Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Carmax
Raleigh, North Carolina
United States

I bought a 2004 Honda CR-V in October of 2007. Until August of this year, everything was fine. Then, the A/C stopped putting out cold air. Since I was under extended Carmax warranty, I went to Carmax-authorized repair facility. While looking at initial problem, they discovered rear tires were both down to last layer of tread and front ball joint spindle was getting ready to go. First of all, there's no way those three things should have worn out in 10 months, and there's no way any of them should have been missed during Carmax's inspection process. This is where the fun began. Apparently, Carmax had, a few years ago, switched from decent parts suppliers to lowest-common-denominator ones, and the only supplier for their Honda parts was in San Diego, CA (3, 000 miles away from me!). My repair shop called to order the parts--when they finally came in, the ball joint spindle came without bearings in it (which is stupid, since it doesn't WORK without them). The bearings then had to be ordered, and the supplier told my repair people to go screw themselves (in much worse language, which I won't repeat here), and that they didn't need anything from them, and knew what was needed. They then sent the bearings to the wrong address, and when the repair people finally got them, they were the wrong size and type. They re-ordered AGAIN, and it wasn't until 4 1/2 weeks later that I finally got my car completely fixed and back in my hands. All during this process, I called Carmax multiple times and was told everything was covered in full (including rental), and not to worry about it. Then, my repair people would call THE SAME DAY and get the complete opposite story. It finally took a dozen-and-a-half calls between me and the repair shop to get straight answers, finally culminating in a heated call that I made from the repair place (with the manager sitting next to me) to give these people a piece of my mind and get things settled. As of Sept. 8th (after starting Aug. 6th), I thought I was done, and everything that needed to be covered was done. However, I just got a call from the repair place today (Oct. 3) telling me that they show me as having an outstanding balance of $125 for rentals that I was told by Carmax was paid in full on Sept. 8. Carmax used to be a quality facility with great used cars (my dad boght 2 vehicles from them, and never had problems), but ever since they switched suppliers and cut back on staff, they have become the biggest hassle, which no customer should have to endure.