How A Ford Dealer Outsmarts Fake Customer Damage Claims Saving Up To $4,000 Monthly

Dealerships can lose money in a number of ways but one that might fly under the radar of mainstream news is bogus damage claims that come into the service center. Gjovik Ford says that it’s found a solution: high-definition security cameras. It’s saving thousands every month through their use.

We’re not talking about old-school single-view cameras with fuzzy resolution either. Positioning and quality are key metrics for the system to work. According to Todd O’Reilly, co-owner and general manager of the dealership, it’s a complex network of cameras that can be used to track every car, truck, and SUV that drives onto the lot. In total, there are some 42 cameras inside of the dealership walls and another 28 in the parking lot.

“We pretty much can monitor a car from the day it gets there to the day it leaves,” O’Reilly said. “We’ve had people come up and say ‘You damaged our car,’ and we pull up the video and say ‘I’m sorry, but the damage was here ahead of time.’ ” That ability to shut down the argument quickly and effectively has saved this dealer a lot of cash along with the time and energy that it takes to argue the point.

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“You’d be surprised how many people say we’ve scratched their car or dented it, and a lot of times you just don’t want to argue,” O’Reilly told Autonews. “I think we probably save between $3,000 to $4,000 a month in damages that people said we caused,” O’Reilly said. “It’s a lot more than I expected.”

According to O’Reilly, the system costs some $1,800 a month. Over the course of the five-year lease deal he’s got on the equipment it’ll cost him a little over $100,000. Hopefully, in that time he never needs to use it to help track down a vehicle. At the same time, he can be happy that the dealership is getting a little cash back on his investment.