Is Edmunds STEALING from you?

[Alex Snyder]

Edmunds.com, they're stealing from me!

We spend a lot of money with Edmunds.  We buy leads off their site (through a third-party) and participate in their PDP program for premium placement.  We have been a very good customer of theirs for YEARS!  And they've been good to us....until now.

Before I get into what is going on, I want to say that I have sent emails and made phone calls to my rep who aids us in all things Edmunds.  He has pushed things up the chain, along with my request for "at least a phone call" before 5:00 PM EST today to work things out.  Well, the phone call didn't come.  So, I feel that I have given Edmunds time to respond.  They could have simply said "5:00 PM isn't enough time" and I would have been fine with that.  So here we go:

I was checking on new search results for our dealership names on Google and came across a PPC ad on the search term "Checkered Flag MINI":



Do you see what's wrong with this?

Here is a company we pay lots of money to buying AND USING our name to get people to submit a price quote request on their site to either sell back to us OR to sell to one of our competitors.  Ladies and Gentlemen, that is THEFT!!!

Here's the full screen shot:



We own the rights to our name within our marketplace.  We did not give Edmunds permission to parade as us on Google (another big nasty issue for a later DealerRefresh article).  And I also don't like the fact that there is a company we pay good money to who is competing with us for SEM placement on our own friggin' name (and another big nasty issue for another DR article).

Just to show that Checkered Flag is not the only dealership being effected, here are our friends at Proctor Acura:





I want to believe that Edmunds made a mistake.  I want to believe that they just forgot to filter something out of their gigantic SEM campaign.  I want to believe that they wouldn't outright steal from a long-term partner.

So, what do you have to say Edmunds?

Dealers - you better start Googling your name!

UPDATE:  12/5/2009

Edmunds has publicly responded in the comments section of this posting that they have stopped this PPC practice.  However, many other points have been brought to light because of this.  Also in the comment string below are points on Edmunds SEO practices and use of dealership names.  Read the comments to formulate your own opinions.

As best we can tell, Edmunds has not apologized for any of this as of yet.

 

[Joe Turner (blog)]

Alex, all I can say is wow. Over 13 years in this business and that's probably the most blatant example I've seen.

We all knew that we were competing against the KBBs and Edmunds for SERP ranking but actually using your name....wow.

I assume your counsel is on it.

Joe Turner

 

[Brian Tucker (blog)]

Thanks for the heads up on this Alex. I was thinking about using this company in the future but this certainly needs to be addressed before I move forward with them or any of their affiliates. I wonder how long this has been happening?

 

[Jeff Raab]

At first I thought...let me give them the benefit of the doubt. If I click on their ad with your dealership name as the title, it MUST go to a page on Edmunds.com featuring Checkered Flag MINI, right?

Nope.

Targeting business names with ppc keywords is nothing new, but to be so blatant about it...I agree, it's wrong.

 

[William Bryant (blog)]

Dang... that's incredible. We're not having our name taken, yet. But now that it's out in the open I'm sure something will be taken care of soon!

 

[John Bowman]

wow holy shyte Alex... all I can say is that is bloody shady of them. Good luck in getting that resolved.

 

[Tim Jennings]

So let all click fraud! Yahoo! (not the search engine) Alex lead the charge! Spike the nubers! Post to the other blog sites? Ralph, David, Brian, Jarad?

I cost'um .49-$1.25 Made me feel good Alex!

Click, click, click
lets hit Edmund's
with a big stick!

D-Day (Ralph P): War's over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: (Alex)Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter (Jeff K): [whispering] Germans?
Boon (Brian P): Forget it, he's rolling.
Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough... [thinks hard] the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go! [runs out, alone; then returns] What the **** happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my *** from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer (Edmunds), he's a dead man! Marmalard (Edmunds), dead! Niedermeyer -
Otter: Dead! Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.
D-Day: Let's do it.
Bluto: LET'S DO IT!!

 

[Joe Turner (blog)]

Tim, that's funny stuff right there, but on the money. (says Joe as he runs out the door screaming after Tim)

 

[Tim Jennings]

he,he,he,he

Grass Roots, Grass Roots,
Lets stand up and
give'um the Boots!

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Tim - that's hilarious! Just remember the future is Senator Bluto

I still have not heard anything from Edmunds. My account rep has called me twice since 5:00 PM telling me someone was going to call me on my cell phone this evening. I'm very bummed not to hear from them yet. I like Edmunds. I want to work things out with them.