Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that dealership sales and service representatives, rather than reviewers or shoppers, have an opportunity to win a $100 gift card from Edmunds for great customer service.
New YouTube ads from Edmunds.com, which suggest that car dealers are unethical hagglers, have provoked a backlash.
Kevin Frye, e-commerce director for The Jeff Wyler Automotive Family in Cincinnati, said the four videos perpetuate stereotypes of dealers as bargainers trying to take advantage of shoppers with outrageous markups.
Frye said Tuesday that he will cancel the Wyler dealership group’s Edmunds.com subscriptions. Dealers pay Edmunds to post their inventory online.
Edmunds says the ads are simply spoofs intended to show that customers dislike haggling.
Actually, dealers don’t appear in the videos, which were posted on Tuesday, Oct. 21. The spots show a grocery store clerk trying to negotiate prices of milk and other items.
Michelle Denogean, chief marketing officer for the third-party vehicle shopping site, said the videos portray a buying experience so far from the way modern dealerships operate that company executives are surprised that some dealerships are offended.
Denogean said the videos are intended to illustrate in an exaggerated, lighthearted way that shoppers don’t like to haggle on prices. Shoppers want a fair and transparent buying experience that Edmunds can help facilitate, she added.
“The stereotypes are very outdated,” she said.