MyDealerandMe.com just might work. It can't hurt.
There's a new web site that promotes itself as the place where consumers can complain about the treatment they receive at their local car dealership. Or, they can applaud how their dealer treated them. The site was created for car dealers and their customers, the site's founders say, to provide a place where owners can rant or rave about dealers who are in the site's 18,000-dealer database.
Owners can also rate their car dealer experience on a scale of 1 to 5. When a consumer posts their comments, they are apparently forwarded to the dealer, who then gets a chance to respond. Failing to respond, the site says, will affect their rating on the site. That's the tricky part.
Nothing is said about whether the customer's remarks are publicly posted, to be viewed by anyone, or if this is a "private" system where the dealer gets to try to resolve consumer complaints first. Obviously, the very fear of a negative posting can have an impact on the way a car dealer treats future customers, just as much as the fear of not satisfying a complaining customer whose post was sent to the dealer for them to "head off at the pass" so to speak.
While MyDealerandMe.com appears at first glace to be slanted in favor of car dealer use, a competing web site, DealerRater.com, appears to be slanted in favor of consumer use and may be another place to check out your dealer's rating by consumers. Other consumer gripe sites are easy to locate too.
Time will tell. Still, just having the chance to communicate directly (hopefully) with someone "in charge" through the use of this new web site is enough to give us hope that car dealers will be listening. We'll have to wait and see. As we learn more, we'll update this post with more information. Like we said, MyDealerandMe.com just might work.
In the meantime, if you've been the victim of fraud committed by a car dealer or other merchant, you can find a lawyer to help you by clicking here.