Dealer.com and Reynolds inventory integration

[CarGuy2011]

Now only 81 calls ahead of me...... better put me phone on the charger, seems like a longgggg time to wait!!

 

[DanRank]

Dan - I know your Digital Advisor is working directly with you on things. I have total confidence that Nate will get things handled and escalate anything our way if need be. Thank you for your patience and understanding that this is a learning experience for us :thumbup:

For anyone following along, Dealer.com officially became Reynolds Certified last week for Inventory and CRM. Part of our certification states that we cannot use any third parties to push or pull data from the Reynolds DMS (absolute right way to do a trusted integration). In Dan's case, I think there is some confusion around how HomeNet is being used to pull from his DMS and feed the data to us for display on his website. We're not even a full week into our new certification and we obviously have a few more operational road bumps to smooth out

I didn’t think there was any confusion on my end until I read an email yesterday from Nate that says I have HomeNet services based on a Dealer.com paid account. News to me since we have HomeNet accounts that we pay for, partly because our IT Manager stopped using Query Builder and closed all non-RCI access to our DMS several years ago and made everyone get our data through HomeNet or other RCI connections.

Regardless, it looks like Dealer.com will still take our feed from HomeNet and vAuto, in addition to their own RCI feed, which is how I assumed it would be set up when I first got the letter and asked for clarification. I approved last night and now have 1 car on my websites out of about 1,000. Sounds like they know there is an issue since I can't even get through their phone tree without being disconnected.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Now only 81 calls ahead of me...... better put me phone on the charger, seems like a longgggg time to wait!!

Yeah, as you are well aware, we had an inventory issue this weekend. We have a good idea of what caused it, but we're still diving into the minutia to make sure things are triaged thoroughly.

I'm sorry you got caught in a long hold time over the phone. Fortunately we've never had an issue like this where we needed to staff for the kind of call volume we received. And we're working to make sure we don't see more issues like we did.

I didn’t think there was any confusion on my end until I read an email yesterday from Nate that says I have HomeNet services based on a Dealer.com paid account. News to me since we have HomeNet accounts that we pay for, partly because our IT Manager stopped using Query Builder and closed all non-RCI access to our DMS several years ago and made everyone get our data through HomeNet or other RCI connections.

Regardless, it looks like Dealer.com will still take our feed from HomeNet and vAuto, in addition to their own RCI feed, which is how I assumed it would be set up when I first got the letter and asked for clarification. I approved last night and now have 1 car on my websites out of about 1,000. Sounds like they know there is an issue since I can't even get through their phone tree without being disconnected.

No, the confusion was on our end Dan. Just learning the in's and out's of a new service over here. I will touch base with Nate to check on things for you this morning.

Sorry you got caught in the inventory issue as well. Things are back to normal and we're working furiously to make sure we don't see problems like that again.

 

[DanRank]

Just got off the phone with my DDC rep and I'm further miffed. Apparently there is no advantage to any of this mess. No API, real-time updates, etc. All done in the name of security, which I don't buy since they still have to get feeds (at least for us) form HomeNet and vAuto for pricing since neither of those push price changes back to the DMS. The only thing we picked up is one more iron in the fire when it comes to troubleshooting.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Just got off the phone with my DDC rep and I'm further miffed. Apparently there is no advantage to any of this mess. No API, real-time updates, etc. All done in the name of security, which I don't buy since they still have to get feeds (at least for us) form HomeNet and vAuto for pricing since neither of those push price changes back to the DMS. The only thing we picked up is one more iron in the fire when it comes to troubleshooting.

Agreed. If I were in your shoes (actually I was for over 10 years) I would feel exactly the same way about having to switch inventory feeds where it messes up your current merchandising process all in the name of "security."

However, I do have some good news in your case and will be emailing those details shortly. I tried calling you twice this morning, but don't want to be a nuisance on a Monday morning.... the busiest day of Internet lead follow-up.