CarMax – Just Another Dealership?
This post is about the recent experience my wife and I have had at the CarMax on Eastchase in Arlington/Ft. Worth. The names and facts have NOT been changes to allow throwing stones at the guilty.
This story started end of March. March 27th, 2009. A few days before our old ’89 Buick Skylark bit the dust. Brakes failed, stearing became a problem, and the oncoming traffic didn’t help matters either. We looked around online at CarMax and a few other local dealerships wanting to stay below the $10k mark. Their site made it easy to search about the 5 or 6 dealerships within a 300 mile radius. That being said, they had about 15 cars below that mark. All and all, we settled on a 99 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport. As an added bonus, it only had 63k miles on. A 99 with 63k miles, for $8200, would you turn that down?
The following week, we sold the Buick to them. Got $100 for it. Double what I was expecting. So far at this point, it has been a good experience. Bill Dearman (the sales rep that helped us) was curtious the entire time and let us take our time. He earned our repeat business AND my recommendation. Both things I don’t take lightly.
Well, fast forward about 33 days. Fuel pump goes out. I’m no machanic, but for a 10 year old car, the fuel pump probably should have been replaced just due to old age. At least those are my thoughts. I call up Bill and asked his opinion. He said to call the service center and ask up the chain until I got the top dog or the answer I wanted. That was my first mistake, I should have listend and done just that. Instead, I called one, and the rep on the other end (don’t recall the name), was very rude about the 30 day warrenty. I understand that 30 days was it and they have no obligation to do anything after that period. But in the same token, this is a major repair shortly after warrenty period. It’s just good customer service to take care of. Now, 10 days? 15 days? 30 days after expiry, I wouldn’t have even bothered to try to get it for free or even discounted.
I made a few complaints on Twitter about the bill we got from Pepboys ($730). That was my second mistake, I took it to Pepboys. They insisted that more work needed to be done than was required. Some services they were suggesting were completed not but 2k miles before. On top of that, had I just went back to CarMax anyways, even paying for it, would have saved between $200 and $300 off the repair! Well, @CarMaxChris spoke up and suggested I call the Customer Service Center (Executive Response Team) to see if they can fix this.
Called them and spoke with a women named Paige. She asked for some details about what happened and said she’ll make a call to the same store and see what the Service Manager could do (His name was also Bill. Don’t ask for his last name because frankly, I’d buther it). He called about 5 mins later and asked a few more questions. By the time he called though, the tank was already dropped at Pepboys so he couldn’t tow it over. When all was said and done, he confirmed what Bill Dearman said. Had I gone straight to him in the first place, it would have been towed and repaired at no cost. 30 Days is the rule, but most are handled on a case by case basis. In cases like mine, they let it slide. It was just a few days out of warrenty and good customer service to just do it.
Needless to say, they have earned a repeat customer.