Our time with Dealer E Process

[Webdog]

We have been with Dealer E Process as our website company for several years. After reviewing our websites we decided we needed to move in another direction and cancel our services. Our review we found several areas lacking: our specials and several other areas had gone without updates. We weren’t impressed with the Dealer Chat feature because testing it ourselves and asking on the website what our store hours and local number were, we didn’t get a response. This happened several times and the few times we did get a response it was just a direction to contact someone in the morning rather than the answer to whatever question we had asked them.

After changing vendors, we logged into our Youtube account for our dealergroup to find that it had been completely deleted. While looking to find out what Terms of Service rule we might have broken, we did research and found out that since Dealer E Process was the party that setup the account for us, they received the email when we changed the YouTube password after changing our vendors. After getting the new password it was easy for them to login and delete the account. Since this was a service that we paid for every month, we were shocked that our data was gone. I would expect that we owned the data rather than paying rent on it. If this is normal operating procedure I can imagine they don’t have a lot of repeat business, because burning bridges doesn’t make you a lot of friends.

 

[joe.pistell]

Not good. Not good at all.

 

[yagoparamo]

I dont know dealer e process at all (just spoke with Dave a efw times at conferences) but just for the sake of it always think that this could been the doing of one guy. I would love to hear other dealer's exprience on this process.

I agree with you that--after being a vendor for 10+ years-- a lot of biz that left us came back; some times after a week sometimes after a year (or longer!) but that is better then never.

 

[Stefan]

It is not pretty out there... These days dealers must really pay attention. Before switching vendors u must make sure you have total control over your domain names, all your assets and content ... You must be a good chess player... We experienced something similar where our company email and websites were lost, links to blog articles were removed after cutting budget... I am not saying all vendors are bad news... I actually believe outsourcing is not all that bad... Sometimes vendors don't understand how quick a DP can change he's/her mind and cut or reallocate budgets, or how quick dealers don't feel the service they r getting is up to their expectations...vendors- you always raise the bar... Sometimes that will bite you in the 455... Dealers don't be ignorant! Pay attention!!! Play chess more often !!!!!!!! The web is not your good old boy network...

 

[ArtMorris]

Before switching vendors u must make sure you have total control over your domain names, all your assets and content

Wrong. At that point it's too late.

BEFORE you get involved with any vendor make sure YOU are in control of your data.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

It is not pretty out there... These days dealers must really pay attention. Before switching vendors u must make sure you have total control over your domain names, all your assets and content ... You must be a good chess player... We experienced something similar where our company email and websites were lost, links to blog articles were removed after cutting budget... I am not saying all vendors are bad news... I actually believe outsourcing is not all that bad... Sometimes vendors don't understand how quick a DP can change he's/her mind and cut or reallocate budgets, or how quick dealers don't feel the service they r getting is up to their expectations...vendors- you always raise the bar... Sometimes that will bite you in the 455... Dealers don't be ignorant! Pay attention!!! Play chess more often !!!!!!!! The web is not your good old boy network...

Great advice Stefan.

When it comes to "Video" assets and services - you might find most of the time you're "leasing" the content.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Let me also say - I have met and spoken with Dave many times. They even advertise here on DealerRefresh. This doesn't sounds like the norm to me.

I hope this get worked out for you Robert.

 

[Dave Page]

There are always two sides to every story, so we feel it’s appropriate to tell our side.
Dealer e Process was chosen to be the website provider for the Cooper Auto Group in March of 2008. At the time of earning their business, the Cooper Auto Group was in serious need of a complete website overhaul –please see this pdf - Cooper Case Study.

I think it’s fair to say we helped get them into the 21st century internet wise. We have increased their numbers in every category imaginable.

With this being said, lets address the accusation of their YouTube account and our videos. First off, they did not have a YouTube account when we met them, Dealer e Process created a YouTube account. Secondly, the inventory videos that were pushed to the YouTube account that was created by us, were done using our production and our VSEO.

When the Cooper Auto Group cancelled our services after years of stellar performance, the YouTube account that we created, the content that we pushed to it, was deleted since it was part of our services that “were no longer needed†according to Rafi Hamid, the new internet director who cancelled numerous meetings.

This brings me to Rafi Hamid, and his integrity in the internet space. Take a look at the lawsuits against this man and you will see all you need to see about the validity of this review.

DealerMiles LLC v. Automobile Buyers Consultants


[SIZE=-1]Toyota Motor Sales USA v. Rafi Hamid dba ABC Automobile Buyer[/SIZE]


Valley Imports, Inc v. Rafi Hamid

As far as the integrity and performance of Dealer e Process, we will rest on our stellar reputation which you can read about here at DrivingSales.

Dealer e Process is also proud to announce be awarded The AWA Pinnacle Platform for 2011 (industries highest honor) for search platform, best Fixed Ops application (The Virtual service Consultant) in 2011, and the most important awards from Dataium in 2011; Most Lead Per Inventory Search & Most Leads Per Inventory Page View out of all website providers.

Thanks for reading our side of the story.
Dave Page

 

[ArtMorris]

I do appreciate being able to hear both sides of the story, however you should have stopped writing your response halfway through.

Mudslinging is unbecoming, and I kind of expect vendors to take the high road and avoid mudslinging themselves.

Link #1: A broken link to some sort of arbitration.
Link #2: A link about how Toyota stole several domain names from Hamid via the WIPO.
Link #3: A ruling in favor of a dealership, against Hamid and another dealership. Light on details.

 

[Dave Page]

Art,

I am not in the mudslinging game, I just feel this person went out of their way to post this at the beginning of DD11 and the DrivingSales Summit. I just wanted to post our side of the story. Their services were cancelled 6 months ago, why would they post something now?

and for the first link, once it loads, refresh your screen and it will load.