As a consumer, it's great.
As an advertiser, it's a very drastic change you should have been made aware of in my opinion. My bet would be there will soon be an option where you pay an additional fee to avoid this happening to your listings. But to not be made aware of it is an issue I think.

Boattrader.com ethics?
 

What do you think about this new policy? Like many dealers,I advertise on Boattrader.com,have for years with great results.It is the leader overall for all types of boat searches.I recently discovered a new practice that is upsetting to me.In the past,if a prospect inquires about one of my listed boats,Boattrader e-mails the info to me for followup,and e-mails the prospect thanking them for the inquiry.A good plan,works well.But they have a new practice,a day or 2 after the inquiry,they send the prospect links to several similar boats in my area listed by my competitors.I feel this is wrong,I am not paying Boattrader to send business to my competiton,but they don't see anything wrong with it.The dealer friends I have contacted are also upset,but they did not know it was going on.Boatrader admits it,they say it is good for the industry. I call BS on that. A friend owns one of the largest ad agencies in the Southeast,he says it is one of the most unethical things he has ever seen.What do ya'll think? Am I upset over nothing? Latest example was this week,got an inquiry about a wakeboard boat,after contacting me,they sent him links to 5 competitive boats at 2 other dealers within 50 miles of me.That is not what I am paying them for.Would appreciate comments.

I was not made aware of it,discovered it by accident.I made an inquiry to myself just to see how quickly I would get a response,and I was sent to a competitor.I imagine 95% of Boattrader advertisers have no idea this is going on.BTW,somehow,the first reply to my thread posted before the actual thread posted,sorry about that,don't know how to correct it.

yea I was confused as I started reading but a lot of threads have screwed up post order recently. as to boattrader I would think that there would be some sort of legal issue. you are paying them for them to list your ad not to act as a broker on behalf of buyers.

I am in the auto business and wouldn't be happy about it.

The sites job is to advertise for you, it is not like they are getting a kickback for sales so why they would care to redirect customers from one dealer to another seems odd. They should have no dog in this fight. Also if the cust searches like I do when I look they should already be seeing the same things they are sending due to likeness and range and so on.

My 2 cents.

Robert.......That sucks!!!! but I consider another senario. Someone contacts another dealer about a wakeboard boat and later gets sent information about YOURS.

Now. Knowing you, you probably still think it's wrong. But this can work against you or for you.

My ad was for a new 2012,one of the links BT sent was for a used 2003 for less than half the new price,don't see how that can work to my advantage.It is not BT's place to make suggestions to my prospects.I will have a serious discussion with BT Monday,but I expect you will not see me there again,I can spend my money in better ways.

That is BS - that is wrong.

scumbags!

Do you think the potential buyer stopped looking at your ad? Or continued shopping for others?

Do you not think that the potential buyer has already viewed all those other ads, plus hundreds of others?

When I go shopping, I pull a search, and look at everything available, and send out multiple inquiries, doing my due diligence I think most buyers are prudent as well and look at everything available. If anything, the follow up email will be viewed as spam since everything on that list has been viewed anyway.

That will drive boat prices down even more.

yes it is possible that the buyer has already seen or will look at other ads. the point is that they do that on their own. it is not the job of the people you are paying to advertise with to drive business to your competitor. if I pay to have a mass mailing or email sent out to all my leads and they then use that list to send out leads for my competitors I would be pissed. they have done just that. An ad was paid to be put on boattrader and a lead contacted the advertiser and boattrader has taken it upon themselves to use that lead to then send competitors to that lead. besides being unethical it is just sleazy business.

Exactly what I was getting at. Agree 100%

The subject of the email from BT was " More boats just for you in Jasper,Alabama". Body read "We saw you were interested in a boat on our site,here are some more that you may be interested in",then links to boats my local competitors have.I am paying this site to advertise my boats,not my competitors.

I looked at a boat in Austin,TX, on BT. Couple days later same thing with "other boats similiar in Austin". Couple days later they sent another, happens twice. I believe this was in May or June.

Perhaps BT feels it needs to better serve their viewers, this practice would serve that. However in reality the viewers do not directly pay the bills, the advertisers cover that. IMO this practice will lead to a decline in paid listings, which in turn will lead to a decline in viewers. Just not sound biz in my book. Be interesting to see how it works out for them.

I think what boattrader is doing is completely wrong.

X2 big time........!

its a no brainer

X3 . . . . and more over I'm just so sick of being "marketed to". Every page every sidebar every click of a video window has some crap that has been systematically marketed to me based on anything i have previously clicked on :rolleyes:


I agree though it is completely unethical for BT to drive customers anywhere.

when no one uses bt anymore,they might get the picture.i for one will not list with them until they change that practice.:bsflag::bsflag::bsflag:

I think it's wrong, even though I've never used them for listings. As a consumer, I got the follow up email from them and considered it an annoyance. I thought they must get a cut like Ebay, but if not, WTF? What motive could there be? From either direction, it's a bad practice.

most likely about page clicks, i doubt they could care less about your boat selling. If they forward six more boats in you direction thats six more pages you just brought up with six more sidebars full of crap.

That is crap, and hopefully it will bite BT in the arse soon. Bad business practices get hammered fast in times like these.

Shame on BT.com.

IMO, you've paid for a dedicated and single product focused classified advertisement on BT.com. That gives you "exposure exclusivity" for the product you're selling..and not just when a Prospect has clicked your listing and is viewing the full detailed page; your exclusivity, and the value of your advertising dollar(s), should carry-through to each aspect of the individual prospect lead generation and follow-up process triggered by the consumer's expressed interest to your specific listing(s).

While its possible BT.com may have the legal "right" to do so (if this practice is published and visible to potential advertisers) -- IMO the issue is more of what makes good business practice and what doesn't. For BT.com to cross-sell to another company's (or individual's) product through electronic follow-up (email / pop-ups, etc.) goes far beyond being wrong-- it's misguided and stupid.

The fact that advertisers are only discovering this due to their own due diligence -- or worse yet..by accident -- is an even worse commentary on BT.com's business practices.
I2D

I don't like it and will no longer list an ad with them because of this. Their website has gotten progressively worse anyways.

So long BT,you have driven away a long time customer.

I hate it for you Majicfloat as this is just another thing making business tougher but I think you made the right choice. if I remember right you were a Glastron dealer way back when my dad was there (Ernest Schmidt) so you were probably listing with BT when they were a print publication. so they have thrown away an advertiser of what, 30 or 40 years? while their view count may be up now, the loss of more and more advertisers will send them the way of Netflix (just ask them how their stock is doing) best of luck.
steve

Hi,Steve,good to hear from you.Sold our first Glastron in 1966,stayed with them for 30+ years.I miss the old days.Tell your mom and dad hi.Robert

yea, things were a lot different back in the day. I remember going in the big storage building at Glastron and seeing hundreds of hulls waiting to go to the rigging line. they went through something like a tanker truck of resin every couple of days. of course that was in the good ol' days when everyone wanted a boat and sales were strong. sure miss that (and the dealer meetings)