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Anti-Social behavior from a Social Media Vendor

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ryan.leslie

ryan.leslie

One of the good guys
Apr 20, 2009
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Ryan
#1
I'm not one to bash another vendor in this industry, but this just floors me. I'm hoping that the good people of DealerRefresh can help a friend of mine work out a solution to this problem.

Short version of the story is that a staff member without signatory authority signed an agreement on behalf of the dealer. The employee is no longer employed by the dealer and the dealer cancels the service after seeing little return and failure to deliver on the salespitch. The dealer does what most dealers would do and stops payment only to find that this vendor has hijacked their fanpage and refuses to give admin credentials back to the dealership if they cancel mid term. To make matters worse they are displaying this graphic on every app they loaded to the page, including the contact us tab.
ScreenHunter_06 Jan. 17 12.04.jpg

The dealership cannot remove those apps or load any other apps as they are no longer in control of their own page.

As far as I can tell the dealer is forced to either, a.) lose their current fans, start fresh with a new page and ask FB to remove that one as an unauthorized owner, or b.) ride out an agreement for the remainder of the term on a product that is not helping them. Somebody help me out! Does this dealer have any other options or recourse against this vendor?

I know the temptation will be there for some to say they should never have allowed themselves to be out of the admin loop, but that ship has sailed. This is a great reminder, but not gonna help my friend at this dealership that has inherited a hijacked Fanpage.

PS. I didn't give up the name of this vendor and scratched through their number because I have no interest in championing a TrueCar style tar and feathering, unless that will fix this for my friend. I did call and confirm that they are refusing to give the dealer admin privileges for this page. I'm shocked they would go this route and I'll be happy to share the company name with any of you that are in market for this and want to avoid them.
 
#3
Ryan,

I don't know of the specific legalities of this case but I would imagine that the vendor would not stand a leg in this case if lawyers get involved. While that may sound drastic, a $200 well crafted letter from the dealer's attorney may do the trick. Contacting Facebook t regain control of the account then closing the tabs for the applications may also work.

That being said, lets look at the company doing this. I have been in that spot a million times where a dealer knows that the ISM signs on stuff and later uses the "he wasn't authorized BS". The second you get the first bill you should have stopped that if he wasn't authorized. Even when he turned the contract in... A lot of programs are very heavy on set up and if they get cancelled before the end of the term you as a vendor just get screwed. That tastes even worse when you have delivered the product as promised but it gets cancelled because a guy left.

The part that irritates me the most in your comment is "The dealer does what most dealers would do and stops payment only to find that this vendor has hijacked their fanpage and refuses to give admin credentials back to the dealership if they cancel mid term.". Absolutely not, many dealers would call get informed about the program, cancellation terms, and possible ways to work out a way out of the contract. As a vendor I can almost always find a way to work out a contract with a dealer willing to work with me. Stop paying the bill is not the way to go nor the majority of dealers would d that (stop making your car payment to your buddy's dealer and see what happens).

So going back to the lawyers suggestion and after giving you my 2 cents about the case, I would say that someone at the dealer needs to be the bigger man and just call the vendor and work things out. Pay them one more month or two and get out of the contract amicably.
 
#4
Thanks for the quick response Daniel. I just let the dealer know that I posted here for some help. I suppose if he wants to give more information about the situation or load the contract he can, but I don't want for this to be any more of an embarrassment for either party if it doesn't need to be.

I checked your profile but didn't see any contact info for you. Do you mind posting a number or email so that they can contact you if they choose to?
 
#5
yagoparamo said:
The part that irritates me the most in your comment is "The dealer does what most dealers would do and stops payment only to find that this vendor has hijacked their fanpage and refuses to give admin credentials back to the dealership if they cancel mid term.". Absolutely not, many dealers would call get informed about the program, cancellation terms, and possible ways to work out a way out of the contract. As a vendor I can almost always find a way to work out a contract with a dealer willing to work with me. Stop paying the bill is not the way to go nor the majority of dealers would d that (stop making your car payment to your buddy's dealer and see what happens).
Click to expand...

Yago,

I don't disagree with you about signatory authority being a tool used at times, but I'm also not a fan of an agreement that doesn't have a 30 day written out regardless of term. I know that doesn't work for every product or service, but it should for this one. I left out some of the detail that was shared with me that may better explain the language I used. I wasn't part of the discussion obviously, but from what I understand, the vendor is the one that is holding the dealer to the fire here without any willingness to be amicable. The evidence would certainly suggest that.

I hate to see lawyers get involved in anything, and I'm related to one ;), but that may be a great suggestion!
 
#6
Ryan Leslie said:
Yago,

I don't disagree with you about signatory authority being a tool used at times, but I'm also not a fan of an agreement that doesn't have a 30 day written out regardless of term. I know that doesn't work for every product or service, but it should for this one. I left out some of the detail that was shared with me that may better explain the language I used. I wasn't part of the discussion obviously, but from what I understand, the vendor is the one that is holding the dealer to the fire here without any willingness to be amicable. The evidence would certainly suggest that.

I hate to see lawyers get involved in anything, and I'm related to one ;), but that may be a great suggestion!
Click to expand...

Ryan,

Sure, every agreement is a new world. I tried to speak in general terms and not just about this case since I don't know the specifics.

You are correct about the 30 days at least for cause but again, some things are very heavy on the start.

BTY- going to NADA?
 
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