How many Vendors is YOUR DEALERSHIP Paying who are Selling your Customer Data to Other Vendors for Cash?

So once again I ask the question at the heart of the matter.... Mr./MRS Car Dealer PAY ATTENTION HERE.... How many Vendors are YOU Paying who are Selling your Customer Data to Other Vendors for Cash? AND... is your customer information ultimately being sold by vendors you paid to other car dealers who are your competition?

Isn't it amazing how all these cockroaches scatter when you turn on the lights? For years I've been writing and blogging about this pack of self-righteous criminals pilfering through the dealers' data and stealing your customer information to resell and abuse. They called me every name in the book and slandered me. NOW, all of a sudden we're seeing multiple proofs and suspicions spotlighting the blatant criminal activity and suspected activities of these shady vendors disguised as alleged dealer partners.

It's time to intensify the hunt and flush out all of them.Not singling out any specific vendor here BUT aren't we all getting a little sick and tired of Technology Pirates stealing your business while you pay them to lower your profits and defame your good name while all the while they are selling your customer information to other vendors and ultimately selling your customers to the competition?

Whether the customer filled out a form on some alleged Lead Providers page using your inventory as bait, or it was lifted or scraped off of the dealers' websites: When are we as dealers and car people going to rise up as one and say to them ... "Get the Hell OUT of Our Data?"

They're buying and selling your information to each other, reprocessing it and selling it to your competitors and then doing it again to your competitors competitors

AND, As I am About to Prove... Many of Your Manufacturers are in on the Scams. WE need to look at how many manufacturers are reselling Junk Leads mixed in with Organic leads that they know have a Low Closing Ratio? How many Manufacturers are forcing their dealers to take low-percentage leads they bought cheap that only have a close rate of 3.8%? Some Manufacturers middle management is deliberately making a huge profit off of their dealers reselling leads they know are worthless mixed in OEM Website organic leads that have a much higher closing ratio.

None of these vendors is contributing anything to your business you couldn't do yourself without them and redirect the money to profitable things.

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Comment by Britt Hoffmann on November 25, 2013 at 9:14am: It's a great idea to remember to always go to a vendor's site and read the privacy policy. That policy should be on any contract you may sign as well. I know "contract" is like a four-letter word to dealers, but often they are for mutual protection, namely concerning personal information. Most SEM/PPC companies do not sell your information but must share it with 3rd parties such as search engines strictly to track trends and data to see what works and what doesn't. Also any outsourced 3rd party that might be building creative. Always read fine print and the privacy policy on the vendor site. If they aren't transparent, they aren't worth partnering with. On the other hand, do your due diligence and don't simply trust your info is safe.

Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 25, 2013 at 8:57am: It's bad enough that vendors are posting your inventory on 200 little "Pirate Websites" Ashley, but they are so self righteous about it like you should be happy they did it to increase their own perception of false-value using your inventory.

Comment by Alexander Lau on November 25, 2013 at 8:51am: Very good point Ashley. The user experience is a must. Customers aren't stupid, but sometimes I feel as if dealerships think they are, which always amazes me.

Comment by Ashley Conring on November 25, 2013 at 8:50am: Not to mention, **most importantly** making it a terrible customer experience, when everybody and their brother contacts this person because their info was sold 30 ways 'til Tuesday...

Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 25, 2013 at 8:35am: Isn't it amazing how all these cockroaches scatter when you turn on the lights? For years I've been writing and blogging about this pack of self-righteous criminals pilfering through the dealers' data and stealing your customer information to resell and abuse. They called me every name in the book and slandered me. NOW, all of a sudden we're seeing multiple proofs and suspicions spotlighting the blatant criminal activity and suspected activities of some of these alleged dealer partners. There are many who are upright, decent and good... and others who are abusing the dealers that pay them for services.

It's time to intensify the hunt and flush out all of them.

Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 25, 2013 at 6:53am: This issue is going to be explosive (FINALLY) I predict a renewed groundswell of dealers and government agencies will turn the spotlight on the activities of formerly trusted vendors scraping websites, using dealer inventory as bait to switch, pirate landing page websites, redistributing customer identifiable information they took from forms and reselling it to God knows who... ultimately compromising the customers' identity, violating trust and privacy, and putting the dealerships in harms way with great liability for security breaches in information trusted to them.

Comment by Alexander Lau on November 25, 2013 at 6:38am: At the end of the day, it's a matter of legalities and whom is licensing which leads to whom, whether they are crap or not. Scary stuff... tip of the iceberg, in terms of oversight, etc.

Comment by Britt Hoffmann on November 25, 2013 at 6:25am: I've heard of some of the larger companies doing this. Can't name names as I don't know who does and doesn't except to say I'm glad I represent a company that values it's clients privacy and confidentiality. At Netsertive, we look at client info as proprietary information from a business standpoint. From an ethics standpoint, your info is no one's business you don't want it to be because that's how it should be.

Comment by Alexander Lau on November 25, 2013 at 5:56am: I have much respect for your tenacity and involvement. Keep at it big guy! You go to bat for dealerships and that's a good thing. How many other "bloggers" do that here??? I'd be eager to see the numbers, speaking of metrics. Dennis, there's a long history, just click on Jim's name and dig into the articles he's posted.

Comment by Dennis Yu on November 24, 2013 at 7:14pm: Interesting stuff-- now who is doing it and where's the rest of the article laying this out?

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