A shady vendor has a good reason to discredit a forum like DealerRefresh: DealerRefresh keeps them honest.
DealerRefresh is where we (dealers) get together and discuss what works best for us, how much we should pay for various services, what we should pay our employees.
Just as a labor union helps protect employees from exploitative employers (by sharing information, collective bargaining, etc), DealerRefresh helps protect dealerships from exploitative vendors.
Those representatives have their heads in the sand. They are selling to an industry that has been radically changed by the availability of information to consumers. Didn't they think the seachange in our business was going to change the way they do business?
Thank you for standing up for our community. Perhaps we need an attitude like "show me the carfax!" so vendors know to put their internet forum prejudices away when doing business with us...
"Oh you want to swindle me? No thanks, I'm Refreshed."
In this case, I think it was a learning experience for them. I consider myself part of the Refresh community and I'm sure they had never met one of "us". I believe this vendor group found me positive and knowledgeable. It was not what they expected. I continue to do business with them; infact, I have increased my expenditure. I talked to my rep today and another one of their reps visited this morning. I had this type of relationship when I was in Dallas and it continues in Phoenix.