I recently used the AutoTrader website, to advertise my dads van. It was the first time I had used there online service, and I can safely say it will be the last time I will ever use it.
Being an advertisement service you would have thought that Autotrader would have put some careful thought in option selection and what information is displayed on screen; since it is a critical part.
The Problem
I found that the information I was selecting was not being displayed on to the advertisement. Also there was some issues with the options I could select as they presented different information. I will attempt to explain the problem as I went through the steps.
1) Filling out Details
The first few pages are filling in your personal details which was simple enough.
2) Selecting a Model
The image shows you a list of models for the Ford Fiesta van. The model for my van was, "1.4 TDCi LX 3dr [AC] Diesel Hatchback (2002-2005)". Upon selecting this option I automatically assumed that on the advertisement, the same details would be displayed to show possible buyers the essential information about the van.
3) Displaying the Advert
The details displayed on the advert was completely different. It wasn't even reworded differently, it showed the wrong information. For example, I had selected the a 1.4 TDCi which is Diesel, but instead the advert showed a 1000 Petrol. I did not understand it had done this.
4) Attempting to change details
To attempt to correct this, I had to click on the 'click here' if this is not your vehicle (the question is why is this not my vehicle when I had selected the right option ?).
5) Reselecting Year, Make and Model
Upon selecting the link, I was taken to a page where it told me to put in the year, make and model of the van. The van I wanted to advertise was a 2004, Ford, Fiesta. I then proceeded to the next stage, which showed me a list of different models of the Ford Fiesta.
6) More Models!
The problem now was that I got a completely different list of models in the previous options. Furthermore, the fact that I had put down 2004 has the year of my van, only god knows why there was a list of vans that ranged from 1983-1989, 1989-1997,1989-2000 etc. Why ask me the year of the car when you are going to give me a list of all the Ford Fiesta Vans ?
7) Calling Customer Services
After 3 hours trying to work out the system, I ended up ringing the customer service and telling them how there site sucked! After going through the whole process for a 8th time!, they told me that I would have to ring up after in 10mins of the advert being posted and tell them which bits needed changing!! So basically they wanted me to just select anything and then ring up and tell them what things needed changing. What's the point of the service if it does not work and if you just tell people to ring up and they will change it. They might as well scrap the online service and have a phone in service.
Final Thoughts
So basically the AutoTrader online advertisement service is inaccurate and does not even display the right information. For some odd reason not all the possible models are listed at the beginning. There are two different sets of models, one listed at the beginning and another being displayed when you want to edit the details. There is a lack of consistency between them both as they do not present the information in the same way.
Furthermore the details listed in the list of models is not even the information which is displayed on the advert. I asked the customer service person why users are unable to edit the 'bold' text of the advert. He replied saying "that people added inaccurate information and it was in the wrong form". This is particularly strange as going through the current AutoTrader setup results in inaccurate information being displayed.
An easy solution for this problem would be to have a standard for the advertisements bold text. For example, users could pick their van/car's Year, Engine size, Make, Model and Fuel. Each option would be linked with the previous one so that means what ever you selected before determined what options you could select in the next bit. Then the exact information would be displayed on to the advert. It would be beneficial to give a complete list of models for each van/car at the beginning that way users would not have to go back and change it.
With a more thought regarding the user and objectives of the service, AutoTrader could surely have come up with a better system for users to use.
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