automax sales training scam

Some car dealers use them to screen and train salesman.The techniques used are deceptive, both in the hiring, training and sales techniques.They tell you come to class $400 wk pay plus commissions.After all day in class she annouces that we the employees pay for the training.I will never buy a vehicle at a dealership that uses these con techniques to sell cars.

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Isn�t the worst scam out there but they definitely misrepresent the facts to draw you in. The ad here in Northern Illinois was posted by one of the largest auto dealers in the area, Lou Bachrodt Motors, and said they were looking for ethical, honest sales people, offered free training and a guaranteed draw (less than minimum wage but still a paycheck). The ad does state that the �paid training� starts when hired but there is no indication that you'll have to pay to get hired. When you apply you�re interviewed by a guy from Automax who puts you through a battery of "personality testing", word association and other pointless sh*t that has nothing to do with your experience or abilities. If you're one of the lucky few, Dave �invites� to participate in the training, shakes your hand and tells you to you have to commit to showing up for three days of training starting tomorrow and don�t show up without a tie on (the ladies undoubtedly get some other fashion instructions). If you�ve got a job or appointments you�re out of luck. In my case I was free, but I could have spent my time far more productively than wasting it with this clown. At this point you are likely to assume that you�ve been selected for the �paid training� as advertised although you�d not have much of a case in a lawsuit. You have to show up with a bag lunch because there is purportedly too much information to cover in the time allotted (the first day ran a full 9 1/2 hours, mostly trainer Dave rambling on about his amazing exploits, real imagined or invented) so you�re basically in this guy�s control the whole time. This is classic indoctrination stuff, find a group of desperate people, deprive them of any outside influence and they�ll do exactly what they�re told and indeed we did.

My trainer, Dave, was a classic example of a smarmy, arrogant high pressure car salesman and he pulled out all stops on the poor schmucks in the classroom. For 3 hours or so he describes the huge commissions, bonuses, spiffs etc. you can expect to earn if hired (no, you haven�t been hired yet but you haven't quite figured that out yet). He then gives you a little taste of �sales training� which basically revolves around manipulating people into buying cars they probably don�t need. The guy was so over the top it would have been amusing if it weren't for the fact that my back was aching from sitting in a chair for hours listening to his rants. Somewhere in the course of listening to Dave's fantasies about his Swiss bank accounts and his resort in the Bahamas (I kid you not) Our driver's licenses were collected for a DMV search. Seven or eight hours into this thing he informs you that, not only are you not being paid for this training, it�s gonna cost you the discounted price of only 399.00 to be paid if you get hired, but reimbursed if you stay on with Bachrodt for 90 days. Before leaving you have to fill out a form (the first of many) and agree to call him in the evening, in my case 8:30 now 11 hours into this sh*t, to state your intention to show up the next day. I talked to him that evening and challenged the ethics of some of his sales techniques. He assured me that they were only suggestions but if I followed the overall outline I�d be successful. Having just come out of real estate, and having sat through numerous sales seminars I can tell you no Realtor, at least in my state, would get away with what he was suggesting without getting sued. Still, against my better judgement, I agreed to show up the next day. Day 2 is much the same except he pulls out his guaranteed strategy to make 50k in your first year which is basically the same old crap about begging your friends and relatives to buy a car, sending out postcards, analyzing personality types, etc. If you�ve had any sales training at all you�ve heard all of this before. Again you eat lunch in the conference room but this time he buys, making a big show of giving the pizza guy 60 bucks, keep the change. Two slices of pizza amounted to my net pay for investing three days of my life in this proposition. The next day is interview day with the dealership manager so you gotta wear a suit, even though their salespeople wear business casual. You don�t get an appointment so you show up at 9:30 and wait your turn, I didn�t get out until 2:30. During the interview I made the mistake of telling the manager I�d love to sell cars but I�ve been in business for 25 years and I walked away from every deal with clean hands, I never scammed a client. That was the kiss of death. After the interviews you sit through another hour of this guy�s stories about the good old days scamming hapless buyers in the seventies. Then come the exit interviews and again you wait in line. When my turn finally came there was good news and bad news. The bad news was I didn�t get hired. But wait! For only 150.00 I could get my Automax Training Certificate I could hawk around town at the used car lots and maybe get a commission only job. Or we could shake hands and go our separate ways. I reached out my hand, probably too generous under the circumstances.

Now to be perfectly honest, had I been offered the job I would have showed up ready able and willing to give it my best shot. And I really don�t blame management for subcontracting some of their hiring chores. But I could have spent 10 minutes with the manager, he could have told me I�m not what they�re looking for, and I�d still have almost three days left to find another job or mow my lawn or spend time with my wife and kids. At this point rest assured I will never buy a car from Bachrodt Motors and should the subject come up I would advise friends and family to avoid them as well because of their association with Automax.

I wasted three days of my life on this crap but as always learned a couple things. Apparently the car business hasn�t changed much in the last 40 years, they still hire scumbags to sell cars or at least sales training. And jobseekers have become so desperate that they�ll endure any indignity just to get their face in front of a hiring manager. And I learned a bit about human nature. Most of my classmates, many of whom were intelligent and formerly successful people, were literally eating out of Dave's hand by day three. It was embarrassing to watch.

Bottom line is, if you�ve got the time, do the Automax thing only if you�re guaranteed reimbursement if you get hired, the training by itself is crap and available for free. If you get hired with a guaranteed draw you�ll be working a week and a half to pay for it but if you�ve got no other prospects give it a shot, you can�t make money sitting on your ass. If you're burdened by ethical constraints car sales is not for you. And be aware going in, Automax doesn�t give a sh*t about your time and the dealership doesn�t either.

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I agree 100% on Automax ! I just completed my first and last day of this scam, geez .....I'm gonna pay $499 to be told basic sales strategies! Worst part of this experience is that I will NEVER buy a car from any dealer that uses them because everything is so deceiving, stay very far away from Automax!