Concerned Fellow GM Dealer

[partsman103]

Above is the title of a letter sent to our Owner. Anyone else receive 1 of these? If you have or haven't, what's your thought about this? We have cards mailed to the dealership and the owner decides on what he wants to use them for. Most of the time he gives them away to employees, either for doing a great job or going above and beyond on an issue. Sometimes the dealer even gives them to random customers.

The only "issue" I have with this letter is the anonymity. Why send this letter without signing your name to it? Be a Man (or a woman) and include your contact info if your going to send out something like this.

anyway, here's the contents of the letter

Fellow GM Dealer / Dealer Operator / GM

As a GM dealer myself, i know you would probably like this information. My parts managers recently found that some of my employees are receiving under the table gift cards for engine or transmission purchases from other GM dealers and paying to much at the cost of my dealership to get the card. However, it does makes best business sense to buy engines and transmissions from other truckload buying dealers with deeper discounts with no caard than we can buy at our dealer cost direct from GM, with the ability to receive it the same or next day in most cases, not having to wait 3-5 days to come from Michigan. Taking care of our customers quicker.

As my Parts Manager explained to me.

The OE Connection "D2D" parts locator website, that GM parts dept. employees use to find parts needed for their customers. This locator shows all dealers who have the engine or transmission in stock that your parts person is needing. There are advertising tag lines attached to some selling dealer's ad that say $50, $100, or $150 gift card with the purchase of engine or transmission from their store. The engine or transmission is being bought at a discount below GM dealer cost (that's great), but with a gift card sent to the buyer. However, you can buy the same engine or transmission from other truckload dealers on the locator offering a deeper discount with no gift card to the buyer, saving your dealership money. So basically, your delaership is paying more for the parts person gift card.

IS THIS RIGHT?....... I THINK NOT!

Example Below :

(A) - 12530282 Engine with a GM delaer cost of $2514.00 with a selling dealer D2D offering 20% discount = $2011.00 cost to your dealership and a gift card of $100 or more to the parts person, sent to their home in most cases.

(B) - Same case the 12530282 with a 28%-35% discount from a non-participating gift card dealer = $1634.00 Saving your dealership a difference of $377.00

I Don't know how you feel about this practice, but I pay my employees to do a job and to do it using ethics and morals with our dealerships best interest and profits in mind. We are now purchasing from non-gift card selling truckload dealers saving us money!

I had to terminate several because of this practice. No one will work at my store and receive anything for purchasing at my company's expense!......... I'm not saying your employees would do this, it's just an FYI

Concerned Fellow
GM Dealer

[LOKI1]

Yes our owner received one also. I never keep anything as he pays me very good. I would like to know who sent it also as it could cause a lot of problems for some people. If your not taken care of by the owner I could understand taking those cards but it's not an issue for me.

[X476]

I have never got the promised card, so either the dealer is keeping them or giving them to the parts manager and he is keeping them. I order the powertrain from the dealer that can get it to me when I need it and at a good price. If they don't offer a card so be it.

[FixedManager]

As a marketing idea I like it.

The real issue is General Motors unfair tilting of the playing field by helping the big dealerships grow at the expense of the small/medium franchisees. If one dealership can be profitable on the truck-load program while offering twenty-eight percent discounts think of the sales available if the General offered fair pricing to all franchised dealerships.

[Fixed Ops Mgr]

The real issue is General Motors unfair tilting of the playing field by helping the big dealerships grow at the expense of the small/medium franchisees. If one dealership can be profitable on the truck-load program while offering twenty-eight percent discounts think of the sales available if the General offered fair pricing to all franchised dealerships.

Well stated! GM helps the big boys get bigger and the small/medium dealers can hardly survive. Their are so many available resources and so much money that goes through the mega dealers it is sickening. The mega dealers get other dealerships parts employees to bite by tempting them with a gift card if they purchase powertrain from their dealership, yes they are advertised all over the locator. Is it right - no, however it is smart marketing to drive more sales into their store and help them get bigger and bigger. There will always be dealers, companies, vendors who "spiff" dealership employees to sell and promote their product.
Parts employees are enticed with gift cards while service consultants are tempted with money spiffs for selling a fluid flush and the list goes on and on.

Second part to the equation. It is human nature for some employees to work their pay plans to the maximum or get a spiff on the side whenever they can. In this day and age a lot of people are only concerned with padding their back pockets. That is very sad. I have some in the store which I work at and you can see them a mile away. I believe that if an employee is being taken care of by their owner/general manager they should work for the dealership's profits and customer satisfaction which will help ensure they have a job. It's not always about the money-my dealer has paid for excessive sick time leave and held employees jobs for them when they had to be out of work for many months due to their own or their families health problems. Those kind of things you can not put a price on. If a employee has true values and morals within them they should not be looking to get whatever they can on the side. If they are that unhappy or underpaid that they need a "spiff" maybe they should seek other employment.


Lastly. I would have to agree with the dealer that wrote the letter (even though he/she should have spell checked it) I would not tolerate employees getting spiffs on the side for doing the job they are supposed to be doing for the pay they are receiving in their position. I do not believe parts counterman should get gift cards, tvs, shotguns for making a deal with another dealer, company, vendor. I also do not believe that a service consultants should get a spiff for selling a flush to a customer because that spiff price is built into the product cost when purchasing from the vendor. The dealer is correct in saying that his costs from the gift card dealer are higher because he is in fact buying the gift card.

[camaroman]

We have received some of these in the past and I divide them up with my counter guys. My guys do a good job and I appreciate it. This is not something we go out of our the way to get. It is part of the deal when we buy from that vendor. The owner is aware of the situation.

[possum]

My DP got this too, passed it to me and I in turn around the counter guys. No issues here, we rarely buy eng/trans from OEC and it would involve management anyway. Once in a while we get a rebate from CARQUEST or NAPA but its usually a check and goes to 687. We've received a few cards from AC Delco for battery promos etc. but they're GM sponsored. I always run these by my GM and he lets me buy biscuits for the back end or donuts for some wholesale customers. We get swag form our ADI and some tire vendors etc. but I save them up for Christmas dinner and give 'em away.

[WhoParted]

So its ok for salesmen to get spiffs, Service writers to get spiffs, but not ok for parts?

[LOKI1]

It looks like it was post marked in Jackson Ms
It looks like there are 3 of them from a google search

[SYSTEMBOB]

we always check the d2d before ordering engines or trans'. i dont think ive EVER seen the best discount not have a gift card. they all mostly say they match all discounts and gift card offers anyways.