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#417 - Auto Dealer Compliance & Attorney General Enforcement 2025 with Steve Levine
#417 - Auto Dealer Compliance & Attorney General Enforcement 2025 with Steve Levine
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About this episode
Steve Levine joins the podcast to discuss the evolving landscape of auto dealer compliance and the increasing scrutiny from state regulators in 2025. With consumers now leveraging AI to voice complaints, Levine emphasizes the importance of proper complaint management and documentation within dealerships. He highlights the challenges dealers face, including aggressive actions from Attorney Generals and the impact of misinformation circulating in online communities. The conversation also touches on the need for a unified understanding of what constitutes a complaint and the consequences of failing to address consumer grievances effectively.
Cars:
GMC Yukon
In this episode of the Independent Dealer Podcast, hosts Jeff Watson and Luke Godwin sit down with compliance expert Steve Levine from Ignite Consulting to discuss the biggest compliance challenges facing auto dealers in 2025.What You'll Learn:Why state Attorney Generals are getting more aggressive with dealer enforcementHow to properly manage and document customer complaintsWhat constitutes a "complaint" and why it matters for your dealershipDocument retention requirements and best practicesNew FTC rules on Google reviews and compensation disclosureWebsite compliance issues including stock image licensingThe importance of annual document reviewsKey Topics Covered:State regulator activity and AG investigationsComplaint management systems that actually workFee transparency and profit center scrutinyBetter Business Bureau complaint trackingBHPH dealer-specific compliance considerationsGoogle review regulations and FTC enforcementWebsite copyright and licensing issuesAbout Steve Levine: Steve Levine is a compliance consultant with Ignite Consulting Partners, specializing in helping independent dealers stay compliant with ever-changing state and federal regulations.Resources: Contact Steve: [email protected] Website: igniteconsultingpartners.com Compliance Unleashed Conference - April (NABD United)Support the businesses that support the podcastBuckeye Risk ServicesReinsurance, tax planning, and long-term wealth strategies built specifically for independent dealers.https://theindependentdealer.com/buckeyeBlytzPayBuy Here Pay Here payment processing with fast funding, text-to-pay, and real dealer-focused support.https://theindependentdealer.com/blytzpayIturan GPSGPS and payment technology for BHPH and retail dealerships focused on asset protection, recovery tools, and customer management.https://theindependentdealer.com/ituranFollow & Connect Website: www.theindependentdealer.com Email: [email protected] Facebook Group: @independentautogroup Luke Godwin: @lukegodwin Jeff Watson: /sendtojeffwLike, subscribe, and share this episode with another dealer who needs a fresh perspective.
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
GMC Yukon
"...a friend of mine that I sold a Yukon to that just started acting up..."
The GMC Yukon is a large SUV that can carry many passengers and cargo. It's often used by families because it has a lot of space and is good for towing things like trailers.
The GMC Yukon is a full-size SUV known for its spacious interior and strong towing capabilities. It's popular among families and those needing a vehicle for both daily driving and recreational use.
Term
head gasket
"...I'll pay you for the head gasket job you did or the valve covers like it just doesn't matter. I think we need to be cautious of that..."
The head gasket is a part of the engine that keeps oil and coolant separate. If it fails, it can cause serious problems like overheating.
The head gasket is a critical component that seals the engine block and cylinder head, preventing coolant and oil from mixing. A failure can lead to significant engine damage and overheating.
Term
valve covers
"...I'll pay you for the head gasket job you did or the valve covers like it just doesn't matter. I think we need to be cautious of that..."
Valve covers are parts of the engine that cover the valves and keep oil from leaking out. They help keep the engine running smoothly.
Valve covers are protective covers that sit on top of the engine's cylinder head, housing the valves and preventing oil leaks. They play a crucial role in maintaining engine lubrication.
Term
Yukon
"...Financially I'm in a position where I can buy back a Yukon that's gonna cost me a couple bucks..."
The Yukon is a large SUV made by GMC. It's popular for families because it has a lot of space and can carry heavy loads.
The Yukon is a full-size SUV produced by GMC, known for its spacious interior and capability. It's often used for family transport and towing.
Select text to request an explanation
You have consumers who are now chat GPT warriors that type that crap into chat GPT and say I bought this car from so-and-so auto
And this thing happened. What should I do? Okay, please draft me a letter. I noticed the distinct change
August-September time frame and the sophistication of complaints that I was seeing from consumers
And it's because AI has learned our business better and it has learned how to attack our business
And I'm so concerned about it. I'm actually teaching a class on this at compliance at least this year
Specifically on how consumers are using AI to attack dealers because the game has changed and and the quality
That is going
To the regulators and and is being pled in court. I looked at one last week
Pro say plaintiff
Hello and welcome to the independent dealer podcast Luke one of my favorite topics best time of the year to talk about it
If it's not tax money, it is compliance and making sure I don't get my pants suit off me
Yeah, I mean, it's such an important thing when we talk about
Dealers and how they should operate in their business and we have one the best in the industry
I should say to keep us compliant and keep us safe and that's mr. Steve Levine with ignite consulting. Thanks for being here Steve
Thanks for having me guys. Great to be here. Yeah
Steve's like the
He's like the canary in the coalmine. They're like the watchman on the tower or like the I don't know
What's the other kind of like acronym for him? Like he's the guy that lets us know what's going on before we get
Frickin ambushed or infiltrated or like shut down right Steve
I try to be you know, you've got you've got your pulse on what's going on. So give us an update Steve
What are you seeing like?
Because I got a bunch of questions for eggs. I've seen stuff here, but first off tell us
What what what are you seeing? What happened in 2025?
I mean, I think that's the best thing to go at like
What'd you see happen in 2025 with dealer compliance?
How are people getting sued or how are people making consumers angry that we need to do a better job?
The big thing I saw throughout 2025
was
increase of activity by the state regulators
You know that there's this war being fought between the states and the federal government and the CFPB backing down and
Federal deregulation and a lot of the consumer advocates consumer zealots got got very upset about that and
They became very aggressive at the state level. I mean, I had more
Attorney general activity this summer that than any summer I could remember and
They were harder to talk to they were harder to get to see reason and and that's still ongoing
And is this is this regulation?
Financial disclosure regulation or is this legislation that are are I sold them a limit like what is causing the
The consumer to push back what's causing the the consumer affairs to push back in these states a
Lot of that depends on the given state
Some states are being very aggressive in how they're interpreting their statutes and and are really targeting
certain types of conduct
profit centers and fees a
big one is if
The AG is getting complaints about a dealership. They're much more likely to go in and start digging around and asking questions and
Examples of that
Well, I mean, let's let's put that in context guys
If your AG is getting complaints about you
He should be coming in and digging around and finding out what the freaks going on, right?
Like we're talking to a group of dealers here on this podcast who have their pulse on their dealerships
If if complaints are getting outside of your four walls of your dealership
Like come on like you should be addressing these things. You should you should not
Let yeah, let's get to the state level. Yeah, but I'll tell you Jeff. I
Need a lot of dealers what when I ask them about their complaint management
It's blank
You know that I don't help me mother folks to do a good job, but they have no idea
They're not documenting anything that they can't tell you anything historical and that's problematic because
More so now that I've ever seen that the attorney generals have a lot of working relationships with better business bureau
And I mean I I had I had one dealer they flat out asked them
Get give us your better business bureau complaints for the last three years
Luckily, this was a dealer that really kept the track of things and we were able to answer that question
If you don't have that record and you can't answer that question
You're just inviting a ton of scrutiny. So so it's important to keep track of this stuff
It's important to talk to your team about
What they're doing in the complaint process? What is a complaint and and where do we write that down and what the next steps?
Are in terms of getting resolved Steve what it didn't I think that's key. What is a complaint because?
Is a complaint that someone is mad because we repossess their car or is a complaint
Where we repossess customers car and they go to the department consumer affairs
Or they go to the better business bureau or they leave a review. Is that a complaint because?
Some complaints are real and some complaints are not real
So this is where a lot of people that they get tripped up right here
They can't answer this question and they just move on and never want to invest the time and tackle it
I don't really care that everybody has the same definition of a complaint
But I care if everybody in your organization has the same definition of a plate week. We shouldn't have departments
Thinking there are different definitions to me. It's a dissatisfaction with a product or a service that you provide them
so
If they're saying I told the salesman that these are my paydates and they told me my payments
We're gonna be do this date when they do something else. Okay, that's a complaint
You know if they're just complaining about
My car payments too much. You shouldn't have repossess, you know, we hear that noise all the time
but but if they if they're
Pointing the finger at something you did or didn't do something that was said or not said I think that rises to the level and
I got one client that they had a problem with their their complaint process and
We started meeting weekly about it and and really digging in and what we found was
collections and
service departments had completely different
Understandings of what a complaint was and we're just looking for the other to solve the problems and once we broke through and got everybody on the same page
No, no more problems. It all works out now
Yeah, it's really it's interesting to me that you have a
Situation and the reason I made that first statement was I get a
Grievance right like you have a complaint. Hey, you got my paydays wrong or hey
You know, I I understood that this was a 12 month warranty that was bumper to bumper
You know, like there's little like
Misunderstandings, let's say, but then there's complaints like you sold me a warranty
I didn't know I need I had or you told me my interest rate was 12% and it's actually 24 or
You didn't account for my down payment, right? Like there's actual errors and issues
Those is what I don't understand like if someone comes in and says you sold me a warranty. I didn't know about
Okay, mr. Customer. I'm so sorry. Let me refund that like what are we doing?
Are these are these dealerships you're dealing with Steve or they actually say nope? You said yes
See I have a signature right here. This is you bought this warranty like they're just getting it to these customers at the expense of
Yeah, but it does have a couple bucks. I I was dealing with an issue yesterday
you know because of the storm a lot of people are in a state of emergency and
this client
Chose to turn off cars over the weekend
And my first question what are you doing? It's a storm. It's a state of emergency
You know, you got to think about these stuff
You got to anticipate that you're just gonna drive negative experiences when you do something like that
Yeah, but a lot of people it's like nope. This is what our policy is. This is what we we travel
This is what we're doing that does them out. Did you tell them to turn all those cars back on immediately?
I'm gonna mess they could drive out of the storm
You don't want to get in there getting
The nightmare in my head
somebody's stuck in the house and that they need to go get milk for the kids and
cars are enough
Yeah, well, that's the only thing producing heat for him is sitting in their car like so so common sense
I guess would say I mean
Should it should prevail Jeff common sense should prevail, but it doesn't always do so so so I get
When you say these AG complaints and we had the situation here in Utah, right?
We had some AG was still complaining or getting complaints by consumers for there's probably two or three dealer groups in the state
That everybody knows our sketchy. They have false advertising on their website
They are notorious for payment packing and duping customers and it's it's it's literally known the new car association
knows who these guys are
But when the AG is like, hey, we still have complaints they throw this big blanket
Big blanket regulation on all dealers and say okay because we're getting payment complaints
We're gonna change this form and add new stuff when
Literally you could go to three dealer principles that don't know that their F&I guys are
Fleecing customers or don't care maybe and just find the pants off them
Drop a big old lawsuit on them and I guarantee you that would stop and the rest of us dealers don't have to deal with all this
Nonsensical red tape that's popping up
Is that where you're seeing Steve is it is it is it literally just bad apples in the barrel spoiling the whole thing?
Now I think some of it is I also think some of it is just bad information
And this is something that I'm trying to
Combat with you know our training platform and and all the stuff I put out information wise
I'll go to those you know Facebook group pages and and
You know, you'll have somebody say something outland just
clearly illegal and
You'll have five people say ooh, you shouldn't be doing that. You'll have the one guy say oh, yeah, that's a great idea
And I'll listen to the one person
Yeah, so there's just some bad information out there, too
There's truly this there's truly disinformation out there and we see it in the Facebook groups all the time
And I see every Thursday when I listen to the Luke's podcast
Thanks, thanks Jeff
I worn my clients be careful who's
Reading that stuff it because it's not just dealers on those pages. I guarantee you you've got regulators watching those pages
You've got lawyers watching those pages and and I do know lawyers that have
Used that against dealers in elitiation, you know, let's put your Facebook page up there
Let's look at all these comments. What did you about this one? What did you about this one?
So you really need to do a good job of understanding what the rules are
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They're great to the industry. They're one of your sponsors
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Yeah, absolutely. I have not seen a company so willing to get behind the dealers from an education from a support standpoint
I mean, there's a handful that we see in our sphere that are very active and and always have our back
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and
And I think I know a good bit about
Compliance and I try to be as compliant as possible
But even me who's been in business that long whenever I have a question
my first call is Steve Levy
Because I'm not going to put it out there for some dealer that's been in business for a month to comment on
It's not worth it to me. You shouldn't be taking
Your compliance questions to facebook
Um, it just shouldn't be there. It should it should go to to Steve Levine. It should
It should be dealt with at conferences
It shouldn't be put in the open for other consumers
other dealers and other
Uh
People to comment on in my opinion. Yeah, Steve. Let me ask you a specific question along those lines then when you say complaint
um
Documenting what are you seeing dealers do or use give us some advice there because
To me my brain says well, we documented it inside of our dms
It's in the notes that this is what the complaint was and this is how we resolved it
Is that adequate or do we need a separate?
Ledger google sheet document formal complaint forms that are being filled out resolved and filed away somewhere
I'd like it to be kept separately
because
if you get examined
And and our regulator starts asking questions about complaints
You don't want to have to go sort for all your notes to try to answer those questions
You want I don't care whether it's a yellow legal pad or a spreadsheet or if you want to use software
I don't care but but just as long as
You've got something that that you could show that that we do track this and we do work through this and and look
If it's complaints that that you got resolved in five minutes
I don't really care about writing those down
But but the ones that continue on the ones that that there's a email chain or there's just you know note after note
It's good to have those written down separately and and you know the other thing I find that some dealers do is
They'll only write down the hardest most miserable ones
And there was all the ones that cause you headache
They sit down with you in the office and you got the wife and the husband and the wife there and they're complaining and
We had one the other day
We had to unwind a deal and that would be an automatic trigger, right?
I mean if you ever unwind a deal like that needs to be documented on why and how and all that kind of stuff, right?
Um, but those are the biggest headaches because they are kind of the ones that grab your attention, right?
right and and I think that
It requires some work. It doesn't require a ton of work
But the benefits are huge because this is happening more and more. I never used to talk about this 10 years ago
And now it seems like it happens
Very frequently and not just the big scary blue states, but but it happens all over the country
Because all the regulators talk to one another
And and there's a lot of consumer
Zealots out there that that are pushing the regulators
And there's there's also out there too. Yeah, and there's also some bad dealers out there. I mean, let's be honest
um and
The unwind Jeff and you know, this happens and dealers need to
To take this in as a tool in their toolbox
Because the last thing you won't as a buy here pay here dealer is
To keep a customer in a car that doesn't want to be in the car because they can just create a nightmare for you
and and even as a retail dealer
Unwind the deal if it's if it's even a bit sideways, just get out of it
It's it's so refreshed and sometimes to look at the customer and say
You know what you're having this much problem. Let's just I'm gonna buy the car back from you
I'm gonna give you your down payment back. I'm gonna take the car back
For for one it kind of takes the burden off of you as a dealer to try to rectify something that may take some time
Um and the consumer actually when you say that it disarms them, right Jeff? I mean this probably happened with you
Yeah, yeah, and and one I think of two months ago
I did was a friend of mine that I sold a Yukon to that just started acting up
And and I tried to help him kind of work through it for the first few weeks
And then he's like my wife has no confidence in the car and I'm like, well, well, that's it
Like yeah, just bring it to me. I'm gonna cut you a check for the full amount. I'm not gonna subtract miles or this
That's right. I'll pay you for the head gasket job
You did or the the valve covers like it just doesn't matter. I think we need to be cautious of that
And here's the issue you said Luke earlier desperate times make dealers desperate
Yeah, and so yes
Financially I'm in a position where I can buy back a Yukon that's gonna cost me a couple bucks
And I get that not all dealers are there. I get that if they take that $3,000 loss
Bringing a car back into inventory that's got issues
It could put them under for the month. Yeah, I have some empathy there
I do too a real quick break to make sure you guys know about blitz pay
It's who I use to take all the payments at my buy here pay here dealership
We've been with them for almost three years now and it is absolutely amazing. It's great. Yeah
The product is so simple even an idiot like me can use it but uh,
You know when even when my collector's out and I'm just taking a phone call here or there
No matter where I am I can log into blitz pay and I can take that payment
I can see the customers texting in and say, hey, can you run this or whatever's going on?
It's always on top of it and the money's in the bank almost the next day and that is to me so important
And the support is great if we do have a charge back or a dispute
We get an email that says, hey, there was this dispute and then their team goes to work to help us resolve it
It doesn't they don't just dump it back on your table with some random
Notification or email that you barely ever see
Like my previous processors. Yeah, it's so helpful
and a lot of times it's because our
Our customers did something wrong, but when it's not they'll fight to the to the end with you and get that money back into your account
Yeah, so give them a call the guys and girls over at blitz pay great partner to have
Definitely an essential tool to have if you're a buy here pay here dealer
What do you do when you're in that situation steve you see this often where a dealer
Just can't financially
Do what is the right thing to do? What are you supposed to do then?
Uh, I see that but I also see some dealers that that honestly they need a little bit of work on what the right thing is
I've got one on my desk right now
They agreed to do a rescission with the customer
We'll just unwind the deal
And unfortunately they didn't call me to to to document it. They just went to ai
Uh, so they went to ai and they got this online agreement
And now the customer is threatening to sue them
And I look at the agreement. There was no release in the agreement
You know, so so they asked ai for something they got exactly what they asked for but it didn't cover them
And and now they've got to deal with with this customer anyway. Well, let's let's talk about that though. I mean
Jeff and I would figure maybe jeff smarter than I am. I doubt it. But um, if I unwind a deal with a customer
I mean, shouldn't I be
Pretty and clear. Do I need a document? Do I need a Steve Levine document to unwind?
I'm always going to tell you get a release because it
Perfect again, this customer goes and sees a lawyer tells the lawyer about it and the lawyer said, oh
You had all these damages. You had all this mental anguish. You you had all this time wasted
We're going to try to recover that. Oh my come from dissolved with one more sentence
Hmm
And so the chat gpt comment you made that is the other side of it. You talk about the federal
Uh, attorney general is not being as aggressive. So the state ones have stepped in and now they're the ones doing it
and you have consumer advocates being more active and
You have consumers who are now chat gpt warriors
That type that crap into chat gpt and say I bought this car from so-and-so auto and this thing happened. What should I do?
Okay, please draft me a letter. So now they've got these very elegant well worded letters that they send on to the attorney general
That's all fluffed up
Because this is a great subject
It wasn't worth the hassle or headache for them to try to put together a case or draft a full letter to submit
Now they can have it done in a snap of a finger and all of a sudden they have this full blown legal briefing
That they send on
And so here's my observation
I noticed a distinct change
August-September timeframe in the sophistication of complaints
That that I was seeing from consumers and it's because
AI has learned our business better and it has learned how to attack our business better
So so I've seen that and I'm so concerned about it. I'm actually teaching a class on this
At compliance and leased this year
Specifically on how consumers are using AI to attack dealers because the game has changed
and and the quality
That is going
To the regulators and and is being pled in courts. I looked at one last week
Pro say plaintiff they did it themselves. I actually spoke to the lady. She doesn't need a law firm
She feels like she's got the best law firm in the world represent your because she's using AI
And and it's pretty darn good
And it doesn't take the third
what you make exactly
exactly and
it
It actually drafted her pleadings for her
The dealer filed an answer filed a motion to dismiss the case. She fed that
into
AI and it gave her a response back
Uh, wow
And she actually told me to get this whole thing started. She actually fed her deal
The contract all the paperwork. She fed that into AI and and wanted to know
Where she was taking advantage of
So it's it's gotten very sophisticated and and it understands the weaknesses now
You have to be careful because because again, you you get out what you put into it
I I see a lot of
bad information
because consumers don't understand
The relationship
That they don't understand this, you know, they're asking. What's the usury in so-and-so state?
Usury is one thing retail installment contract rates are something else
so a lot of times that they're scaring the heck out of dealers saying all this stuff and you unravel it and
The picture looks a lot better for the dealer because all the customer was doing was just
Ranting and and and not positioning the right way, but I've also seen some dealers
Send back answers that they actually created liability
Because they put in bad information to AI as well
So that's gonna be a great class because I think there's a lot of landmines people are thinking about
Yeah
Yeah, you can
You can kind of get AI to say what you wanted to say if you prompted, right?
um
and I would uh
I think it helps in response to consumers a lot of times if you put all the information there and you prompt it well
um
But again response from you
Is way better because I'll stay out of trouble
Yeah
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Yep, give them a call go to our website for more information. So let's talk about that real quick. So you know
You mentioned uh compliance unleashed and buy here pay here united. Obviously it's again this year joint
Uh kind of event in las vegas uh april
April 19th to 21st uh this year will be enjoying by uh lh ph capital as well
So so it was compliance buy here pay here lease here pay here all in vegas in april
I'm on the agenda committee. So I've been uh helping draft some of the other sessions and it's really exciting
There's going to be some awesome stuff especially cool stuff in the workshop section
Where we're going to have some hands-on stuff and that's something I've pushed forever. They did all at the garage
The garage section don't get confused. It's not it's not for mechanics
It is literally just the hands-on portion where we're going to be using things like ai to draft stuff
Hopefully illegal documents, but yeah, so it's going to be cool. So steve
You got one day of just compliance with you. Are you also
Speaking during the the rest of the conversation
Yeah, the the first day of the afternoon is all compliance and then we've got we've got tracks
uh
One morning one afternoon we've got four sessions each of those days as well
But the class i'm really excited about i've wanted to do this for a long time
And and just things worked out for i'm able to this year is
You know that there's a big philosophy. Well, it's never going to happen to me. I'm too small. I'm too this
I'm too that never going to happen to me
I've I've got
Two dealers and and we're keeping them anonymous because I don't want any publicity about who they are
I don't want anybody to to get names
But they're going to talk about it did happen to that
and and they got attorney general subpoenas and
It's going to be a very raw conversation. We're going to talk about the sleepless nights
We're going to talk about the tremendous business distraction and all the stress and and what they had to do
To to even respond to that information, you know, the
Not only is it the money cost it is the time cost and and it is a
It is a huge distraction on the business. So it's emotional. It's emotional cost, too
It is it is and we're going to talk about all of that and because literally these are two dealers that if you ask them
It would never happen to them
and it did
Well, I've always I've always been under that
That thought hey, I'm not big enough to be messed with
um
I think they would go after, you know, somebody with 5 000 accounts or or 2 000 accounts not, you know
somebody in plumbia with a thousand accounts like I never
I never thought that that would happen, but it does happen
It absolutely happened. I'm working with a dealer right now
and
They only sell about 15 cars a month. Oh man should have never happened to them
Unfortunately, they didn't know who I was
And that they started working with the regulator themselves and quite honestly pissed them off. Oh, no, don't ever do that
Yeah
And
That they pissed them off to the extent that I should be able to work something out quickly now
But but i'm not able to because this regulator is just convinced
That that they're being sneaky and they're doing good things
So edit that's the hard thing luke and you talk about being too small
Sometimes it is the small dealer that just doesn't know any better
And that's the problem is we don't know what we don't know
So we've been doing it one way or we were taught one way and all of a sudden
We get these lawsuits or complaints that we've been missing a form or missing a signature or saying the wrong thing because we're not big enough
To have a compliance department or to really be paying attention to that stuff or going to convention
and getting educated so
That's the issues. It's us little guys that yeah, just kind of slinging it like it's the wild west
We're not my collection to don our eyes and cross on our t's. Yeah, my compliance department's steeper than
but
I mean, that's how I handle it
So
You know, we used to hear a cfpb. Is that even exists anymore?
cfpb exists cfpb has been greatly reduced in numbers
Uh cfpb is still active, but but they're focusing on other things right now
I'm more concerned about the federal trade commission. I was about to say f tc. What do we got to be worried about there?
That you've got to be worried about your advertising
You've got to be worried about
Google reviews
That they have gone after
Not just our industry that they've gone after big companies about google reviews that not disclosing that you're compensating
people for reviews not disclosing
That that these are not all the reviews that there's been a lot of activity with reviews
And and the big one that i'm keeping a careful eye on is still the safeguards rule
I think the 700 credit
security incident was a big wake-up call
I expect to see a lot of activity coming out of that
I'd say that in the last couple of months
I've had more private lawyers, uh, you know, you're dealing with a consumer issue
And all of a sudden they're working safeguards into the conversation. Well, we we think that their
Information was breached we we think they didn't take take care of things because there's a close proximity to when they
Gave us the application and when bad things started happening. So so we're seeing that too
So so I tell folks if you do not have an information security plan in writing
If you don't have an incident response plan if you're not doing some type of training with your team
Bare minimum you need to be doing those things because if there ever is an incident
And you are not able to demonstrate that that you did something
That then you're going to have a book thrown at you either either by a regulator or private litigation
Yeah, that uh information, uh
You know the thing is we don't know who it is whose information it is right
We figure that my dms should take care of that information
Our 700 credit score should take care of that information or 700 credit should take care of that information
and when something happens with
With your dms
company or 700 credit that it brings us into the liability to me
It's kind of upsetting but we're still responsible, right?
You are still responsible and and I cautioned folks
You know 700 credit did a fantastic job
That they they were staffed accordingly that they had resources
They were able to take a lot of the pain away from the dealers and do a lot of the work for them
They got out in front of it. They communicated. They did a really good job
The next one we may not be so lucky that that company may not have those resources
They may go out of business. They may disappear. They may jump into bankruptcy
And everybody's going to be left fending for themselves
So so you really have to put in some work now and and not just think
You know, I know it wasn't easy, but to the dealer is 700 credit made it look easy because they did the heavy lifting
Hmm. I pay them enough. They're better
No doubt good gracious. You come on my big bills as a jerks
I tell you no, they're great people and I'd love for them to advertise on the podcast
It's going up there for sure
You mentioned uh google reviews real quick. Is there's something coming out?
I must try to find it but about whitewashing your reviews and getting in trouble for that
So when us dealers are like, oh, it's I got a one star review
I'm going to challenge it with google and try to get it removed and it's like, oh, don't do that anymore
Like that's that's a no-no
Yes, so just in the past couple of months google has changed their rules facebook has changed their rules
If you want a really good article summarizing all that terrible collie a big time advertising put something out
It's really strong content that that'll explain what they've done
When I do website reviews
One of the big things that I see is okay. Great. You've got 15 reviews. They're all five star
Uh, but they go back four years. So you're telling me in the last four years
You've only gotten 15 reviews and they're all five stars
You know, it's a misrepresentation
And that that has become its own cause of action now
And lawyers could turn that into a deceptive action practices claim
Regulators could turn that into a similar type of claim
So you really have to understand
What your website is doing and and ask your providers about this stuff
Uh that there was something going around just last week. My phone blew up over the weekend
I got like five different ones
It was a spoof. It was a fishing
exercise
But reportedly it was from a law firm saying that
dealer's website has
Unlicensed images on the website
and
These came from all over the country all different businesses. I looked at them. I was able to figure out quickly
It's just fishing nothing to worry about
But those claims are are real. They are out there people are being sued on them today. I actually know a lawyer that was sued on that
Make sure that that your company is using
Uh stock images if using stock images make sure that they're licensed or you're using actual images from your dealership
You know, a lot of people want the lady holding the keys
Make sure that the stock image make sure that that they are licensed for that make sure that your provider
Uh is telling you and writing that that yes, your website is compliant and we're using
licensed images
Because those cases get very expensive
I want to I want to go back to one thing you said about google reviews. Um
and it was uh
compensation for reviews
um
Is does that mean you can't compensate your
Sales people forgetting the reviews or you can't compensate the person for leaving the review
If you compensate a person for leaving the review you you need to disclose it
You know, he's gonna fade out of the car wash even if you're giving them, you know, I'll change whatever it is
I forget the hotel chain but but hotel chain just got
In trouble with the fdc because that they were encouraging reviews
by getting people points
and they weren't disclosing that
And and you could do it. You have to disclose it
And and and would you disclose that at the bottom of the review or do you disclose? Where do you disclose that?
You could disclose it the each review. You could just disclose it at the top of the review page
You know some customers that had been compensated for these reviews and customers have gotten, you know, whatever it is
but compensating your sales staff for
Get obtaining the reviews is still okay
Yeah, I think you could do that. Yes. Okay. Okay. All right. I just wanted to verify that because I
I have heard about some things going on
I've heard of someone that may or may not do that
Uh allegedly allegedly Steve. Let's wrap this up
I think this is a lot to chew on because every time you come on I just think to myself man, there are so many blind spots
I have
Um that that I need to just make sure I'm buttoning up because it is ever changing too
And even my document package, you know, when we have little glitches in software or changes in little things that get
Like well are all my packages, right?
Am I still getting signatures in all the right spots? Am I still keeping them long enough? Like all these things pop up and it's continually changing
Um, and so we have to be continually reviewing it. It's not just to set it and forget it
And I think a lot of dealers just think that oh well, I probably did it right the first time
So I'm sure it's fine 10 years later
I hear that all the time
Please get your documents reviewed at least once a year. I used to work for a dms. I know
You haven't done anything different, but your documents may change a document gets slipped in one gets taken out
You have to check and you have to make sure don't rely on your dms
Because I guarantee you in your contract
With the dms that the dms says these are your documents. This is your responsibility
Yeah
All right, steve. How can everybody get in touch with you because they need to call you I promise you yep
Go to info at ignite cp.com
or ignite consulting partners.com online
Uh, certainly you could find me a compliance on lease by your pay united in april
Uh, we've got a lot of good information plans
and you know
You guys know this because you all have called me before
Uh, I'll I'll talk to anybody. You know, you don't have to be a client
I'll answer the phone if you've got a problem pick up the phone getting your call
I'm glad to steer you in the right direction if I can so just reach out info at ignite cp.com
And and jeff and our customers this is a non compensating
Uh a podcast here because we believe it's that important for consumers to
For our dealers listening the consumers of this podcast to be compliant and to be good dealers because if
If we're all good dealers that are listening we're only going to get better and make each other better
so uh
Reach out do it the right way and uh and come to convention. It's so great to see
See steve there. You can actually ask him questions and not other dealers on how to stay compliant
Yeah
Hey steve. Thanks so much appreciate it. Talk to you next time
Thank you guys and I love the uh independent dealer podcast
Also a non compensated endorsement
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