Bidders and approval

Bidders are separate from your staff and your CRM customers. A bidder registers on your website, verifies their email and mobile number, and then asks you for approval. Only approved bidders can bid.

How a bidder signs up #

1. On your website, the bidder selects Register to bid (at /auctions/register).
2. They give their name, email, mobile number, address and a password, and accept the terms, an age statement and the privacy notice. SMS alerts are optional.
3. They open the link in the verification email (valid for 24 hours).
4. They enter the 6-digit code sent to their mobile (valid for 10 minutes).
5. In their account, they select Request approval to bid.

Their account page shows where they are: "Pending email verification", "Pending phone verification", "Pending approval", "Approved", "Suspended" or "Banned". Bidders can turn on two-step sign-in, see their signed-in devices, and choose which emails they get.

One bidder account works on every MotoDealerHQ dealership website, but approval is per dealership. Approving a bidder never approves them anywhere else, and you cannot see other dealerships' bidders.

Review bidders #

1. Open Auctions › Bidders.
2. Filter by Status (pending approval, approved, denied, suspended, banned) or search by email or last name.
3. Select a name to open the bidder.

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1. Status and search. Filter the list.
2. Approval status. Your decision. A note in brackets shows when the bidder has not finished verifying.
3. Open flags. Risk signals waiting for review. See disputes and fraud.

Approve or deny a bidder #

1. Open the bidder.
2. Check the verification line: email and mobile verified, two-step sign-in, and risk signals.
3. Under Decision, choose Approve, Deny, Suspend, Ban or Reinstate.
4. Pick a Reason and add a note.
5. Select Record decision.

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1. Verification and signals. Email and mobile status, and how many other accounts share the same verified mobile or browser. Signals are for review only: a shared IP address, VPN or device is never a reason on its own.
2. Decision and reason. Every decision is kept with its reason and note in the Moderation history.
3. Business licence. Tick when you checked the bidder's business or dealer licence. Only these bidders can bid in dealer-only auctions.
4. Manual check. Record an identity, payment-method or business-licence check you did yourself, for example "driver licence seen in person". Never type document numbers.
5. Mark affiliated. Staff, owners, relatives or related accounts can never bid at your dealership.

You can also set a Highest single bid allowed for the bidder.

Automatic approval #

Under Auctions › Auction settings › Bidder approval, choose Approve verified bidders automatically. A bidder is then approved when they have verified email and phone, are in an accepted region, are not affiliated and have no open flag. If you tick Require a verified payment method, they also need a passed payment-method check. Automatic approvals are recorded as such in the moderation history.

Other settings in the same place:

• Bids above ($) need identity verification. Bids over this amount need a passed identity check.
• Accepted bidder regions. For example US-FL, US-GA or US. Leave blank to accept any region.

Who can never bid #

MotoDealerHQ refuses bids from affiliated people. That covers bidders who declared it, bidders you marked, and bidders whose email or phone matches an active staff member. If a bidder becomes suspended, banned or affiliated during an auction, their hidden maximum stops bidding at once, and they are skipped when the winner is chosen.

Tips #

• Use manual approval at first. Switch to automatic once you trust the flow.
• Reinstating a banned bidder needs an override approved by a second person.
• MotoDealerHQ (the platform) can suspend or ban a bidder on every dealership at once.

Permissions #

Limitations #