Sunday, April 20, 2014

An open letter to Ralph Gilles

Dear Mr. Giles,

I would like to thank you for personally making sure that I have eliminated the Generation 5 SRT Viper from my shopping list and that my 2009 Dodge SRT10 Viper was my first and last Viper purchase.  I would also like to thank you for motivating me to look at makes such as Porsche as my likely purchase, although I have not considered buying a Porsche in the past.

Although I have been critical of the newest Viper in the past, including its very narrow advantage in performance figures as compared to the previous generation, the latest turn of events, mainly a large number of 2013 cars remaining on the dealers lots and discounted pricing I observed at several dealers in California, motivated me to pursue a purchase of a base SRT Viper as a valid alternative for a car I would be driving daily, while retaining my current 2009 Viper. 

After observing very generous discounts offered on SRT Viper by several dealers, including Carl Burger dealership in San Diego, I decided to shop around for an equivalent deal, expecting other California dealers to follow the suit,  especially since there is a large inventory of 2013 SRT Vipers in California (Carl Burger offered hefty discounts on 2014 Vipers).

To my dismay, even though I was able to locate dealers offering similar savings on 2013 base SRT cars, these cars lacked the specific options I sought while including options I did not want (the available discounted cars either lacked the track pack or included SRT stripes).  When I approached the dealers who had the cars with the desired option, track pack specifically and 2013 model year, these dealers happened to refuse to offer any discounting at all and at the same time, happened to earn very negative ratings from their customers.

Due to my frustration, I have contacted you personally, through your Twitter account and to my surprise, I have received a response from you, followed by an email from your marketing manager, Carol Desantis,  with assurance of facilitating my purchase by connecting me with a local dealer, Normandin Chrysler and Dodge, in San Jose.

Unfortunately, that dealer did not have a car with my specific options and interestingly enough, was not even interested in discounting 2013 cars.

Upon notifying Ms. Desantis of the outcome of my contact, I decided to contact several other dealers, located in Southern California who happened to have the exact car I was looking for. 

To say that my contacts were both frustrating and aggravating would be a very kind thing to do.  After trying several times to obtain a reasonable price, while attempting to help Viper by purchasing a second one, I have given up completely.  Between the quality of the sales personnel I have dealt with and sales tactics on part of the dealerships, I have decided to abandon my purchase completely.

At the same time, I have contacted several dealerships specializing in sales of Porsche and Aston Martin vehicles and was literally blown away by the difference in level of customer service, the difference was absolutely astounding.  Needless to say, I have directed my attention to these particular brands as my next purchase, refusing to go through the same frustrating Chrysler dealership experience once again.

Obviously, I am only one lost Viper sale.  However, I suspect that my experience is not unique and several lost customers like myself may further compound the sales problems SRT Viper faces currently.

I would strongly recommend that your team considers using a system of vouchers, rewarding current Viper owners considering another purchase, while retaining their current cars to spare them from the perils of dealing with dealerships apparently not qualified to sell a vehicle such as SRT Viper.  Since the sales of the remaining unsold cars should be a top priority in attempt to save SRT Viper, I would recommend that you take my recommendation in your consideration.

Sincerely,

PeterMJ

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