I'm Angry and Need to GRIPE!

Dealers discuss their frustration with DealerRater's advertising model, specifically the practice of selling ad space on competitors' review pages at relatively low cost ($99/month for certification). The original poster feels pressured by the site's sales tactics—being told competitors are interested in buying the ad slot on his page—which he views as extortion, while other participants acknowledge the practice is ethically questionable but strategically sound in a competitive marketplace. The key insight is a divide between principle and pragmatism: while dealers agree the sales approach feels manipulative, most accept it as a cost of doing business, with some (like Craig and Jeff Kershner) reporting strong ROI and recommending dealers engage fully with the platform rather than resist it.

A dealer complained about a competitor on AutoTrader listing vehicles with conditional pricing language ($1,000 minimum trade-in and $500 cash down required), which Blake Arbogast questioned as potentially fraudulent. AutoTrader's official representative confirmed the practice violates their best practices guidelines and committed to having a district sales manager address it with the offending dealer. The thread concluded positively, with participants praising AutoTrader for taking swift action and noting that such deceptive advertising could violate both platform policies and manufacturer franchise agreements.

Dealers and industry professionals criticize BZ Results' website platform for its generic, easily recognizable design templates and expensive customization options, particularly around Buzz Mail campaigns and PPC landing pages ($750 charge noted). While some users report success with BZ when actively managing the relationship and investing in optimization, multiple contributors highlight poor SEO performance, usability issues, and lack of differentiation across dealer sites using the same platform. The consensus suggests BZ Results underperforms compared to competitors when dealers aren't heavily involved in customization and optimization efforts.

Katie criticizes dealerships for posting vague, non-informative Facebook updates that serve no real purpose beyond appearing active on social media. Respondents agree that dealership Facebook pages are ineffective and instead advocate for individual salespeople to use their personal accounts to authentically network with friends and prospects, rather than having businesses try to befriend customers directly.

A Canadian Dealer.com user vents about declining service and forced migration to an inferior platform after Auto Trader Canada acquired a stake in the company, with several other Canadian dealers chiming in with similar frustrations about incompetent account reps and broken promises. The consensus is that Dealer.com Canada operates under Auto Trader's management and has become a degraded version of the U.S. platform, leaving dealers considering switching providers entirely. The thread notably concludes with the area manager responding directly to the criticism, suggesting the post gained real attention but without clear resolution to the underlying issues.

A dealer frustrated with a competitor using P.O. boxes in his market area to game Google Maps positioning seeks advice on whether this is acceptable competitive practice or unethical, and what recourse he has. Despite reporting the listings to Google over 10 times and escalating to his Acura rep and compliance, nothing has changed, leaving him without a solution. The thread concludes that while the practice violates Google's quality guidelines, Google's poor customer service makes enforcement difficult, and most responders advise against retaliating in kind despite the competitor's unethical behavior.

A GM dealer asks for recommendations on AUTOSKED, an online service scheduling tool popular with Toyota dealers. Respondents largely steer away from AUTOSKED due to its clunky interface and suggest alternatives like AutoRevenue, XTime, and Time Highway as more user-friendly options with better marketing integration. The consensus is that while AUTOSKED offers comprehensive features, there are simpler, more intuitive scheduling solutions available that may better suit dealers seeking primarily an online booking tool.

SlickRick questions the ROI of traditional print trader magazines for automotive marketing, noting that most of his sales come from internet channels and finding these publications outdated. While GreenLight suggests free trader magazines reach a diminishing audience, Joe Pistell counters that effectiveness depends heavily on market-specific variables like distribution, demographics, and ad trackability, recommending dealers test campaigns with trackable offers to measure actual results rather than rely on assumptions.

Stefan alerts the community to use.com, a service his competitor is leveraging for Craigslist templates to streamline their classified ad postings. Jeff Kershner confirms the utility of such tools for one-off listings and counters with an alternative recommendation, vflyer.com, suggesting dealers have multiple options for template-based advertising solutions.

Dealers debate whether Autotrader's default high-to-low price sorting is a manipulative tactic to boost page views and ad revenue, or a legitimate algorithm choice that maximizes shopper exposure to all inventory. While some users argue the sorting drives dealers toward premium paid listings and benefits higher-priced vehicles, a representative from Autotrader (or knowledgeable user) counters that high-to-low sorting actually keeps shoppers browsing longer across all price points, and that competitors like Cars.com use the same approach.

Automotive professionals debate the merits of Microsoft's Bing search engine versus Google, with most users acknowledging that while Google delivers superior search results and has their loyalty, Bing is gaining market share due to better branding, visual design features, and its position as the default search engine in Internet Explorer. The key insight is that despite Google's technical superiority, Bing's growth reflects how most users—especially less tech-savvy ones—default to whatever search engine comes pre-installed rather than actively choosing based on quality.

JohnScott raises concerns about how browser tab usage skews website analytics, particularly time-on-page metrics, since visitors may open multiple tabs and spend time on other pages while the original tab remains open. Participants discuss whether these inflated metrics are truly problematic, with consensus emerging that while tab browsing does create measurement inaccuracies, these errors are "universally incorrect" across all dealership sites, making relative comparisons still valid. Advanced analytics solutions can partially address this by using focus/blur detection to pause timers when a tab is inactive, though they cannot determine which specific tab a user is currently viewing.

A dealer asks whether tagging inventory photos on Photobucket helps his dealership's SEO, prompting experienced forum members to redirect him toward more effective tactics. The consensus is that Photobucket and similar third-party image hosting sites primarily benefit their own search rankings rather than the dealer's website, and that dealers should instead focus on optimizing images hosted directly on their own sites using proper alt tags and keyword-rich filenames. The thread concludes with recommendations to use link directories and social media profiles strategically while ensuring the dealer's own website infrastructure is properly optimized first.

Dealers debate the need for better vendor integration and standardized inventory data sharing, with one member proposing specific solutions like clear documentation policies and standard data fields. A cautionary voice warns that industry standardization could commoditize dealerships like Expedia did to travel, though others counter that modern consumers are already accustomed to online marketplaces and would embrace a reliable digital solution. The thread ultimately reflects tension between operational efficiency gains and concerns about losing the personal negotiation element that has traditionally defined car sales.

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Alex Snyder posts the community guidelines for the "Website Hosting, SEO, SEM Support" forum section, establishing rules against rudeness, spam, trolling, meaningless posts, and excessive self-promotion. The rules emphasize respectful debate while maintaining forum quality through moderation and post-bump etiquette. These are standard community conduct policies rather than a discussion generating conclusions or insights.