CarMax — Local services in Merriam

I had planned on going to the Carmax by my house on Saturday to test drive a Gladiator and, if I liked it, have them send me the one I had picked out (crazy that I could do that).

On Friday someone gave me a call and asked if I wanted to set up an appointment. I told her my plan and she told me why they do appointments. I'm glad she called. There weren't any Gladiators at the one by my house but there were 2 at the one 20 miles away. I picked the black one and she locked it off so it couldn't be bought until after my test drive. I set up the appointment.

I got there and checked in. On time a guy showed up and introduced himself. I'm not gonna call him a salesmen becase he wasn't. He was more of a concierge. His name was Kyle Vaughn. There's NO sales pitch or anything because these people don't get paid a commission. His job was soley to take care of what I needed. I told him about the one I had picked out and he went to reserve it during my test drive. The test drive consisted of him handing me the keys and telling me he'd see me in 20 minutes. When I got back he told me that the one I wanted was already on it's way to Louisiana. The cool thing is... the one I just test drove was my second choice. I had gone back and forth over those 2 for over an hour. They would have shipped my Jeep to the Carmax by my house from anywhere in the country, but it was right here and I wouldn't have to wait at all.

So we went to his desk and started the buying process. I show him the screenshot of the offer they gave me on my car ('17 yellow Renegade w/ street package) and he verified the number and took the key. He showed me on his computer screen where to watch showing the inspection had been cleared and everything was approved. He took this time for a lunch break (perfect time for it). It was taking longer than expected for that status to change on the screen. He found out why. There were a few dents on the roof ridges where we had put the carry all bag when we went camping. They wanted to knock $600 off the offer. That plus the $1000 I still owed on the car would have put my monthly too high. Kyle went back and talked with them for a while. I knew they wanted my car. I had been getting letters for the past 2 years from dealerships offering to give me more than market value for it. He came back and said they were going to go ahead and give me the full $13K.

He brought up the paperwork on the computer and had me sign this pad. That would be the signature that got attatched to everything. He then waited patiently while I read through every page. When we were all done he walked me back to this lady who handled all the physical papers. She had me sign the title and other stuff that needed a real signature and explained what all I needed to do next because I bought a car in Kansas, but am regeistering it in Misourri.

He then walked me to where both vehicles were sitting so I could transfer all my stuff. That took... a while. I had a LOT of stuff in that car, 7 years worth. He handed me tote bags for everything and nobody rushed me. I was there until a little after they closed, but nobody rushed me. When I drove out of there I didn't even look at my other car. That's something I noticed later. 7 years of complete reliability. I can't find a single bad thing to say about that Renegade. I took it camping and it handled the terrain just as well as my buddy's full size truck. I put the computer controlled 4WD on Sand and smoked a Dodge Challenger in a 1/4 mile. It was a really good car but I never felt any sense of loss. I just drove out into the now empty parking lot in that Gladiator and took a picture to send to my friends. I pulled out toward home with a giant smile on my face.

I would highly recomend going to Carmax. Everything was just so much better there. The way they do things left me knowing what was going on and what to expect the whole way through. There was no psychological battle or haggling with a salesman. This is everything I want in...

The Kansas City, Carmax location is a hot mess - and for multiple reasons. If you try calling the business office, it will ring and ring and ring. NO ONE will answer the phone. And there’s no way to leave a voicemail. Not a shocker to see there are other customers who have experienced the exact same situation as myself. I bought my car on April 1st - I paid for the car in cash - and the temporary tags expired on May 31st. Around mid May, I started getting concerned because I had the license plate and the title in my hand, but had not received the registration sticker that goes on the license plate. I called the DMV, they explained the hold up was with Carmax - they supplied specific details of the dates they sent the invoice to Carmax along with the invoice number and dollar amount - they even said this is VERY typical of Carmax to not pay the invoices. After calling every day multiple times a day for two weeks and never getting a hold of someone in the business office, I was then forced to call the Customer Service department- only for Customer Service to have the same issue with no one answering the phone. Their only option was to send yet another email to the Business office, but still, no one called me back. I finally set up an appointment online and went up to the location to speak with someone in - person. As I approached the counter, I observed there were NO phones ringing, and none of employees were talking on the phone!!! They resorted to blaming everything on the DMV and stated they could not provide me any specific details on what was causing the hold up because their system does not have any information. Ha! They said I could get a loaner or I could just keep driving the car, and if I get pulled over and issued a ticket, they would pay for it. WHAT?!? Are they Out of their MINDS?!? Encouraging people to break the law as an alternative / interim solution because they failed to do their job?!? And that was just the beginning….it was constant lies the whole time about how this was out of their control and not their problem.. and they even went so far as to say that their manager did find an invoice with a totally different dollar amount than what the DMV had told me, and that she was going to pay it right then and there - on the spot with the corporate credit card and that I should receive my sticker within a week. Here I am - TWO weeks later- I’m still without the sticker - so I called the DMV again and they advised Carmax has STILL not paid the invoice!! They sent the invoice on May 5, then they sent another reminder on May 27, and then another reminder will be generated this evening 6/11. I ended up calling Carmax corporate and filing a complaint because this is absolute insanity, inexcusable and the worst business practice. Even if the corporate escalation process expedites my situation, the soonest I’ll get my sticker in the mail is between 2 to 3 weeks at this point. And that’s assuming the employees at their location promptly place the sticker in an envelope and mail it to me once they receive it. Meanwhile, I’ve got a beautiful Ford Mustang convertible sitting in the garage undrivable because Carmax hires incompetent staff that lie and the company fails to run an efficient / honest business....

Okay so I want to preface this review by saying that the process of buying a car here is FANTASTIC. I have 0 complaints when it comes to the process of buying a car. What I do have a complaint with is the experience I had with their service department. I purchased a car here about 2 months ago. It went great but I had two issues that needed to be fixed. The first one being the seat warmer on the driver side didn’t work. The second being there was a piece of fabric sticking out from the front windshield. I called ahead to make an appointment at 8am so that I had plenty of time for them to fix it and get to work that day. I dropped it off with a consultation named Kelli. At first she was very nice and helpful. She even offered me a free shuttle home so I didn’t have to wait in the lobby for hours. Before I left I asked her roughly how much time it would take for my car to be done and she said she’d give me a call when it’s ready and it should be around lunch time. So I was anticipating it being done around noon or 1. I got home and waited for a call but didn’t receive any. At about 1 o’clock I called Carmax to ask for an update on my car. Chris answered the phone and said that my car was ready but Kelli had to tell me a few things about my car and the issue I sent it in for. He said he’d tell Kelli to give me a call, which I believed... About another hour goes by and I still haven’t heard anything so I call again, Chris picks up again, I tell him Kelli never called me so he thankfully went and found her and handed her the phone. It got worse from there. She said she had tried to call me twice but I never got a single call from her. She then proceeded to tell me that while they were able to fix the fabric on the windshield they couldn’t fix my seat warmer because I had to take it to the dealership. So I waited 5 hours only for her to tell me they couldn’t help me. She did tell me I was good to come get my car so I asked her for a shuttle to Carmax, because they told me I’d get a ride back to Carmax to pick up my car. She said she’d call the shuttle and they’d be on their way soon. I asked if they would shoot me a text or call when they got to my house so I knew to go outside. She said “no, you should just keep an eye out for them and watch for the car to be in front of your place.” So I waited outside for 40 minutes and still no shuttle. So I called for A THIRD TIME and got Chris to answer. I explained to him that Kelli said she called for a shuttle to pick me up and asked for an update on that and he said that she didn’t and that my info wasn’t in the waiting list to be picked up by a shuttle. So thankfully because of him I finally got a Lyft back to Carmax to get my car and they did in fact send me a text when the ride got to my place to pick me up….. I grabbed my keys got into my car only to find they DIDNT fix the windshield problem…. So I had to go BACK inside and ask them to look at it once again. Before today I avidly referred people to Carmax but that is no more. I understand being busy and forgetting things but what happened today was bad…. None of the issues got fixed and Kelli was nothing close to helpful. The only person who actually helped me today was Chris so...