PBS Systems

RATING:

3.9

(10)
Overview

About PBS Systems

PBS Systems is your steadfast partner in driving dealership success and transforming your business through our comprehensive dealership management software. Unlock cutting-edge tools such as Digital Retailing and our Digital Service Suite, designed to streamline operations, strengthen customer relationships, and increase profits. Digital Retailing has revolutionized vehicle buying, offering convenience and transparency. Our Digital Service Suite takes this experience to the next level by reducing wait times and enabling real-time communication between advisors and customers. Become part of the winning team and shape the automotive landscape with PBS Systems – a proven dealer management partner to thousands of North American dealerships.

PBS Systems Pricing

Contact PBS Systems for pricing details.

Free trial: 

Not Available

Free version: 

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Powerful service tools at your fingertips
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PBS Systems Reviews

Overall Rating

3.9

Ratings Breakdown

Secondary Ratings

Ease-of-use

4

Customer Support

4

Value for money

3.5

Functionality

4

Most Helpful Reviews for PBS Systems

10 Reviews

Anonymous

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2018

pbs

PROS

very easy to use. switched over from cdk and this is very user friendly

CONS

some of the search functions I do not like a whole lot

Vendor Response

Thank you for the review.

Replied August 2018

Barrie

Automotive, 11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed January 2022

PBS allows us to calculate vehicle payments, and incorporate service and parts with accounting

PROS

PBS allows us to calculate new or used vehicle payments in the sales department. We can easily locate a customer record or find information on a vehicle using the stock number or last 6 of the VIN number. We can also submit credit applications through the built-in RouteOne link with relative ease.

CONS

With our DMS in the past, we had shortcuts to generate work orders or add regularly used service jobs or labour lines. PBS does not have any shortcuts so the work order write up process takes longer than expected.

Reasons for switching to PBS Systems

DealerTrack was no longer being supported in Canada.

rob

Automotive, 11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed December 2021

PBS kills efficiency in the Fixed-OPS dept at point of sale

Overall experience has been a good one but there are some glaring deficiencies that make this DMS the wrong one for me. If you have a large fixed-Ops Dept, I would advise contacting Dealers that are on PBS directly and getting their take on it before signing a contract. I know PBS was less expensive than ADP/CDK when we signed on but I'm not convinced the trade-off was worth it.

PROS

Customer service, they always pick up the phone. They're not always helpful but they always pick up the phone. PBS seems to work well for the Sales Dept. Management functions and reporting are at your finger tips, easy to find and easy to use, we used ADP/CDK in the past and the PBS Management functions are much easier to use.

CONS

Very time consuming at point of sale in Fixed-Ops. It is like working with one arm tied behind your back, way too much mouse moving and clicking vs key board commands. When we first started using PBS, I remember feeling like we were 1 person short and I still feel like that today, 4.5 years later. If Parts and Service advisor efficiency was tracked the same way that our Service Tech efficiency is tracked and Dealer Principals/Managers could see what the lack of efficiency was costing, I don't think PBS would be in as many dealers. We used ADP/CDK before and we had complaints about that program as well but ADP/CDK is hands down faster and more efficient than PBS at the Service/Parts counters. PBS is much easier to use behind the scenes when it comes to reporting or Management functions but as a Parts Manager, I would choose a higher efficiency at my parts/service advisors desks 10 out of 10 times. PBS also kills efficiency in Shipping/receiving. It takes 3-4 times as long for my Shipper/receiver to receive freight with PBS than with ADP/CDK and as a result we find ourselves constantly behind with returns and other functions in our Shipping/Receiving Dept.

Reasons for switching to PBS Systems

Price

Bill

Automotive, 51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed October 2021

PBS is a very effective DMS System for Us

Very effective, easy to teach and use.

PROS

You don't really need any or many other 'bolt-on' systems to manage your dealership effectively. One stop shop for all their modules! Vehicle Deal Mgmt, Dispatch, Vehicle Inspection Mgmt, Service Quotes(incl. parts avail. and pricing.) Tire Storage etc. I user can help influence the software enhancements....and see them implemented in a timely manner.

CONS

They haven't included Technician service pictures/video portal for customer/service advisors yet ...but I hear it is coming soon !

Reasons for switching to PBS Systems

Price, capability and a true Microsoft platform.

Janice

Automotive, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed November 2016

Easy to use

This program is easy to learn to use on your own and the help section gives great step by step help.

PROS

Great to track sales

CONS

the process to use offsite is a little long but understandable to keep it secure

Anonymous

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

2

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

2

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed September 2019

Just not a good company

Horrible. when looking into the company they have high turnover, their support is frustrated because they can't support you, and level 3 support will close the ticket even though the issue is not fixed to improve there own stats.

PROS

The features when they worked. the program has a lot of potential but needs more attention

CONS

The driver's license scanner does not check enough characters of the name. For instance if you had a customer called Mitch Howard the license when scanned would replace all the data of a current customer called Mitchelle Howardson. Thus the computer would think its the same person. When talking to support this was a use error and you need to manually change it. What's the point of the driver license scanner than? This informations is key for marketing and do you want to send the wrong info to the wrong person? All that needs to be changed is a couple of lines of code to check the whole name than just the first 4 or whatever they have it set to.

Reason for choosing PBS Systems

It was the software that was available at the time of hire

Vendor Response

Thank you for providing us with your honest feedback. We are very sorry that PBS hasn't lived up to your expectations. We set a high standard for ourselves and are disappointed that this standard was not met in your interaction with our software. The driver's license scanner hardware is operated using firmware, outside the DMS, and it sounds likely the firmware needs to be updated. This is a simple task for our I.T. Support Team. Our staff take great pride in their work; in fact, our Support Team was rated one of the highest ranked support departments nationally by HDI, the Association for Technical Support Professionals. We would greatly appreciate an opportunity to work with you to resolve your concerns. I highly encourage that you speak with our Technical Support Manager to discuss your specific concerns. Please email derrickn@pbssystems.com. Thank you and have a great day. Seamus Grant, Marketing Operations Manager, seamusg@pbssystems.com

Replied September 2019

Anonymous

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

2

Reviewed February 2019

A Joke of a System

All automotive systems have their glitches but PBS seems to be the absolute worst. The system rarely works like it is intended to and to top it off customer service is horrible. If you have a issue get ready to sit on hold for an extended period of time to only be told "I will look into that for you" and not get a call back. It seems most days the staff in our office will try to figure the issue out to avoid having to deal with customer service. There use to be a survey sent after every call but apparently they didn't like what they were being told because they no longer send those out for every call, just select ones.

PROS

The fact it is windows based and if you know windows you can figure out how to correct things yourself.

CONS

Customer Service and inability to accurately answer questions about their own system

Vendor Response

Hello and thank you for taking the time to leave a review. We are sorry to hear that you have not had a great experience with our system. We take customer service very seriously and always strive to provide the best support we possibly can. We have sent a direct message to address your concerns.

Replied February 2019

Igor

Automotive, 51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

2

EASE OF USE

2

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed May 2019

Not good for inventory management

Overall, it feels like "back into 90-s" :-) However, they do work on updating their software. One good thing is - very good support.

PROS

V10 update gives a bit of hope that the software will try to keep up with "today's" technology. That said, they do have a phone app for V10 users. Great support

CONS

RDP! Yes, it is remote desktop... in 2019 it is still desktop software :-) get ready to use VPN and RDP. Inventory management is horrible. VIN decoding, pretty much, gets everything wrong. When you ask them to send an inventory feed to your website, you will get literally 100% messed up feed. Ask them to customize it, and you will need to pay a fee of $ XXXX...

Vendor Response

Hi Igor, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We truly appreciate your honest feedback. A member of our Product Marketing team will reach out to you in the near future to discuss your review. We would appreciate the opportunity to review some of your concerns and work with you to resolve them. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns. Seamus Grant Manager, Marketing Operations seamusg@pbssystems.com 1-800-665-6304 ext.823

Replied May 2019

Lisa

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2017

This is an awesome system! So easy to use!

PROS

This is probably one of the easiest systems to use for a DMS that I have come across in my whole career.

CONS

The transition from the previous system. This probably has more to do with personnel than the system itself.

Anonymous

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed February 2018

Very user Friendly

PROS

Very user Friendly, simple to use. Easy to navigate and customer service is very helpful and quick when you need assistance.

CONS

I don't like that it is on its own remote screen, hard to use with only one computer screen if you have to use other programs

10 Reviews