A dealer discovered that a third-party inventory vendor created a .net domain using the dealer's name and logos, ranking #4 in Google searches for the dealership while funneling traffic away from the dealer's primary website. Forum experts advised the dealer to leverage his contract and payment to demand the vendor either transfer the domain and admin rights to him or redirect traffic to his primary site, with most agreeing the vendor likely acted to demonstrate their service value rather than maliciously. The key insight is that vendors often lack transparency in their practices, making it essential for dealers to clarify domain ownership and traffic routing in contracts before signing.
