Velicular 10 Posted March 11, 2016 Do any of you feel that it is wrong that AT will not allow you to upload stock directly from your own private website (Independently hosted) to your AT account? In the USA you can install an API to upload stock form your own website to your AT account. Seems here in the UK they want to force dealers to use their website offering. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Phil H 124 Posted March 11, 2016 it's called greed, and that's what auto trader has become about, let's fleece the dealer for as much as we can so our staff can write on classic cars in our office's. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wood235 36 Posted March 13, 2016 (edited) It's only what you would expect from them. Rob the dealer and have the best profit out of the cars, leaving the dealer to scrape what's left and have all the risk! oh and not forgetting to prime the person with the valuation of their p/x and so robbing us of a little bit more!! Edited March 13, 2016 by Wood235 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Phil H 124 Posted March 13, 2016 not for long, listen to last Fridays www.motortraderadio.com podcast and hear about what us dealers are doing to combat this. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Velicular 10 Posted March 16, 2016 The radio show was interesting and may be it is about time that dealers did have a community or body that worked for their benefit. Car dealers have had 2 hills to climb for a long time. First is the publics image of car dealers perpetrated via television series and films. The second one being that car dealers earn thousands from deals they do. This second hill is where so many businesses have jumped on the bandwagon and charge dealers a small fortune for their services no matter how good or poor this might be. AT is just one of the businesses who has tried to evolve with changes in the market place. Could it be that some of the businesses operating could make it easier for dealers to operate by just pushing out the boat a little and giving that bit more. Why is it that most of the big places to advertise make it so hard for dealers to upload stock etc. Are they trying to show that they earn their money because of complexity involved to do a simple task. If you stop for a moment and think that you can upload any video comment or photograph to Facebook within seconds to your account, but at this present time as a dealer you have to use a 3rd party application to upload your information to AT, RAC, etc. Wouldn't it be easier for them to just allow you access to your account and then you can change information as and when you please rather than having to wait 30 minutes for changes to take affect. The only benefit I see to why these companies do listings via feeds the way they do is to keep down bandwidth usage and reduce over all costs. I could be totally out in left field with that statement also. It would be good for some of the mainstream publications that dealers use to comment as to why they do it the way they do. Is there any way they can make it easier for the dealer? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bethany_AutoTrader 5 Posted March 22, 2016 Hi Velicular, Thanks for posting your query. Whilst we can’t do this specifically via an API, we can get a data feed set-up from your website and feed multiple times a day. We do this for hundreds of dealers (some from website providers and some where the site is hosted independently). You don’t have to have one of our websites, this has never been the case. I can't see your contact details at the moment so if you'd like to private message me on here or email bethany@autotrader.co.uk with your details, I can get somebody to call you. Thanks Bethany Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Phil H 124 Posted March 22, 2016 Bethany, do you visit this site often? Do you listen to the podcasts? Do you read you own dealer edit portal's forum? If you do then you'd realize how much Dealers are becoming unhappy with you. Does AutoTrader care about the lots of unhappy customers amongst it's paying dealers or just about price increases and pacifying the shareholders? IMHO Auto trader is a bit like marmite you either love it or hate it and with your endless price rises more and more dealers are switching to the later, not because you don't have a good product because you do, but times are hard for dealers with margins getting squeezed from all angles, wouldn't it be nice to reward your loyal customers who have made you the company you are today, with something nice like for every 3 months you advertise you get 2 weeks free. It would cost you a little in the short term but really would be a nice gesture to help those who pay your wages in times of need, after all how many millions are you saving without sending your copy collectors out every week and printing a magazine. Do something nice today help the dealers and they will continue to support you when a viable alternative comes along. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Velicular 10 Posted March 24, 2016 On 22/03/2016 at 11:51 AM, Bethany_AutoTrader said: Hi Velicular, Thanks for posting your query. Whilst we can’t do this specifically via an API, we can get a data feed set-up from your website and feed multiple times a day. We do this for hundreds of dealers (some from website providers and some where the site is hosted independently). You don’t have to have one of our websites, this has never been the case. I can't see your contact details at the moment so if you'd like to private message me on here or email bethany@autotrader.co.uk with your details, I can get somebody to call you. Thanks Bethany Thank you Bethany for replying. I have sent you an email. Regards Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
