Collision & Repair Link

[JARED.G]

Just curious about how many of you Chevy dealers are on Collision Link and Repair Link and have a few questions..
1) How user friendly is it?
2) What type of results have you seen from the program, as far as actually growing your wholesale?
3) What type of feedback have you got from your wholesale accounts that use it?
4) Any other info you would like to share..
The biggest advantage for our customers that I see is the on-line parts catalog. The biggest advantage I see for the dealer is retaining customers. I have a couple of larg wholesale dealers in my area and I am going to sign up for the program, if for no other reason than to keep "my" customers from straying.
Program is 100% co-op'able,,,, as long as you have the funds to cover the actual cost.
Any and all information would be appreciated.

[Parts007]

It is not user friendly. I found myself doing screen prints to get the parts list in front of me, so I can double check their lookup. I asked if they guarantee their parts lookup, they said yes. So I asked where can I bill the parts that are incorrect that CollisionLink looked up. They did not like that. YOU must double check every part number even if they say it fits. Some old school customers don't like it. I found it as an unnecessary third party getting in the middle of my parts transaction, and tracking the body shops sales.

I stopped using it because the one or two customers I had sent me an order once every two months. It was not worth the price unless you get consistent orders on it.

[CMayne]

We tried it when it first came out. Dumped at the end of the contract. Might work better in the big city, but the local body shops thought it was a pain in the butt.

[wholesaleguy]

Been 3 years since I have used it, but I LOVED it! Fewer phone calls are what helped us. We completed about 10-20 estimates a day from it...but just like every estimate you need to look the order up yourself, and verify the correct part numbers. Most of my shops liked it too; the old school customers (not computer savvy) are the ones that had issues.

Hope this helps,
-Ray

[camaroman]

Exploring Repair Link and looking for some feedback from current users. If you don't mind giving your opinion of it I would appreciate it. We are a small dealership, closest dealership from us is about 13 miles away.

[Bucko21]

We have it, I have 2 people who use it. My rep is pushing it down our throats, saying we are going to make a ton of money with it. I haven't seen anything other then people calling me saying the only good thing about it is the catalog. My rep says the added discounts and other money items for the customer makes it worth it for them. My last 2 RepairLink orders yielded the shop an additional couple of bucks. Nothing to write home to momma about...

[GMpartsLux]

Unfortunately If your not a signed wholesale dealership then I wouldn't waste your money on RepairLink. Right now, GM is reimbursing dealerships up to 15% of list price via the MARS program. The only problem is that the Mars program is only eligible to Signed wholesale Dealerships. So if you sign up for Repairlink, your independent customer will see the price from you, lets say cost plus 20% and then they can see the big dealerships price which is often below dealer cost. I've had many frustrated independent shops wonder why my prices are so high @ cost plus 20%. They would much rather purchase locally and from us but at that much of a price difference its hard to keep the sales here. Repairlink would be awesome for any dealership wanting to do little bit of wholesale only if the MARS program was for everyone.

Look into the MARS program when you have time.
GCUS-9-5216


Also I have recently opened a case on the DFOAB about this issue. Please come support the cause and leave a comment. Issue 396.
Thanks

[X476]

Unfortunately If your not a signed wholesale dealership then I wouldn't waste your money on RepairLink. Right now, GM is reimbursing dealerships up to 15% of list price via the MARS program. The only problem is that the Mars program is only eligible to Signed wholesale Dealerships.

This is because these are the only dealerships GM wants to support, they do not care if the rest of us closed our doors tomorrow.