On today’s installation of The Internet Is Not To Be Trifled With, a Honda salesman found himself without a job earlier this month after posting a TikTok proudly proclaiming to have overcharged a single mom $10,000 on a new car sale. While the story was entirely made-up, the online blowback targeted towards the dealership was great enough to get him fired.
A man identified by CBS 58 Wisconsin as Kenny Rua, who goes by the TikTok username @KennySelllss, published a video earlier this year with overlay text reading, “You look happier… thanks, I just sold a single mom a car $10,000 over sticker.” The video, which has since been deleted, garnered hundreds of thousands of views and drew the ire of many commenters, according to Automotive News.
Zeigler Honda of Racine, the dealership at the center of the drama, also received its fair share of criticism at the time. On August 1st, management issued a statement on Facebook to clear things up:
We are very disappointed in the recent comments made by a salesperson on his personal social media account regarding the amount of money he sold a vehicle over MSRP. To be clear, this scenario did not happen.
His claim is false, and regardless of his intent as a joke, it is in no way representative of Zeigler Honda of Racine’s values or those of Zeigler Auto Group.
Although we value freedom of speech, we do hold our team members to a high standard of decency, truthfulness, and service—these values were not displayed in this situation.
At this moment, this person has been suspended indefinitely and is under a full investigation to assess our next steps.
Three days later, Ziegler Honda released another statement stating it had “parted ways” with Rua, adding that “[h]is actions do not represent the values we stand for as a dealership and a community of professionals.” Ouch.
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Rua was quick to issue an apology through TikTok on August 5, clarifying that his account is purely based on satire, and that he would never post “actual, true events.”
I want to apologize to the single mothers, just mothers in general. I’m a single parent myself, I know what that struggle is like. Going to work, having to take care of the kids, you know, jumping through hoops, trying to get everything done on a daily basis. It was insensitive of me to do a joke like that.
I’m no longer associated with the dealership. If you guys can just do me a solid, stop contacting them. Stop bashing them online. Stop attacking them. They did nothing wrong. It’s me. I fucked up. And I’m owning up to it.
Later that day, Rua published another TikTok claiming he had received death threats over the original video. When reached by The Autopian for comment, Rua said “idc about that shit anymore life moves on. [sic] It was a joke and I got fired it is what it is.”
Losing your livelihood over a joke with a make-believe scenario might seem like an overcorrection, but it’s tough to blame the internet. People hate scammers, and a lot of people have disdain for the franchise dealer system, too. On face value, Rua’s video is a double-whammy of evil forces taking advantage of a vulnerable individual. Not a great look!
I don’t think the dealership overreacted, either. Once a reputation sours online, it can take years to rebuild that trust with buyers. Even if the dealer itself did nothing wrong, Rua’s debacle will stay a part of Ziegler Honda’s digital footprint for a long, long time. So it was best to stamp out the issue before it metastasized.
The lesson here? Be prepared to stand behind anything you say online. Or it could come back to haunt you.
Top photo: TikTok
That is why one of my friends that works at a dealer got a license plate that says “10G DLZ”.
But it doesn’t not mean$10,000 over MSRP. It means he expects his commission to be $10,000. I bet he is (was) Rua’s manager now
Don’t tell me you’re sorry when you’re not.
You’re only sorry you got caught.
In a world where trust is so tenuous, you’re part of the reason why.
Asshole.
Even without this incident, it just blows my mind that people get on social media and act like this guy, and other people watch them do it. What an absolutely pin headed, brain rotting way to pass the time.
That explains it.
If that was supposed to be a joke…he shouldn’t quit his day job.
Oh. Wait.
Also, I firmly believe the internet/social media will turn out to be the downfall of civilization. Or, rather, what’s left of it.
For what it’s worth, I dealt with a different Ziegler dealership a while back, and while we didn’t end up putting a deal together (I held out for one in an actual color), they were very pleasant and straightforward to deal with.
Similar experience here. I custom-ordered my truck from a Ziegler franchise and there was no BS. Didn’t try to upsell me on anything throughout the process, just “here’s how much it will cost, these are your financing options.” Really smooth and straightforward transaction process.
Cars in the $60,000-135,000 bracket: the thing that always kills me is how the upper wealthy class always get huge discounts on hard-to-get vehicles that everyone else has to pay up on.
Like, no joke, multi-millionaires call their friend who is the president of the company and then they get to pay invoice for something that other people are waiting six months for and paying over sticker for. They skip the line and don’t pay up… And it doesn’t hurt the dealership, it hurts only the salesperson. It’ll be a car that we’ll only get 2-4 of a month, and half of them we won’t be allowed to make money on because some rich f*** called some other rich f***, and it literally comes out of the staff’s income. Not the owners of the dealership. Only the staff at the store.
So a car that the staff might actually get paid on a commissionable gross of, let’s say $8000 (on a $100,000 car), will now be a -$2000 (negative), so it actually comes out of the staff’s paychecks. Any time a dealer takes a negative deal, the management at the actual store loses money. The salespeople get reduced to a minimum commission, which varies from store to store (it was revealed that the Kia dealership in our city only pays $74 per car sold!).
Every single person who underpays their own employees and has crappy benefits at their own company gets hooked up with the best deals ever for frankly stupid reasons.
Meanwhile the disabled veteran who just got a settlement won’t ask for a discount and actually takes pride in being able to pay a “fair price” for a nice thing.
The wealthier I get personally, the more I detest the wealthy class.
This is only a stupid thing to do because it’s true. There are plenty of salesman who will screw anyone if they get a chance.
I purchased a Ford during the pandemic and the dealer told me that an APR of 0% and 1% are “basically the same– which do you want.”
What a stupid thing to do. Of course he got fired.