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Craigslist
Are guidelines set up for dealers who post units on Craigslist? I have scoured the terms and conditions and all of the help pages on their website and can't find anything that makes me think there are any legalities involved. It seems I remember hearing something about it a few months back, though. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Josh Gardner on -
Not that I know of, I get flagged off by individuals all the time, they get mad that I post so many ads, I don't care I just keep posting. I run about 50 ad's per day, every morning I erase and repost the same ad's I ran the day before, it ticks off individuals from time to time, I however sell around 10 or so a month from the site so I say whateva.
Here's another site I just started using, www.backpage.com I haven't seen any traffic from it yet, o well, it's free too.
good selling!
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Permalink Reply by Brad Hensley on -
Josh,
Check out my post below. But we had this same issue and thought it was other dealers or individuals doing this but come to find out it was because we hadn't removed our old listing first. For instance, if you post an add on a 1999 Camaro $4,975.00 today, and post the same listing tomorrow (if it accepts it) it will be flagged by their computers in about an hour. You must first remove the initial listing then repost. It's very time consuming but as you probably know, well worth it.
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Permalink Reply by Bryan on -
You seem to have been doing craigslist for quite some time, I was wondering if you might be able to answer a question for me.
When it comes to selling a wholesale type of a vehicle, what are the legalities for posting and selling the vehicle with disclosing what problems it may or may not have? If you post it as-is does that take the liability away from you?
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Permalink Reply by Josh Gardner on
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By the way Scott I use a system called dealertrend to up load my cars to craigslist, it's totally free, check them out!!
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Permalink Reply by Jody Graffunder on -
Craigslist has been an effective tool for car dealers but everyone be warned of the true attitude of those in charge at cl. Craigslist has started filing lawsuits against companies that provide autoposting tools:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091008/2324416469.shtml
If you read their TOS, you'll see that using automation tools of any kind, in any way on their site is against their Terms of Service. With the most recent lawsuits they've filed, they are saying that breaking their TOS is a crime. And as settlement for these suits, they'll likely be after the customer lists so they can know everyone who's used these tools. And lots of car dealers use them. This is after craigslist topped 100 million dollars profit last year. Looks like they've decided what they are going to do with some of that money. I'm not saying they are coming after car dealers but they are positioning themselves and it has been a common practice for large companies to use lawsuits to create a quick payday. Would your dealership be able to fight a 100 million dollar-a-year giant?
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Permalink Reply by Marlow on -
It's oft said that in or to catch a "blank", you must first think like a "blank". Craigslist is popular for two reasons free & simple. If you want to capture clients on CL you should think like a CL buyer, simple and cheap. The more formula your advert is the more likely they are to pass you over thinking you are a scam or "the man".
Keep it simple, tell a story and add some good photos and contact information. If you want to provide more photos than the 4 included resized and horrible looking spots, do so cleanly and again simply.
I've tried every level from complete interactive templates and youtube videos (yes there was a time you could pull that off) to bare bones ads and have found that the bare bones ads are infinitely more productive, not to mention take far less time to create.
There are rules and the more you bend them the more likely you are to get caught and banned. It is true that you might have to play the system a bit to maximize exposure, but it doesn't pay to over develop CL listings.
My biggest fear are the glimpses of the impending pay system that will come up once in a while while listing. I'd rather follow some rules now than have to pay for this valuable and still free sales avenue.
Just a couple cents there.
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Permalink Reply by Omied Bagheri on -
My Autotrader.com rep was here on Wednesday and we were chatting it up about CL. He forwarded me this e-mail...Apparently it's CL itself that's trying to flag off dealers
A dealer in SF called Craigslist to find out why his cars kept being taken down. They told him they were not going to let dealers advertise their entire inventory anymore. This makes sense from the standpoint that it is a “community” website, not meant for business advertising. Sooooo. We will see.
The dealer who gave Rich the info was a Penske dealer in the Bay area. Rich also talked to a third party provider working on fixes.
The person from Craigslist was rude to the dealer. The Craigslist person said they were tired of the dealers stealing from them. The person said they are on a mission. The Craigslist person said they verify the IP address and the phone number. If it isn’t the IP address from the dealership they take it down. The work around is a company in the bay area (Dealer Fusion) that has a tool that resides on the dealer computer. The company can send a batch from the store computer.
Yago is trying IP routing but Craigslist is looking at IP tracking to find dealers who are not uploading from the store. These will be taken down too.
Michael
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Permalink Reply by Brad Hensley on
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I am reading through several of these posts and other sites and can't believe of the misconception as well as the myths out there about Craigslist. They actually want traffic on their site! They are not going to ever ban dealers but they will make you follow some guidelines. If you are getting flagged for overposting, it is for one of two reasons:
1.) you haven't signed up for their free account that states that you are a automotive dealer.
2.) you must remove your postings before you repost them.
Craigslist has been a great tool for us and we post our entire inventory (250+cars) all day, every day on there. I actually have one person that does this on staff.
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Permalink Reply by Omied Bagheri on
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Like I said earlier..was just posting up what was forwarded to me. All dealers I've talked with in my area are facing the same issues many of us posted on here are (ghosting/flagging) even when done properly and accordingly to CL's T.O.U.
If you go to craigslist.org and then go under their discussion forums, there are so many people hating on dealers it's not even funny. A lot of people on CL hate dealers
What's your secret of posting 250 cars/day on their? Please do tell :=)
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Permalink Reply by John Caudell on -
Has anyone tried using Kijiji? Itr's a division of ebay I hear. It is also a free posting service.
John
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Permalink Reply by Josh Gardner on
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not yet thanks for the link though, another site that I can tick off consumers by posting my ads all the whilst making a clean honest living,. lol
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Permalink Reply by Gene Daughtry on -
I don't think they let you sell cars on Kijiji.
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