Inspect My Ride / Inspectmyride.com review: Horrible service 9

Just got one done because I was forced to do so through my financing service (roadloans)
If you can go see the car yourself the 'inspection' is completely worthless
If you can't - it's worth maybe 40 bucks, certainly not $179 I had to pay in order to purchase the vehicle I want.

I bought a car on Ebay with the same concerns as everyone else purchasing a car from the other side of the country. When talking with Ebay, they recommended using Inspect my Ride's 150 point inspection to make sure "nothing was wrong with the car." After reviewing the report not showing anything wrong with the car (poor or very poor rating) I felt confident. The car had over $2, 000 in repairs plus the worst rust on the bottom my mechanic had ever seen, not to mention getting half of the mileage it should which you could see just by turning on the car. After going through 2 weeks of calls with Inspect My Ride, they backed up their service saying they do not look at anything "mechanical or underneath the car" and refused to give me a refund. You will see on the report a "mechanical related" portion, but apparently that doesn't count. Basically they just took a bunch of pictures and drove it around the block. This service is advertised as a comprehensive inspection, which is under false pretenses. The worst customer service and company I have ever worked with. Do not use Inspect My Ride.

Photos were horrible... The inspection showed that all 4 tires were in great condition, and the vehicle was mechanically sound. The car arrived to me with steel belts showing on all 4 tires (inside edges) and a bad clutch. Unfortunately for me, the edge wear on the tires was indicitave of a suspension problem which has cost just under $5000 to repair on top of $1200 for new tires, and a $4500 clutch. When I made a complaint, they wouldn't even refund the $175 for the inspection saying that the inspector only has to walk around the car, and they don't require them to get down to look beneath the car so there isn't a way they could have seen the tire issue... WHAT?! This service is ABSOLUTELY worthless, in fact it is less than worthless, it is risky. I didn't throw away $175 for a useless service, I was comforted by a completely incompetent inspector to buy a vehicle which has cost me almost $11, 000 to get to the condition that the inspection said it was in.

### scammers, how they get the cake of charging 175 a pop is beyond me. these are entry level technicians that are worth no more that 10 bucks an hour

I had a pretty similar experience just this last week. (2/17/2013) The website says 12-48 hours for the report. I didn't receive anything for 4 days. By then I'd needed to inspect the car myself as the seller wasn't going to wait and pass up other buyers.
I finally received the report which was fairly accurate, but quite high level. However they failed to mention the front grill of the car was broken in. It wasn't minor, it was a hole I could fit my fist in.
The report was unfortunately useless as it took twice as long as quoted and well after I'd had to make a decision on the car. The site isn't a scam, they really do evaluate the car and they probably do their best, but had they been honest about taking 4 days or more I would not have purchased. It's really simple, and if you don't mind waiting you can get some high level info you'd have to spend time looking at yourself. $175 for some peace of mind on high level stuff is a bit high.

I was silly enough to believe the advertising "blurb" on the InspectMyRide.com website linked from a listing for a vehicle for sale on eBay that they offered a "150+ point comprehensive vehicle inspection"
Convinced by the fact that they were endorsed by eBay gave me the confidence to buy the car which was at a dealership in Houston TX (I'm in Chicago) and the dealer had a 100% feedback rating.
Now I think I have a reasonable grasp of the English language but to verify my interpretation of the word "comprehensive, I checked the Webster's Dictionary. It says:
Definition of COMPREHENSIVE
1: covering completely or broadly : inclusive
2: having or exhibiting wide mental grasp

I just had this company inspect a VW Golf TDI in Prescott, AZ. (I live in Albuquerque.) The inspection was done fairly promptly -- no complaints there. The report started off with basic information about the car including that the engine ran on gas when, in fact, I was interested in the car because it ran on diesel fuel. Then the report had an item that it did not have heated seats when it did. Above all, the inspector did not drive the car but had the dealer drive it. The report came back with perfect marks but I didn't want to trust it. (The dealer was unimpressed with the inspection, too, even with a rating that was favorable to his cause.) I called to complain and the person at the other end argued with me that the knobs in the photos that show seats with heat rising out of them did not control heating of the seats! What did they control? She did not know. Later, I paid a local garage to remake the inspection -- it was much cheaper and the inspection was much more thorough. Always seek out local garages first and don't go to InspectMyRide.

I ordered an inspection from inspect my ride last week and was pleased that the inspection was arranged and conducted within days. I was not very happy with the quality of the inspection report. The website says I would recevie 20+ high quality photos. Of the 53 I recevied with my report, there were 2 that I would consider high quality. It was a sunny day and nearly all exterior shots were either washed out or showed resolution beach marks in the paint that were not noted in the report so it was an obvious camera issue. It was noted that there were very poor ratings on interior panels and seats that were not photographed. Anything rated very poor ought to be photographed up close to show the wear. Had numerous interior and undercarriage shots that were completely washed out by the contrast from lighted areas to shaded areas. A simple adjustment to turn on the stupid flash would have corrected this. The range of quality ratings I got was either Yes or Very Poor, nothing in between. This appears to be a "safe" method of determining condition and not an actual rating of true condition when compared to a new vehicle. The descriptions of the flaws noted were cookie-cutter and probably selected from a checklist, not actual descriptions of blemishes. I had 6" long flaws that were obvious in the poor quality photos that were not noted and I had arrows pointing to things that could not be seen in the photos. There was no way to re-size the photos. There was no way to save the report to my computer. When I talked to customer service about all this, we reviewed the photos in detail and he confirmed what I was seeing is what he was seeing, he claimed that this was up to inspectmyride standars and offered no satisfaction of re-shooting or refund. Basically, I will have to fly to the seller's home to see this car before purchasing. This was a complete waste of $130. Someone please become a competent competitor as this is a great idea with poor exectution. I would never order this again and will certainley be complaining to e-Bay about promoting this incompetence.

Dear Mikey203:

We are very sorry to hear you were not pleased with your InspectMyRide experience. We would very much like to investigate the situation. Please send your inspection ID and contact information to help@inspectmyride.com so we can address your concern in a timely manner.

Genie White
Marketing Manager
InpsectMyRide.com