DEALER concerns on price rises and service issues with Carsales have been brought to a head with a meeting held last week rectifying many of the problems raised by members of the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC).

The meeting follows the announcement in January that, based on dealer concerns about Carsales services, the VACC and its Victorian Automotive Dealer Council (VADA) and Carsales would establish a dealer advisory board.

However the main concern – price rises for advertising – has not been resolved.

VACC and the CEO and executive director of Carsales held an online video meeting with Victorian dealers to primarily discuss the price rises planned by Carsales.

GoAutoNews Premium reported in January that in addition to the advisory board, Carsales and the VADA have created a dealer “issues register” to register, track and address problems dealers might be having with site functionality, duplicate leads and various other concerns dealers are experiencing when using the site.

The issues identified by dealers are to be collated by VADA and put to Carsales via the advisory board. These issues include:

• Autogate functionality
• Quality of leads, including fake leads, repeat leads or leads for non-available stock
• System functionality with regards to data search filters
• Opting out of interstate accessibility
• Credit processes and rules

Mr Gwilym told GoAutoNews Premium in January: “Dealers tell me they have a number of issues, but the price per lead they are paying and the quality of those leads is paramount in their minds.”

Now the Dealer Advisory Board (DAB) reports that Carsales has rectified some of the earlier services issues.

These include:

Autogate App: 

Dealers said the problem was that new leads weren’t being sent to dealers using the mobile version of the Autogate App, unless they had email on their device.

The DAB reports that Carsales has now deployed a fix for this issue.  Notifications are now successfully being sent via the Autogate App. For any users still experiencing issues, the VACC said dealers must ensure the latest version of the Autogate app (v 2.11.25) is installed. If yes, then it’s advised to force close the app on the device, then reopen it.

If users are still experiencing issues, call the carsales.com.au support team on 1300 728 800 or via email support@carsales.net.au.

Mobile Synchronisation issue:

The issue was that changes made on the desktop application were not syncing with the mobile Autogate app.

Carsales has deployed a fix for this issue and no further reports have been received. For affected users, the Autogate application requires uninstallation and reinstallation of the most updated version on the device to clear cache.

Lead credit process:

Dealers said they were unclear about the method in which to process lead credits.

Carsales said invoices will be updated with an FAQ document linking to the credit form, that will capture information such as reason for the credit and automatically create a case in the system for the credit request to be reviewed.

This removes the need to call your digital account manager or performance manager.

Carsales said that additional training is scheduled for its sales team to ensure consistency is applied when reviewing credit requests.

Reviewing lead transactions:

Dealers said that since the CSV file send of lead transactions ceased last year, all lead transaction data is housed safely within Autogate. However, some users were unaware of this.

Carsales said invoices will be updated with a description on how to view lead transactions within Autogate.

Review of private advertisers:

Dealers said private advertising doesn’t reflect driveaway pricing.

Carsales said it will review and further develop pricing policy (subject to respective state taxes) for clarity in pricing applied by private advertisers.

The VACC said that the DAB is considering other issues and initiatives with a goal to ensure that its members are receiving the best possible experience and outcomes as a result of these meetings.

The pricing issue has not been resolved. The Carsales increases include:

• A $2 increase on used, new and demo leads
• A $5 increase on all pay-per-listing ads
• A $5 increase to all self-serve promote products
• A four per cent increase on packages and promotion bundles
• Compression of the duplicate credit window to seven days from 14 (This approximates to 1200 leads per month that will not be credited).

An attempt by the VADA to have the price increase postponed was unsuccessful.

By Neil Dowling