Craigslist has installed a captcha security step upon log in their system. This means that postings via their API will continue as normal but any other updates will not be possible to automate such as deleting or updating vehicles as this is not permitted via the CL Bulk Posting Interface.
Your cars will be posted as usual but they will not be deleted before the 30 day expiration date, prices will not update, and vehicles can not be inter-exchanged in the ad.
Additionally non-API areas can no longer be automated.
I believe that CL added this feature to stop dealers from updating sold cars with unsold ones and skipping paying for another ad.
We are adding a few disclaimers in the ads for the next batches of postings:
“Dear Customer,
Craigslist maintains their ads live for 30 days, we strongly recommend contacting the dealer for vehicle availability.
Please contact dealer for latest pricing information.”
In my opinion this is not good or bad since every dealer has to play with the same rules, it is annoying more than anything since some customers will undoubtedly contact us about cars we have already sold. However, on a positive note, this encourages the customer to contact us about pricing and availability, which is a good thing for a well trained sales staff.
We will keep you posted as the system develops and CL continues to make changes.
Yago de Artaza Páramo
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