Complaint Review: CarMax Superstore - Tinely Park Illinois

I understand how you feel.  But a couple of questions.  It is my understanding that you got an extended warranty, so it does not makes sense to me that you were not taken care of.  CarMax has one of the best reputations out there if they did something wrong they would make it right.  If the warranty expired but they did work that caused the fire they would be liable for a certain amount of time.  If you only got a powertrain warranty which it sounds like you did then your stuck and it really is not CarMax fault they can not predict if a car would start on fire 5 months after you bought it.  If you want a car,  problem free you get a new car.  Getting a 5 year old car you need to make sure the car is eligible to buy a warranty that covers everything but normal wear and tear and maintenance.  If your car had too many miles for this type of warranty or if you chose not to buy it then it really was a poor decision on your part and not CarMax.  You can not blame a company on a used car unless you have a full warranty and they refuse to honor the warranty.  Used means Used.

If you bought a car brand new and five years later sold it to someone on the street and 5 months later it caught fire, you would never give their money back or feel liable for it.

"The engine was on fire under the right front tire, and we called the fire department. It turned out CarMax had left something under the engine that melted wires and caused the fire. But they wont admit they did anything wrong." That is because they didn't do anything wrong. I hate to say it but because parts of your story are so obviously fabricated or exaggerated I have to count the entire thing as false. There is no engine under the tire, that is called the ground. and I'm not trying to argue semantics with you, but quite simply... How do you leave something under the engine that is going to melt wires and cause a fire? if the wires were melted then it was something hot, therefor the item most definitly caused the fire not the wires. How did you figure this out? The wires would have been melted in a fire anyways. Was it a blowtorch? No, couldn't have been anything, know why? Because you cant leave something under an engine...in that area you have more ground. It would have just laid on the ground in the Carmax service bay. I'm not trying to blast you here buddy, but Carmax is a decent company. Sure they get complaints. They serve millions of people there are bound to be some unhappy customers. That is the world we live in. They have it hard enough being in the used car business without having people flat out making up stories about them to drag their name through the mud. And no I do not work for Carmax. I'm a bartender, I just hate liars

i have been through this before sold a car, dealer claims its ALL GOOD 3 weeks later lost reverse he welched on warranty.. in some states it is a crime to sell a knowingly defective vehicle (lemmon) recommend to ALL who read this to get a carfax sure its expensive but not as expensive as buying a wreck...there WILL be history if it is a used car if not it had better be new..otherwise RUN..

You took the car in for service in October 2004. The car caught fire in March 2005. And the reason is because Carmax "left something under the engine"? Maybe I'm just not very smart, but I'm having a hard time connecting the dots here. The only possible way to win a case in court is for you to have documented evidence that Carmax did something negligent that caused your car to catch on fire. And it's going to be pretty darn hard to do that; if they worked on your car in October and your car caught on fire in March....5 months later. I would sit down with an attorney and provide them with all your documentation, but I have to say...I doubt this is going anywhere. My wife is an attorney, and she gets phone calls all the time from folks that want to "sue the pants off" car dealers. Then when they find out that she actually charges real american dollars for her services, with no guarantee that they will be successful...all of the sudden they change their minds. I wish you luck, but I hope you have a mountain of documentation to back up your claims.

if i were you I would file a "consumer fraud complaint" by the cook county states attorney consumer fraud division(could be filed in markham courthouse possibly)and they should be able to help you(probably more than anyone else)I think after that theres a good chance they wont be screwing you around anymore with that "kind" of pressure on their a**es.its the cheapest way to go/ to my knowledge anyway.whatever you do,do not let these b**tards get away with this,these people have been screwing hard working americans(like you and me and others) for a long time.its time to put a size 12(sideways) in their jimmy hoffa a**es!!!!!!!!!!

Another route you can take is getting local media involved, like the investigative reports that are done on Fox, Cbs, etc... you can e-mail the investigative reporter and/or snail mail them then follow up any letters with phone calls a week later if no response just to let them know you are serious. I would include a print out of some of the stories here and pics of your car if you have them. I had luck doing this in the past, just be the gnat that doesn't go away. I would also send a copy of your situation to your State represenitive and/or the States Attorneys office ( I had Lisa Madigans office get back to me in less than a week after I e-mailed them with a complaint last fall). Plus I would watch out for class action law suits as usually the only person to make out financialy is the lawyer when all is said and done.( I have been involved in 3 and I didn't even make the amount I was cheated on after lawyer fees and division of moneys won) If you need legal help try the Chicago bar association, or the American Bar association they may be able to help with not only info but also low cost lawyers. I would start with the news first as you are more likely to get faster results than legal routes. Good Luck, I know I will not go to Car Max when I go this week to replace my car. Hope this info helps out and I'll pass the word on. Peace

Another route you can take is getting local media involved, like the investigative reports that are done on Fox, Cbs, etc... you can e-mail the investigative reporter and/or snail mail them then follow up any letters with phone calls a week later if no response just to let them know you are serious. I would include a print out of some of the stories here and pics of your car if you have them. I had luck doing this in the past, just be the gnat that doesn't go away. I would also send a copy of your situation to your State represenitive and/or the States Attorneys office ( I had Lisa Madigans office get back to me in less than a week after I e-mailed them with a complaint last fall). Plus I would watch out for class action law suits as usually the only person to make out financialy is the lawyer when all is said and done.( I have been involved in 3 and I didn't even make the amount I was cheated on after lawyer fees and division of moneys won) If you need legal help try the Chicago bar association, or the American Bar association they may be able to help with not only info but also low cost lawyers. I would start with the news first as you are more likely to get faster results than legal routes. Good Luck, I know I will not go to Car Max when I go this week to replace my car. Hope this info helps out and I'll pass the word on. Peace

Another route you can take is getting local media involved, like the investigative reports that are done on Fox, Cbs, etc... you can e-mail the investigative reporter and/or snail mail them then follow up any letters with phone calls a week later if no response just to let them know you are serious. I would include a print out of some of the stories here and pics of your car if you have them. I had luck doing this in the past, just be the gnat that doesn't go away. I would also send a copy of your situation to your State represenitive and/or the States Attorneys office ( I had Lisa Madigans office get back to me in less than a week after I e-mailed them with a complaint last fall). Plus I would watch out for class action law suits as usually the only person to make out financialy is the lawyer when all is said and done.( I have been involved in 3 and I didn't even make the amount I was cheated on after lawyer fees and division of moneys won) If you need legal help try the Chicago bar association, or the American Bar association they may be able to help with not only info but also low cost lawyers. I would start with the news first as you are more likely to get faster results than legal routes. Good Luck, I know I will not go to Car Max when I go this week to replace my car. Hope this info helps out and I'll pass the word on. Peace

Another route you can take is getting local media involved, like the investigative reports that are done on Fox, Cbs, etc... you can e-mail the investigative reporter and/or snail mail them then follow up any letters with phone calls a week later if no response just to let them know you are serious. I would include a print out of some of the stories here and pics of your car if you have them. I had luck doing this in the past, just be the gnat that doesn't go away. I would also send a copy of your situation to your State represenitive and/or the States Attorneys office ( I had Lisa Madigans office get back to me in less than a week after I e-mailed them with a complaint last fall). Plus I would watch out for class action law suits as usually the only person to make out financialy is the lawyer when all is said and done.( I have been involved in 3 and I didn't even make the amount I was cheated on after lawyer fees and division of moneys won) If you need legal help try the Chicago bar association, or the American Bar association they may be able to help with not only info but also low cost lawyers. I would start with the news first as you are more likely to get faster results than legal routes. Good Luck, I know I will not go to Car Max when I go this week to replace my car. Hope this info helps out and I'll pass the word on. Peace

You know why they haven't responded? Because they wait and wait and wait hoping the consumer will just give up which 9 times out of 10, they do. DON'T BE ONE OF THOSE 9!! Take action. When sending them complaints...do it by certified mail! E-mails get "lost" so easily. Find and KEEP all of your records, police reports from the fire, EVERYTHING! Find you a reputable lawyer and take their asses to court! You may win, you may not but if you personally don't win, you will be winning for someone else. Their names will be drug all through the mud and their so called 120-point inspection. A friend of mine bought a car from carmax, got riped off by the financing and the car is a piece of crap! I will NEVER step foot in there just from the horrible attitude I got from a male salesmen that didn't take me seriously. Surprisingly that happens a lot to females buying cars, I've done little experiments on it and got treated a LOT better when I was wearing a fake diamond that stated I had a man standing behind me so you better be nice. Honestly, that was the first comment the salesmen made was about my ring.... STAND UP and take action! Hope it works out for you!! :)

Hey, so far I have written the corporate office of CarMax by e-mail but no response(im not too suprised) and Ive made a site about my experience, youre right the more people who know the better my chances of them listening, I really want to get them to give me a new car

Hey, so far I have written the corporate office of CarMax by e-mail but no response(im not too suprised) and Ive made a site about my experience, youre right the more people who know the better my chances of them listening, I really want to get them to give me a new car

Hey, so far I have written the corporate office of CarMax by e-mail but no response(im not too suprised) and Ive made a site about my experience, youre right the more people who know the better my chances of them listening, I really want to get them to give me a new car

When you place your complaint on this site, it gets seen by many, many people on the internet. Who wants a car that catches on fire? The hell with that! Honey, come here and look at this. This guy on here bought a car from carmax and it caught on fire. Wasn't that the lot where we went to look at the Navigator? The white one, remember? No s**t, yeah. Christ, I almost bought that too. What site is this, ripoffreport? I never saw this before. Wait a minute, look at this. Click where it says to see all the other Rip Off reports on carmax. See what else is on here. Holy s**t, 62 other complaints. Wait, let me sit down here and take a look at some of these. I told Joe at work about carmax. His wife's due in another month, and they'll need something bigger with a place for the baby seat. See, that's how the whole problem starts. Many thousands of readers hear about your car fire and almost all of them decide to pass on carmax. Just to be on the safe side, you know. Because of the children. Right now, a carmax ripoff report is on the google first page. That's saying one hell of a lot because carmax has a lot of action going on the internet. Even internet users who have never read anything about ripoffreports will see the complaint. Hell, how are you gonna miss this? Rip Off Report: Carmax Certified Quality Inspection False ... Now, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that people coming on here and saying things like that can't be good for your business. I know what I'd do if I was mr carmax. I'd get the hell on the horn and make sure that Gordon got another car. That's what I'd do. This time, make sure he gets one that doesn't burn up. Cars catching on fire? Complaints all over the internet? How the hell can I run a business like this? You know, it's always something. Here I am trying to get people to go online and buy cars and this customer is telling everyone that his burnt the hell up. Somebody's gonna get their a*s fired over this, I'll tell you that. I have to do every d**n thing myself, or else it doesn't get done. Son-of-a-b***h! That's what mr carmax has to be thinking. Gordon, what you need to do is make sure the right people at carmax central see your complaint and understand that tons of other people can see it now too. That's what the revenge guide is all about. It shows you how to leverage your complaint into a force that's something they will have to reckon with. You know, I think things will turn around for you in the near future. With your next car, let me make this simple precautionary suggestion. Fire extinguisher. That's a round red thing that. Well, just go down to the home depot and tell the guy in the isle that carmax sent you. Once you tell them that, they'll know exactly who you are and what you need. Get the book. Follow the destructions. Then, come back and let the readers here know how things are going. Update. That keeps your complaint in the new ones that people read each day. Good luck!