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  1. Billfred

    Thank you, peace out, and one plug

    I walked into the car business just over seven years ago, a photographer with a glorified title just as the bottom fell out of everything. It's been a fun ride with an indescribable cast of characters, but today I'm setting sail for new things in the e-commerce world. But before I go, thank...
  2. Billfred

    Customer Wait Area TV Options

    I can't confirm it, but I know our waiting area has a lot of CBS clips so I'm 99% sure it's ABN. My FIRST Robotics Competition team uses Screenly for its pit sponsor display, which is based on the Raspberry Pi platform (read: I throw a new SD card in my RasPi when we go compete). It would...
  3. Billfred

    How's you're 55+ old parent or grandparent USING their smartphone?

    My mom turns (coughcoughcough) this year, and she got an iPhone the day after I got my 6 last year. (She planned to buy my 5 off me, but AT&T was putting way more on the trade-in and she settled on a 6...and she didn't even have to stand in line!) She doesn't use it as much as I do, but she's...
  4. Billfred

    Looking to Advertise with someone, have quesiton

    This, this, this. Get the free stuff, then the cheap stuff. And it doesn't get much cheaper than $5 a car on Craigslist. If you wanted to get real fancy, go to the App Store and try Burner for cheap call tracking. (Burner is not my first choice for the application since it won't tie into a...
  5. Billfred

    Uncle Joe's Make Over Diary

    (Said knowing the ELR's back seats are cozy) The photographer was in the right ballpark, but I think a couple minor things would've taken it from a single to at least a triple. Definitely, pan about 15° left and downplay the back seat as much as possible without putting a stupid crop on the...
  6. Billfred

    Software/program for uploading to dealer billboard

    My FIRST Robotics team uses Screenly for their pit displays. It runs on a Raspberry Pi board (about $30), freemium pricing, easy to administer, keeps running when the internet quits (and it'll warn you when a screen disconnects and reconnects).
  7. Billfred

    Define A BETTER Dealership website...

    I'm just going to throw this clay pigeon up in the air expecting one of you guys to shoot it down: What if the measure we want to chase down is time on site? If we aren't nailing their needs and workflow, they leave and that number droops. If we do, we are rewarded with a closer relationship...
  8. Billfred

    Ideal size for Photo Booth

    Joe pretty much nailed it. Practically speaking, after a few years of working out of a two-bay booth I'd push for a four-bay booth (two wide, two deep) for the added length and mobility. Like you, we had heavy duty trucks to shoot--we got up to a Sierra 2500HD in there, and I physically had to...
  9. Billfred

    Sales Positions Open at Luxury Auto Dealers Nationwide

    What if they have the invoice to prove it? ;) Seriously though, this has a lot of nuggets of wisdom for all job-hunters. I tend to be the one that receives our Craigslist responses since I have an account set up, and it boggles my mind that some people think their emails are the way to go...
  10. Billfred

    share your videos here

    I'll throw this one out there, shot with Instagram's new Hyperlapse app. We threw it on Facebook as a teaser since our first 2015 CTS hit the ground: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152716161164874
  11. Billfred

    Tracking the Used Car Reconditioning Process

    I think this would be another good use for Trello on a few fronts: 1) It's free on the base plan (and the base plan could well be enough) 2) Lots of mobile support--I about use it more on my iPhone to manage my FIRST Robotics Competition* team than I do on my laptop. (Upload a picture of the...
  12. Billfred

    Lights Camera Action - Photo Studio Thoughts 2014

    Ay caramba! Let's find the under-$100 fixes: 1) Get rid of whatever software is being used to compress those photos down (no modern platform makes that lossy a compression, do they?), use something legit like PS Elements ($100) or even just FastStone Photo Resizer ($30) if you aren't really...
  13. Billfred

    Window Sticker App

    We have our stock-in folks input the supplier amount on a certain DMS line, then have our pricing spreadsheet pull that in when we need to call upon it. The price the world sees is then a separate DMS line that we tell our data folks to pull. Tedious? A bit, moreso at the first of the month...
  14. Billfred

    (Columbia SC) Experienced Internet Sales Manager

    Jim Hudson Buick/GMC/Cadillac is growing and looking for an experienced internet sales manager, available immediately. If you're detail-oriented, strong with both the written word and on the telephone, and as motivated about selling cars and top customer service as we are, come work with the top...
  15. Billfred

    It just got REAL! $5 per post starting 12/3

    Alright, we've lived in the New Era a month now. What is everyone seeing? Yesterday, seven (yes, 7, number after six) ads were posted to /ctd/ in Columbia...and five were ours. Day before: 16 (and 5 were ours). The cars that are there are obviously getting more attention (cars from January 1...
  16. Billfred

    It just got REAL! $5 per post starting 12/3

    Agreed; some of our biggest hits on Craigslist (at least going by old VDP data) included new conversion vans and lift trucks, and nobody ever accused them of being cheap. We also had some play on run-of-the-mill new inventory; maybe not enough that I'd drop five hundred clams a month on it, but...
  17. Billfred

    It just got REAL! $5 per post starting 12/3

    The calls seem to be picking up last week, from the glance at the call logs. Here's something else new for you: the ability to link to your other listings. It's off by default for whatever you have up, but this sounds promising and subtle encouragement for dealers not to hold back.
  18. Billfred

    It just got REAL! $5 per post starting 12/3

    Yes, dunno, and yes on our part; apparently a state capital is not "big" enough for them to introduce the feature. (I wound up putting ads on my personal card, calling my issuer, having them note it on the account, and getting reimbursed.)
  19. Billfred

    It just got REAL! $5 per post starting 12/3

    Columbia's also showing a precipitous drop-off in postings too; almost all the active postings are ours right now. Good for us! Is anyone else having issues with credit card rejections? We can't buy blocks here (CL doesn't support it in Columbia), and our corporate purchasing card is kicking...
  20. Billfred

    It just got REAL! $5 per post starting 12/3

    ...resources they now put to use by giving us 24 photos per car. Nice to have a boost there to show off a clean car!