In 1970, Led Zeppelin’s drummer John Bonham walked into a Rolls-Royce dealership in Los Angeles. Judging him by his disheveled, hippy-like looks, the car salesman veered the long-haired musician out of the showroom door and didn’t let him in until he produced a bag of cash. This is just one example. “Judgement by appearance” is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. A man who goes as u/senadi1 on Reddit shared a similar experience in a post.
The post, shared in July 2023, has since then amassed 6000 upvotes and 1000 comments. The story goes back to 2016 when the man had got a new job. “We didn’t need our two cars so my wife decided that we would sell both our cars and buy a bigger, nicer single car,” he said. “We both had well-paying and stable jobs and, additionally, had the support of a low-interest loan from parents to fund a purchase,” he added. So they did their research and came out with two options to choose from – a Ford Mondeo or a Kia Ceed with their preference for the Mondeo.
They worked out all the financials and made spreadsheets to calculate that they could afford any of these models. They found the respective local dealerships and booked appointments for both Kia and Ford. Describing their experience at the Kia showroom, he said, “We arrived at the Kia dealership and all went fine. We liked the car and the salesperson was helpful.” After the Kia demo, they trundled across to the Ford showroom for their appointment and were met by a salesman named John. He described John as an “old salesman who had probably been selling cars for years.” As it seemed to them, John had clearly made a snap decision about the young couple in front of him.
John made them sit on his desk and proceeded to explain to them how expensive and exclusive the Mondeo was and he wasn’t sure they would be able to afford it. “He asked us about our budget and we told him, but he didn’t seem to accept this. He wanted us to tell him our salaries and other financial data and we refused, saying we just wanted to test drive one. He told us he couldn’t let us do that unless he knew we were serious buyers. We even asked if we could at least see inside one and he refused that too,” the man wrote in the post.
The couple walked out of the Ford showroom, disappointed, and went back to the Kia dealership and bought the car that they drove for many years to come. But the man wasn’t done yet. He needed retribution for the salesman’s judgemental behavior. He took a picture of the Kia and sent it to the manager of the Ford branch to say that they had bought the Kia because of the actions of John. Astonishingly, the manager said that he was “devastated” because their margins were so tight, and added that John would receive a reprimand for losing them money. “Nothing worse for a sales manager than to get a call from someone saying they wanted to buy the company’s product but the salesman wouldn’t sell it to them,” commented u/macsfirstson.
Other Redditors found this post quite relatable. They joined the thread by writing about similar instances from their lives in the comment section. For example, u/ohmaint recalled, “This happens to my wife and me frequently, not just with cars but any large purchases. We’ve both been working for 40-plus years at well-paying jobs. We are comfortable in jeans and tee shirts. We pull up in a 91 square-body GMC and salespeople run the other direction. We laugh about it now.”
u/knitsanity shared a similar experience about their grandmother who once went out for a car purchase. She had a pocketbook full of cash and she wanted a yellow car. She went to one dealership and they mistreated her. So, she toddled to the dealership next door where she bought a car. When she drove past the first dealership, she paused, honked, and drove on. “Apparently they looked shocked. My grandma kicked ass,” the user wrote.
