For proof that Sam approved the posting of the state­ment, click here to read his text messages. Quote: Sam said, “Everything good and it's all 100% true”.

To read about the other side's attempt to get Sam to sign a false state­ment, click here.

What Happened to Me at Fremont-Toyota

Statement by Kulwant S. Pawar aka “Sam” Pawar

The happiest day of my life came when I got a job at Fremont-Toyota as an Internet Auto Sales Manager. It seemed like a great op­por­tun­ity.

Things turned negative, though, within a few days.

Dodge van:

I sold a Dodge van to an Indian couple. They asked me, “Can we get a lower in­ter­est rate?”

I told them, “I'm in the Sales Depart­ment. I can handle the sale but for interest-rate ques­tions, you'll need to talk to the Finance per­son.”

I took the couple to the Finance Depart­ment and left them there. The Finance Manager on duty was Ayub Mohammad Jalal.

After 5 to 10 minutes, I heard raised voices. I went back to that office to see what was hap­pen­ing. The Indian couple was very upset. They said that they didn't want to buy the van or any vehicle from Fremont-Toyota in the future.

I asked, “What happened?” They said that Ayub had told them to get out of his office. I asked them to calm down and said I'd go talk to Ayub.

I asked Ayub Mohammad Jalal the same question: “What happened?”

Ayub was furious. He shouted at me, “Why you tell them about the lower in­ter­est rates?! How can we make money if we tell them about those rates?!”

I was shocked but re­main­ed calm. I responded, “Sir, only the Finance per­son can answer the type of ques­tions that the cus­tom­ers were asking. I brought them to you be­cause that is the pro­ce­dure.”

I wasn't sure of what to do next. I brought the couple back in and tried to straight­en things out.

Ayub Mohammad Jalal start­ed to rage again. He said, “All of you Indians are like that!!” He threw a file on the floor and shouted at me, "Stupid salesperson!! Why you tell­ing them about lower in­ter­est rate!!"

I said, “Sir, you can't talk to me like this”. Ayub shouted, "F*ck you! Get out of my office, you stupid man!"

It took 15 to 20 minutes to calm everybody down. In the end, a deal was reached and the cus­tom­ers bought a vehicle.

I felt distressed by the incident. Ayub had made in­sult­ing remarks about Indians and the remarks about “F*ck you” and “you stupid man” weren't espe­cial­ly respectful.

However, the part that concerned me the most was the fact that Fremont-Toyota's goal in this case seemed to be, not to profit from a le­gi­ti­mate sale, but to drive up the customers' costs by, in effect, lying to them.

Toyota RAV4:

I sold a Toyota RAV4. It was late at night. The Finance per­son on duty was Naqib U. Halimi.

I went to the office and asked, “When can I bring my current cus­tom­ers in to sign?” Naqib told me to get out and wait. He called me in and I was surprised to learn that he'd credit­ed half of the deal to another sales-per­son.

I asked Naqib, “What's going on? What are you doing?” He said, “You asking lower in­ter­est rate from Ayub Mohammad Jalal and that's your pun­ish­ment. I'm taking your half-deal and giving to other per­son.”

“You can't do that,” I said. “I'll com­plain to the manager”. Naqib start­ed to laugh. He said, “Go and com­plain to your Hindu god also and no one will help you”.

I complained and Naqib was correct. Nobody in man­age­ment did a thing. They seemed to think that it was amusing.

This hap­pen­ed more than once. In fact, it became a reg­u­lar occurrence.

Toyota Thundra:

I sold my first Toyota Thundra truck. I asked one ques­tion of an Internet sales mana­ger named Raffi Mohammed Hashemi.

To complete the deal, I was required to enter cus­tom­er information into soft­ware that I hadn't been trained on. It was sup­posed to be Raffi's role to answer ques­tions about this. So I asked him, “How do I do this?”

Raffi came and sat at my table and pressed a button and filled in the cus­tom­er information. That was all.

We were paid two types of checks, one for base salary and one for com­mis­sion. A few weeks after the Thundra deal closed, I re­ceived the com­mis­sion check that was sup­posed to cover that deal. It showed just half the amount.

The pro­ce­dure was that we were sup­posed to ask the desk mana­ger about pay­ment issues. I did so. He told me that they'd given Raffi half of my com­mis­sion because Raffi had helped me. He add­ed, “Don't waste time asking about this. Go make another sale.”

Every company has its own policies. But this wasn't normal.

Trying to stop the racial attacks:

I talked to my boss Abdul Alocozy. I told him that Naqib Halimi was giving me a hard time.

Abdul talked to the two of us about the situation. He told me, “You've only been here a week. Why are you causing problems?” But that was only a little. He said a lot more to Naqib. So, I thought that things would improve.

But things didn't improve.

The sales pro­cess required me to get num­bers from the Sales Desk. When I tried to get the num­bers, they called me “Mr. Curry”. They called me “Mr. Turtle” as well be­cause I walked slowly due to age and medical issues. They mocked me in other ways. It was unpleas­ant.

I asked one per­son, “Why is this happening?” He said, “It's be­cause you complained about Naqib Halimi. It isn't just that these peo­ple are all Afghans and Muslims. They're re­la­ted by marriage. So, they're going to make you pay for in­sult­ing a rela­tive.”

I said to myself, “It's O.K. Time and patience will solve the problems. I'll just con­cen­trate on my work. I drive 2 hours to get here, 2 hours to go home, and they're calling me Mr. Curry and Mr. Turtle. But I love my job even if it isn't going well at Fremont-Toyota.”

Ajmal Mohabat:

Ajmal Mohabat, a closer, tar­get­ed me.

A closer is the per­son who's assigned to manipulate cus­tom­ers who are sus­pi­cious about pos­si­ble fraud. Their role is to soothe the cus­tom­ers and tell them that every­thing is fine and they should just agree to the deal that is being offer­ed.

Ajmal lied to anybody about any­thing. I don't think that he'd know a true state­ment if it bit him on the rear end. In my case, he sabotaged my sales. I found out that he was talking to cus­tom­ers who'd come in to buy from me and try­ing to per­suade them to buy from Muslims instead.

I asked Ajmal about one cus­tom­er that he'd talked to. Ajmal said, “Oh, he doesn't want to buy and he has bad credit besides.”

I called the cus­tom­er. He said, “I told Ajmal Mohabat that I was there to buy from Kulwant Pawar and nobody else and he tried to change my mind”.

I ended up selling that cus­tom­er a truck. Ajmal Mohabat was angry. His reaction was, “You in­sult­ed me by selling to a cus­tom­er when I said he didn't want to buy”.

The sales­people in the aud­i­ence understand that sales sabotage is con­sid­er­ed not just disrespectful but open warfare. Good sales­people feel strongly about cus­tom­ers and sales.