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Sean Wolfington Accepts Chairman of the Board of VinSolutions

Thank god for you! If we didn't have honest people with your incredible integrity in this business where would we be? We should have a statue erected in your honor as the keeper of all things great and desirable! So what that you have a shady past? So what that you are a loudmouth, opinionated EC? So what if the Seattle Times article from 3/06 states that "In April 2001, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Karen Overstreet in Seattle told the Latmans' lawyer that bankruptcy-court protection was intended for "honest debtors," and that in her seven years on the bench she had never seen a case so permeated with "inconsistencies" and "excuses.""

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We don't care about any of that. You are now the greatest living person that ever entered into the auto industry arena and we salute you for that.

You see now my Brooklyn is coming out! I've lived in NJ for 20 years but the Brooklyn stays forever!

You opened this mess. I suggest you stop now while you're...

...well you're not ahead but stop anyway!
 
Hahahaha, old news little man that your VIN team tells every dealer before they lose the sale. Thousands of dealers have read the background and still signed up for the winning team.

The only thing I have to say is when will your new boss show up for the shoot off? He won't? He wants to talk about racecars or girls? Haha...

BZ Results lives and it's called VIN Solutions now. The only background that matters is what Wolfington and Company have done to dealers in our space in the last few years. Ask ADP how happy dealers are with his last company.
 
I won't speak to the products or people referenced in this post to avoid the perception of taking sides, but I can speak to the issues that this post has surfaced -- and it has nothing to do with Vinsolutions or any other vendor that decides to challenge them on what was obviously a subjective comment by a proud employee. I know DealerRefresh, Jeffery Kershner and Alex Snyder to be honorable "car guys" who invest their time to share best practices with the philosophy that a rising tide floats all boats. The challenge that surfaced in this post had all the makings of a perfect opportunity for us all to listen and learn from some established auto industry experts. Instead of learning about their respective platforms we learned that we are our own worst enemies when we attempt to define the competition as the enemy. Auto industry social networking communities such as this have value if they follow the same professional competitive practices that we extend to eachother in person; or at least that we should. The personal attacks that titilated the readers forced the professionals that would have benefitted from the proposed challenge to tune out with less information and time than we started with. I have reviewed most of the vendor applications that were referenced in this post and I can honestly say that I always consider the people before the product or the price so let the indivduals who have commented decide the impression that they have made on me and my dealer clients. I only do business with friends since after sales service is often dependent on the people behind the product who represent the best equalizer for the inevitable issues that will surface on even the best platform. After all, what are friends for!
 
Wow! This string seemed to get a little personal over the last few days! I will stay out of picking sides, even though I am a VIN Solutions client (I'll go ahead and put that out before someone thinks it's a huge secret to reveal) I do believe that VIN is a superior system but I have never seen iMagic CRM. I am not looking to be attacked or start any arguments, my questions are just seeking answers, not challenging anyone over anything.

As a dealer, I find a lot of great information on this site and appreciate it's unbiased approach on things. I understand that many vendors and press as well as dealers find benefit here for many different reasons. I'm not sure what Mitchell (whoever you are) did but thought it was a little abrasive where all this went. Personal information being shared and people telling others that they have no business posting on the site, when let's be honest, that's what this and many other sites are about (not condoning whatever that attack from Mitchell was either though). I personally don't see where any of this back and forth banter has gotten anyone, especially considering it was suppose to be a "bake-off" between 2 CRM companies. Nothing beneficial is coming from all these attacks and insults and I'm sure everyone can agree to that.

I will say that I think if there is to be a competition between the 2 giants that it should be in some sort of live format and not left up to moderators. Let's face it, that's the only way anyone will think it was a fair assessment. Even if Alex and Jeff were to pick 10-12 dealers that had no connection at all with either company to sit in and listen. It's unfortunate but lets all face reality... dealers, for the most part, tend to be very antiquated in their thought process when it comes to technology and software solutions so no matter what 2 moderators (not to be insulting to Jeff or Alex AT ALL. I admire what you guys do and the impact you have on the industry) say dealers won't take any of it seriously unless they feel like some of their own were in the trenches. And after all, dealers understanding and choice is what it all really comes down too anyway, right?

Just a suggestion... once again, not trying to start WWIII or anything! ;)
 
Just to keep everyone up to date on what is going on right now:

Rules for the bake-off have been proposed to all parties. They are up for debate amongst the parties, but one of those *proposed* rules is that the bulk of the questions come from the DealerRefresh community. If that rule is agreed upon by all parties, then a thread will be started on the DealerRefresh forums (DealerRefresh Automotive Dealer Forums) to solicit those questions.

We have heard that VinSolutions would like to do this at the up-coming Digital Dealer event, which is a great idea! However, iMagicLab is not available during the conference. iMagicLab has also requested that this first bake-off remains only between iMagicLab and VinSolutions. Future bake-offs are a different story.

The dates that still work best for DealerRefresh and iMagicLab are March 25-29th.

We are all still waiting on word from Sean Stapleton.