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Smart Shopper Carmax - What's Your Experience?
763 messages, Last post on Nov 14, 2009 at 11:37 AM
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I also gotten valuable advice during my 2nd sale. I think this advice has been one of the most important I've learned so far in my 24 year old life. The sales consultant says to me not in these words but same idea; "I've seen two different types of customers. The conservative, who only buys what they need. Then I see a customer who buys what they want so they can have fun. Makes me realize you should live and enjoy life. Enjoy what you earn; one day you'll wake up and its your last day." Being in my car allows me to have freedom. I can turn off the radio, blast the radio, turn left, turn right, keep going straight, speed up to 75, have windows down or have AC on. There's nothing in this world that gives you that many options.  My fun!
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Replying to: andeet (Jul 05, 2008 11:02 pm) Yeah, that's a good line for a sales person - especially to use on a young person like yourself. It plays on your emotions. This isn't always the best financial advice.
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Replying to: 1racefan (Jul 08, 2008 5:32 am) I was making $8.00s hour when I bought my first financed car. Second deal, I was $15.00 hour. She told me I could buy Tahoe but I said "No. I rather buy 4Runner if I went that route." She gave me look. Few weeks, I'm getting promotion and could easily make $19.00-20.00 hour. Will I go back and trade in my Scion tC...Nope. I rather buy a house or second car. My theory is she lecture me about wanting to buy a Scion. When I could afford something more like a Lexus. But I came with a game plan. Researched how negative equity works with a new loan. Knew the future total payoff before signing the papers. I could of went to the town's Mitsubishi dealership and gotten a EVO. But I didn't...I played it safe. Got a better car for little more without putting huge dent into my wallet. I wished I would of waited another month when I received my end of the year bonus' and walked in with $3k not $1k. I had crappy birthday that week and knew buying my possible car dream would make it better. It did. |
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Replying to: davidgrace73 (Jan 26, 2008 1:42 am) Thats why everyone goes to Best Buy now. Their menatility on how to pay and treat sales people carries on in CarMax. " Dave Great info Dave. From the looks of it they want people with little to no skill selling their vehicles. Seems to be the trend nowadays. The dearlership I work for is doing the same thing. The "recondition" the used cars and "spend" a couple of thousand so the actual gross on the vehicle is minimal so the salesperson ends up with a minimum commission deal. All these dealers are just a bunch of greedy, money grubbing, scum. I won't buy anything from Circuit city since they pulled that crap with their seasoned sales staff. I hardly ever go to Best Buy either. If I need some computer stuff, ink, paper, etc. I go to Wally world, they are cheaper than anybody else and carry the name brands I'm looking for.  Mack
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Replying to: mackabee (Jul 08, 2008 2:48 pm) First all, I used my xA as dog transporter too. I had a dog cage in the back. So which means I had tons of dog fur. I remember vaccum out the car for about hour and half spent about $6.00s and the fur was still in it hours before selling it. Guess what? That same dog fur was on the seats, on carpeting. The only thing they have done was take out the small door ding. Nice to know that I reconditioned the car for them...maybe I should walk up in there and ask for my hourly rate for detailing it for them LOL $15.00 hour- 3 hours=$45.00 please? |
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Replying to: mackabee (Jul 08, 2008 2:48 pm) Glad to see you write that... british rover does't think dealerships do the above. Tack on another $399 dealers fee, that is pre-printed onto the contract, and you're lookig at even less of a commission for the salesperson. If I had money to burn Carmax would be a great place to buy a car. But then again, if I had money to burn I wouldn't be buying "pre-owned".
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Replying to: jipster (Jul 09, 2008 5:20 am) I had five credit cards with lots of debt about 4k worth. Three of them are paid off; two of have total $600.00. My lovely big sissy helped me out cause she got very worried almost to a point she couldn't sleep. I let her help out. I've never felt like a different person for the good in a VERY long time. ----------------------- Anyway, its funny how people here were talking about Carmax and Circuit City. My Circuit City is next door to Best Buy. So if Best Buy doesn't have what I'm looking for...I'll go to Circuit City. If you go to Circuit City then a Carmax. You'll see they both wear the required brown shoes and belt. Even if you're not buying anything; they both say "Have nice day" as you walk out. For those who didn't know...back in '02, Carmax separated from Circuit City. Carmax stock is 13.58 while Circuit City's is 2.34. I read somewhere about few weeks ago stating Circuit City is going under? Another thing, when I was looking up stock quotes. There was Car-Mart popping up in Carmax news. I went onto their site just wondering. Are they owned by Wal-Mart? One thing that made me laugh out loud is you can trade in anything including farm animals. LOL Or they associates wear jeans. You think they allow them to wear cowboy hats with cowboy boots with spurs too? LOL What's next? Car-Store? A urban, "ghetto" based company that sells cars that "fell off the truck"? LOL I think I'm going little too far. I think I'll shut up now. |
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I've done my research about Toyota engines and Engine Sludge. For the past three oil changes I've used K&N filters. Last change I found two tiny oil clumps coming out from the drain plug. I guess Toyota has produced better oil filters since the whole famous "Camry & Engine Sluge" problem. I noticed how better quality Toyota filters are that I decided on going back with them. So I went back to Carmax wanting to buy few...one of the sales consultants stops me and asked "You hit 100k yet?" I looked around seeing the whole sales department standing around waiting for customers. "Yeah I did. Now I'm at 102k." I never felt so embarrassed and proud at the same time specially since my tC's consultant happened to be there too but I didn't know. I knew it would give her opportunity to give me crap about it. I'm shocked she didn't take me out back and yelled at me. lol He was saying "I bet its still worth alot." Then another consultant said "I would like to see that offer?" Now they are making me wonder LOL |
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As a CarMax "sales consultant" for almost 4 years, I can tell you plainly that CarMax has an insidious side to it that differs substancially from the "wonderful alternative to the lying bastards that work across the street schlocking used cars." There are many salespeople at CarMax that are very sucessful at being lying bastards as well and they get promoted quickly because they help make budget (quota) for their managers. Managers get the majority of their pay from pushing the salespeople to make budget, and sometimes this gets dicey for the customer. I know of many instances of salespeople straight lying on credit applications for customers in the hopes of getting CarMax Auto Finance acceptance (CAF) because there is no verification of income needed if approved. What this does is get a customer into a car that they really cannot afford and probably will result in a repo on their record that will screw them up when they try to get another car note. In the nearly 4 years that I spent at CarMax in South Texas, I have noticed a huge difference in quality of car reconditioning. When I first started, the cars as a whole, looked great and ran great and generally had no issues with a sale. This quality deteriorated noticably as the standards began to be lowered. Scratches and nicks were now "to CarMax standard." Toward the end of my job there, I rarely sold a car that did not have to have me quickly drive it back to the service area and find a mechanic to fix one or more problems. The service manager, under pressure constraints to keep costs down, did the absolute minimum amount of work needed to get the car out the door. We, as salespeople, just hoped that the quick fix would hold up for at least 5 days, as that was the length of time the customer could return the car for a complete refund. I had so many customers complaining about major problems within the first month, that it became a ususal part of doing business. If it occurred after 5 days, we breathed a sigh of relief that the 150 dollars would not be taken away from our paychecks! We just had to refer them to the service area and throw them the problems. We would get so many complaints about our service operation! From downright abuse to customers with an attitude of "I'll get to it when I feel like it" to lying about both the problem with the car and the solution. The service writers would be trying to find a way of making the car problem one that would either void the warranty or be something that wasn't covered so they could get paid at a higher rate than the warranty company would pay. Sales consultants that were new "on the floor" would be easy cannon fodder for the experienced salespeople who would regularly "snake their deals" because they knew the system and its shortcomings. That is one reason why CarMax is always hiring new sales consultants. The drop out rate is astonishing. They would hire 20 people in a month and within the next quarter, maybe 3 or 4 people would still be there. It was usually the ones that could not find employment elsewhere! The standards for employment were lowered as well and it was noticable to anyone who had been there for a while. I was lucky to have made it to the top level, the President's Club where I would make an extra 25 dollars on a deal 25 dollars on a warranty. Not a lot of extra considering the amount of time and effort it took to get there. It required a consistance sales of 15 cars per month. Normally a salesperson was expected to sell 10 cars per month. The only way I really made any money was pushing that warranty! It would double my money on a deal. In may ways, that warranty was pure profit as was so easily voided if the customer didn't read the fine print! By the way the reason I don't work at CarMax anymore is that I was caught by the "CarMax Internet Police," a group within CarMax headquarters that scours the Internet for any mention of CarMax by current employees. I had a blog of my adventures in Texas for my relatives on the west coast and was boasting of how I was doing at my job. Well the CarMax Internet Police contacted my dealership and, even with being the top in sales consistantly, was fired on the spot. It is very interesting that a company as large as CarMax, ranked 367 on Forture 500, is so totally paranoid about its image. That is a little insight about my adventures with CarMax. In summary, let me point out some Ture Facts about CarMax: 1. the cars are overpriced as a rule of thumb - (when trying to get independant financing, customers get that fact from their banks, "the car doesn't book out!" 2. CarMax has the lowest sales commission in the auto business yet has revenues of over 100 million annually. 3. Reconditioning of cars is all about the shine and not the mechanicals. The standards for cosmetics is much more stringent than the mechanical aspects. 4. 80 per cent of my work was preping for appraisals. People would come in for the free appraisal and have a number in their heads and our job was to "downgrade that idea with some reality" and "be realistic with their car" by going out to the parking lot and pointing out scratches and dings and obvious shortcomings with the car to degrade their idea of the value of their car. IF CarMax bought the car, we as salespeople would make 50 bucks so it was in our best interest to push down the value as much as we possibly could. I remember having a customer bringing in a almost new Honda s2000 with only 3000 miles, beautiful and perfect. He was going through a divorce and needed to sell it that week before the lawyers had a chance at making it an asset of the marriage. Low book was $22000 and we offered him $18000 and, with a lot of regret, agreed to sell it. He losk about $8000 on that deal. The car didn't even go through reconditioning and was for sale on our lot for $29998 the next day! 5.The more cars you sell, the more evil you can get away with (at the dealer level). We had a top seller that has sexual harrassment claims against him time and time again and those problems just "went away" because he was helping to make budget (quota). 6. Never go to CarMax to get your car serviced if you can possibly avoid it. They promise the world and find new and creative ways of making you wait and wait for the service to be completed and/or done correctly. My dealership went through so many service writers that it made your head spin! 7.If your in the market for a late model Honda or Toyota, know the retail blue book and the price of competitors that are selling them new with all the discounts that other dealers offer. I lost many deals when a customer bought a almost new Toyota or Honda for more money than they could have bought new. One example is a 1 year old Corolla S model (normally with alloy wheels) but we took alloys off and put 5 dollar hubcaps on it. I sold it for 1500 more than they were selling for new across the street (with alloy wheels). Custome |
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