Dear Autobytel, Dealix, Edmunds & KBB

[JQuinn]

Wow. These providers better start blocking some IP addresses and fast.

Incredible. I didn't give them credit for being smart enough to pull-off something like this.

[Jeff Kershner]

I've hit China my friend!

NothiIke'sike a hot shower to get the thinking cap going. So here is my theory or should we say conspiracy theory.

TrueCar is high and mighty on their program, not to mention arrogant and deceitful. Here is what’s happening: The lead arrives to TrueCar, they quickly submit the information to their clients who start marketing to the customers. Then a day or two later, TrueCar has an automated program that populates other 3^rd party lead sites directly. TrueCar only submits to these sites when they know they have no dealers on their program in that particular zip code. Why do this you ask? That’s the question I’ve been pondering for days now. It took me a while, but here it is. The AutobyTel, Dealex, Edmunds & KBB dealers arrive to the party a day or two late. The TrueCar dealers have made contact and are on their way to a sale. The other third party dealers start making the calls and they get the following from the customer, “sorry we’re all set, we’re going with ABC motors and we have a TrueCar price.” Not to mention customers get frustrated by all the e-mail and phone activity making TruCar look like the knight in shining armor. Internet managers start complaining that they are losing sales to other dealers and TrueCar. They convince the boss that they too need to be on TrueCar and TrueCar has added another customer to its ranks. Not to mention they drive the value of other lead providers down since dealers are paying for junk leads that have already been worked by TrueCar dealers.

Brilliant marketing plan on the part of TrueCar if this in fact true. My guess it’s True after what I have seen.

AutobyTel, Dealex, Edmunds & KBB, my apologies to all four of you. It appears we are all part of a scam organized by TrueCar. You all need to examine your leads and see if you can determine a pattern of origination.

Jerry, I've brought this to light with several lead providers in the past years and have heard the exact same thing. They were able to track someone had physically entered in my personal information into a lead form. My response - "wasn't me."

I've sworn for years that customers information was being manually re-entered or some type of automated bot was doing it.

As I've said before, I hate calling out the 3rd party lead providers since I have a great relationship with many go them and many of the people involved (and I'm sure they're not even aware of the tricks) but it's nothing more than the business of reselling information and who truly knows where the leads originate from and how many times the information has been sold and resold.

With that being said, I have achieved low double digit closing ratios with 3rd party leads. The norm is usually in the mid single digits.

[Jerry Thibeau]

Either the third party leads providers are lying to me or TrueCar is up to no good. Either way it's all crap and dealers should avoid these companies like the plague.

[ddavis]

Jerry, I've brought this to light with several lead providers in the past years and have heard the exact same thing. They were able to track someone had physically entered in my personal information into a lead form. My response - "wasn't me."

I've sworn for years that customers information was being manually re-entered or some type of automated bot was doing it.

As I've said before, I hate calling out the 3rd party lead providers since I have a great relationship with many go them and many of the people involved (and I'm sure they're not even aware of the tricks) but it's nothing more than the business of reselling information and who truly knows where the leads originate from and how many times the information has been sold and resold.

With that being said, I have achieved low double digit closing ratios with 3rd party leads. The norm is usually in the mid single digits.

I found that one of the lead providers, mentioned above, was selling me 90 day old leads, recycled and sold back to me.

Maybe, I'm just lucky, but I have always been able to generate enough of my own leads without having to buy any. I know that my own leads close at a much higher percentage rate.

Now that dealers have given access to their DMS, what is to stop TrueCar from selling the information on a lease customer that is two and a have years into a lease? They might want to contact them directly.

[tomwhitejr]

Does anyone have a copy of a TrueCar Dealer Agreement? I would love to see the small writing at the bottom.

[ddavis]

ZAG sends out a lead to 4 or 5 stores. They need access to their DMS so they can charge the biggest whore, the fee.

[Alex Snyder]

Who here is using Zag? I have an offline question I want to ask you.

[tomwhitejr]

Just received a call from a HOUSTON, TX car dealership responding to my Suzuki SX4 request. HOUSTON Freaking Texas!!!

[ddavis]

Does anyone have a copy of a TrueCar Dealer Agreement? I would love to see the small writing at the bottom.

See page 15

http://api.ning.com/files/5-3bsza-hv...ETredacted.pdf

[Alex Snyder]

Not much there about what they're exactly looking at in the DMS. I'm no lawyer, but without any descriptive items in the addendum it sure sounds like the DMS is WIDE OPEN!