Dealership YouTube Channel Taken Down Without Explanation

A dealership in Nevada had their YouTube channel shutdown without any explanation. Lochmandy Motors in Elkhart, Nevada had their company YouTube channel shutdown by YouTube on the evening of Sept. 8 with a message saying, “This account has been suspended due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, gaming, misleading content, or other Terms of Service violations.” The dealership executive director, Nicholas Lochmandy, sent out a press release in response to the shut down YouTube channel. In a statement, Lochmandy said, “We would never conduct any activity that would risk the reputation we have worked decades to achieve. We have not, and never will, engage in spam, gaming, misleading content, or any other alleged violation.”

On Sept. 10, at 3:30 p.m. the Lochmandy Motors YouTube channel suddenly popped back into full capacity. The dealership, according to the local South Bend Tribune, hasn’t received any indication as to why YouTube shut them down in the first place. The dealership YouTube channel consists of mostly vehicle inventory videos. Lochmandy Motors reportedly sends vehicle photos to a vendor to get made into videos for their YouTube channel, and have been for about five years without any incident. Losing the YouTube channel, even for a short time is something that Nicholas Lochmandy saw as a dealership disadvantage. Speaking to the local news, Lochmandy said, “More and more people use YouTube to search for a vehicle. It kind of takes us out of the game to not be on there.”

This incident was small, however, Lochmandy feels it could have had a negative impact on his bottom line as his dealership was “out of the game,” for two days. Has your store ever had problems with your YouTube account that have been unexplained? In this dealership’s shoes would you pursue the matter further or simply hope that it doesn’t happen again?