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When AI gets your dealership wrong: fixing wrong hours, addresses and closed labels

By , Co-founder, AutoLander · Updated

Short answer

When ChatGPT has wrong information about your business, or Google AI Overviews shows old hours or a closed label, the fix happens at the source the answer relied on. Open the cited sources, find the page that states the wrong fact, correct it there and everywhere else it appears, then re-ask the same question on a schedule. No one can promise how fast an assistant picks up the change, but a correct, consistent set of sources is the only lasting fix.

Why do ChatGPT and other AI assistants get dealership facts wrong?

AI assistants get dealership facts wrong because they repeat their sources, and sources go stale or disagree. Google tells searchers that AI Overviews can and will make mistakes, and OpenAI says ChatGPT search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or incorrect. An old directory listing or a forgotten page can be where it starts.

OpenAI also tells ChatGPT users to open the source and check it, which is exactly what a careful buyer does. Microsoft researchers writing on the Bing search blog add that freshness is critical for AI answers, since an out-of-date fact leads to a misleading response. And Bing’s webmaster guidelines ask for clear, consistent naming of organizations and locations, because clear entity definition improves citation accuracy. When your store’s name, address or hours differ from one source to the next, an assistant has to pick one.

Two kinds of source deserve special attention. Google Maps builds instant answers partly from relevant reviews, so an old review that mentions old hours is part of the picture; see why reviews matter to AI assistants. And Google says a page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet to appear in its AI features, so an old hours page on your own site that is still indexed stays in the pool; see what AI Overviews look for in a dealer page.

How do you find the source of a wrong answer?

Find the source of a wrong answer by opening its citations. ChatGPT answers that use web search can include citations and a Sources view, and Google’s AI features link to pages too. Work from the answer back to the exact page that states the wrong fact, then list every other place online that repeats it.

  1. Ask the question a buyer would askUse a fresh chat and plain words, such as what time your store closes on Saturday or whether it is still at its old address. Save the answer with the date. Ask more than once, because answers change from run to run; our AI visibility scan for car dealers asks every question 3 times for that reason.
  2. Open the sourcesIn ChatGPT, open the Sources view, which OpenAI says lists cited sources and other relevant links. In Google’s AI Overviews, open the pages the answer links to. Read each one for the wrong fact.
  3. Find the page that states itLook for the specific page that states the wrong fact: an old directory listing, a Business Profile field, a location page from before a move, a third-party article or a review. Screenshot it and note the URL.
  4. Search for the same error elsewhereSearch your store’s name together with the wrong detail, such as the old phone number or the old street, and check every listing you know about. OpenAI says ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers, so the sources behind a ChatGPT answer may differ from what you see on Google; what ChatGPT looks at before it recommends a store covers that side.
  5. Write the fix listFor each source, record the page, the wrong fact, the right fact and who can change it: you, your website vendor, or the site that owns the listing. That list is the whole job for the next section.

How do you fix wrong hours or addresses?

Fix wrong hours or addresses at every source at once, starting with the ones you control: your Google Business Profile, your website, Bing Places and your main listings. Bing’s guidelines say clear, consistent naming of organizations and locations improves grounding and citation accuracy in its AI answers, so the goal is every source saying the same thing.

  • Google Business Profile first. For car dealerships, Google says to list car sales hours, and to use the new sales hours if new and pre-owned hours differ. Set special hours for holidays. Why hours carry so much weight is covered in which Business Profile facts AI answers draw on.
  • Your website next: the contact page, the footer, the hours page, every location page and any structured data your platform adds. The website has to say exactly what the profile says.
  • Bing Places and Apple Business Connect: claim them if you have not, then correct the same fields.
  • Automotive listing profiles: your Cars.com, CarGurus, Autotrader and DealerRater dealer profiles, which are easy to forget after a change.
  • Your Facebook Page and Yelp listing, plus any directory that still shows a former address or phone number.
  • Old pages you forgot: a landing page for a closed location, a press release with old hours, a vendor’s microsite. Update them or redirect them to the current page.
  • Reviews that state old facts: you cannot edit them, but a short reply with the current fact, such as the new Saturday hours, puts the correction right beside the old claim.

What if AI says your store is closed or moved?

If AI says your store is closed or moved, check your Google Business Profile status first, then the pages the answer cites. A wrong closed label can come from a profile setting, an old listing or a page still describing a former location. Fix each one, then tell search engines which pages changed, using IndexNow where you can.

Bing’s webmaster guidelines tell site owners to use IndexNow when URLs are added, updated or removed, saying timely notifications “reduce outdated or incorrect URL references in Copilot responses.” According to the IndexNow FAQ, a submission is shared with the participating engines, including Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz, Amazon and Yep, and Google is not listed among them. IndexNow also says a submission does not mean immediate indexing.

Picture a pre-owned store that moved across town last year. The profile shows the new address, but an old location page on the website still describes the former lot, and two directories never got updated. Update or redirect the old page, correct the directories, notify the changed URLs, and the sources an assistant finds start telling one story.

Can you report a wrong AI answer?

Reporting a wrong AI answer is worth doing, but it is the weak fix. If the assistant offers a feedback option on an answer, use it, but no channel we know of lets a dealer edit what an AI says about a store. The lasting fix is correcting the source the answer cited.

Where you can correct the source yourself, do that first: your Business Profile, your website and the listings you have claimed. Where the source is a site you do not control, such as a directory or an article, use that site’s own correction process or contact its owner. Keep a record of each request and the date.

Skip the hunt for a person at Google or OpenAI who can change one answer. Answers that use web search are built from the sources the assistant finds, so time spent on the sources pays off across every assistant that reads them.

How long until a fix shows up?

No one can say exactly how long a fix takes to show up. Assistants that search the web read current pages when they find them, but each one decides when to crawl and what to cite, and OpenAI’s help page says ChatGPT ranks search results using multiple factors and that placement cannot be assured.

In practice, the pages you control change the moment you publish. What an assistant says next depends on when it reads those pages again. Notifying changed URLs with IndexNow helps the engines that take part in it, and it cannot hurry Google, which is not listed as a participant.

So re-check on a schedule instead of daily. Ask the same questions in the same words a week after the fix and then monthly, save each answer with its date and sources, and look for the wrong fact to disappear across runs rather than in a single answer. Every AutoLander plan re-asks a fixed set of buyer questions each month and shows you the raw answers.

How do you keep it from happening again?

Keep wrong answers from coming back by giving one person ownership of the store’s facts, changing every source in the same sitting when a fact changes, and re-asking the same buyer questions every month. A single forgotten listing can restart the problem, so the habit matters more than any one fix.

  • Name one owner for store facts: legal name, address, main phone, department phones, hours by department, website address and the list of brands sold.
  • Keep a master list of every profile and listing, with who holds the login for each.
  • Use a change checklist for every holiday, weather closure, hours change, phone system change, move or website vendor switch, and work through the whole list the same day.
  • Set special hours on the Business Profile before each holiday, ahead of the first confused call.
  • Notify changed URLs with IndexNow if your website platform supports it, and redirect retired pages to their current versions.
  • Reply to reviews that state old facts with the current fact, plainly and without promotion.
  • Re-ask the same questions every month in ChatGPT, Claude and the other assistants your buyers use, and save each answer with its sources and date.

Sources

Every number and rule in this article comes from these pages, read on September 30, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Can I ask ChatGPT to correct what it says about my store?

You can tell it in your own chat, but that does not fix anything at the source. Answers that use web search are built from what the search finds, and OpenAI says those responses may include citations to the pages used. Correct the cited page, and the listings that repeat it, instead.

Why does AI still show our old hours?

Usually because at least one source it reads still shows them. OpenAI says ChatGPT search results and citations can be outdated, and Microsoft researchers note that out-of-date facts lead to misleading AI answers. Open the sources behind the answer, find the page with the old hours and fix it, along with every listing that copies it.

Will fixing my Business Profile fix ChatGPT’s answer?

Not by itself. OpenAI says ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers, and its help page links privacy statements from Microsoft and Shopify as providers, so ChatGPT may be reading other sources entirely. Fix the Business Profile, your website, Bing Places and your main listings together so every source says the same thing.

What if the wrong fact comes from a site I don’t control?

Ask that site to correct it through its business listing tools or support contact, and fix every source you do control so the correct version outnumbers the wrong one. Bing says clear, consistent naming of organizations and locations improves citation accuracy, so matching facts across many sources helps even while one stays wrong.

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