DealerRater

I agree!

I could not agree more. An example is Hawthorne Chevy in northern NJ.

My son and I had the worst buying experience that included lies after lies. Went to Yelp and saw many negative reviews that matched our experience.

Dealer Rater gave them 4.8 out of 5 stars. What a joke!

More consumers are now going to Carfolks.com to talk about dealers because they don't let dealers manipulate the bad reviews.

I seem to have the same experience. My positive reviews were instantly published.

My negative review was never seen. I tried twice to no avail.

Hi, I JUST had the exact same experience. When I posted a rude direct email quote from a sales rep on dealerrater, I received an email from the dealership accusing me of falsifying an email.

I think the more things change the more they stay the same. A lot of new technology available these days for car shopping but a car salesman is still a car salesman (the stereotypes are real!).

A review site to me is a site where I can post a positive or negative experience. Mostly negative. For if I had something good to say about a company I would post it on there’re own web site. For everything negative I would post it on an independent web site thinking that they were just that. Independent! I have found that the DealerRater web site is NOT an independent web site for the public but a self serving web site for themselves and their paying members. I can see them holding non member’s hostage with bad review postings. Using these poor reviews as a motivational tool somewhat forcing them into joining their site. I experienced no resistance when publishing a bad review on any non member’s site. However when I posted a poor un-resolvable review on a members page, West Edmonton Hyundai, I had to fight tooth and nail to get it posted. I threatened an audit of their reviews to achieve the publication. Another review, testing the 5 stars rating grade, was posted and pulled immediately with the following messages:

Review.

I would most certainly recommend this dealership to everyone. They provided me with the most unforgettable and fulfilling car buying experience of my entire life .I felt every human emotion possible and then some. My salesman (Keith) was brilliant at blowing the smoke up my back side while the Service Manager (Jeff) and Public Relations guy (Tom) surgically rammed the stick up it. The General Manager (Dwayne) safely nestled in his office was a master at playing the invisible man trick. Magnificent I tell yaw! Outside of paying a bundle for my car they ensure that you just keep paying and paying through their service methods. And not just out of pocket but time as well. It took three months and seven visits later until I was able to finally get their stick out of my back side. Another dealership pulled that out for me. Although the hemorrhoids still linger. Heck! WHY wouldn't I recommend this dealership? LMOA. Click the YouTube video link below or copy and paste it into your web browser for my complete experience. Or visit the "brokenedmonton channel" on YouTube. Enjoy.

youtube.com/watch?v=5hCSZYcajrY

DealerRater Response:

Dear DealerRater Community Member,

Thank you for submitting a Dealer review to DealerRater.

Upon processing your review through our Content Monitoring system, we regret to inform you that your review has been removed due to the inappropriate content contained in the review. The review violates DealerRater's "Terms of Use" policy and will not be posted.

I test all review sites for legitimacy. I post both a good and bad review to see if they both stick. If they do stick I then remove one of the reviews and place that site into my favorite’s folder for future reference. I have found the following illegitimate review sites to be thus far: DealerRater, Yelp, Yellow Pages and the BBB (Better Business Bureau). And Yes I have the documentation to support my conclusions. Their ego’s present themselves quickly when confronted wisely.

It's too bad that there are still Sales people who think and operate this way. Do customers often come in with chips on their shoulders or acting defensively?

- sure. That's part of our job to diffuse that and make them feel comfortable. Treat them well. Do right by them.

Even if you don't get the deal the first time, you might the next time after the customer meets up with a salesperson with the "true dealer" negative attitude.

I'm a Dealer for over 20 years.

I used to hire people that really knew my business - now I just hire nice people and teach them the business. It's such a neat short cut.

Organic reviews via FB and Google, and Ebay are REAL reviews...please keep that in mind when making a purchasing decision.

I agree wholeheartedly. I fell victim to this scam myself.

The experience I had at the dealer was exactly the opposite of what I expected.

I wrote a lengthy review of everything that had taken place (including my credit being ran after I had made it very clear I was pre-approved and didn't want another ding on my credit report) and my entire review was deleted. Don't fall victim to the DealerRater scam.

I would agree with the posts that DealerRater is a site for Dealers about Dealers. If you pay to belong, you have the ability to respond to negative reviews and more.

You don't pay, you don't get to respond, or use any of the positive reviews on your website.

How do I know? I'm a franchised Dealer (for over 20 years).

You want more detail on what a car Dealer is really like, check Yelp. Most Dealer's don't like Yelp.

I do. They don't help the business, and they don't post reviews base upon if you advertise with them. Proof - lot's of business's with bad reviews paying to lead customers to their bad reviews (I still don't understand why business's do that).

If you want to find out a little about a Dealer - stand in their service drive in the morning and watch the attitude of the customers who are dropping off their car. Talk to several about the Dealership.

Check the attitude of the employees. If the Dealer isn't treating the employees right, the employees won't treat the customer right either.

Don't think all Dealer's are bad - they aren't.

Some care very much about the long term success of their business and know that happy customers make that happen.

I noticed that JD Power is now involved in DealerRater. That should be a red flag!

How do we stop sites like this that are lies. A local dealer is using Dealerrater and lying customers.

Not cool

Just another YELP lol.

Completely agree. Just tried to post a negative experience with Hunt Club Nissan, and I've already been contacted by the sales manager who asked me to remove my post. After reading the many reviews on this dealership, I have a hard time believing they are written by actual consumers.

Looking for a quick fix to a problem or just revenge? Dealer Rater is in business for Dealer Rater.

It's the classic shakedown. Dealer Rater posts your angry, frustrated, I got ripped off, those horrible b@***t@^ds! Dealer Rater buys top space on Google searches. Within hours of your angry post, Dealer Rater calls the dealer and offers to "help", for a rather costly, monthly fee.

When you Google a dealer for info, negative posts are displayed. The craziest "trolls" get top billing. The dealer's rating is one star, until the dealer submits to the extortionists. Once the dealer signs up and makes his monthly payments, he becomes "Certified".

Then the site is flooded with positive reviews, solicited from many sources. You don't even have to buy anything to post a negative or positive review. Anyone can post anonymously and there is no checking the validity of the "story", good or bad. So, a Certified dealer is paying for his reputation to be managed by Dealer Rater.

If you have a concern sometimes you can resolve things quickly by calling the owner or general manager of the business. They have a vested interest in their business and your satisfaction. Try not to be rude or insult people. It only makes things ugly.

If need be, call your local Auto Dealer Licensing authority. Most jurisdictions have very good consumer protection advocates.

And please remember, maybe you're angry and you may be exaggerating a little bit?

This company allows people to call people derogatory names and falsely accuse people of being racisist I ask them to take it down they say they dont see a problem with that.

The worst dealers with the worst customer experience use Dealer Rater to put a smoke show up to cover their horrible true reviews, look at the dealers that have won their dealer of the year with Dealer Rater-pay them and they can make you look supreme. But there are no short cuts to properly servicing the customer. Avoid Dealer Rater Dealers.