I am posting this to warn people about National Auto Shopper. I believe they used deceptive and high-pressure sales tactics in an unsolicited call to sell a sub-standard service to me and my wife. If you are selling your car and these people call you, HANG UP ON THEM!
I would be very surprised if these people actually sold more than ten cars a year.
If anyone else has been ripped off by these clowns, PLEASE post your experience. I think a good ole class action lawsuit may be in order!
Below are details about the fraud:
Deceptive Sales Tactics/National Auto Shopper claimed that they had people waiting in line to buy our car. It has been about six weeks and we have not received a single call about our car. A single call! They made it sound like they would sell our car in no time at all. They set the price of our car well above realistic prices. The high price ties into how they make it nearly impossible to take advantage of the money back guarantee. I'll get into that later.
They claimed that the Yahoo! Auction they listed for me was a very popular way to sell cars. Our car has been on the auction site for weeks, and I have yet to get a single bid on it. In fact, National Auto Shopper has a negative feedback rating on that site!
Overstated Claims of Exposure/
National Auto Shopper grossly exaggerated the actual reach of their web site. I was told by someone claiming to be the vice-president (I don't remember his name) of the company that our car would reach many more potential customers than other automotive advertising sites. The reality of this is that nationalautoshopper.com hardly comes close to the traffic count enjoyed by A site which keeps track of such statistics reveals the following data:
nationalautoshopper.com - Ranked number 560,921 on the internet for traffic
Secondly, we were told that strategically placed links would be in search engines like google.com and would be used to draw customers to our car. These links do not show up in the search engine as they told me it would.
Money Back Guarantee/
My wife was told by a salesperson named Nina that if the car was not sold in thirty days, we would get our money back. My wife asked at least three times if we would get our money back if the car was not sold in thirty days, and Nina said yes.
The money back guarantee is completely rigged so that the customer will never get a refund. The salesperson has the customer quickly read through their ad agreement and click "Accept". They never verbally make sure that the customer understands how the agreement works. One might want to show this agreement to a lawyer befire agreeing. I wish we did. The salesperson never told her if we were lucky enough to qualify for a refund, it would still cost us a $99 administrative fee.
I have called Capital One Bank and two people I talked to in their loans department could not find any information about National Auto Shopper or verify a relationship in their records. They even searched by the zip code in which National Auto Shopper is located and still came up with no information. They also said, they have never heard of them and did not recognize their name.
Upon further scrutiny, I discovered that their relationship is nothing more than a link to the auto financing application on Capital One's web site.
It is obvious they lied about the relationship with the bank.
Did Not Respond To Request To Update Auction Advertisement/
I was promised that the eBay auction they listed for me, which really was a cut and paste of the text and pictures I sent them, by the so called vice president of the company. The auction was never updated as promised.
The quality of the auction was sub-standard compared to what could have been done with. It was hardly a custom ad like they promised. A third grader could have done better, in my opinion.
Reluctant To Change Price Of Our Car On Their Site/
Because I was not getting any results at the current price, I thought a price adjustment was in order. I called and spoke to Julia to have the price lowered on their web site and the customer service representative tried to talk me out of lowering it. I practically had to beg her to lower it. I finally got them to lower the price. I still have not received a single call. Not even a general question.
Did Not Disclose Process To Remove Car From Web Site/
After I realized that this service was not what it appeared, I called and told them I did not want our car on their site anymore. They told me that I must send a notarized letter via mail to them in order for them to take our car off of their web site. I believe they do this in order to discourage people from getting their car removed. It makes their site appear to have more cars available than are actually available. I see cars on that site that have been on there as longer than mine. Who know sif they are still available. If National Auto Shopper is the only advertising they are using, my guess would be yes!
Kicked Off Of The Nevada Better Business Bureau/
National Auto Shopper touted their good standing with the Nevada Better Business Bureau when selling their advertising. They pointed out the link to Nevada BBB on their site. Since our ad was listed, the BBB has received 22 complaints and an undisclosed number of negative comments about their business. They have recently been removed as a member by the BBB because of the number of complaints against them. Needless to say, the link to the BBB does not exist on their web site anymore. I have enclosed a print out of the BBB web page for reference.
I believe this is very telling of the business they are running. It is amazing that the state of Nevada allows this company to stay in business.
Suspected Relationship With Other Web Sites Of Same Nature/I will be filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission about this blatant scam. I will also be asking them to investigate the relationship between National Auto Shopper, (I received a call from them soliciting their service, but declined.
These three companies have eerily similar business models and web sites. All three businesses claim to have a relationship with Capital One Bank. They all claim to be able to supply shipping and warranty services. I have not looked into those yet, but I suspect it is about as concrete as the relationship between them and Capital One Bank. In other words, non-existent.
When I searched on google.com for National Auto Shopper, a sponsored link for One Stop Motors appears in the results. Interesting.
The most coincidental thing about these companies is that they are all within four miles of each other.
Douglas
Delanco, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail addressfrom this Report.