Cash for Clunkers - Claim Entry

[Txflyer]

Has anyone successfully entered a claim? I've tried 3 times and had the system freeze up on my at various points. The last time I was about 20 minutes into the process. (trying very hard not to throw my computer through the wall)

Any suggestions?

[CL Pgh]

:confused:

I’ve got several ready except for the Disposal Facility Cert. Form… I should have that signed off of Weds./Thurs and then I’ll try. I know the form isn’t required for initial submission… but I’d rather send the complete pkg. on the first shot… hopefully get paid faster!? Let me know if you get one over.

[Txflyer]

Whoooo hoooo!!!!

After 3 tries during business hours that ended in system lockup I decided to try one at home tonight. After 2 failed attempts (one where I had EVERYTHING done and it bombed when I hit "submit") the third one took at 8:48PM CST.

God I hope it doesn't reject - no telling how many times it would take me to get it done again :(

[XDCX]

Whoooo hoooo!!!!

Congratulations, I think your the first DealershipForum.com member to process a CARS claim. :)

If you would, please update this thread along the way so others will know what to expect.

[CarguyCO]

First cars claim should be worth some coffee ;)

[Txflyer]

Congratulations, I think your the first DealershipForum.com member to process a CARS claim. :)

If you would, please update this thread along the way so others will know what to expect.


Will do. The first one didn't have the salvage documentation filled yet. I'll be filing another one Wed evening that will have the salvage documentation included. Barring any other screw-ups on my part (probably not a safe bet) we'll see if one process before the other. :crash:

[XDCX]

First cars claim should be worth some coffee ;)

That's a great idea - How about we offer up a $25 Starbucks Gift Card to the first member who details the CARS claim process. :)

[danderson]

At least you guys can get to the claim screen. We registered and never received the authorization email. I have been calling for two days and have gotten a busy signal. When I do get to a point of being put on hold I get disconnected. Tried for 11 hours yesterday. Finally got a hold of someone this morning and he said that our mail servers were rejeting it and we need to contact our email provider. I asked then why did our other three franchises who are on the same server got their email. He then told me that he will send it on to another team and gave me a reference number and said someone MAY get back to me in 24-48 hours. If not, just call back in.....on the same number that i have been trying for two days. I have suspended all cash for clunkers deals at our store until we get this resolved as I don't want to be holding the bag at $3,500-$4,500 per deal. This is ridiculous!!

p.s. I called our state dealers association and they basically just said good luck and keep trying.......same from factory rep.

[possum]

I am happy that Dealers are selling cars. And, I hope it is good for my Dealer buddies, BUT I am currently so glad to be in the Oldco Nation, where we don't even see this program.

And these are the people that want to run your health care!!!

[XDCX]

At least you guys can get to the claim screen. We registered and never received the authorization email. I have been calling for two days and have gotten a busy signal. When I do get to a point of being put on hold I get disconnected. Tried for 11 hours yesterday. Finally got a hold of someone this morning and he said that our mail servers were rejeting it and we need to contact our email provider. I asked then why did our other three franchises who are on the same server got their email. He then told me that he will send it on to another team and gave me a reference number and said someone MAY get back to me in 24-48 hours. If not, just call back in.....on the same number that i have been trying for two days. I have suspended all cash for clunkers deals at our store until we get this resolved as I don't want to be holding the bag at $3,500-$4,500 per deal. This is ridiculous!!

p.s. I called our state dealers association and they basically just said good luck and keep trying.......same from factory rep.

Wow, that has to be frustrating. :mad:

I remember CL had a post asking about the Confirmation E-mail. Given all the website issues NHSTA has had I wouldn't be surprised if the problems were on their end but they're trying to blame it on your mail server.

It will be really interesting to see what the claim process is like. I'm hoping it will be smooth and easy, but based on what I've read so far I'm not certain that will be the case.

[WillSD]

We got our first claim submitted Tuesday evening (7/28/2009) at approximately 9:30 CDT. It was impossible to get through during normal business hours. Another Ford dealer reported that they got 5 claims submitted and 1 had already been rejected (more information required). How they got 5 claims through during the day is beyond me!

[Txflyer]

Just tried to input my second claim; this one complete with the disposal form. Ten minutes into the entry it died while I was uploading forms.

Guess I'll try around 10pm from the house tonight.

Anyone else got a claim in yet? Sure would like to hear from someone who's actually received payment. ;)

[XDCX]

I've attached a copy of the Official CARS Guide to Claim Entry to this thread.

Special thanks to Txfler for sending me a copy. :)

I tried to find the file on the NHTSA site but didn't have any luck, so I'll attach it to this thread and make it available as a download.

NOTE: The download is only available the DealershipForum.com Members to conserve bandwidth - Log-on is required to download file.

[Txflyer]

Just got my 2nd claim input into the system. Again, had to wait until almost 9PM before it would go through without timing out. This one had the salvage disposition form attatched to it.

Now for the wait . . . . .

[CL Pgh]

Just got my 2nd claim input into the system. Again, had to wait until almost 9PM before it would go through without timing out. This one had the salvage disposition form attatched to it.

Now for the wait . . . . .

I've got several ready to fly. Now that I know what "%" means, I should be good... hopefully! :rolley:

BTW Txflyer... I laugh everytime I spellcheck my stuff and you're around. Spell Check wants to correct your Txflyer... to Taxpayer!!! :D :joker:

[mopar4life]

We're throwing a party once we get our 1st clunker just "invoiced", not approved or rejected, just an invoice created. I have 10+ hours into our "first" deal counting all the attempts on CARS site & still no success. 12 am, 1am, 2am, 5am, 6am, 7am, 9am, 11am, 2pm, 4pm. What's the secret Obama???????????

[s32741bb]

This has been a big help in sales, but the NADA and New Car Corps need to get more involved in getting all these problems solved, it is going to kill the dealers cash flow. The way the system is working now it could take weeks to get our monies.I h ad the feeling after talking to my sales rep all he was concerned about was making sure we got all the sales we could and worry about the fed money later.

[XDCX]

We're throwing a party once we get our 1st clunker just "invoiced", not approved or rejected, just an invoice created. I have 10+ hours into our "first" deal counting all the attempts on CARS site & still no success. 12 am, 1am, 2am, 5am, 6am, 7am, 9am, 11am, 2pm, 4pm. What's the secret Obama???????????

Wow, 10 hours and you still don't have your first clunker invoiced. :mad:

I can see why some dealers are refusing to do additional CARS deals until they receive payment. This could cause a real cash flow problem if the payment process is as messed up as the submission process.

[CL Pgh]

System was moving pretty good last night… but would not accept the claim/invoice. I even told the owner at midnight that I attempted a claim with only 3 of the requested pdf/docs and it was rejected. He questioned the size of the files… so I email him the entire folder (all 11 requested docs.) and he received it less than a minute later!

I can email all 11 pdf files in 60secs… but the Gov. site won’t take THREE of them at Mid-Night!!! This is BS!!! :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

[XDCX]

System was moving pretty good last night… but would not accept the claim/invoice. I even told the owner at midnight that I attempted a claim with only 3 of the requested pdf/docs and it was rejected. He questioned the size of the files… so I email him the entire folder (all 11 requested docs.) and he received it less than a minute later!

I can email all 11 pdf files in 60secs… but the Gov. site won’t take THREE of them at Mid-Night!!! This is BS!!! :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

Maybe I'm a bit jaded, but my bet is NHTSA knows that they do not have the manpower to process payments and meet the 10 day criteria they touted when this program was launched.

I'm thinking that the bottleneck in the claim entry process will allow NHTSA to assert that they've met their obligations and blame the dealers for not inputting their claims in a timely fashion.

While I'm no computer expert, I've learned enough running this forum to know that server space and bandwidth are both plentiful and cheap. If NHTSA wanted the claim entry process to be fast and easy all they'd have to do is increase their server capacity.

[birch3x]

Regarding the pdf docs, we've discovered that if you group them all together and send as one file they will not be accepted. If you 'browse-add' each doc, then at the last one, click 'apply', it seems to work. Certainly a very difficult process

[CL Pgh]

Regarding the pdf docs, we've discovered that if you group them all together and send as one file they will not be accepted. If you 'browse-add' each doc, then at the last one, click 'apply', it seems to work. Certainly a very difficult process

AGREED!!!

I’ve got a couple “cheat sheets” that I use so that I type names, VIN(s), address…ect. one time only! Then I copy and paste everything from there… great help when you have to re-enter the same invoice several times each. I also use this same cheat sheet to print the Summary Sale sheet.

My pdf file “name” cheat sheet (below) keeps me from forgetting/duplicating anything and automatically sets-up the customer folder/file exactly the way nhtsa requested them. NOW… if I can get them accepted!

1 TRADE TITLE FRONT

2 TRADE TITLE BACK

3 TRADE PROOF INS.

4 TRADE REGISTRATION

5 PURCHASER ID

6 DEAL SHEET BUYER CERT

7 MANUNFAC. CERT. ORGIN

8 PUCHASER SURVEY

9 SIDE BY SIDE

10 DISPOSAL CERT

11 PURCHASE AGREE.

The Summary Sale cheat sheet is lined up perfectly (WORD)… if anyone wants it, send a pm/email to X-Man and he’ll forward it to you… I’m out of here for a couple days. :D

[CL Pgh]

Sunday Morning... all systems GO!

#18 complete deals in! Finally! :D I have more to go in but missing a couple docs. in each file and I don't want to send them in incomplete... afraid they'll go to the bottom of the pile!???

[dodgequality]

NADA faxed, today, August 2, Sunday re a change in disabling "Clunker" trades.
Hope you guys are having fun with this fiasco. Wait till the chargebacks start.

[dodgequality]

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20090802__Clunkers__won_t_save_auto_market.html

[mopar4life]

I finally got our 1st deal entered in last eve---no lock-ups w/gov. site & much faster. Just got done entering 2 more but this time I "saved" them because I'm lacking the silly 1 year reg/ins docs. They must of took your advise XDCS with your server expansion. I've done just what you did CL Pgh with the "cheat sheet". After the 3rd attempt on my first deal & realizing that copy/paste is avail. in the site, I made one up. Excel all-the-way!!

[XDCX]

I've done just what you did CL Pgh with the "cheat sheet". After the 3rd attempt on my first deal & realizing that copy/paste is avail. in the site, I made one up. Excel all-the-way!!

That's great to hear that the server is running faster and it's not locking-up.

It's also great to hear that you're using the Copy and Paste feature and you've developed a "cheat sheet" like CL. :)

CL - Thanks for the "cheat sheet" - I'll post it in this thread as an attachment so our members can see what you're doing to make the CARS Claim Entry process easier.

[okcarl]

Well I just submitted our first 8 claims. I was able to submit them in about 2 hours with no server errors. The system was moving good. I cannot imagine there were to many other people on at 12am mountain time. This looks like the time of day to submit.

[Txflyer]

System was actually moving fast at 3pm CST on Monday. I think they must have done some serious upgrading to the system over the weekend.

[XDCX]

CL - Thanks for the "cheat sheet" - I'll post it in this thread as an attachment so our members can see what you're doing to make the CARS Claim Entry process easier.

Here's the attachment for the CARS Cheat Sheet that CL's using in his store. The file is a MS Word document.

Here's how he uses the document: "I make a customer folder on my desktop per CARS deal (for the 11 requested scanned pdf files) and put this in it. Once filled in not only will it neatly print out the Summary Sheet, it becomes a “copy & paste” cheat sheet when you’re in the website to file for your CARS cash."

.

[angewi6]

Help :confused:

Has any one had the pleasure of submitting an invoice with a category 3 trade-in yet. I am stuck at the description field, it is not listed.

YEAR: 1991

MAKE: Ford

MODEL: F250 Custom / XL / XLT Lariat

BODY/ENGINE: Regular Cab 2D 7.5L V8 EFI

[CL Pgh]

Help :confused:

Has any one had the pleasure of submitting an invoice with a category 3 trade-in yet. I am stuck at the description field, it is not listed.

YEAR: 1991

MAKE: Ford

MODEL: F250 Custom / XL / XLT Lariat

BODY/ENGINE: Regular Cab 2D 7.5L V8 EFI

I'm not a FORD guy... but I'd start by re-running your Side by Side mpg comparison here: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/CarsSearchIntro.shtml

Your engine doesn't look right... maybe that's why you can't find it??? Good Luck!!!

[WillSD]

angewi6 -- Category 3 trade input is a nightmare. We have been advised to input the trade as a Light Duty F250 (5.8L V8 EFI) and attach a note describing the actual trade in. Just another item for the Citi wizards to reject.

CL Pgh -- The 7.5L is the old 460 CID gas sipper.

[XDCX]

angewi6 -- Category 3 trade input is a nightmare. We have been advised to input the trade as a Light Duty F250 (5.8L V8 EFI) and attach a note describing the actual trade in. Just another item for the Citi wizards to reject.

CL Pgh -- The 7.5L is the old 460 CID gas sipper.

WillSD - That's great information - thanks for sharing it with our members. :)

[MICDJDLR]

Has anyone ran into this issue? If so - please help. My first C4C deal has now rejected 3 times. The first time was legit (I submitted w/o attachments) the 2nd & 3rd rejections are due to "missing registration" or "invalid registration". TOTALLY BOGUS. The registration submitted is a record that the Michigan Secretary of State provides for customers who didn't keep their old registrations. It clearly shows the inital registration and subsequent transfers. (SIDENOTE: I had a different invoice pay w/this same registration record.)

The 2nd time I resubmitted I rescanned the registration plus the letter provided by the MI SOS explaining how to read the registration record and a letter I typed explaining all of this again. I submitted this as the trade-in registration.

Now trying to resubmit for the 3rd time, it will not allow me to delete the earlier registration attachment (if I try it says "fatal error, invoice not saved") nor will it allow me to modify the earlier attachments w/new memo descriptions (same error). Now, since I have submitted 2 trade-in attachments I have eleven attachments and it won't allow me add any more attachments.....I have no idea what to do. I also tried just resending it as is and it also gives me the fatal error message.

Is it just a problem w/the system today?????

[dgale]

Make sure you send in the signature pages for summary of sale and disposal form. We use a checkoff sheet listing all documents required and will not bill out or deliver a car until the salesman has all supporting documentation attached to the worksheet. Our checkoff sheet also requires that the salesman put drivers license, vins of old and new vehicle,vehicle class, msrp, etc. Whatever info is needed to fill out invoice is all on a summary sheet. Nice and easy, can be submitted in 10-15 minutes.

[angewi6]

angewi6 -- Category 3 trade input is a nightmare. We have been advised to input the trade as a Light Duty F250 (5.8L V8 EFI) and attach a note describing the actual trade in. Just another item for the Citi wizards to reject.

CL Pgh -- The 7.5L is the old 460 CID gas sipper.



WillSD - That's great information - thanks for sharing it with our members. :)


Thanks WillSD. I tried what you suggested and it was approved. :wave: