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My Carfax service shop & appointmentplus


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My corporate office has finally decided to come out of the stone age. Yesterday we went live with Appointment plus, and this Tuesday we will go live with My Carfax service shop. Just wondering if anybody else uses these programs and if so how do you like them?

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I removed carfax from my system. They take and don't give back. They use my data to make money, I should be able to access it. I told the rep it's $29.99 per car for the data lets swap for carfax reports or stop calling. You know how that went over. Then they tried pretending they work for Mitchell to remotely reinstall their mining software. Sorry.

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My corporate office has finally decided to come out of the stone age. Yesterday we went live with Appointment plus, and this Tuesday we will go live with My Carfax service shop. Just wondering if anybody else uses these programs and if so how do you like them?

 

You're going live this Monday, it's a little late to ask for input. I personally think that unless they are paying for the access, I would send them on their way. I agree with Alfred.

I don't believe going with Carfax is coming out of the stone age. It is going to middle ages as an indentured servant.

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Hey CAZM,

 

We're happy to have Pomp's Tire in our network of shops!

 

I wasn't involved in the Pomp's Tire roll out, but I imagine they've decided to start actively promoting the myCARFAX app to their customers as a way to help their customers keep up with their service history, and to let Carfax help keep customers coming back for their next preventative maintenance service.

 

AlfredAuto and Geez - you mentioned Mitchell in your post. We don't currently have any of our products integrated inside their SMS, but we do make the Carfax service and repair history available to any participating shop. For Mitchell users, they can login to a website, but for other management systems - the information is built in. We're always working with our partners to help myCarfax shops get the most from their membership, so here is an example from ALLDATA's new Manage Online product - take a look to see what their experience is like. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkLhatzlQf0)

 

 

I'm happy to answer any specific questions, but I don't want to hijack CAZM's post.

 

CAZM, how does the Appointment Plus product work? Is it a new lead form on your website? We can update your myCarfax Shop Listing with a link to this appointment page if you'd like. (http://www.pompstire.com/auto-repairs/schedule-a-repair.aspx)

 

Thanks,

Thomas

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I use Mitchell. I know for a fact that car fax asked and is now using info to report what I was doing to my customers vehicles. They stated that after a Mitchell update, they had lost that ability wth my particular server.

 

I said I wasn't interested and it's not my place to release service history's of my clients.

 

Flash forward 3 months later and guess what, my clients service records are reporting to car fax.

 

Further more, car fax does work wth Mitchell. With the new 7.0 update, it now has license plate decode.

 

Yes it's a nice feature, but I call bs saying car fax doesn't work wth Mitchell and that they automatically report records without consent.

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I use Mitchell. I know for a fact that car fax asked and is now using info to report what I was doing to my customers vehicles. They stated that after a Mitchell update, they had lost that ability wth my particular server.

 

Hi SMMotors,

 

Sorry I wasn't clear - yes, Mitchell is a compatible system with our program. A couple thousand shops who use Mitchell choose to participate. For Mitchell users, there is a separate add-on that facilitates the reporting to Carfax. It did previously happen through Mitchell itself, but no longer. See Mitchell support article here: http://mitchell1.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=638

When I stated that Mitchell didn't currently have our products, I was referring to shop-facing products like our QuickVIN license plate to VIN, Service History Check, and myCarfax Customer Signup features. The license plate lookup in Mitchell 7.0 is not affiliated with Carfax.

 

 

im subscribing looking forward to the response from carfax rep. im interested to know others thoughts on car fax. some of my customers have mentioned they saw value in it.

 

 

Hey HandsOn - glad to hear your customers have been happy! We know that customers who try to trade or sell cars will have an easier time with it if their service history is available on the Carfax report!

 

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

 

Thanks,

Thomas

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I wouldn't support or use myCarFax EVER !

I am a little leery about this also per SMMotors comments. I agree that it is not my decision to release info about my customers' cars. I have asked shops that do release info and none of them has received authorization to release information to carfax or anyone else from their customers.

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I am in agreement with Alfredauto as well - Carfax takes and does not give back. Anyone who is using Bolt on Technology's mobile manager be aware that they were use Carfax for the vin decoding with the Vin scanner. I had a few instances where my customers history was showing up on Carfax reports and was furious because I did not know about this nor was I ever given the opportunity to opt out like I was when Mitchell first introduced this. On the bright side Bolt on Technology just released an update where you can opt out of the Carfax VIN scanning feature.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

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      I recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
      Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
      Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
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