CARCODE SMS, IS THIS EDMUNDS DIRTY TEXT CAPER?

CARCODE SMS, IS THIS EDMUNDS DIRTY TEXT CAPER?
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Are Dealers Being Set Up Again by one of the Dirtiest Players? Is it another trick?
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DISCLAIMER: It is only fair before you read this to say out front that I personally despise Edmunds.com. I consider them the 'lowest' and 'the dirtiest' of all of the vendors that ever took money from dealers while they used our own data against us to slander dealers and hurt us with the consumers and take your profits. These people, in my opinion, are the worst. I could be wrong.
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CARCODE SMS - Is this another dirty Plot to steal your customers and lower your profits? .... Just like with CarGurus' free trial, Dealers tell me "Hey Jim , it's FREE, what harm could it do?" Are we such "Dumasses that Free Stuff will cause you to Sell Out your Dealership?"

In case you're NOT aware of it. "TEXT" marketing and communicating with consumers in general is on Fire. Texting is the next wave, already replacing email and other forms of communication.

SO, Edmunds is offering a FREE service (watch yourself) called Car Code. It is a seemingly 'innocent' and seemingly beneficial plug-in for a dealer's website that allows consumers to have a number to TEXT directly with the dealership. Edmunds points out (correctly) it is compliant with all federal regulations, with proper opt-in/opt-out and other legal safeguards.

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WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU IS....
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It is a HUGE data drain on your customers. Are you giving Edmunds access to all of the dealership data on your sales.... prices, offers, transactions, even your customers' identities? I have heard from reliable sources that this is a HUGE Data theft if you bite and sign up for it. Am I wrong? I am told they are amassing huge amounts of information here. Does their agreement and THE PRIVACY RELEASE YOU SIGNED GIVE THEM THE RIGHT TO SELL YOUR CONSUMER INFORMATION TO OTHER DEALERS AND UNKNOWN THIRD AND FOURTH PARTIES?

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THE OTHER SHOE DROPS
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THERE'S NO DOUBT that Cars, TrueCar, CarFax, and every other vendor is lining up to take over your service department business. Will this CAR CODE SMS of Edmunds give them more inside information on your service customers, your R.O.s, your prices and traffic? IT'S Free now but what happens when all of a sudden they turn on you? (as they have done in the past with Price Promise and other questionably anti-dealer programs) Just read Edmunds website, or Google-Up the Words "Car Salesman" and you'll see the dirty slander Edmunds promotes against us. Apparently, from the content on their website they continually maximize for Google placement to keep the public mad at us, Edmunds apparently hates us. Why are some fools so ready to trust them with your data they have used against us in the past repeatedly? All of this is Just My Opinion based on the Fact that I have an intelligence level higher than an Earthworm. AM I WRONG? Let's hear your opinions? JIM ‪#‎AlphaDawg‬

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Comment by Matt Saxe on May 13, 2015 at 6:35pm: Jim I know the guy that developed that product, sold it to Edmunds and now runs it for them. It's not a data scam. I use it and they don't get anything out of my DMS....

Comment by Jeremy Lewis on May 13, 2015 at 5:55pm: Jim does not write articles just to stir the pot, he has a purpose and it is to protect dealers! All dealers should be selfaware of who they deal with, they might sometimes be surprised how compaines are connected and they not even know it. How many of these large compaines have their hands in other compaines?

Comment by Jeff Glackin on May 13, 2015 at 5:47pm: I cant stand the "well everyone else is doing it" argument. Any company in automotive that makes their money by trashing dealerships is scum in my book. Jim has been leading the charge in support of the dealer for decades and I feel has caused some major changes to the way some vendors do business in OUR industry.. I applaud and support you Jim.

Comment by Keith Shetterly on May 13, 2015 at 3:41pm: Thanks Chris. I completely and utterly disagree with you. For example, in appliance or furniture retail, the retailers' inventory data isn't used to promote, say, Best Buy's customers to Conn's. They wouldn't stand for that. Essentially, big box retailers figured this out a long time ago, but dealers in general are still using data and technology with a data awareness circa 1998. The fine print of a Privacy Statement is not the issue--the USE of that fine print when it comes to dealers and customers they are paying vendors to advertise to and communicate with is not always clear. And it is provable, in fact, to be sometimes against the dealer's best interest. I have no opinion on Edmunds.com as to their company or their practices, to be clear. My opinion here is that the problem is far more worrisome than a Facebook privacy statement. Thanks.

Comment by Chris K Leslie on May 13, 2015 at 3:29pm: Keith I am well aware of who Jim is. To be clear I am not challenging his point. Jim is totally entitled to his opinion. I think it is equally as important to point out that this isn't as uncommon as its being presented.

Comment by James A. Ziegler on May 13, 2015 at 3:18pm: That is a photo from a few years back somebody did for me!

Comment by James A. Ziegler on May 13, 2015 at 3:17pm

Comment by Keith Shetterly on May 13, 2015 at 2:12pm: Hmmm. I would suggest that anyone challenging Jim's point here would do well to research Jim, the data issues that have been going on for about five years, his prominence in them, and the facts that this is equal to, say, Facebook and Huffington Post about as much as rain gutters on a house compare to the Mississippi. Information is one thing that the Internet has in abundance; unfortunately, ignorance is still it's #2 product. Thanks.

Comment by Chris K Leslie on May 13, 2015 at 2:04pm: Jim, I am not trying to be condescending. But c'mon if we were going to start cherry picking negative "dealership" propaganda we could easily make an argument to sue everyone from Gannett to Huffington Post.

The selling of customer data happens all day every day. We don't get to choose how people use the internet or the cookies placed on every other site out there. The majority of the legal T's and C's pertain to advertising and behavioral targeting for DSP's. Which is why it is outlined the way it is.

It's fine if you have a bone to pick with edmunds, I really don't care. I just don't think it's fair to try and start a revolution over something that is honestly very common.

Comment by Jim Kristoff on May 13, 2015 at 1:35pm: Unfortunately Jim Ziegler.....you are very correct....it IS a Customer Theft Party....are they at least providing food and drink at these parties???.......