Employee training can cost a lot of money. Not training your employees can cost even more. In lawsuits, courts and regulatory agencies sometimes impose after-the-fact training requirements in addition to large monetary penalties. Consider these actual cases:

A dealership faced a wide range of complaints, including failure to disclose material defects and misrepresenting sales and extended service contract prices, and was ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution to victims, plus $300,000 to the state Department of Consumer Protection. As part of the settlement, the dealer also agreed to initiate a mandatory education program for all its employees within 60 days of the settlement, instructing employees on state consumer protection laws.

A jury awarded a $14.4 million wrongful death verdict against a dealership that performed a faulty tire repair and failed to take the tire out of service, leading to a rollover crash that killed a couple. As a condition of the post-verdict settlement, the dealer agreed to implement a training program to better train its technicians about safe tire repair practices to improve consumer safety.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), entered into a $1.5 million settlement of a sex and age discrimination lawsuit with an auto dealership. Along with the monetary penalty, under a consent decree the dealership must provide current employees with four hours of EEO training annually and new hires must receive such training within ten days of employment.

The EEOC reached a $700,000 settlement of a national origin, religion and racial discrimination lawsuit against another dealership. According to the Consent Decree resolving the case, the dealership is required to hire a presenter approved by the EEOC to provide annual training to all of its managers and supervisory personnel on all aspects of Title VII.

What’s that old expression about closing the barn door after the horses are out?

As I read through dealer websites, I’m often surprised at how many advertising violations I find. You would think that website providers would make sure that this doesn’t occur, right?

You should never assume that the company that creates and maintains your website follows all the laws and regulations governing advertising compliance. State advertising laws vary and the responsibility for compliance lies with the dealership, not the vendor. Here are some examples of what I’ve run into and issues to look for:

■ Disclaimers – Website providers sometimes include boilerplate factory disclaimers on inventory pages that identify vehicles by a specific VIN and price, such as:
◦ “Advertised vehicles are subject to actual dealer availability. Certain vehicles listed may not be available, or may have different prices.”
◦ “Pricing and availability varies by dealership.”
◦ “Prices do not include dealer charges, such as advertising, that can vary by manufacturer or region, or costs for selling, preparing, displaying or financing the vehicle.”
◦ “Images displayed may not be representative of the actual trim level of the vehicle.”
◦ “Information provided is believed to be accurate but all specifications, pricing and availability must be confirmed in writing (directly) with the dealer to be binding.”

While these types of disclaimers may be appropriate when advertising a model line, they probably shouldn’t be associated with specific vehicles. Advertised vehicles that are identified by VIN are subject to prior sale, but they certainly should not be subject to “different prices”. You should also determine which charges are allowed to be excluded from an advertised price in your state.

■ Check to determine if all necessary disclosures are present on your site. For example, “advertised prices exclude tax, government fees, etc.” Again, do not assume that your website provider is utilizing language that is acceptable in your particular state or including all of the required disclosures.
■ Be sure that all disclaimers are clearly and conspicuously displayed and not buried away in a difficult-to-find link elsewhere on the site.
■ If payments, downpayments or interest rates are advertised, make sure that all of the proper Truth in Lending and state disclosures are included.
■ Ensure that lease programs are properly disclosed. Many factory national lease programs contain generic information that may not be sufficient or appropriate in your state.
■ Some states require that vehicle history, such as prior rental or demonstrator, is disclosed on vehicle advertisements. Does your website provide a way to include these disclosures?
■ Ensure that vehicles are promptly removed from the website after they have been sold. Some sites are linked to the dealer’s DMS and will remove sold units automatically, while others require vehicles to be removed manually. Sold units should always be removed promptly to avoid potential bait and switch advertising claims.

It’s never a bad idea to have your website thoroughly reviewed by a compliance professional. Remember, advertising violations can be easy for regulators to spot and difficult to defend against.

If your sales staff told you that they had a 50% closing ratio, would you take their word for it? I suspect not – you would probably track all of their opportunities to determine the true percentage. Most dealerships measure a vast number of items on a daily basis. After all, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, right?

How about the level of compliance and ethical behavior in your dealership? Is that something you measure or do you just take everyone’s word for it? Have you really thought about how your staff is conducting itself in these areas? Is it possible that some of these thoughts are floating around? Read the rest of this entry →

Many of the big money, big publicity compliance meltdowns in the auto industry have been the result of vehicle financing issues. Remember the Gunderson Chevrolet news clips showing the management team being convicted and sent to jail? Being a fearless bunch, some F&I folks still walk a fine line when it comes to compliance. Maybe it’s because no one ever showed them a better way?

Becky Chernek of Chernek Consulting, Inc., who is one of the finest F&I trainers in the industry, was kind enough to share some feedback that she received from F&I managers when discussing ethical sales practices in her seminars.

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Before the internet, when there were only phone pops, we learned valuable lessons on how to handle calls, such as selling the appointment, creating urgency, not giving shopping numbers and keeping information close to the vest until the customer showed up. It was good advice then and it may be good advice now. But keep in mind that many customer inquiries tend to come online rather then by phone. While the ultimate goal remains the same – to get the customer into the dealership – the rules for execution have become trickier because online communication creates a permanent written record of all interactions with customers.

In addition, many dealers are now utilizing social media as an easy and affordable way to promote their products and services. It’s important to understand that even though it may not require writing a big check, certain social media postings may be considered advertising and proper care should be taken to avoid legal exposure. As we are painfully aware, there are plenty of federal and state regulations that govern automotive advertising. For instance, social media postings that list vehicle prices, payments, downpayments or drive-off amounts may trigger advertising disclosure requirements.

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“BUYERS ARE LIARS”.

I don’t think I was in the car business one hour before I heard that catchy little phrase. Sure enough, over the course of my retail career, I suspect I was lied to over and over again by the best of them.

I’m not going to pontificate about what buyers lie about and why – many of us could easily write a book on that subject. Instead I’m going to bring up what I think is an important point – buyers can say pretty much whatever they want without fear of recourse, dealers cannot. Yep, that’s right. Buyers can outright lie through their teeth, but dealers are not allowed to stretch the truth even a little.

Doesn’t seem fair, does it? Well it’s not. All may be fair in love and war, but it sure isn’t fair on a car lot. For the most part, when buyers lie to a dealer, they get to go on their merry old way. But if a dealership is accused of being dishonest with a customer, either by commission or omission, they may end up in a courtroom or worse.

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I was browsing through the website of a prominent dealer-chasing law firm this morning (I know, I have weird hobbies), and came across a posting about a dealer with a link to a YouTube video. This dealership is part of a good-sized group that is very well-regarded in the area. As I am personally acquainted with this dealer group, I can attest to their integrity and dedication to customer satisfaction. So, when I clicked on the YouTube link, I expected to see another unconvincing customer with a bad case of buyer’s remorse. Well, I wasn’t disappointed – the customer bought a cheap older car and expected it to run like a brand-new Mercedes.

Not surprisingly, the video attempted to make the dealership look terrible and completely at fault. But here’s the thing – this video wasn’t an amateurish clip of a customer ranting and raving, it was obviously professionally done. So well done in fact that I suspect most consumers viewing the video would find it believable.

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I get it. It’s tough out there. Customer access to information on the internet continues to squeeze margins. Dealerships are just trying to make a buck in a fiercely competitive marketplace. You have to do whatever it takes to stay ahead of the competition.

I also get that some may view compliance as unnecessary, overrated, annoying, a waste of time and money, and downright harmful to profitability. These are perceptions and as they say, perception is reality.

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Many complaints and legal actions against auto dealers are the result of the way vehicles are advertised. According to a joint survey by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (NACAA), and North American Consumer Protection Investigators (NACPI), the number one consumer complaint has been misrepresentations in advertising or sales of new and used cars.

Advertising violations are also a ripe target for regulators and consumer attorneys. To give you an idea of how dealer advertising is on the radar, consider the opinion published by the New York State Attorney General’s office: “This office’s review of current car ads has revealed a widespread pattern of deception and the use of materially false or misleading representations by some dealers.

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Much has been written about Automotive Online Reputation Management and, fortunately, there are a number of companies and consultants now available to assist dealers in getting a handle on this crucial subject. Reputation and customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to dealers and there is little doubt that many negative online postings are either questionable or do not reliably portray the true culture of the dealership.

However, I believe that a dealership’s reputation is difficult, if not impossible, to manage when certain staff members do not operate ethically and resort to “old school” deceptive practices. Looking through some of the sites that rate dealers, I found some interesting examples:

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