whatever...then make no mistake, the brand will disappear. The company has just undergone it's most fundamental change to the way they do business since they started making cars in 1948. A bit of understanding and leeway on both sides is probably in order. Surely they deserve a bit longer to get things right.

 

[VS 5.0]

Never had any follow-up correspondence after a service either,

I did, once.

Never heard back after I responded detailing my displeasure with the service experience.

 

[VS 5.0]

This isn't isolated to Holden, but yes it needs improvement. To be fair however, information is at the fingertips these days and very easy for them to find when customers ask. I think the days of expecting them to have a photographic memory are gone.

Agree lack of knowledge is widespread, however product knowledge is mandatory imho to be an effective sales person.

The sales guys in the business I work with would be shown the door if they had no knowledge of the product they are selling.

 

[tml678]

Agree lack of knowledge is widespread, however product knowledge is mandatory imho to be an effective sales person.

The sales guys in the business I work with would be shown the door if they had no knowledge of the product they are selling.

Agreed, but the post was about salespeople being asked technical questions. It wasn't insinuating they had NO knowledge of the product:

How many times have you asked a sales person a technical question

Some technical knowledge should be a given, but it depends how technical the question is.. Expecting them to know every little detail about the cars is a bit unrealistic.

 

[woooo]

A couple of their models are questionable, but a few are quite good - Astra, Colorado and yes even ZB is a very good car
in it's own right. Every one has the right to an opinion, but to label them all as rubbish is a little bit close-minded.

Australian built commodores are gone. Yes, Holden delivered some great local cars over the years - but it's over. We either
give the new breed a genuine, fair chance to impress (I think they deserve that), or we potentially watch our favourite car
brand go down the gurgler. Holden certainly has some bridges to rebuild with customers, but I think they deserve a bit of
a go to get things right.

Do we really want to see the whole brand gone......??

I meant to say in my opinion they are rubbish. What's more annoying is they bring a VXR with a V6 at Redline pricing... not cool man. Rubbish. And to me there is no Holden anymore. My opinion. I'd rather see a Chevrolet dealership on every corner.

 

[figjam]

I’m not going to quote any responses …. too many.
But I have hade some frustrating times with sales-people, service-people, and managers over the last few years that have should not have happened. Some examples >

Ford …… the first service on our Territory was an adventure. I wrote a two page complaint to the service manager, detailing how it went and how it should have been done. He requested my presence, apologised and gave me an extended warranty, (free), as an act of good faith. But it should not have got to that.
Ford, again ……… daughter was looking at an auto Focus. I asked the salesman what sort of auto it was, he couldn’t tell us and took ten minutes to find out that it was dual clutch. We didn’t buy it because of this, and this was well before their ‘Powershift’ debacle.

Holden …… I spent over two grand trying to fix a stalling problem with an XC Barina. Holden couldn’t find or fix the cause, but a local old school mechanic did it for a couple of hundred first up.
Holden ……. Tried to tell me that there was no such thing as an AWD dual cab Commodore Crewman …. (it must be a Rodeo) until I drove it up to their service department window. The service manager explained that their service reception shouldn’t have to know all their various models, just like I didn’t know what beers were served at the local club. ( I didn’t understand that analogy ) I also found that they didn’t service AWDs, but sent them to a 4WD specialist. So basically they were taking the cream for doing nothing.

Kia ….. the sales woman didn’t know the answers to my technical questions, but she quickly found them, and said that if more customers asked her those questions she would know more about what she was selling. 5 gold stars for her.

 

[figjam]

When I go to Bunnings, and can't find what I am after, their floor assistants can always tell me what aisle, and whereabouts on the shelf it is. To my amazement.
Yet, a car salesperson's knowledge usually extends to what colours are available. Not saying that is 100% experience, there are some very knowlegable people around, but in the minority. Maybe $$$$ and job satisfaction are factors ??

 

[stooge]

I'd rather see a Chevrolet dealership on every corner.

they could change "holden" to "Chevrolet" but it would still be the same company pushing out the same imported crap.

people just need to move away from GM entirely, they no longer produce anything that's decent.
if you look around the world at all the vehicles they are now selling here you will find a lot of them have been around for quite some time and then you will find pages and pages of problems with all of them.

a lot of people and reviewers base their opinions on these vehicles on test drives and looks/feels but its once you own one of the vehicles for 3 to 5 years that the problems begin to get out of hand and gm is not known for its awesome aftersales customer service.

this is just one instance of gm looking after you "the customer".

in late 2014 / early 2015 gm identified a problem with the engine in the Colorado using excessive amounts of oil due to a fault in the manufacturing of the engine block, they kept quite on the issue.
they decided to thicken the oil spec and put longer dipsticks into the engines when customers did scheduled servicing without notifying the customer and this lowered the consumption a little bit but not enough to stop customers working out there was a problem.
by mid 2015 people were onto holden and the consumption tests started and many customers were told that its normal for the oil to be used as "it is saving fuel" (the old your saving money crap that most people gobble up).
to get an engine replacement you needed to use 2.0 liters over 10,000km, the consumption tests would be done over about 3000km and math would be applied.
holden worked out the majority of the colorados would use about 2.2 liters within the warranty period so you know what they did to help the customers out...
they bumped the threshold for a new engine to 2.5 liters.

what an awesome company looking after its customers!

many people are still fighting today for a replacement engine with figures of about 2.3 liters over 10,000km with holden saying "that is an acceptable level and within tolerances" while colorados without the defect only use about 300ml


now here is the best part...
the entire time all of this was happening they kept putting the defective engines into new colorados selling them to their valued customers causing the issue to go well into the 2016 models and now reports of 2017.
they didn't want to eat the cost of the defective engines so they just sold them.

this is the type of bullshit gm does and they deserve nothing from anyone, the people in this country need to walk away from anything gm and let it die or they are going to continue to sell you the junk they cant sell anywhere else, they treat Australia as a dumping ground for their waste.

so why support them or give them understanding in this tough time for them?

I know its a bit of a rant but I am just pointing out the "new holden" and what we can expect from them in the future if we keep purchasing their vehicles.

 

[VS 5.0]

Agreed, but the post was about salespeople being asked technical questions. It wasn't insinuating they had NO knowledge of the product:



Some technical knowledge should be a given, but it depends how technical the question is.. Expecting them to know every little detail about the cars is a bit unrealistic.

Our sales team are expected to have a very high level of technical knowledge. Our customers expect nothing less.