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A woman\u2019s trip to a car dealership has gone viral after a commenter warned her she may have been overheard by the dealership itself.<\/p>\n
Hannah (@hannahlynnganschow<\/a>) recorded herself during a recent visit, saying it felt like she couldn\u2019t leave until a deal was done.<\/p>\n Eventually, a manager approached and asked for her \u201cmagic number\u201d\u2014the price she\u2019d be comfortable paying for a car.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sitting here like, why don\u2019t you [expletive] do your best deal, and we\u2019ll go from there?\u201d Hannah recalls in a TikTok<\/em><\/a>. In the end, she said the dealership did come down in price, suggesting she either bought the car or was close to doing so.<\/p>\n But the real twist came in the comments. One viewer warned her to be careful about what she says in a dealership cubicle.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have microphones in the cubicles to listen to your convo when they go back to the office,\u201d the commenter wrote. \u201cI hate buying cars. It feels so gross. Wishing y\u2019all the best!\u201d<\/p>\n In a follow-up clip<\/a>, Hannah laughs as she reads the comment, then realizes how much she\u2019d said at the dealership without knowing anyone might be listening.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t say anything that bad,\u201d she says to her companion, who looks horrified. A text overlay reads, \u201cI just told him about the microphones.\u201d<\/p>\n As of Tuesday, her follow-up video had racked up over 542,000 views.<\/p>\n \u2018He’s Looking All Over:\u2019 Pennsylvania Man Tries to Buy a Volkswagen That\u2019s \u2018Spoken For.\u2019 Why’s This Model So Hard to Find?<\/a> While not universal, there\u2019s mounting anecdotal evidence that some car dealerships use microphones in their offices, often without customers realizing it. In a since-deleted 2023 post on the r\/askcarsales<\/a> Subreddit, one user claimed the dealership they visited had hidden mics capturing conversations.<\/p>\n Others backed the idea. \u201cI consult with many dealerships,\u201d one wrote. \u201cQuite a few of my stores have cameras and microphones mounted in [Finance & Insurance] offices.\u201d<\/p>\n In another thread on r\/LifeProTips<\/a>, a Redditor warned buyers to keep an eye on the desk phone speaker. If the light is on, they claimed, the conversation might be getting piped into a back office.<\/p>\n \u201cIt happened to us when I bought my first used car at a VW dealership,\u201d they wrote. After privately discussing their bottom line\u2014$1,000 under asking\u2014the salesperson returned and offered exactly what they\u2019d just agreed on. \u201cLater, I got an office job with the same phones and learned that a green light meant the microphone was active,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how common this practice is or what the intent always is. Some dealerships may record for compliance, training, or security reasons. Others likely avoid it altogether due to privacy concerns and legal gray areas.<\/p>\n The majority of US states follow \u201cone-party consent<\/a>\u201d laws, meaning only one person involved in a conversation needs to agree to the recording.<\/p>\n That can allow dealerships to legally record interactions\u2014whether during test drives, financing talks, or service appointments\u2014without informing the customer.<\/p>\n However, the rules aren\u2019t the same<\/a> everywhere. Some states require all parties to consent or mandate that businesses post clear disclosures informing patrons that they are being recorded.<\/p>\n Even in one-party states, legal experts say dealers should tread carefully, especially if microphones are recording private conversations without direct participation.<\/p>\n Hannah never confirmed whether the dealership she visited was actually recording her, but the comment she highlighted sparked a wave of distrust in the replies.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why my husband and I sit there and text each other,\u201d one woman said. \u201cWe don\u2019t say a word. Trust no one at a car dealership.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDo not talk in the office or cubicles,\u201d another warned.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some commenters, however, many claiming to have worked at dealerships, dismissed the idea entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never seen this in any dealership,\u201d one person wrote. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s common.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I\u2019ve worked at dealerships, and that was never a thing,\u201d said another.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLol my husband is a salesman and this is not a thing,\u201d a third added. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t care what you say on your test drive. This is funny tho.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLiterally not true,\u201d another insisted.<\/p>\n Motor1<\/em> has reached out to Hannah via a TikTok direct message. We’ll be sure to update this if she responds.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A woman\u2019s trip to a car dealership has gone viral after a commenter warned her she may have ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-coverage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2764,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2761\/revisions\/2764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Are Dealerships Actually Listening In?<\/h2>\n
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