10 signs of a crappy car salesman

Poor car salesman.

Honestly, I feel bad for them. They get a total bad rap from the whole macho-sleazy-used-car-salesman stereotype.

Unfortunately... while there are definitely some reputable, honest salesman out there... the bad ones tend to be the ones that leave the bitter taste in our mouth and make us want to run away, screaming and bashing heads together.

In our recent quest to find a vehicle that is safe, reliable, and a decent price for our family, we've gotten to meet some, well, some doozies, to say the least.

It's been a while since I've done one of my TOP TEN's on my blog, so I thought this would be a fantastic way to bring them back....

Without further adu,

TEN WAYS TO TELL THAT A CAR SALESMAN IS FULL OF CRAP

10.) They tell you to be quiet and let them talk.

9.) They remind you 100 times how FAST used cars sell and that if you leave it was guaranteed not to be there the next day... even though said car has been on the lot for over 2 months....

8.) They refuse to give you a business card because it is a waste of supplies because "if you're asking for a business card, you're obviously just brushing me off and don't really wanna buy a car."

7.) They show you a car that is obviously PERFECT for you (so says the salesman) and he tells you how great it is and how they are so confident this car will sell that they have it in the shop, and they NEVER do that unless it is a great car.  You then see the car that is a piece of junk... After about 5 minutes of trying to sell you the car... crappy salesman then backs on and says, "Yeah, this isn't what I thought. Let's go."

6.) They refuse to move when you are trying to walk behind them between two cars, making you have to suck in a breathe to not get up-close-and-personal with crappy salesman's big behind... (I swear he almost took a step back on purpose...)

5.) They tell you that the price of a car is 25k... It takes 5 times of asking him to recheck the price (and an admission by buyer that they have already looked at it online and saw the price) for crappy salesman to say, "Oh, sorry, I looked at the wrong one... this one is only 16k..." Uh, yeah, that's what I thought!

4.) "We price our cars right, so this is the best price..." When they obviously do not and are NOT one of the "no haggle pricing" dealerships.

3.) They pull the ol' buddy trick. A "salesman" comes up and asks for the keys of the car you are negotiating because "someone else is REALLY interested in it..." Uh, yeah. No they aren't.

2.) You find a container of strange looking yellow liquid in the backseat of a car for sale and ask the salesman what it is. He shrugs and says, "Who knows what people do in these cars..." *ahem*

1.) "Honestly, Ma'am? You can't find a safe car in your price range. You HAVE to finance something to keep your family safe."


And yes, these are all things that have happened, current and past, to me or a family member.

Oh, and it doesn't fit in my top 10... but have you ever noticed that crappy salesman ALWAYS wear WAY too much perfume/cologne?!? PHEW!!!!

Have I said lately how much I love used car salesman? (I do LOVE them... just don't always LIKE them very much...)

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must put an exception in here. Because as I noted, used car salesmen have a bad rap, and not all of them have earned it.

I HAVE met a few really nice ones... ones who have tried to help and apologized when they couldn't. Who have stayed after hours to let us test drive a car even though they were pretty sure we weren't purchasing it. Who have actually recommended places that we might be able to find what we need, instead of trying to pressure us into something that we don't.

THOSE are the people I'd love to purchase from.

Unfortunately, those places, at the moment, don't have a van that is an option for us. But they'll have my recommendation, and will always be the first place I look in the future.

Moral of the story: If you are trying to sell something... BE NICE TO YOUR CUSTOMER.

Discussion: Any good car buying stories??? Good, bad, or just plain funny??? I'm SO SO SO over car shopping right now that I could use a few good stories to make me laugh!



 

I'm NOT dead!!!!

Arrived home around 8am from one of the most AMAZING weekends I've had in a very long time. This was some super God ordained stuff that I needed SO incredibly badly! The only thing I did NOT get that I needed was SLEEP, but that's okay. I needed the other stuff more!

Left Des Moines at 6pm last night with tornadoes warnings clipping at our heels. We went an alternate route to outrun them, and SUPER glad we did, because we could see the horrific clouds right around the spot we would have been if we'd taken the other route.

Arrived in St. Louis about 11:30 to Amy's house. I slept on and off for about 2 hours and left out around 2am.

Yes, I am more than a little tired right now.

And thankfully, despite a pretty nerve wracking pastoral premonition yesterday, both Amy and I arrived home SAFE and SOUND and I'm proud to report that we are NOT DEAD! WOOT!!!

(the sermon at our friend's church was heavy on the subject of death and the reminder that we are all mortals and could die at any moment... needless to say two out-of-towners fixing to roadtrip a combined total of 12 hours with the weather calling for tornados... we were more than a little anxious!!!! Was God trying to tell us something????)

But we did lots of praying (all the while knowing worst case scenario meant we get to see JESUS face to face) and we made it home in one piece! Thank you JESUS!!

I have SO many pictures I could post... but this one is my fav so far.

I love my alleycats. BEYOND blessed to have these fantastic women in my life! I'll blog a different day about what all God taught me and about the fantastic experience... but you don't want me being overly serious right now. My brain is pretty much the consistency of cream-of-wheat. Momma needs SLEEP!!!

ROAD TRIP

Only missing Amy, Karen and Sherrinda in this pic!

OH MY GOODNESS!

I am super excited!!!!

I've been REALLY looking forward to this weekend!

I blog with 9 other women at www.thewritersalleys.blogspot.com ... we nickname ourselves The Alley Cats:-) It's all about writing and we're all writers at various stages of our writing journey.

I got the privilege to meet most of them in September at the ACFW conference. AMAZING experience to say the least! We were all sad to see the end of the conference come, and dreamed up the idea of having our own "mini-writing-retreat" so we could have some quality time just the 10 of us.

Well, 3 of our feline crew weren't able to make it (one of them because she lives in Australia... a bit of a commute!) BUT!!!! This weekend the 7 of us plus the other 3 via Skype are converging in the Des Moines area in IA for a fantastic writing weekend filled with laughed, fun, writing, and worship.

I can not begin to tell you the impact these ladies have had on my life in the last few years. We started blogging around the time I found out about Annabelle's heart condition. They were so sweet during that whole ordeal... they send me little care packages and even stuff for my girls!! AND they made sure I didn't run out of books to read at the hospital:-)

When we got together in September... something just... clicked. I don't know if I can explain it well, but each of us are very different and unique. We have different denominational backgrounds, different styles of worship, different personalities, and our age range varies by several decades!

This is not a "usual" group... but somehow we just mesh together like this fantastic little mold that Jesus made, just for us! We all understand and accept our differences, even celebrate them, and I can honestly say in the 3 years we've been together, I don't recall even one time where a harsh word has been spoken or a feeling has been hurt.

We just all work on loving on each other and encouraging each other... and it WORKS!

So needless to say, I'm over the moon to get together with my sweet writer friends. This Momma could use a wee bit of a break!

Prayer Requests for this weekend:

That I make it there in one piece! I'm driving our not-quite-stellar car to St. Louis, and then meeting up with a fellow alleycat and driving the rest of the way in her car. BUT... I'm leaving at like 3 in the morning tomorrow, so please pray I make it there AWAKE and that my car behaves!!!

That GOD will be glorified through our time together... that we can encourage each other and that it will be the much needed fellowship time we all crave!

For my hubby who has taken some vacation time (and worked alot of extra hours this week!) so he can take off the whole weekend to watch kiddos... he has TWO softball games to take Lacy to this weekend... by himself with all 4 kiddos. Yes, please pray for him!!!

For sweet Annabelle... she has a pretty good sized cold so I'm more than a little nervous about leaving her... but I'm trying to remind myself that colds are NORMAL and that I need to not freak out over normal stuff!! But please pray that she is able to get over it!! She seemed a LITTLE better this morning... but just a little. Hoping it is be beginning of her feeling MUCH better though!

Other Important Prayer Requests:

There are SO many kiddos at Vanderbilt right now that I'm praying for!!! Please keep them in your prayers... specifically for sweet Gracie who is waiting on a heart like Annabelle did two years ago!

For sweet big-boy David's family... David, who just turned 4, went to be with Jesus yesterday around 12:00 in the afternoon. Please pray for peace and comfort for his family, including his mom Jennifer and dad Justin, and his sister.

Discussion: Have you ever been on a fun road trip???

I Love My Momma!!!!!

I know y'all think that your mom is the best....

But I'm sorry to inform you that my mom already holds that title!!!

My momma is the one who taught me to dream. She has always had big grand dreams (sometimes a little crazy... but a crazy dream here and there never... usually... hurt anyone!) She instilled in me the drive to work hard and that with God by my side, there was no limit to what I could do.

She took time out of her busy work schedule to be with me during each of Annabelle's procedures/surgeries. She was the first one I called when something went wrong, and she was there in the blink of an eye that night when we almost lost our Annabelle. She's cried with me and cheered with me and has been my firm rock that reminded me that even when she couldn't be, GOD was always with me.

My sweet momma takes the time each weekday morning to write an email to us kids. She calls it "musings from Mom." It is her way of speaking into her children's lives, even though we are grown, and sharing what God is teaching her.

I just... yeah. I love my mom. More than I could ever, ever, ever express.

Discuss: So... since most of think that our moms are the "best"... share why YOUR momma is the best!

I could complain--- but I won't

I could complain about a lot of things today...

...like the fact that I'm going to the dentist and am NOT looking forward to it...

...or about how we got a fantastic letter in the mail last week about Annabelle's health insurance ending (we'll figure it out somehow... it's just the pain and agony of going through the figuring out that I'd complain about)

...or that our already decrepit van decided to start blowing WARM air instead of cold air yesterday (or the fact that except for the one that's almost 5 grand over our limit, we haven't found a van that would suit us yet to replace it!)

...or the fact that I stayed up until almost midnight last night making some "Peruvian" cookies for my daughter for Spanish class because she came me yesterday letting me know that instead of FRIDAY they had to be supplied on THURSDAY even though my Wednesday night was already filled up with 2 dental appointments for kiddos AND a softball game out of town... (or the fact that I'm pretty sure they turned out NOT very good...)

Nope. Not going to complain about those things.

Because....

... we finally have health/dental insurance so I can actually GO to the dentist again

... and my sweet Annabelle has had all of her medical bills paid for thus far by insurance/Medicare... totally well into the multi-millions off dollars (her first year of life was around $3M alone) Without this financial help she would not be alive today. SO VERY THANKFUL!!!!

... and our van is presently still running enough to take my sweetie to the doctor and get my kids around town, even if it doesn't run "well" (and we have a little $$ set aside to replace it, even if it isn't exactly the amount I WISH I had, a lot of people in our situation have NO money to help)

... I have a sweet 12-year-old daughter who cares about her grades enough to want to make (with a LOT of Mommy's help) cookies to get extra credit even though she probably already has a 100 in the class. (and that I doubt she gets a grade on the QUALITY of the cookie... hope not anyway!)


There's always a flip side. I've gotten into a SUPER bad habit lately of dwelling on the "down" side and am trying my best to remember the upside, to focus on the GOOD and give God the bad, to count my blessings every day, because even on the stinky days, there are many. 

Let's Chat: What are some turned-upside-down blessings you have today?

Elmo and other Annabelle-isms

My baby is starting to find her voice!!!!!

She now has 4 words (that I recognize in all her babbling anyway)

"Iggy" = binky
"bah" = Ball
"mamamamamamamam" = mommy and anytime she just wants to sing mommy all around the house

and her NEWEST word as of yesterday,....

"ehmo" = Elmo!!!

She also goes around the house saying, ee-ii-ee-ii-ooooooooo a lot too, LOL!

She's also REALLY trying to do better with her hand motions to songs... she ROCKS the itsy bitsy spider, and even does a really good if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!

Okay, so we sat down and took a quick (turned out to be 4 minute, whoops!) video because I wanted to show off my girl!

Unfortunately she refused to say "ball" but I promise she does, LOL! Just not on command!

And sorry for having to suffer through my not-stellar-singing, HA HA HA! 

Let's Chat -- If you're a parent... what was your kiddos first words??? Any super funny "my kid said this but oh-ma-goodness-it-didn't-sound-like-it" stories?

Channeling our inner Chuck Norris...

On Tuesday nights, I go to a Ladies' Bible study each week. LOVE Bible study... haven't gone to one in years so when our pastor's wife started it a few months ago, and it was actually on the ONE night a week that I could go... yeah, I was excited!

Anywho, one of the verses in this week's reading that I'd taken note of, as did another lady, was Psalm 27:14 (NLT):

"Wait patiently for the LORD.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for the LORD."

Love how God sandwiched it for me! :-)

This is TOTALLY an oxymoron to my normal thinking.

I've never really equated being brave and courageous to waiting patiently. Being brave has always mean taking that leap of faith, taking that step into the unknown and going and slaying scary dragons.

But I realized as I read the verse last week, that sometimes NOT taking a step is more brave and courageous than taking steps.

Especially if those dragons are running full force toward you and God is sitting there saying, "No... wait for it... wait for it..." until your eyebrows are singled from the fire blasting from the over-sized reptile's mouth....

For someone who has a love of "fixing" problems like I do... it is easy for me to want to step and knock it out of the park and get it done. I can KILL that dad gum dragon with God's help... Let's DO THIS! WOOT!!!!

Sorry... got carried away for a second...

I look back at my life and realize that I've taken some pretty "stupid" steps of faith because it was the brave and courageous thing to do, and people around me frowned at it on more than one occasion.

Some of those WERE brave and things God had called me to do.

But some of them were just plain idiotic and most likely left God shaking his head saying, "What in the world are you thinking, my crazy child?"

So, in trying to grasp this new-to-me concept, God brought this fabulous analogy to my brain that I shared with the ladies of our group.

They may or may not have laughed at me. (laughed with much love, I'm sure!)

Ya see, it reminds of me Walker, Texas Ranger.

During the day, I frequently have the TV on when I'm not listening to music because, well, I'm used to working around people and being home with a silent house is just not fabulous to me. So at 2:00pm, stupid "mywifehadsexwithmybrothersbestfriend'sroommateandiaintthebabydaddy" shows come on... so I turn it to one of the few other channels that actually comes on (we are no-cable-super-cheap people...) and unless Baseball is playing (then the TV gets turned OFF) I do my work with Walker, Texas Ranger rockin' it out, beatin' up them bad guys in the background.

One thing I've learned about Walker aka Chuck is that he has totally learned the value of PATIENCE.

He doesn't run in guns blazing, ready to shoot the first person who moves. He almost NEVER makes the first move. He just calmly tells them they are going to jail... they NEVER like that so try to beat him up, and we ALL know how that ends. But I think he does this to assess the situation, and always have the calm upper hand. He waits until the time is RIGHT, until he is prepared and calm and can just take those bad guys DOWN.

Here's a prime example of one such scene... (the nose thing at the end is, IMHO, just amazingly hilarious)



So... here's to channeling our inner Walker, Texas Ranger, waiting patiently on God to say GO, and being brave and courageous in the mean time.

Let's Chat!

Do you have a time you've had to wait patiently for God? How'd it turn out?

Or we can totally just talk about how awesome Chuck Norris is. LOL!