CarMax

Carmax is not all it's cracked up to be. I barely escaped being ripped off by them, as I returned a car I bought but hardly even got to drive.

My salesman was genuinely nice at first, helping me with the transfer of a car from another state. The car had been a rental, so I was a little sceptic, but they assured me the car was in great condition accept for a dent in the door and tear in the seat, which would be fixed at their cars go through a "125 point inspection".

Well, they didn't fix it. I went to see the car and there was so much *** wrong with it, but they assured me it could all be fixed. It was only physical flaws and it was used, so I told myself to get over it and decided to go ahead and buy the car. As soon as I left the lot, the brake light went out. The CD player stopped working 2 days later, and I took the car back to have everything fixed.

What was supposed to be a two-days-tops repair, turned in to over 7? They continuously lied to me about doing the repairs, and kept changing what they were actually working on and when it would be done. No one could give me a straight answer on the day it would be finished.

The day I finally was able to pick the car up, they got finished right at closing. They pulled it out into the service bay with overspray over the entire car, having just painted over the fender where they had fixed the dent. I then proceeded to tell them off, screaming why the [censored] hadn't been finished before then, and what the *** it took so long to do if they just finished with it that day.

I did get my transfer fee back, the only good thing that came out of it. And the fact that I found the same exact car for about $5, 000 less than theirs through a private party. Plus, the private party knew someone who bought a car through Carmax and was ripped off too!

I forgot to mention that they also ran my transfer fee through my bank account 3 times! They blamed this on a computer crash, but I should have known then to take my business elsewhere.

Carmax is a joke. They have a bunch of [censored] salesmen, with idiotic managers, and a worthless service department who don't know *** about cars. There was no way I wanted that car bad enough to go through with the sale after being treated the way I was, no one even saying they were sorry.

And to top it all off, the [censored]s don't even know I still am in their rental car they gave me while they were working on mine!

What a bunch of idiots. And the store I'm referring to is the one in Indianapolis, Indiana, but the store that originally had the car was in Fayetteville, North Carolina. They're all a bunch of [censored]es to me, either way.

Ok, seen reviews before I went there; many awfully bad, but I need to sell my truck so I can move. Well, went to the new location in Colorado Springs, everyone cool and all that crap. Till I came back from smoking.

These people have the nerve to tell me that a 42255 mile S10 2003, never crashed clean title, excellent mechanical condition, 2.2L, with 20" rims, and iPod connection has the value of 1700... WTF?! I’m not a crackhead.

And when I tried to get the "manager" to see the odometer, he just wouldn’t let me talk, and told me that if they buy my truck, they will put it for auction not the lot, hoping for someone to take it for the same 1700, right, and apparently I had a sign that said sucker. And this is the kicker, the test driver?, that dude need to get another profession because he seemed so confident on describing the aftermarket parts on my truck, he don’t know a stock shifter from a short shifter, and on their words "aftermarket stuff don’t matter...", right Sherlock. Since when, someone tell me, lowering a truck compromises the integrity of the vehicle? So apparently there’s an infinite amount of suspension companies that want to get sued... I would feel so much better if I could just punch that dude square on the face, how can you sleep at night being a liar of that level.

I know if I sold my truck, and while I was buying drugs [maybe I look like a junky] they would get all OEM parts install them in about 3-4 days and have a 10000 dollar truck, my truck as it is by KBB is 8600 and I noticed that most of the cars are "below" KBB but that’s because of so many suckers that keep going to this company. Regular dealerships are better, some haggle and pressure won’t kill you.

Bottom line, if you want to lose money big time selling your car, Carmax is the way to go, they will square you away.

We took my immaculate 2003 Ford F250 Diesel Crew Cab Pickup truck to get a "fair evaluation and a great price» for it. The pushy Asian kid talked our ears off with all of the "feel good" CarMax BS for a good 15 minutes before he finally took the keys and had his appraisal guy look it over. He drove it for 3 minutes, looked around it, and disappeared for 20 minutes.

Then Asian kid came back. (Keep in mind that this truck Blue Books for trade in value of $21, 000.00 low to $23, 000.00 high!) He held up the appraisal sheet showing $8, 000.00! We laughed and left. Took it across the street to Ken Grody Ford, where they bought it for $21, 500.00!

The cars we saw on the CarMax lot as we were looking around, cost more used that you can buy a new car for. Example, a Hyundai was 2 years old for $16, 788.00, Hyundai of Garden Grove has a new 2008 with all options for $15, 350.00! Avoid this place-rip off!

I bought a 2005 Audi S4 from the LAX location 4 weeks ago. After a week I noticed an odd noise coming from the steering on full lock. Call up CarMax and they say take it to any Audi dealer (I'm in SF) and they will fix it, CarMax will pay. Nope! My car has been at Audi for 2.5 weeks while CarMax pass me from one person to the other, don't return calls and generally try and bury their head in the sand. Even the "Executive help team" can't get the *** store manager to call me back! AVOID THESE MUPPETS AT ALL COSTS!

Buying a car from carmax was the worst of all my car purchasing experiences.

I came in January 5, 2008 and purchased a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee. We did a held-check for $6000 and financed the rest.

The salesmen, Eric, didn't seem very familiar with the ins and outs of finalizing a sale. He had to ask his sales manager almost step by step as he took my insurance information and did my held check. Once we finished paperwork and all of that, we walked out to get our new car that, according to Eric, would be "detailed" while we were finishing up papers. I even made the comment of "wow, detailed in 45 minutes...that's awesome!" He told me then that there were several guys that tackled it to get it done. The car was ran through the automatic carwash and the floors had been vacuumed. The inside windows and interior were smudged and it was obvious the car had not been detailed, nor even thoroughly cleaned. I figured if that was the best they could do, oh well, I was just excited and didn't want to wait around nor seem picky, although looking back I should have.

Eric never made a follow-up call after he claimed he would.

The real trouble began on January 8, when I went to give the title of my totaled car to the insurance company and they handed me an affidavit to give to the license bureau for proof of value of the old car. I called the business office at Carmax and told them that I wanted to self-register because I wouldn't have to pay so much sales tax and wanted my money back at time of registering. They said that was fine.

Around January 10, I received a call stating that the inspection they had performed on the car had expired and they would need me to go get it inspected at my cost, or drive 25 miles (one-way) to Carmax and they would perform one free of charge. Due to my busy schedule with work and school, I was unable to return the call immediately, but when I did on 14th, we couldn't make a quick appointment that worked out for both me and the service department. Keep in mind Carmax is thirty minutes out of my daily routine and that is one way.

Meanwhile, we had begun to notice a few things that were bothering us about the car. First of all, it vibrated very noticeably while stopped at a stop-light. If you were to put it in neutral, it would quit. Second, there was a noise coming from the front passenger wheel area--it sounded like a bad strut. Also, the car was out of alignment. I also noted on my letter to the service department that I would like for them to "detail" it as they said they were going to in the first place and had not done. I finally arranged to drop the car off on the evening of Thursday, January 24 because I couldn't afford to wait around for all of these things. I left a note with a list of things wrong and also a copy of my insurance card and tax receipt because they said EVEN THOUGH I was going to self-register, they needed those things when they took the information to the DMV for me.

Saturday, January 26, since all the things wrong with the Jeep would take a while, I came and got a loaner. I was very pleased with the fact that they loaned me another Jeep and I must say Teri, in the service department was a very good communicator, she called when she said she was going to, she kept me up on the service that was performed and she was very understanding when it was time for me to pick my Jeep up on January 31st and I had the flu and had to wait a day and a half later.

Since Carmax was supposed to be performing the inspection for the registration, I had called the last week of January to see what DMV they would be sending my papers to. On January 30, someone told me that they thought the paperwork had been sent to the KC DMV at 13th and Cherry. When I asked why, they said they try to get it to the one closest to the customer. The girl I talked to asked if I wanted her to call KC DMV and make sure the papers were there. She did and got no answer, so she asked me if I wanted to just keep trying myself. I told her that NO, so she said she would keep trying and call me back. No one ever called. So, when I picked the car up on February 2nd, I asked where my paperwork was. The girl told me Lee's Summit. I said okay and we were on our way home. Since it was Saturday, I couldn't do anything about it. So, we got in our dirty Jeep with brush marks from the carwash and left. As soon as my husband pressed on the brakes, a sound like metal on metal came. By this time, I am still sick with the flu and have no desire to mess with your company anymore that day. About 15 minutes later, I called and talked to Brandon and told him that Lee's Summit was really way out of my way. He said to call on Monday, that the papers weren't in Lee's Summit, they were at the KC location, and he would let me know for sure. I called on Monday, February 4--the day my temp tags expired. Brandon told me that the papers WERE at Lee's Summit and he was going to go get them THAT DAY and he would Fed-Ex them to the location of my choice, which was Gladstone. I called the Gladstone location twice on Tuesday and they said they had not received my papers yet. I called Brandon, who THEN put me on hold to check the tracking number on the Fed-Ex package. After a few minutes he got back on and asked why I had wanted to self-register and I told him that I had an affidavit that stated the value of my totaled vehicle and it was going to save me almost $500 at the time of registering. Well, he told me that APPARENTLY the license bureau had gone ahead and registered the car for me instead of letting me self-register. He said that I could just take all the stuff to the license bureau and put in for a refund. So, I just went and got the tags and paperwork and went to the bureau where the woman told me HAD I registered myself with the affidavit, I would have just received the refund then. Why didn't we deal with this at the time of signing the papers. Eric new that my old car was totaled and it was worth $6000.

Now that you have read this novel, you can begin to see what a time-consuming inconvenience this whole experience with Carmax has been---aside my dealing with Teri. I am going to make a copy of this letter and start with mailing it to the GM of the Independence Carmax. I hope something can be arranged to reimburse me for all the time and inconvenience that I have experienced.

Well I am quite disappointed with Carmax. The vehicle itself is fine, I have had if for a few years and running good. My complaint is with their crappy warranty that they like to reword. So as I said, have had the car for a few years and never had any warranty work done. I bought the car with 6k miles and purchased the extended 100k warranty just for peace of mind and security if the vehicle were to ever breakdown. The hack door latch on my ford explorer sport SUV broke. The lock mechanism failed and I couldn't get the back door open and my side power mirrors went out. Well I took it to a Ford dealership to get things fixed since I have moved a lot and not reasonably close to a carmax. Plus I wanted a reputable repair shop so the job would be done right. Well this all should have taken no longer than a day but Carmax wouldn't authorize the repair without sending and inspector to check the vehicle. I mean come on, this is a Ford dealer, why is it necessary to send out an inpector? Well that meant the car would have to stay over night and Ford told me that carmax said they would not authorize a rental without first authorizing the repair but the inspector had a 24 hour window and would not be there till sometime the next day. So I had to personally call Carmax warranty and ask what the problem was and was able to get a rental but the guy said he could only give me one day of rental. well I assumed one day would be fine but that wasn't the case. The inspector didn't come to 3pm on the second day and work could not be done on the vehicle till there was authorization so another day in the shop. Ford called carmax to get another day of rental and with much resistance they gave another day. Well the work was finally done on the third day and Ford called to say that carmax was not wanting to pay the bill and I would be responsible for the remainder. I am so pissed because I bought a large extended warranty and am only supposed to pay a $75 deductible out of network. Well I had to pay $100 more because Carmax was rewording they way the warranty read and something about their labor pay regulations. Anyway, to sum it all up DON'T BUY FROM CARMAX because if you need warranty work it's going to be a hassle and Carmax will screw you one way or another.

After seeing another complaint re Carmax Dulles, Va, I have to add my voice as a warning to others. Before my daughter went off to grad school in August 2007, we bought her a 2001 Nissan Xterra there, having bought MANY cars previously and happily from the Carmax at Laurel, MD. I quickly learned that not all Carmax sites are the same. Three days before she had to drive hundreds of miles alone, she called the NIssan national hotline and was informed that TWO SERIOUS recalls on this vehicle had not been done. We really had to scramble to get these done at another Nissan dealership before she left. And last week, she was stranded because the battery was dead--cable problems. And what did Carmax Dulles do when I called and spoke with several "higher ups?" They sent us two $25 service certificates. As if we would ever go back! Buyers beware!

My daughter wanted help buying a car so we went to carmax. The first car almost didn't make it home, after 4 times in the shop (They had it more than she did!) they said they couldn't fix it and wanted to trade her another car. Like fools we went for it. 9 months later when it's time to be inspected... we find out that it doesn't have a vin number on the dash! No inspection... can't drive it. Found out today that it is a REBUILT WRECK with a salvage title! They are offering her a chance to GIVE BACK the car and they will "Call it even!" Down payment gone... payments gone... and no car to drive. I don't THINK so!