How did the dealership get my number???

[Robert28]

I've been thinking of upgrading trucks and seeing a bunch of Black Friday deals, so I started poking around on the internet. I love negotiating online but when you find a truck you want you have to click on the "get the best price by clicking here!" button and it takes you to another place to put in your name, email and phone number. I never put in my number so I just use 555-555-5555. I want them to contact me by email, I even state that in the comments box. Well, today I get a weird number on my cell and it's the dealership from which I'd inquired about a truck online! Now, this wasn't a dealership I've ever done business with so I know they didn't have my number on file from a previous sale or service or anything. How'd they get my number? Never mind the fact that they overlooked simple instructions to contact me via email to give me their best price. I even told them I'd come in today if it was the price I was looking for (hoping to get them to really play ball the first time and not this back and forth stuff). Anyone else had this happen before? I've heard of the government being able to track you down but apparently car dealerships can too!

 

[NE GA Pappy]

if you are willing to pay for it, all that information is available online. If they have your name, address and such, getting home phones and cell phone numbers is not a problem

 

[NOYDB]

When I sold trucks if it was slow we'd start "cold calling". We'd start calling every person we could from the phone book, list of previous owners, tag registrations. Then the patter was "A friend" said you might be interested in a new vehicle. Most are, even if they bought one last month. On from there. It's a numbers thing. You might make a thousand calls to get one lead. But that's still one more than you had.

 

[StriperrHunterr]

if you are willing to pay for it, all that information is available online. If they have your name, address and such, getting home phones and cell phone numbers is not a problem

Yup.

 

[mark-7mag]

I've been thinking of upgrading trucks and seeing a bunch of Black Friday deals, so I started poking around on the internet. I love negotiating online but when you find a truck you want you have to click on the "get the best price by clicking here!" button and it takes you to another place to put in your name, email and phone number. I never put in my number so I just use 555-555-5555. I want them to contact me by email, I even state that in the comments box. Well, today I get a weird number on my cell and it's the dealership from which I'd inquired about a truck online! Now, this wasn't a dealership I've ever done business with so I know they didn't have my number on file from a previous sale or service or anything. How'd they get my number? Never mind the fact that they overlooked simple instructions to contact me via email to give me their best price. I even told them I'd come in today if it was the price I was looking for (hoping to get them to really play ball the first time and not this back and forth stuff). Anyone else had this happen before? I've heard of the government being able to track you down but apparently car dealerships can too!

In the past have you ever did an internet inquiry about a car and gave your number? If so, it probably went to that dealer originally and when you sent your latest inquiry in the dealers computer linked it to the old inquiry. If it did, it's because something was the same (name, address, email address ).

 

[sinclair1]

I've been thinking of upgrading trucks and seeing a bunch of Black Friday deals, so I started poking around on the internet. I love negotiating online but when you find a truck you want you have to click on the "get the best price by clicking here!" button and it takes you to another place to put in your name, email and phone number. I never put in my number so I just use 555-555-5555. I want them to contact me by email, I even state that in the comments box. Well, today I get a weird number on my cell and it's the dealership from which I'd inquired about a truck online! Now, this wasn't a dealership I've ever done business with so I know they didn't have my number on file from a previous sale or service or anything. How'd they get my number? Never mind the fact that they overlooked simple instructions to contact me via email to give me their best price. I even told them I'd come in today if it was the price I was looking for (hoping to get them to really play ball the first time and not this back and forth stuff). Anyone else had this happen before? I've heard of the government being able to track you down but apparently car dealerships can too!

Once someone enters my website google analytics will tell me the salary reported at that address and other qualifiers based on their surfing history. I have other programs that report the homes value and who lives their for shipping insurance purposes. I have their IP address, so I can send flyers to the address.

The phone stuff is available, I just don't use it.

 

[sinclair1]

I went thru a heavy background check recently, and Sinclair1 popped up as an alias on my credit report.

 

[Cmp1]

Ip address maybe,,,,

 

[Hooked On Quack]

I went thru a heavy background check recently, and Sinclair1 popped up as an alias on my credit report.

"Tater Salad..."

 

[Robert28]

Once someone enters my website google analytics will tell me the salary reported at that address and other qualifiers based on their surfing history. I have other programs that report the homes value and who lives their for shipping insurance purposes. I have their IP address, so I can send flyers to the address.

The phone stuff is available, I just don't use it.

Had no clue stuff like that was even available. No wonder they're blowing up my phone! They're seeing a paid off house, probably what I'm currently driving, etc. Last hard credit check I had was Kubota (according to my credit history) and they pre-approved me within 5 mins for way more than I was asking for.

 

[mark-7mag]

Once someone enters my website google analytics will tell me the salary reported at that address and other qualifiers based on their surfing history. I have other programs that report the homes value and who lives their for shipping insurance purposes. I have their IP address, so I can send flyers to the address.

The phone stuff is available, I just don't use it.

I can't see a dealership doing this and I've talked to a lot of Business Development managers. Like I said earlier, if at one time you gave your info including your phone number to a dealer directly or through a 3rd party site such as Edmunds.com, KBB.com etc., they still have the info and and it will "pair" the information with the current info you gave.
People have been shopping for cars online for a while now. They remember that the last time they did it how many phone calls they got from dealers. Fast forward to now. They go to do an inquiry about a vehicle and instead of putting their real number in they put in a phony number. Too late, the info you imputed the last time is already in the dealers system. It will show you with two phone numbers, your real one and (555)555-5555. Which one do you think the dealer is gonna call?

 

[elfiii]

I went thru a heavy background check recently, and Sinclair1 popped up as an alias on my credit report.

What was his credit score?

 

[T-N-T]

What was his credit score?

It just said "questionable"

 

[sinclair1]

It just said "questionable"

They got that from the 13 years to get out of high school, the underage possession of alcohol and the 106 in a 45 mph with the tires on fire

 

[ddgarcia]

I haven't shown ANY interest in a new car in about 5 yrs now and I'm getting calls from a local dealership and a VM saying "I'm calling you about the vehicle you were inquiring about"

I haven't even looked at any online

 

[dixiecutter]

I swapped to comcast once, couple years ago. I noticed right away they misspelled my last name on the account. Within about 24 hours, we were inundated with snail mail, email, and phone soliciting from all over the earth, day and night, addressed to that new spelling. So we canceled comcast. On a side note, they werent allowing us to cancel. So I said "Let me rephrase. I'm bringing the equip to your office, and we're not paying you. It's cancelled. I'm not asking, I'm telling". On another side note- my wife was over-hearing, and she was really impressed lol. Nothing to do with trucks- but the same problem imo

 

[NOYDB]

I haven't even looked at any online

They don't care. Just as TV ads don't know who's watching. If you answer the phone the ad got into your space, where it wasn't before. As low as the cost has become, they will make tens of thousands of calls to generate one lead.

Have the presence of mind to hang up and ignore them like you do TV ads. They will say anything that will grab you. Doesn't mean it's close to the truth.

 

[mark-7mag]

Nothing is more annoying than robo calls and spam email that's why do not cold call. I will call a customer that has done business with me in the past or if they send in an inquiry requesting info but that's it.

 

[GoldDot40]

I would have asked straight forward. "How did you get my phone number?" Make them explain it to you.

 

[NOYDB]

Nothing is more annoying than robo calls and spam email that's why do not cold call. I will call a customer that has done business with me in the past or if they send in an inquiry requesting info but that's it.

Robo calls aren't prohibited because when they tried to limit them so many exceptions were made any prohibition is meaningless.