INFINITI of Clarendon Hills

Used car sales managers like Joe Belmonte are the reason women dread walking into car dealerships. My daughter and I were having a lovely experience with Hani, one of the sales reps, who was quite helpful and professional. We were negotiating over the value of a trade in of a pristine Jeep Renegade with zero need for reconditioning, and as is usually the case, Hani was going back and forth to the sales manager (Belmonte) to run numbers. I had just entered my credit application on Hani's tablet and hit "submit" when Joe, visibly upset and red in the face, entered the room with Hani. Joe, who I have never met previously, proceeded to lecture, berate and belittle me for suggesting that I was trying to "equalize" the value of my (lowly) Jeep Renegade to the prestigious 2015 Q60, which is untrue, and he seemed tremendously irritated by my having the audacity to drive my Jeep onto his lot. The clear message was that he had zero interest in taking my vehicle on trade, behaving so offensively that all I could do was ask for my vehicle's keys so I could walk out the door, which I promptly did. I am a highly educated executive and was made to feel like a ditsy blonde who had no clue what I was doing. I have bought and sold more luxury vehicles than most of his staff, and needless to say, this was highly offensive. It was evident that Hani was mortified and kept apologizing profusely once Joe hurriedly left when I think he realized he had crossed the line. This dealership has very good reviews, which doesn't surprise me if the rest of the sales staff is as quality as Hani. And I'm sure the vast majority of customers don't encounter Joe, and/or aren't bringing in a trade brand that he feels is beneath him. If you are a woman and you make any attempt to negotiate, you will likely encounter this clearly sexist individual with obvious anger management issues. Joe's temper tantrum resulted in a lost future loyal customer, lost future service revenue, loss of positive word of mouth and gain of negative word of mouth. Apparently he hasn't learned that car sales are all about relationships and there is a way to say, "I don't think we'll be able to make these numbers work" professionally without bullying and humiliating the customer. What topped it all off for me was that my credit score took a hit because a credit check was run. I feel Hani was so distracted and taken aback by Joe's behavior, as was I, that we forgot all about it and what that would have done to lower the quoted high interest rate (credit score 800.) My daughter and I immediately visited another Infiniti dealer where we scored an amazing deal and much lower interest rate on the same vehicle, much better than what Joe had dug in on, and were treated with dignity and respect. All you girls out there who can smell car dealer gender bias a mile away, make sure the sales rep you are working with at Clarendon Hills Infiniti keeps Joe in the back room.