I agree. I guess the mindset going into it is that you may get this deal or you may not.
It is the same thing when cars are listed on Cars.com or Autotrader for insanely low prices, only to call up and be told “oh that’s with $$$$ of manufacturer incentives that are non-stackable and don’t apply to you.”
Either way, these people signed up for a free app to get a free quote from a field of business infamously known for bait-and-switch. I don’t see what the big deal is with getting told that they can’t do the deal. A dealer that practices this is probably not the type of dealer you want to give money to anyways.
The problem is Rodo’s whole business proposition is that you can go on there, see the deal as it is, pay that amount and get the car. Cars.com or autotrader are advertising dealer listings, not proposing offers. They’re advertising a service that goes beyond just being a dealer listing.
I don’t think dealers are using Rodo for intended purposes Rodo had for their app.
Cars.com and Autotrader may have been bad examples, but this is exactly what TrueCar was trying to do with their price guarantees and certificates.
I have had experience with the whole price guarantee thing from TrueCar (I did their certificate for a car with a very hefty discount I could not find elsewhere), talked to the guy over the phone who promised to offer the certificate, went in to do the deal and got told by the manager that this was not a discount they could have offered, but could give me the price on a cheaper car. Classic bait-and-switch. Pretty sure TrueCar does not assign numbers to a dealer.
So you have a service that is meant to be a quick and easy way to go from app to deal. However, I don’t think dealers are using it for the intended purpose set by Rodo.
New to this, trying to get a good deal on a 2020 Dodge Durango RT. Have been tempted to pull trigger a few times on rodo but not sure after reading all these posts.
What’s the worst that can happen? they would tell you that they can’t get the deal filled. If you think the deal looks good and that something you like and want, I would even just for fun to see how they go about it and then post feedback here for others.
If it was a one off thing, it’d be one thing, but it’s evidence of a critical issue in their business strategy. They’re either so desperate for dealers that they’re ignoring the issue to try to boost market share or they’re participating. That isn’t a “hard to please” issue. That’s customers expecting them to deliver what they’re offering and them fundamentally failing to understand their product.
I don’t understand your quarterly ra-ra speeches for Rodo. This is an issue that comes up over and over again here and you come back acting like you’ve never hear of such a thing and promoting the company. If you’ve had a good experience, that’s great. Lucky you. Some people have, others haven’t, that’s why there’s a review thread, but the blind, continuing support is not indicative of someone that just had a good experience. It comes across as someone with a vested interest.
I’m not a broker. I’m one of the many people that had Rodo deals bait and switched on me.
I like the concept of Rodo. I’d love to see it succeed. Its never going to happen until they figure out how to reliably get the dealers to honor the deals advertised.
To @Norm and @jdawg333
You should tone down your Combatativness.
Re-read the tread from the start and you will see all reported bait and switch deals that users of this forum experienced.
Including me, who actually got one of the best deals and I’ve been advocating for them since the start.
Many were. But sentiment changed once reviews starter rollling in long before proliferation of many brokers on this site.
Also, a lot of times deals by brokers on LH are better than RODO. So they don’t care for the app. It doesn’t have competitive deals 90% of the time. I’m checking it for fun fairly often.
As a general update, Rodo now has a new process where they appear to be directly processing trade-ins. Previously they offered a buyout service through Carvana, basically acting as a pass thru to extend the same pricing and just offered management.
However, now when you use the new “sell my car” option, you submit your vehicle information and you get contacted by a Rodo trade manager. The agent who contacted me (via email) asked some basic questions and then provided me a KBB appraisal report which he claimed Rodo would honor, only requiring me to send him a few pictures of the vehicle to lock in the offer. I was told that once I accepted the offer they would input the trade into my Rodo default calculations and I could then pick any deal, with any dealer, I wanted.
Would I have used the service? Yes. Did I use the service, no. Ultimately a local dealer offered me significantly more then the KBB value of my vehicle and the Rodo trade manager was unable to match (we traded a few emails throughout the process). Overall I like the improved service.
These are the same cheap guys! They had to re-brand as they cheated so many people through ‘Honcker’!
So now they will start cheating using a new name ‘Rodo’ - Natahan Hecht and his cheap tricks of classic bait and switch!
Those who are new and are enticed to use these scammers - please read the old reviews and then make an informed decision. Just trying to do my bit to save a few innocents!
I love how triggered people get over this subject.
Just so I understand. The main complaint is sometimes you can’t get the deal offered and sometimes they do a hard credit pull. Meanwhile, they have not taken a dollar of your money and you are free to walk away if you find a better offer at any time. For this they get vilified, called scammers and accused of bait and switch?
However, in my case, everything went smoothly and the dealer they connected me to honored the deal 100% and 24 hours after clicking order the vehicle was in my driveway at a great price.
Rodo, as a company, has raised over 25M in Series A funding led by IAC. IAC, as a VC, is betting heavily on automotive related tech companies, having invested over $250M into Turo. I am sure somebody from IAC is sitting on the board of Rodo. This is not some fly by night company that is about to collapse.
Lets consider the data on all sides of this discussion please.
Yes, the main complaint is that they often offer one price, and then after collecting all your information, refuse to deliver on it. The kind of behavior that no one would put up with from any business. Further, they specifically acknowledged that it was occurring, stated they were going to no longer do it, and then continue to do so.
Is it that unreasonable to expect a company to honor the price they’re offering, particularly when their sole product is the price they’re offering?
I do feel that Honcker does use bait and switch, but what car dealer doesn’t? We’ve seen some punished for doing so, like that Alfa deal a while back, but its almost a part of the industry, whether it be stacking conquest and loyalty, or lease rebates with finance bonus cash, it happens and due diligence is needed.
There’s a difference between a dealer that advertises a price with a big fat asterisk that’s says “includes every incentive ever” or “before tax, title, license, and the other half of the payment” and an offer that says “here is your price to the dollar, based on the incentives you qualify for and your credit we already verified”
they would tell you that they can’t get the deal filled. If you think the deal looks good and that something you like and want, I would even just for fun to see how they go about it and then post feedback here for others.