Is it legal?

Ok you are an owner of a car dealership. The courts have ruled the data is owned by the dealers, however the DMS companies (ADP or CDK/Reynolds) have determined access to the data is controlled 100% by them. The DMS determines who/what/when/how much/etc can access the system. Is this legal?

Strictly speaking no. Are dealerships going to fight with the DMS to keep it open? Undetermined!

The interesting thing to me is that the dealerships allow to be pushed around. This would be like Microsoft saying "Excel is our product, only companies we say can access the data within Excel". The rest of the world would go nuts and call Microsoft a bunch of crazy idiots. They would run Microsoft out of town, however not true in the automotive world. For some reason the dealerships take this crap from the DMS. Dealerships continue to be held hostage by the DMS. Whatever the DMS says they must obey and the dealerships do not fight back.

Public Figure

Brockman claims he is not a public figure. Sure maybe the average Joe on the street does not know who he is. I fully understand that argument, however there is such a thing called "Limited Public Figure". If you care to read about it you can click the link.

Cliff note version, what limited public figure means is someone is well known in their field. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are well known in the computer field.

Sure maybe Brockman is not as well known as Obama, McCain, or Trump. In the world of the automotive industry, you would find it hard pressed to find anyone who has not heard his name or know he is an ass clown.

The best part is Brockman and his team of legal dudes, all claim he is a private person. Sure just because you live under a rock, makes you private, however everyone knows who you are and what you are about. How many people who are private, have their own website? or own a 2.8bn company? or own 2 private jets? or a yatch?


Bob Brockman

Wounded Reynolds dealers

It seems Reynolds is playing hardball with the dealerships. They continue to put out updates to the DMS that cause serious distruptions to the dealerships.


Reynolds is very slick at screwing with the dealerships. Brockman deep down is laughing, saying "The data is owned by the dealerships, but access to the data is under My Control!"

Those are 2 very important words - My Control. Brockman believes that he understands computers so well, that no matter what, he can control everything the DMS does. See Mr. Brockman is a control freak and once a control freak always a control freak. He locks everything down, unless you come beg to him and say "Please please oh great and powerful Mr. Brockman can we please have access to our data". Then and only then he will make up his mind and say, you are deemed worthy enough to access it.

Here is how it works:
Q. Wait one second. Are you telling me if I go and kiss his ass I can have 100% access to the data?
A. Well no. Kissing ass is the first step. The 2nd step is paying him for the access to the data.
Q. So if I pay him I can have 100% access to the data, and I do not need to worry about his little DMS games?
A. No. You must kiss his ass. Pay the money, and kiss some more ass. See in his whacked world he believes that no one is aboving kissing his ass. If they do not, then they should not be a customer of his.

Even dealerships like Penske where they have a contract (they paid extra for) with Brockman/Reynolds that states they can have access to the data (7601) they are not immuned to user lock outs, password changes, captchas, etc.

Monopoly

Reynolds is trying to create a Monopoly, by kicking out all 3rd parties from the DMS. The famous "Are they certified?" always comes up.

Here is the real problem/question:
If Reynolds is the only one who can declare if a company/person can become certified is that not a conflict of interest? If Reynolds has a competing product or if Reynolds does not have a product at all, why would they want to certify any company/person?

From a business standpoint, RCI is a very clever way of eliminating all the competition, without being sued for a monopoly. Even if Reynolds was to tell a 3rd party "sure we will certify your orginization" they would set the dollar bar so high that it becomes a terrible business model.

I think it is truely amazing to watch Reynolds dealers take the full brunt of all the lost revenues, because Reynolds & Reynolds created a monopoly for their products only. Bob Brockman is walking such a fine line between becoming a monopoly and running a "slick" business.

Thought of the day - A dealership runs ADP/Dealertrak/Auto/Mate, etc and right across the street the other dealership runs Reynolds & Reynolds. The dealership that runs non-Reynolds DMS will have such a competitive advantage it is crazy. The Reynolds dealership has to pay more for every product that is RCI verfied, and the dealer can not find any competive products because those competive products are not RCI. Wow... it sucks to be a Reynolds & Reynolds dealership.

Whack-a-mole

Whack-a-mole oh wait I mean whack-a-3rd party.

I laugh just typing this stuff. What a joke. The joke is on Reynolds and the team of trailer park Jerry Springer wannabee developers.

Lets see if we can sum this up.
1. Reynolds decides to encrypt all the traffic from ERALink, calling it ERAccess - 3rd parties figure out how to get around in a matter of minutes.
2. URey wantabee developers come up with - password change every 45 days - 3rd parties get around that in seconds
3.  Bob personally says - only allow 1 login per user account - 3rd parties defeat that system as well
4. Reynolds tries to use crappy captcha software, which 3rd parties defeat in minutes
5. Reynolds then comes up with the brillant idea to lock user accounts - 3rd parties figure out all you need to do is not go to data pulling screens like (7601/6910) - defeat in minutes after release
6. Brockman then has the idea - to watch the speed of the data coming thru the keyboard - 3rd parties figure that out and use low level keyboard hooks to get around
7. Reynolds then decides to completely remove 7601 - that will stop everyone. Of course 3rd parties go to Dynamic Reporting and get the data
8. Team Reynolds genius kicks in - Improve the captcha will stop everyone - 3rd parties figure out a way around those by using software written to defeat captcha. Captcha Killer for ERAccess
9. Extremely smart developers come with the idea - that people are messing with the WIS file. Guess what they remove the ability for the dealer to edit that - that will stop the 3rd parties - Wrong again! Defeat They just write all the settings into the 3rd party software
10. Remove DDE from ERAccess so 3rd party can not attach - defeat they just control it using standard windows API calls - that was a hard one took 3rd parties a day
11. Trailer park developers come up with - watch the keyboard to make sure they are typing like a normal human. Because the first time they wrote it really stopped people, do you think the 2nd time around is going to do much better? - Nope 3rd parties defeated that as well
12 etc
13 etc
14 etc


When will they ever learn? I guess never.

I read the blog TorrentFreak and they talk about all these countries and people trying to control people from downloading music illegally. It totally reminds me of Mr. Robert T. Brockman trying to control the dealerships. Good luck you might have better chance controlling the music industry. Whack-a-mole.

ERAccess Captcha

Well it was funny just typing the title. It is such a joke, I still laugh about it today.

Well ERAccess fans, let me explain how the Captcha crap works.

Brockman and his team of trailer park developers created a database on ERAccess that I will call the "naughty" list. If your ERAccess UserId does "naughty" things on ERAccess your UserId gets put into that database.

Let me try and explain. In order for ERAccess to know whether or not you are a computer or a person, they have to write software to try and determine this. What is the "difference" between a computer and a human you might ask? Speed is one obviously simple answer. Computers can go at a much faster speed than a human. The trailer park developers actually measure the speed of communication from the keyboard to ERAccess.

Here is how it works...
If your UserId types too fast, guess what you get added to the "naughty" list. If you get added x number of times you are in trouble... ("wait till your dad gets home"). Your account gets the famous "Your account is locked due to suspicious activity", or wait better yet. "Please type this Captcha" because we can not tell if you are human or computer.

Wait it gets better - The real fun stuff. Computers are so advanced they can act like humans. Take Captcha for example. Tons of developers have learned how to defeat the little weird characters on the screen. You can watch a cool video of it here. There are so Captcha defeaters, it is sick.

The best part of all this is Bob and his trailer park developers worked their asses off putting all these little road blocks in, which a high school kid can get around. Reynolds works for 2 months to put together a lock, that a high school kid can defeat in 15 mintues after seeing it.

What next dongles for the PC like Bob used to use at UCS, so dealers can not buy their own PC's?

Reynolds user account suspended

Very tricky... One morning you walk in and find your UserId is suspended on the Reynolds & Reynolds ERAccess system.

Here is one reason why.
If your UserId only connects to the ERAccess system and logins into 7601 or 6910 meaning all you do is pull data, your UserId gets written to the "naughty" database. After you have been logged in that "naughty" database too many times the system will automatically suspend your UserId.

Why does the ERAccess system do this?
Reynolds has determined if all you do on the system is pull data, you must not be paying to be part of the RCI (mafia), so they will lock your account. If you call the tech support team, they will tell you it is all for your safety due to "security". Last thing Reynolds would want is an unsecured system and the best way to do that is determine who is not "paying" and cancel their account.

How to defeat.
If you are using a script to gain access (huge no no, that means you are not paying). Anyway if you are using a script have the script do some extra stuff. Like go to a different screen # and wait 10 seconds, then go to 7601 or 6910 and pull your data. Yes I know it seems silly to have to do that, but since you are not the one paying for RCI (another huge no no), then you must be unsecure.

What I love is for every trap Reynolds trailer park developers come up with, their is a simple solution. Just have to play the cat and mouse game, until Reynolds trailer park developers run out of ideas. That is the best part. Their are only so many ideas they can come up with to keep the non-paying terrible unsecure RCI systems from pulling data.

Control is an illusion

All Bob Brockman ever wanted to do is control everything. I mean everything... Let me explain that a bit further.

When he owned UCS (evil UCS) he did things like. Put dongles on PC's, so dealers had to buy the PC from UCS. If a dealership went out on the open market and bought a Dell/HP/Compaq it would not work at a UCS dealership, because it did not have the dongle. The best part is the dealer would call and UCS would say "We can send someone out to hook it up for you." The FE (Field Engineerer) would get onsite and hook up the approved dongle and charge the dealer more money. A dealership could not even buy their own PC's.

I call that control.

Now he owns Reynolds & Reynolds - Guess what more control.
1. Remove 7601
2. Limit 6910
3. Lockout user accounts
4. Encrypt dealer data - so they can not move DMS systems
5. Threaten NADA with lawsuit - if they do any surveys
6. Control 100% access to  DMS, including the OEMs (such as GM/Ford/Nissan/Honda/Toyota/etc)
7. Removed ERALink and converted to ERAccess on secured ports
8. Removed dial-up modems - to remove access to ERA server
9. Removed ability to have automated scripts
10. Created RCI so only approved companies are allowed
11. Created RFI so OEMs had to be approved or they did not get access - OEM for crying out loud
12. Password changes every 45 days
13. Only allow 1 login at a time - no who the user is

14. etc, etc, etc.

Once again I call that control.

Here is the best part - It is all just an illusion.

Mr. Brockman the more you try and control the less control you have. The best part is you can spend all this money, time, energy trying to control the DMS market space, but 2 things will happen. 1. people will find away around all your little controls or 2 they will go to another DMS.

Signed WB

Reynolds sinking ship

The Reynolds ship has sailed. I hear all the time, dealers are moving from the Reynolds platform to "other" DMS solutions. They are sick of being controlled by Reynolds.

I never thought I would see the day when Reynolds would collapse. They were such a strong company. I remember the days when Reynolds controlled 50% marketshare (maybe more). Days of Buzz and Fin.

The biggest laughing stock of NADA is the Reynolds booth. I remember many times just trying to get elbow room in the booth was tough. Nowdays you can look at the booth and see nothing but Reynolds employees talking and looking at each other. Brockman is always there watching his prized possession fail.

The Reynolds associates followed Brockman to the sea floor. ADP/Dealertrack can not consume dealers fast enough. Dealertrack was just bought for 4bn. Brockman only paid 2.8bn for Reynolds, but Reynolds has been shrinking for many years. Of course they try and make up the lost revenue from 3rd parties or selling high priced items to the dealers.

Of course Brockman has all his other companies as well
1. Key Trak
2. Callbright
3. Who's calling
4. Nakedlime
5. Key register
6. KeyVault
etc...

Rumor has it that he tried to bundle all the companies together with Reynolds and dump all at once. Take the money and run, but obviously that fell thru. Time will tell.

Under the skin

One thing I have learned over the years. Bob Brockman hates people communicating. He wants to control everything. When I say everything I mean every...fing...thing.

One of the reasons he went after The Trooper was because he/she was exposing so much of Brockman's world. It was like shining a light on the little cockroach.

He likes to be a mysterious person hiding in the shadows. He even claims not to be a public figure, even though every single person in the automotive field knows who/what he is.


If Brockman could control the internet he would. He would shut the whole thing down (of course the music, movie, stock industry, and others would like it shutdown as well). The problem is the internet is so large that he can not control it. He can not stop people from communicating on blogs or in forums. In the old days he could sue the hell out of people such as NADA surveys and scare them into submission.

I want to get under the skin of Mr. Brockman. It is only a matter of time before he sues Google again. Notice my IP address on the right keeps changing. I am in a different location every 15 minutes. Good luck...

Automotive News & Bob Brockman

Have you ever noticed that Automotive News will not do a "bad" article about Mr. Brockman? No matter how many dealers complain and talk about his deceptive business practices. Or even better have you noticed that Reynolds is never looked at as being bad by the news organization? Why have we not see questionnaires at NADA about which DMS system is treating you badly? Which DMS is overcharging for features? Remember many years ago all the surveys at NADA that would talk about which DMS do you use and how would you rate them on a scale of 1 being crappy and 10 being awesome? Why has those surveys stopped?

Could it be Bob Brockman and his dream team of legal threatened NADA that if they put out those surveys to dealers, they could be sued for defamation? Maybe it could be Reynolds told Automotive News they would lose a "huge" advertiser, which means lost revenue for the popular news agency. Could it be because one of the top advertisers in Automotive News is Reynolds & Reynolds?

I for one am glad the news in this country is not controlled... (yeah right).

RCI - more exciting stuff

Let me explain how the RCI program works. First bend over and reach for your ankles. If you are a dealer you are totally being screwed. If you are a 3rd party company, you are getting hosed worst. If you are Bobo you see a lot of butts in the air and you can target anyone of them. Almost like a kid in a candy store.

Here is how it works. Reynolds tells the dealer no one is safe but Reynolds. The dealers should only choose Reynolds products for security... Oh that makes total sense. I think I heard that same argument from Microsoft/Apple/Google/Facebook/Government and a few others. Have we not learned anything? A company like Reynolds telling you to only trust them... give me a break.

If you are a 3rd party and can not get access or some crap, then you need (drum roll please) RCI (Reynolds Certified Interface). RCI will save everyone and no one will ever be hacked again. Of course it will cost you.

Call Reynolds and ask to be in the RCI program to help serve your country and better the world, etc etc. RCI team says "love to have you on board... but it will cost". Just fill out these 5 pages and send them back to us. The 3rd party fills out the forms and they go directly to Bob Brockman. He looks them over and sees if he likes the company and/or the product. Heard many rumors where he said "Screw them I never liked them" - hence application denied. Better yet he says "Reynolds can make that product and sell it to dealer instead..." - hence application denied.

3rd party better start kissing ass better... The superior being himself Bob Brockman is judging what is good/bad for the dealer. (no conflict of interest)

If you get accepted into the RCI program this is where the fun begins. You need to fill out more paperwork, and send in a big check. The price is different based on what Brockman thinks it is worth to the 3rd party. I have heard $200k on up. Of course they make you sign a contract that says you can never disclose any prices, or any information or Bob will sue you, your neighbor, your grandmother, and the future generation.

Here are the 2 greatest parts of the RCI program
1. The 3rd party must turn over all software source code to Reynolds. That way Reynolds can look at the software to make sure it is "secure". Of course... that makes total sense.
2. If for any reason at any time Reynolds feels you should not be part of the RCI program (did not kiss enough ass) they can kick you out of it. Wait there is more.... order now and receive the real bonus. Reynolds has your software, so they can make the exact same product and sell it to the dealers. Since the 3rd party is not part of the RCI program, we do not have to worry about them competing.... Bobo is the greatest genius the world has ever seen, or the best crook.

What are you going to do sue them?

Keyboard speed - more tech stuff

In an earlier blog post I talked about getting locked out due to keyboard speed on ERAccess. Many people asked me how is that possible?

I will explain.
See in ERAccess everything that gets types is sent to the server. So you hit the letter "X" on the keyboard it sends "X" to the ERAccess server. The server then responds with "X" on the screen. It is what we call a roundtrip to the server. Not very efficient, but since the software was written in the 70's what do you expect?

What the ERAccess server actually measures is the speed of the characters going to the server on the TCP/IP stream. I can only type so fast, but a computer can send lots of data at one time. If the server sees all the data come in at a high rate of speed they "assume" you are not a human and must be one of these non-RCI terrible no good rotten insecure 3rd parties who did not pay. Time to throw your userid into the "naughty" database. Too many times in that database and you will be locked out. You are very suspicious, bad bad person.

Brockman is a genius - and all the 3rd party that get caught by this crap then have to pay Reynolds Tax (RCI) in order to gain access. Unless...

Possible solution.
Put a small time delay in the 3rd party software to slow the characters down. If you add like 10ms, not enough for any human to notice, but the TCP/IP stream will send each character as a seperate packet. Guess what? The ERA server can not tell the difference between a human and software. Your user account will never get added to the "naughty" database and we found a workaround to the Reynolds crap. Enjoy!

7610 - not dead - just no access

For all the data pulling companies that access Reynolds. Bobo and his pawns (henchman), wanted to remove 7601 so badly they wet themselves. One day they have this great idea, if we could only get rid of 7601 everyone will have to bow to us and kiss our ass. They decided to move forward with the project, and dealers said "wait we use that too". Reynolds was like crap, if we remove it we might have some legal issues. They pushed and many dealerships backed down. The dealers did not want to deal with dumbass Brockman and his crappy business practices. Then big groups like Penske stepped up and said we want 7601 in our contract, because without 7601 we lose a lot of our ability to do business. Reynolds under pressure agreed to leave 7601 in the system, but only for those "selected/big dealers/who pay" everyone else gets screwed. Yes 7601 is gone for 95% of the ERAccess dealer base, but all the code is in the system and works like it always has. It just needs to be turned on at your dealership. Next time you are negotiating your contract with URey you might want to mention how nice you have been treated the last 5 years.
What is amazing is Reynolds used to be such a cool company. They made great software and supported the dealers. Now you have a dumbass at the helm that is trying to screw everyone from the dealers to the 3rd party companies.

Tech stuff for ERAccess

There are a lot of companies and dealers that probably do not understand how Reynolds works. I will do some explaining. Reynolds is locking dealerships user accounts as if they are "suspicious". You ask how can a computer tell is someone is "suspicious". There are many ways and I will explain one of them here.
The way the ERAccess system works - they created a database on the system (think of a naughty list of users). Of course it is empty when they first update a dealership. ERAccess is written to watch for keystrokes that come in from a local keyboard. If the keystrokes come in from any other way, such as Remote Access or if someone wrote a program/script that sends keys to the ERAccess window it does not complain. What ERAccess does is writes that UserID into the "naughty" database. They are so clever... Then Reynolds has a nightly process run at every dealership that inspects the "naughty" database, if a user account is in the database like X number of times they lock the account. Next time the user goes to login it comes with a "Suspicious Account Detected". Very tricky indeed.

To defeat this system all you need to do is tell ERAccess software you are at the physical keyboard. Not a big deal... Google for keyboard functions, that allow you to hook into the low-level keyboard functions. You can tell any program that you are at the physical keyboard. That means ERAccess can not detect you are not standing right there, and you never get put into the "naughty" database.
Wow real exciting stuff... what is next? maybe encryption, captacha, font changes, DDE removal, etc. Stay tuned and I will explain how to defeat every Reynolds blockade.

Bad day for Brockman

I felt bad for The Trooper. Bobo and his pawns went after The Trooper. FYI - The Trooper is doing just fine. At first I was not going talk about all the crap Rey does to people. Then I was talking with a dealership the other day. The really sad news is the dealer just wants to sell/fix vehicles. They never asked for user lock-outs, suspension of accounts, captcha, query builder removal, and the many many other things that Rey has done to their system. That is why I am speaking out. I feel if I can just help 1 company/1 dealer/1 person in the automotive field it is worth it. Plus as a bonus if I can make Bobo have a bad day for a change then I have succeeded in life.

The current blog (which is sad)

No more emails

  Trooper has received more emails from upper management.  Starting March 15th, all email will be subject to 180 days purge from the network and no more saving emails messages to personal folders on associates PCs. This even extends to destroying hard copy email messages as well after 180 days.  Me and a few other associates wonder why? Why does a big Information company of Reynolds have against having electronic or paper... Information? Why the purge?  Everyone was spending time purging their personal folders and backing them up before the 15th. What a waste of time.  PS - Sorry for the delay in getting this post, but I was on vacation. Yes  used some of that valuable vacation time to get away. Not much was happening on Friday anyway as many associates only worked 1/2 day to go watch NCAA tournament. Having way too much fun,

Wake Up Trooper...

 Trooper needs to wake up and smell the coffee.  I feel like I am in the middle of a nightmare, and I can not wake up. It is a very strange feeling.  I hear a rumor in the hallway, and say to myself "No way is that ever going to happen. That person is full of crap." Next thing I know a new policy is being put into place and I say - "I'll be damned."  I understand change in big corporations, but some days I wonder if I am dreaming them or are they reality. I wonder if they are ever going to slow down some of these wacky policies? I think to myself is Reynolds ever going to become a leader again? I guess I am shell shocked by all of this and don't know which way to turn. Then I say to myself I am just having a nightmare I will wake up shortly.  On the right side of the page I added a new section called Office Humor. I need to laugh sometimes, or I will go crazy. I figured a few of you could use a quick laugh as well. I will update this section as much as possible. 

Layoffs and More Layoffs

 I have received emails from people asking if I know which areas are going to be targeted next.   has no more information than most of you, however I am hearing that a round of axing is coming to the FE's.  It feels like each day I show up and don't know if that is the day the axe will fall on me. I feel like I have a huge target on my back. I feel bad when I know someone who gets the axe, but then I think to myself "Thank god it was not me."  I feel like people are getting whacked next to me, and I am next. I am just trying to keep my head down so the bullets pass overhead. Figuring if I can stay low, I might not be the next one to go.  This is not fun. It has to be playing havoc on my mind and body. I am not sleeping well at night and I am sure I am not as happy of a person to be around.  I hear of people getting fed up with all the crap and leaving.  Is anyone else feeling the same way or is it just me? 

Opinions

 Well  has had many thoughts lately. (I know this is hard to imagine)  I am going to share a few of my thoughts with you and you can agree or disagree.  We all know that URey does not care about market share. They only care about profitability. Someone posted that Bob is very predictable. I believe that to be true as well. I believe you are seeing URey change contracts to long term, however many dealers are running away to other vendors. As stated above market share is worthless, only profitability.  Along those lines Bob will start working to purge employees to get under the cost factor.  As customers leave so will employees.  No one knows who will run URey when Bob is gone. Sure he is 65-68 years old, but he will run URey until he is in his late 70's. I believe after he is gone a few of the "inner circle" will run URey's day to day operation. Of course that will be the final nail in the coffin, because some of Bob's "inner circle" is worse than he is.  Here are some of the rumors I am hearing. Bob is working 12-18 hours a day at his house in Texas. I heard a rumor of someone close to Bob, that said he has a office in his basement. He has 3-4 monitors on his computer and watches everything.  I also believe he is going to get out of the public eye and go back to being more private. He hardly comes to Dayton anymore, from what I am hearing/seeing. Bob will ride off the residue of the contracts until they are depleted. At that time he won't care what happens to URey or any individuals under him. He will set aside some money for a few close personal people, outside that everyone else will be thrown to the wolves.  This gets very depressing, when we were at one-time a great company. 

Change My Outlook

 After reading the comments, someone was nice enough to point out that this blog is depressing.  Believe it or not I agree.  My mother once told me, if things are not making you happy do something about it. "Change or be a miserable bastard all your life, the choice is yours. If you choose to be miserable that is your problem."  It is tough to wake up every morning and put on a happy face. I for one, have failed at it miserably.  So I plan on turning over a new leaf. I am going to attempt to post better things to this blog.  I for one have been following these blogs since day one. I personally think they are a great spot for people to discuss feelings and emotions, however it can become depressing when there is nothing good ever posted.  I am going to attempt to change that. (Keep in mind that information within Reynolds is very limited now, so this is going to be a tough thing to do)  If anyone has good things happening within Reynolds please email me or post it to the comments section.

Rumors & Rumors At Reynolds & Reynolds

 It is quite funny. I said in my last post I was going to post only positive things within URey. Next thing I know my email box is filled with rumors and negative posts.  Many associates want me to post how much they hate Bob or Fin. I have not posted those because I am trying to keep this a more positive outlook.  I for one have felt much better about myself and feelings toward the company. Sure there are crappy days, but it does no one any good complaining about it all day. I am sleeping better and have a much more positive outlook on life. (at least I think I do) Maybe I drank the koolaid or maybe I am just getting old.  I do know that when I am more positive, I seem to get more done in a day. Also I have noticed that more job interviews have come my way. Maybe it is luck or maybe it is because I changed my attitude.  Yes the rumor mill is chucked full of crap. Some of it you see in the comments section.  Obviously "Bitter Boy" has created many friends on this site. I was having lunch the other day and overheard a comment about diapers and the blog. I wanted to bust out laughing because how some of this information spreads. 

Old Friends...

A - nother D - amn P - roblem (Step on soapbox) Ok the comments section is loaded with people leaving R&R (URey) for greener pastures. Sure there are ADP visitors trying to rub the business in the nose of us Reynolds die hards. Yes the dealers think they can leave URey and go to something better, only to find out the problems with ADP are there as well. Sure it might not be the exact same issues they had with Reynolds, but the issues are there.  If I owned a dealership (which I don't), I would not switch the DMS provider at all, unless forced. The reasons are huge. Sure I don't like Bob anymore than the rest of the world, but you jump from one fire to the next. When you talk to ADP dealers, they hate ADP just as much URey. ADP is a publicly traded company and can get bought like the next one. On top of that, you throw the entire dealership into a living hell, while switching DMS providers. Just does not make good business sense to me.  If you look at history, EDS was a DMS and publicly traded and when the guys at the top wanted there cash they took the buyout. Sold of the entire dealer division of EDS to ADP (now known as ARG) and are slowly killing the product. If you would have asked anyone who worked for EDS, they probably did not think a buyout would happen to them. I used to hear this all the time. "EDS is too big, no one could afford to buy them." Give me a break. Everything is for sale, including ADP, Automate, Autosoft, Arkona, etc, etc, etc. (step off soapbox)  PS - Just wanted to say hello to old friends, such as InnocentByStander. I saw your posting in the comments. Long time no hear. Waiting to hear from BlueGhost & Hedgehog. Seems like a new person has joined the ranks called "SalesBunny". Very interesting comment about ADP's CEO selling stock... Thanks for the comment. 

New Website

I received an email from an old friend, by the name of Hedgehog (pictured on left for those of you that might remember him). He ran the first ReynoldsAlumni blog. Trying to re-unite past and present Reynolds associates.  It was a pretty successful blog, with lots of people visiting it on a daily basis. Over time the blog became to much for Hedgehog to run so he turned the blog over to someone else to run. (I believe InnocentByStander)  I am truly honored to have received an email from the person who got all this started.  Anyway the email from the Hedgehog said - "There is a new site featured in today's Wall St. Journal that could be of interest to current - and former R&R employees."  www.glassdoor.com  This is a unique website. I went out looking at this site.  You can stay anonymous, but you can rate the company you work for. All the big companies have been rated. All the way from how much money, to how good/bad management is. If you get some time this weekend please check out the website, because I believe it is pretty cool.  However I did run into a few issues with the site. The search did not work, and a few links had problems. I noticed the site name in the top left corner, said it was "beta". So beware, of some issues, but I believe they will continue to work on it.  Let me know how the site worked for you.

Peace or Piece of Sh_t

 Happy 4th to all URey associates.  We have been hearing an opinion from a person named: "Peace".  Believe it or not some of the opinions of "peace" I agree with (most I don't). I agree with the fact that, when Bob acquired all the stock from Reynolds it was an acquisition, not a merger. Forget what the news articles were saying. It was a takeover, plain and simple.  I also know sales are in the tank. I don't know if that is due to the crappy economy or the crappy owner. I think both things are not helping out. I don't know of any KO's from ADP in the last 30 days. I did hear that a number of dealers left for ADP or Arkona.  Someone ("not peace") has told a dealer they might want to keep there ERA system up and running while they make the move to Arkona. I personally have talked to many dealers before and after they changed DMS providers. I can not name a single one that has moved successfully or has liked the new system they are on, however with that said I don't see them rushing back either. I believe most dealers are grinning and bearing it. They would rather deal with a crappy DMS than with Bob. (just my 2 cents because that is all it is worth).  I do believe the mass employee killing is BS. Rey was always spreading rumors, even before Bob took the ship over. I will say that the rumor mill is much higher these days because there is no internal communication with the employees on how things are progressing. We are told to keep our heads down and just work. Don't ask questions and don't make waves. If you do, there is a big axe with your name written on it. (just another crappy opinion)

Sales in Question?

 Lots of comments on the blog about sales.  I did a little research internally, by talking to other associates and customers about sales. Of course many people are in the dark over what is being sold and what is not being sold.  I figured if I asked enough people I might see a pattern. Here is my opinion.  Power sales (if any)  are not happening. URey has the biggest problem internally it has ever had in my opinion. Power is trying to compete against a much bigger platform known as ERA. Sure ERA does not have all the bells and whistles of Power, but it also much cheaper. With the economy in the dumps who would want to step up to the next more expensive system?  URey has two products competing against themselves for the same market share. It is hard for a sales person to put one product ahead of another. Especially when the cheaper product is installed at so many customers.  In my opinion I think the best thing URey could do is start scaling back on Power.  I know this is Bob's bady and it will probably never happen while he is in charge of the ship, but it makes the most logical sense. Rather than sales talking  to a customer about 2 different products working differently, let them focus on selling just one. The success will be much higher. On top of that Bob could reduce TAC, development, and installations for Power saving tons of money. We know Bob is all about the money, so I am surprised he overlooked this scenario. He could make so much more money by scaling back to 1 system and just living off that cash. We know he does not care about the people, so the ones that worked on Power could just shift over to ERA or leave.  Why keep dumping money into a system that is not installing, and the customer base is shrinking? 

Trying to understand Bob

  I am sure you are going to think I flipped my lid or I drank the koolaid. I was sitting there just thinking (rare occurrence). Sure Bob is a guy that deep down could care less about you and me. Sure he comes across as being cold and calculated, but I was thinking about everything he has accomplished in his career.  It is amazing that Bob can have his fingers into so many things at once. If you sit back a second and think about, look at all the companies the guy runs and controls. Sure there are individuals out there that own as much or more than Bob. Here is the question.  How many of them control on a day to day operation like Bob? Meaning he watches over everything. He sends emails at 11pm at night approving this or that. Sure he keeps this replies very small, but the point that he is even reading his email that late at night is amazing. Here the guy has millions of dollars, owns a bunch of corporations and still replies to emails at 11pm or later. He could have "other" people handle this or that, but he does not. He does it all himself. Almost like the guy is not real.  I know many of you have dreamed if you win the lottery you would sit on a beach somewhere and do nothing. This guy has millions of dollars and runs all the companies (not just URey) like it is a brand new startup. Driven by profits and motives, that I can not understand.  I was at a casino a while back and a guy was losing his ass on the Blackjack table. He was broke and left went to the ATM and came back to play more. I was thinking he is addicted to this game. I believe Bob is addicted to this game and wants to win no matter what the cost. He will take on manufactures, dealers, employees, and even lawyers to get what he wants. He is a machine that will not stop. I have a new nickname for Bob... "Terminator"

Trying to Learn?!?

   Thanks for all the comments trying to explain Bob. I am a very slow learner.  Here is the question that has bugged me since "The dark days of the merger."  If Bob is so competitive and wants lots of money, why does he continue to lose business?  Hear me out for a second.  Let's state the facts, and maybe someone can point something out that I do not understand.  Here is what I know. (very little) ol>li>Bob is a greedy grab ass. (everyone agrees) /li>li>Sure Reynolds is full of ass clowns in management. Which business does not have a bunch of idiots that are "yes" men within? That happens naturally in all businesses. There are idiots at every level within Reynolds, not just management. /li>li>Bob is competitive and all decisions go through him./li>li>As I understand it layoffs are occurring in every business in the US because of the bad economy. I am not sure if URey is above or below the national average./li>li>People outside Reynolds have claimed for years Bob is a smart business man, but he is a very wacky person. (Pre-merger quotes) /li>li>Dealers dislike Bob./li>li>OEMs dislike Bob./li>li>Most employees dislike Bob. /li>/ol>So here is the million dollar question. With all  the facts above, "Why does Bob allow dealers to simply walk away?"  Why would he not do everything possible to try and save accounts from simply leaving for another competitor? Sure he can reduce employees to offset, but even he knows if the business is not growing it is dying. I don't run a multi-million dollar company, but I know the basics. Without (happy) customers you are going to be out of business in a short period of time. In order for Bob to pocket cash he needs someone to pay him. At the rate the customers are leaving there will be no money coming in. Bob is very greedy, but yet he continues to lose revenue.  I just don't understand.

Very Quiet

Yours Truly is still here (barely)  It has been really quiet this last month. Not much really happening other than people keeping there heads down and trying to stay quiet.  It seems that a few of the layoffs, that have been mentioned in the comments section are accurate. I do not know if these are because of reduced workload, or just crappy employees so URey eliminated them.  I will say personally I have kept my head low, which is fine by me. About the only thing I am hearing is everyone talking about this week's football game between OSU and USC. I personally don't care either way. I am sure the comments will have a few fans showing there support.  I do have a question for our friends in Houston. Has there been any sign of reduction in employess? Meaning is the business slow or has it been relatively steady with Power? From what I can gather, you are very steady with Power at the moment and have not had any layoffs. 

Salary

 I am sure everyone has heard by now that Bob has let 2 individuals go for talking about salaries.  What amazes me is that Bob thinks he can stop people from communicating. Well Bob can control what is said within the URey walls, but this is not the case on the internet.  I am dedicating this post to associates who are willing to talk about how much they make. No names are needed, just a position, location, and compensation. I will go first.  Sure you are still going to get the idiots who are going to post stupid comments, just skip them if you are not happy.  TAC, Dayton, $49K/year 

State of Reynolds?

 Trooper  has more questions for everyone in internet land.  What is the state of Reynolds financial?  Before you answer keep in mind it is a privately held corporation. Only one person really knows the answer, in my opinion.  I have received several emails from people, who are saying the company is doing fine. Why don't I post great things about Reynolds?  My answer to them is I am not sure Reynolds is doing great. Sure if you ask upper management they are going to tell you everything is fine. Lots of cash, customers, etc. "Sure the base is dwindling, but not a pace to be concerned about. Reynolds is at exact rate of overall  growth in the automotive market." - This was quoted to me by a manager.  Do you think the people at AIG, Bear Sterns, or Enron seen it coming? Do you believe there management was telling them it was going great?  Bigger companies than Reynolds have fallen, and are no longer in business.  Can someone please confirm for me. I believe Goldman Sach's was one of the investors in the Reynolds / UCS merger. If that is the case and my memory serves me well, what is the stability of the money from Goldman Sach's? Wasn't that company named as part of the $700 billion bailout?

Welcome DiversiForm!

Trooper wants to personally send a warm "Welcome" to our new brothers and sisters in DiversiForm, Inc (DFI).   gets a lot of emails, some good and some well not so good (you get the idea).  Anyway I got an email that I felt was worthy of passing along. Here is the email unedited and anonymous.  Let us welcome DFI to the URey culture. I'm having to stay anonymous here, but I'm one of about 30 or so employees at DiversiForm, Inc (DFI). We recently learned that Reynolds bought DFI. Reading this blog and the blog from others outside ReyRey on www.indeed.com I'm very uncertain what to expect. Most of us have been with DFI for many, many years and have been well cared for. DFI has been really good to us and us to DFI. Supposedly Reynold's coming to us in about a month with some kind of employee retention agreement. Many of us assumed that we'd be offered an incentive to stay for the duration of the transition then PERHAPS laid off with some semblance of a severance package. I think I hear you guys laughing now. Do any of you have any advise? Forewarnings? Insider murmurs of what's happening? Anything? Thanks Uncertain at DFI

Welcome CRC!

 I have received emails asking if CRC is now owned by Reynolds. Please refer to the logo on the left. What do you think?  If you want more information about CRC please visit there website Now I think I answered those questions...  Yes quite a few of our fellow associates were let go just recently. It is quite a loss, because many of the associates were very good. Someone in the comments section said "WTF?". I agree completely. I don't understand it, other than economic times I guess???  From the rumor mill, I am hearing about another 100 employees between now and end of year. Sometimes the number is lower and sometimes higher depending on who you ask.  What I don't get is why is Reynolds buying competitors, when the market is this bad? Meaning we are losing dealers, dealers are closing, OEM's are struggling, and Reynolds is buying out competitors? WTF again.  Wouldn't it be smarter to save the existing base, rather than let the whole thing deplete?  If I did not see this with both eyes, I would have never believed this to be possible.

Sinking Ship?!?

 I know I try and stay positive, but it is tough with the economy, customers, and management.   receives lots of emails. I received one from a previous associate who wants to stay anonymous. He had some interesting thoughts about the state of Reynolds. "The question came up as to whether ANY company, can claim to 'love' their customers, while not 'loving' their employees? We concluded that you can not. this premise needs to considered both by employees (current and prospective) as well as customers (current and prospective). This employee/customer sword cuts both ways and no matter how you look at it, bobo only loves himself." It is a very good point. With the reduction of employees at URey, I have to question how long I will be there.  I have said this before, that I am keeping my head low and watching the bullets fly over. Each day I wake up not knowing if I am going to have a job. What is really scaring is the people sitting on the right and left of me are dropping like flies. I am just wondering if there is a bullet with my name on it.

Inside UCS

 Trooper was reading the comments and noticed someone from College Station posted a comment. I want to thank the individual for posting a comment explaining the inner workings of UCS.  (If you have not read the comment please go here to read the comment I am talking about)  Since I am located in Dayton, I only hear rumors and ideas from people about College Station. Many of the comments are about how great people are treated in C/S, due to this is Bob's baby. This comment brings a new light on C/S for me. Thanks for the insight.  We don't get to hear too much from our brothers and sisters in C/S directly and uncensored. I always knew there were people down there, that did not like Bob just never heard from them.  Yes many of the former ReyRey associates don't care for Rob Nalley, Carlan Cooper and Tommy Barras either.  I have to agree totally with the poster that Bob really does not know his employees are unhappy, due to the fact these 3 shield Bob from the information. I agree that if someone was to get close enough to Bob to tell him, one of these 3 would stop them in a heartbeat.  Please if you have any more information from C/S, please post it in the comments as  is always trying to learn what is new, south of Dayton.

Condolences to the Henrici family

Trooper asks to please make time in your busy day for a moment of silence...  Thank you.  

Question about Houston?

  First let me say, I am sorry for putting the comments below in the same post as the condolences.  I am glad someone pointed out the fact I was not respectful, and I apologize.   has received an email that has a question for everyone and maybe someone might know the answer.  Here is a portion of the email: "I spoke with a Houston Plant associate the other day and in a somewhat awkward conversation, he mentioned that the majority of people working at the Houston Plant are going to be let go before Christmas. Any truth to this?"  At first I said to myself, no way. Bob would not mess with his baby from Texas. Then I started thinking (I know, it is a bad idea sometimes for me to think). Wait a second, Bob is greedy and I don't trust Bob, I believe he would throw the UCS employees under the bus just as quickly as he did the Rey employees to make a few bucks. Power is not selling, and I don't think Bob cares about people. All he knows is how to line his own pockets. Heck I could see him dumping good UCS employees to stay profitable, while he loses Power customers.  In my opinion the only people that are "semi-safe" is Bob's inner circle, everyone else within UCS/Reynolds can be whacked for no reason. 

Happy Holidays at Camp URey

Trooper  wishes everyone a Happy Holiday no matter who you are.  First  has been fighting a cold and has been under the weather for a few days, so I had a lot of catching up to do on the blog.  Wow a lot happened when I was out a few days last week.  We had interesting posts from our friends in the warm south. Sounds like nothing is happening down there. No major layoffs yet, but from the sounds of it they are going to get there Christmas package in the mail.  Here in the North Pole, we have lost many associates due to Santa Bob delivering around the holidays like he normally does. If my crappy memory serves me correctly, I believe last year we lost quite a few around the holidays as well. Thanks Bobo for letting people go around the holidays, which really shows your true holiday spirit.  There was an interesting post from someone that was explaining Bobo wants to eliminate both companies when Obama takes office. I would like to know more about that. This is the first I have heard of a rumor like that. The more I thought about it (which is scary by itself) makes sense to get out from under the huge debt. How that would actually work, is over my head. Still interesting.

Dwayne Bullock - Condolences

 Trooper has received several emails.  News Death Notice  ;BULLOCK, Dwayne Carter 31, of Xenia and formerly of Lebanon, died Friday December 12, 2008. Born May 22, 1977 in Cincinnati, OH to Dennis W. and Kathy M. (nee: Lamb) Bullock, he was a 1995 graduate of Lebanon High School. He then graduated from Wright State University with a BS in Computer Engineering and his Masters in Business Administration. He was employed with Enterprise Information Management as a managing software developer. Preceded in death by his paternal grandfather, Everett "Pete" Bullock and his Uncle, Rick Lamb, he is survived by his wife, Dara (nee: Wessel) Bullock of Xenia, his daughter, Danica Bullock of Xenia, his parents, Dennis W. and Kathy M. Bullock of Oregonia, one brother, Joseph Bullock of West Chester, paternal grandmother, Birdiann Bullock of Lebanon, maternal grandparents, Ermon J. and Ida Lamb of Lebanon, maternal great grandmother, Myrtle Lamb of South Lebanon and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and many friends. Visitation will be Tuesday December 16, 2008 from 5-9 PM with funeral service on Wednesday December 17, 2008 at 10 AM, all at the Heritage Baptist Church in Lebanon. Reverend Steve Craft officiating. Interment follows in Miami Cemetery in Corwin. Memorials requested to the Danica Bullock Trust Fund, c/o any local Fifth Third Bank. Arrangements by the Oswald-Hoskins Funeral Home, Lebanon. Online condolences available at www.Hoskinsfh.com You can see more details re: what happened here - I really hope I do not have to post any more blogs like this. Sorry for the loss.