Autotrader reviews

Lack of Professional Development availability; Ever-changing compensation plan; poor & unprofessional middle-management; cronyism; over-priced products and strong competition... ATC used to be a great company to work for. The culture was one of appreciating employees' efforts and contributions as the basis, or at least a huge factor, in the success of the company. Compensation was great- you could earn good money; there were several fringe-benefits like employee events, contests with great prizes/money, expenses were approved for most items; nice overnight trips with dining, realistic revenue goals, etc. Overtime, however, - and especially after the acquisition of the other businesses - employees were not celebrated, expenses tightened up big time (I couldn't expense pens or highlighters or post-its, b/c they couldn't be exclusively used for ATC purposes!), goals increased significantly, pay plans changed for the worse (and continued to do so very regularly), career paths vanished, structured/professional management disappeared and was replaced with the people who got in at the right time and stayed friends with the right people and who managed by the seat of their pants (ironically there was way increased corporatism going on as well); prices for dealers increased, and so on! Ultimately, with all of these changes, hard work became useless. The work load essentially doubled over the past couple years- really impacting work-life balance- and the pay decreased significantly, like 30-40%! The attitude of the company really changed towards reps. You could be retaining hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not in the Million range) and still creating additional revenue but if you didn't meet the increased goals every single time, you were done- bulls-eyed for getting canned. If you're in an area where's there's constant opportunity (new dealers, dealers you haven't maxed out yet...) this might not be a problem, but for a lot of areas, there are NO more new dealers and dealers are NOT willing to pay twice as much for a product they get from cars.com or other places with better results, and having a few different products (that are still pricey) that don't really deliver ROI isn't a help either and isn't fooling dealers. This is a huge area, ATC needs to stop the arrogance. It's not the only thing helping dealers sell cars- dealers know this, competitors know this, but ATC ignores it.?? This is not a great way to ensure long-term adoption and belief in the product. In addition, if you aren't part of the "in" group or "favorites" you might as well pack your bags...you will be expedited out (especially in the above referenced situation, you'll have the odd's slowly stacked against you...decreased territory, re-alignment that leaves you with less than ideal accounts, singled out & micro-managed, left out of group meetings, scrutinized intensely...etc) and you will have zero career path- you will be overlooked and not even told about opportunities...these will promptly be bestowed on a person of a more favorable status before you even know they exist. Overall, there's a complete lack of structure in how to properly navigate in this company, no uniformity between regions/districts- at best it'll be like fumbling around in an unfamiliar dark room trying to find the light switch.