Consumer reviews of dealerships gain clout (excerpt)

Dealer skepticism

Some dealers are suspicious of the fairness and accuracy of the consumer review sites.

Kevin Meehan owns Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealerships in suburban Boston. He says his stores have earned multiple factory awards for customer service.

Yet in December, the Web site MyDealerReport.com ranked Meehan's Imperial Chevrolet dealership in Milford, Mass., among its bottom 10 dealers because of negative consumer reviews. One advised: "Do not buy used from them or use there (sic) service dept."

Meehan wasn't aware of the dealership's low ranking until Automotive News told him about it. He says he's incensed that the site permits anonymous attacks, instead of requiring reviewers to identify themselves.

"How do we know these are real customers?" Meehan says. "There's no accountability. You can manipulate the whole market."

Meehan says he plans to ask satisfied customers of his dealerships to write positive reviews on the site.

That's the way the process should work, says John Isaac, president of MyDealerReport.com. He says his site gives dealers the opportunity to rebut negative customer comments — for a fee — and provides dispute resolution tools to dealers and customers.

By January, he adds, Imperial Chevrolet no longer was among the site's low-ranked dealerships.

Helping hand

Isaac concedes that when he launched his site in 2004, dealers were scared of the review process. "They ran from us," says Isaac, a former new- and used-vehicle salesman.

But Isaac says he has managed to persuade retailers that he wants to "mend the relationship between consumers and dealers."

"Our aim is not to take sides or insult anyone," Isaac says. "It's really about relationship-building. Reviews are a way of being transparent and building trust."