This is a letter I’ve mailed to CarMax Corporate Headquarters.
To whom it may concern,
I have purchase and sold four cars through CarMax. Up until recently I have been happy with my CarMax experience and have recommended them to friends. Unfortunately, I won’t be recommending CarMax in the future and I will be taking my business elsewhere.
Most recently, I purchased a 2007 Jeep Liberty at CarMax in White Marsh, MD.
CarMax
10201 Philadelphia Road
White Marsh, Maryland 21162
Along with the car, I purchased the MaxCare Extended Service Plan. I purchased this plan so that everything would be covered while I owned this vehicle. The plan gives me the peace of mind that if something on my car fails, the dealership where I bought it will fix it at no further cost to me. Apparently, this is not the case and depending on the level of competency of the dealership, they will advise customers to go elsewhere. This is unacceptable and clearly a management problem at the dealership in White Marsh.
The rear driver’s side window in my 2007 Jeep Liberty failed to close. Great news, that’s covered by MaxCare. http://www.carmax.com/enus/maxcare/default.html
From the plan:
Electrical – Alternator, voltage regulator, distributor cap, rear window defroster, speedometer cable, head lamp relay assembly, horn relay, ignition relay, head lamp dimmer relay assembly, interlock emergency switch, fuse block, flasher unit and relay, seat belt warning timer, retractable head lamp motor assembly, wiper arm, rear wiper arm, reverse lamp assembly, clock, windshield wiper motors and delay controller, wiper washer tanks (front/rear), starter motor and drive, starter solenoid, wiring harnesses, manually operated switches (such as turn signal, headlight, dimmer, and wiper switches), and mechanically actuated switches (ignition, brake light, and neutral safety switch), cruise control system, power seat motor(s) and transmission(s), power window motor(s) and power regulator(s), power door lock actuators, power trunk release actuator, and power antenna motor.
I called the service department and explained the issue to the dealer and set up an appointment to have the car repaired. When I arrived for my appointment I was informed it would take 90 minutes to evaluate the problem and then they would have to order parts, so the car would not be ready until that afternoon. First, if the minimum service visit is 90 minutes, tell me on the phone. Scheduling an appointment time tells me that at that exact time you are going to look at my car and give me information on how long it will take to fix. This “evaluation” should be no longer than 30 minutes. If it takes longer than that, pretend that my time is valuable and you care about your customers and let me know ahead of time. As I was scheduling a rental car, a CarMax White Marsh employee advised me that the window was covered by a recall from GM, but CarMax was having problems getting MaxCare to cover the costs. He then told me to take my car TO ANOTHER DEALERSHIP because they were able to do the warranty work with no issue. CarMax was so helpful, they TAPED the window closed with painters tape and sent me on my way.
Why did I buy a car from a dealership that can’t handle warranty or recall work? Why did I buy a service plan that even CarMax can’t seem to work with? This excuse about having trouble getting paid for warranty work reeks of a company that is too lazy to put in the effort involved to get reimbursed. I know that warranty work is a pain to get money for, the dealer has to do extra work and they are out the money immediately, because the customer doesn’t have to pay. I don’t care, I paid to specifically avoid that nightmare.
I don’t know what guidelines are used to evaluate customer satisfaction, but I will use the grading scale that all school children understand. I give CarMax in White Marsh an F. I didn’t pay extra for the MaxCare plan, to be told that the dealership has trouble getting them to pay for warranty work. I paid to avoid hassles and headaches and wasting my valuable time.
I’m not going to sit on hold waiting for a customer representative to apologize. I’m just not going to patronize the White Marsh CarMax again. I’m going to tell everyone I know that CarMax can’t support their own service plans and that they are better off dealing with another dealer. I’ll probably be selling this car that needs warranty work back to CarMax so they can fix it at their time and expense. Then I’ll stroll down to the Toyota dealer and buy reliable car from a dealer that can handle fixing it if it breaks.
So CarMax, if you want my business, it’s going to take a lot of ass kissing. I don’t get angry easily, but wasting my time is a sure way to piss me off.