Internet Manager snakes Dealership

[OmniQuest Enterprises]

How about a disgruntled ex-comptroller from a huge Van Tuyl GM store that handed passwords out like halloween candy to salesmen at other dealerships. It didn't make the news but certainly caused a lot of damage.

 

[DanMorgan]

I was thinking about being a dick to my old dealership after they f-ed me over on some vacation pay I should have rec'd after I quit. I supplied them with all the passwords to the sites I had but I was still able to get into my old Reynolds CRM for 3 months and was able to get into the website backend for the same amount of time before they finally changed it all.

I'm just to nice :shrug:

 

[lfinney]

Not that I am making any plans but oh how easy it would be. In my store I also worked on our phone sytems so I have access to those numbers as well.

I update at least one other person on new passwords and logins at least a few times a year but I am not sure they would know what to do with them if needed,

A few years ago our area had an IMS move from one dealership to another and he sent an email to all his customers alerting them to his new dealership from the CRM of the dealership he quit. I remember getting the email becuase I mystery shopped them and I was amazed. I never hear it anything happened to him.

Lori Finney
Mathews Nissan Suzuki

 

[Brian Tucker]

eCommerce Director Bodyguard Needed
We need to protect our assets. Because of our eCommerce Director's mouth, we have found the need to hire someone to protect his dumb ass. Unfortunately, this guy holds the keys to our kingdom, but he sure likes to piss people off on a particular website called DealerRefresh. In order to make sure we're okay, we need someone to watch out for him (especially on Saturday nights when Jim and Jose are hanging out). We need you to start yesterday as he's been ruffling feathers for a long time.

If you see anyone from Edmunds approaching him, please shoot on site.

I think Edmunds would have to fight Autotrader for the first punch - good stuff!

 

[ghen]

The true way to handle firing employees is to take away their access to everything before you fire them. Of course that requires planning which I know is hard, but the alternative is not pretty as in this case

 

[Mitch Gallant]

Ghen you're right, there's definitely a right way to handle the situation. Unfortunately for this dealer it looks like they don't plan much further ahead then the end of their nose. I can't imagine what it would take to make me waste my time sabotaging my dealer ... mind you being fired would probably make me go bananas.

 

[Shellie]

This is fascinating! As someone who has never worked for a dealership, but has worked for technology companies both inside and outside of the industry, I think it speaks to how far behind dealer management is when it comes to understanding the power of the technology they buy.

I can tell you from experience at other auto dealer technology providers that it is not uncommon for someone to leave a dealership, and for that person to be the ONLY one who knows anything about our technology. This doesn't happen here at DealerSocket since we impact so many areas in the dealership, but when I was working for Who's Calling, there were so many stories of our "guy" (or gal) leaving and our sales person having to go in and resell the new GM/GSM/DP on the system all over again. Sometimes we wouldn't even know they had been fired until months! Not to mention the horror stories that resulted from never changing passwords and leads being stolen, calls redirected, etc. Hopefully this is a wake up call.

This would likely never happen at a technology company, you get the boot, you get cut off, no guessing... your passwords are toast! Thanks for sharing, Alex, great stuff!

Shellie Pierce
www.dealersocket.com
[email protected]

 

[VJnator]

Our policy was that only the president of the Group and myself as an eCommerce Director had the passwords as well as all phone numbers of our vendors (websites, leads, etc...) were paired with our contact rolodex. Alex, you hit the nail on the head. Dealerships who are still believing that Online Reputation is just another marketing gig should learn it the hard way. Online Reputation is an essential ingredient in todays automotive "pie" - just don't forget to stir it up frequently.

 

[ghen]

I usually find out that someone got fired when the new guy calls me up and wants his voicemail password... I say what happened to that other guy at this extension? Makes me cringe every time.

 

[Aereus]

We had a similar situation at our dealership. Problem solved by making password deletion a part of the exit interview. Also all users were tracked in a routine that listed last date of activity. Compare that list to a former employee leave date and you could instantly spot where someone was active when they shouldn't have been.