• This thread is just the tip of the iceberg.The people ahead of the curve aren't Googling for answers — they're already in here, having the conversations you haven't found yet. DealerRefresh is free.Get the full picture →

Why it is impossible to cancel AutoTrader

kevinfrye

Sr. Refresher
Apr 7, 2009
295
203
Awards
6
First Name
Kevin
We decided to cancel AutoTrader at one of our dealerships, so we sent a notice of cancellation to the address indicated in the AutoTrader agreement:
IMG_2539.jpg

Today we received the letter back as address unknown, so I suppose it's impossible to cancel, lol. Letting my rep know now that they need to update their agreement. :)

IMG_2538.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people
Do you not have a relationship with your AT rep? Before we canceled, we had upgraded. They had promised we would be on the front ad pages, but we were listed on the seventh page consistently! Our presence with them became worse with the upgrade which was more than $1,000 per month! LOL. So, we just called our rep and canceled. Of course, they were physically in our store immediately trying to save business.
 
Kevin,

Why did you cancel rather than maybe lowering it to the lowest amount so at least you would have kept a presence?

It comes down to ROI and available money to invest in each dealership's marketing efforts. When a dealership sees direct results from other marketing sources (calls, emails, walk-ins) and little to none from others, and they have a limited budget, they don't have the money to "just pay anyway". BTW - we also track VDP's and funneled traffic in Google Analytics...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
It comes down to ROI and available money to invest in each dealership's marketing efforts. When a dealership sees direct results from other marketing sources (calls, emails, walk-ins) and little to none from others, and they have a limited budget, they don't have the money to "just pay anyway". BTW - we also track VDP's and funneled traffic in Google Analytics...

Kevin,

Would you share, even though unrelated to the thread, what else has been working for you for 3rd party websites.

The space is very limited, so dealers always welcome suggestions for advertising avenues.
 

✨ AI Highlights

A dealer attempted to cancel their AutoTrader subscription by mailing a cancellation notice to the address listed in their agreement, only to have the letter returned as undeliverable—raising questions about whether AutoTrader makes cancellation deliberately difficult. The thread reveals frustration with AutoTrader's retention tactics and compares the experience to other notoriously hard-to-cancel services like AOL, with some posters suggesting the solution is to simply stop paying or contact a sales rep directly. The underlying sentiment is that dealers feel trapped in expensive contracts with poor ROI and limited recourse when they want out.

Replies Views 8 9,966 Started Last Reply