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DealerSocket Email Hell

SoCalMark

Rust & Dust
Oct 14, 2010
29
23
First Name
Mark
I posted this issue on a buried thread for something of like kind problems with CRM's but the problem I am about to explain is something DealerSocket needs a bigger push from their customers to get fixed.

I want DealerSocket exposed for this major problem

If you customers are using Google Gmail or Gsuite (their own domain hosted by Google) they are NOT receiving emails generated by your sales department. Not only that, they are not even receiving replied to leads being sent!

Through the investigation with my dealer principal internet manager and a couple other dealers I found this big black hole created by DealerSocket because DealerSocket does not want the expense or maintenance of a customer mail server. I will try to explain it in easier terms.

When a customer fills out a form from one of your lead sources, (i.e. cars.com, autotrader.com, cargurus.com) even your own website, it generates an email that goes to an email address rleads@yourdealerdomain.com

That email is then picked up, or sucked out of the email box you created and placed into the CRM. Remember, that email was forwarded now into YOUR domain's email provider from DealerSocket.

Now when your salesperson picks up this email from DealerSocket they will attempt to send back a reply to the customer with THIS format: assistance@
yourdealerdomain.com So, now here it goes OUT you dealerships domain name when it ORIGINATED in DealerSocket. There is a major problem with this issue! Most email hosts, especially Google Gmail and GSuite will use a reverse DNS host protocol to check the validity of that email.

Google spam prevention is basically saying this:

"... here comes an email from
yourdealerdomain.com and yourdealerdomain.com publishes it's domain DNS registration ip address as xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ... BUT WAIT! ... this email just came from dealersocket.com and looks like this assistance@yourdealerdomain.com and this means it's SPAM..."

The reverse DNS cycle to check if an email really came from the place it was sent is called 'spoofing' and is used by spammers all over the world.

Knowing full-well that this is a technique that email servers use to protect their clients, WHY HASN'T DEALERSOCKET TAKEN NECESSARY STEPS TO CHANGE THE WAY EMAIL IS DELIVERED?

I have found the issue in Verizon, Yahoo, Hotmail, ATT and even outdated AOL mail.

Here is an example of the issue located in the header of one of the dealers outgoing emails from DealerSocket to a GMail account where it went DIRECTLY to SPAM 100% of the time.

Screenshot%20from%202019-02-15%2007-47-31.png
 
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This is far from an isolated issue. I'm not trying to stand up for DealerSocket, but many CRMs do this.

If I had my preference, I'd prefer to see something like SalesForce or Agile CRM do in working directly with Gmail and/or Office 365. That's a much better route than trying to be the email provider. I think you'd like that too @SoCalMark.

It doesn't make sense that companies like DealerSocket haven't made that move yet :thinker:
 
This is far from an isolated issue. I'm not trying to stand up for DealerSocket, but many CRMs do this.

If I had my preference, I'd prefer to see something like SalesForce or Agile CRM do in working directly with Gmail and/or Office 365. That's a much better route than trying to be the email provider. I think you'd like that too @SoCalMark.

It doesn't make sense that companies like DealerSocket haven't made that move yet :thinker:

I have even gone as far as adding their IP address and domain to my SPF records and it does absolutely no good
 
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One of our clients had this issue while using one of our custom websites and the DealerSocket CRM. We updated their SPF record through CloudFlare and got it all sorted out. Our engineer that fixed it is working on a blog post for how he worked it out. I don't know if it'll help you guys out, but it might be useful. I'll link it when its complete.
 
@SoCalMark

The correct entry for SPF for dealer socket is:

include:_spf.dealersocket.com

which is emailed/communicated to the dealership on setup to be added to SPF record.

Been there, done that -- still doesn't make a difference.
Would using the DealerSocket-provided domain instead of your own solve this?

Not an option -- see my attachment
 

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Would using the DealerSocket-provided domain instead of your own solve this?

Not an option -- see my attachment

My understanding is the decision to use the DealerSocket domain or your domain for emails would have been made during initial CRM setup. I assume it could still be changed to use the DealerSocket email domain if you wish. Would obviously have to change the XML email lead address at your lead providers and manufacturers once in place.

We would not want our domain being used to send all those emails from the CRM. Too risky for spam and blacklisting, unless I am misunderstanding your issue.
 
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Been there, done that -- still doesn't make a difference.


Not an option -- see my attachment

Are you sure that the problem is not your SPF entry... as _spf.dealersocket.com clearly includes 192.41.47.0/24 records.

"v=spf1 ip4:207.155.249.0/24 ip4:207.155.248.0/24 ip4:207.155.252.0/24 ip4:216.9.240.0/20 ip4:192.41.46.0/24 ip4:192.41.47.0/24 ip4:209.11.183.0/24 ip4:209.11.182.128/26 ip4:209.11.206.0/25 -all"
 
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You can track this by going to your "Email Removal Report" in Dealersocket. It will tell you how many bounce backs you got for a given timeframe. I just ran this for my CRM and I have a TON of
"smtp;550 5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or unnecessary spaces. Learn more at https://support.google.com/mail/?p=NoSuchUser i142si8786121ywc.461 - gsmtp"

However; I also have "Customer clicked optout link." descriptions in the report which tells me that they got the emails we sent and opted out. So this is not "100%" of the time but to your point I am positive that the majority of these are not getting through.
 
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