Jim Ziegler Wants to know "Is it Time For the Retail Automotive Community to Rise Up and Give CarFax a TrueQuality Thumping?"

Enough is Enough!

Haven't you had it with all of these Data Pirates using our own customer information to defame us, lower our profits, alienate our customers... while at the same time they charge us through the nose to do us harm? 

Among the worst of them in my opinion is CarFax. They even believe they have the right to price our cars and trades.... too low of course. While at the same time CarFax exploits negative stereotypes that we are crooks in every commercial the Little Car Fox Rats out the dishonest bumbling and inept idiot car sales person. They charge us to defame us. 

read this article we just published in Wards Auto Magazine... "My latest article is out and it's hot.  

Here are more than 250 Consumer Complaints and reviews about CarFax... look... http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/carfax_inacc.html 

We have manufacturers supporting these people and requiring we do business with them. Let's get mobilized and scream at our factory representatives, reprint this article for your dealers, do press releases, and generally alert your State Dealer Associations and 20-groups. 

If a consumer asks for the CarFax, tell them it's $39.00. Whoever told you it was free was lying.

I am available to perform 20-group and Dealer Association Keynote Speeches on this subject. As of right now, I am calling out the Tribe to get on this subject. JIM

 

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Comment by Jeff Simonton on November 20, 2012 at 9:22am

CarFax allowed me to drop our account down to a base level (and off the unlimited plan) while we rode out the remainder of our contract. The service component is not a requirement but it is pushed as an opportunity to brand the dealership better. What is really does is open up the door to more odometer issues. I know there's a separate form to sign for that service data and I don't recall it being a contract. Perhaps changing their password without telling them is a good plan?

Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 20, 2012 at 8:42am

Dealers are telling me that CarFax vehemently holds you to their contract and will not let them out. On top of that there is only a short window of time where you are eligible to cancel before it automatically renews. This is what I am being told. Is that accurate? 

One dealer that wants to cancel is saying they intend to pursue the cancellation because the contract was signed by an employee who was not an officer of the company with no corporate resolution. It was evidently signed by a sales manager. Stay tuned on this one... if the dealer prevails, I have reason to believe a lot of other deals will pull the plug on the Fox.

By the way, somebody answer me this. If you have a contract with CarFax does it obligate you to give them DMS access and access to service and body shop records??  In other words can somebody with a contract with CarFax reports turn off their access to your computers? Does anyone have that answer?

Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 19, 2012 at 10:13am

 ARE YOU A CHILD MOLESTER?    LOOK at What He Says About CarFax   He says Carfax has branded  dealers as "Child Molesters". That might by an analogy I'm sure. Click this Blog and read It. Are You a Child Molester?

Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 19, 2012 at 10:04am
@Jeremy Alicandri posted to me on another forum... "FYI on Friday, CARFAX updated the hurricane statement:
Public Service Announcement: Hurricane Sandy may not have damaged this vehicle, but it was registered or located in a county declared a major disaster area by FEMA a href="http://www.fema.gov/disasters">http://www.fema.gov/disasters>;. As a reminder, please get this vehicle inspected prior to purchase.
Thanks Jeremy, maybe they are listening just a little.
Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 19, 2012 at 5:11am

Well Tom, that's a minor issue among all  of the issues dealers and consumers have with CarFax. The reports I am hearing from so many people are beginning to make me believe that CarFax might be largely inaccurate and certainly late with so many reports that it costs dealers and consumers alike a lot of money.  In other words, most of us in the industry that I speak to find CarFax to be over-priced, devious and undependable. Their tactics are designed to frighten the public and create distrust and animosity toward the dealers they take money from. 

Comment by Big Tom LaPointe on November 19, 2012 at 1:46am

i actually traded a personal vehicle when i divorced that had been in a wreck. it was an over-the-phone deal with a friend. the salesperson he assigned never asked if it had been wrecked, and i assumed they saw it on carfax. he called me a month later wondering WTH.

WOULDN'T A PAINT METER - and full disclosure of suspected repairs be a wise investment / process in the carfax era?

Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 16, 2012 at 2:04pm

Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 16, 2012 at 2:04pm

CarFax craps on Dealers - Again (this is an opinion piece here)

CarFax in order to keep consumers frightened and wary of dealers has gone far too far this time. They have added a bold disclaimer on CarFax reports on Cars in the Northeast that put a stigma on dealers entire inventory,. This is unconscionable... In a bold print highlighted banner across the top of every Carfax in the states affected by the hurricane... it reads as follows...

"This vehicle has been registered or located in a county declared a major Disaster area by FEMA after hurricane Sandy. This vehicle may not have been affected but please check for possible flood damage during a pre-purchase inspection."

Comment by James A. Ziegler on November 16, 2012 at 2:00pm

A dealer friend of mine writes.... I was passing the CarFax information on to a dealer friend of mine who immediately cut the access to their Service data and intended to cancel CarFax service. Unfortunately, their Rep informed them that the contract they originally signed was a self-renewing 1-year agreement that can only be broken by a written cancellation notice at 30 days prior to the annual renewal. They are stuck with them until next May, but then it's "Good-Bye!"

 

Comment by Steve Marsh on November 15, 2012 at 10:47pm

Happened to our store a couple times in the past year.  Same thing....clean carfax at time of trade, then lo and behold 45 days later (about the time to move the stale unit to the sale) the Car Fax is dirty...uh really?  Also had to explain this faux paux to a couple guests recently with a bad CarFax showing up AFTER they bought their car intended for a trade!  I do think that some of this is 'garbage in-garbage out' scenarios with body-shops etc being complacent in reporting etc...dunno but surely a mess.  CarFax, KBB, Edmunds etc are all guides not intended to be "the Bible", but consumers are becoming more dependent on their faulty reporting as 'gospel'!

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