Dealertrack special orders for service problem

[cain555]

Ok.... I have found no way around this. For you Dealertrack users, how in the world do you order parts for the service drive when the customer isn't here? Let's say they call service and say they have such and such recall notice and need to order the part. Do you actually make them come in? Do you just write a repair order and guess the mileage without the customer's signature? Also, we now have the auto texting in service where the service gets updates from us to keep them informed, which is a nice feature but the customer starts getting them in my example above, and he/she is not even here, the RO was open just to order the part. Anyone run into this? Thank you!!

[cain555]

anyone?

[Richard]

Been off DT for several years, going back on in a few months. We just ordered them on a counter invoice, because you can roll a special order to an RO on DT, something the CDK won't allow.

[PartsPlant81]

We use auto/mate but what we do is either create a quote with the customer information on it or get a copy of the customer information from service and order the part manually through Global Connect or create an invoice with the customers information then you have an SOR in your DMS that can be tracked.

[cain555]

ok thank you both. Richard- we can do the counter ticket thing, but how does service know the part is here? Just print a list? We have 5 advisors so they wouldn't know which special order part is for which advisor?

[greenthumb-38]

I am on Arkona, I mean, Dealertrack...

We use a parts invoice and employ a manual notification system on these parts.
We have four writers and we work together on these special-special orders. It
takes effort from both departments to make it work. This works pretty good for us.

On the big recalls we controlled the special orders by the last four of the VIN for
the order process, then by last name once the part/s finally arrived. Our system
worked very well for us, but it did take some work, but then you get out what you
put in. Starting off organized goes a long way in my eyes.

*EDIT*
The advisor was required to print a GM vehicle history and write the customer info on
the print-out. Once the recall parts arrived, we gave them back a copy of the
vehicle history. We kept the original.

~ gt "your mileage may vary..."