I was worried about using this company after seeing the reviews here. However, when you look a…read morelittle deeper at the company, you will see that they have an excellent rating (A+) with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and actually resolve disputes effectively. I trusted the reviews with BBB over the Yelp complaints. Of course, I was still nervous the entire time.
For the long story that follows, the entire process from start to finish was 1 week and 3 days. It would have only been a week to receive my wired funds, but I had to work late one day and couldn't get to FedEx. I am extremely happy with CarBuyerUSA. Lastly before my story, this company is very detailed oriented. Since one of their representatives is a retired police officer, another positive, we actually discussed a featured story on the news about how CarBuyerUSA discovered and broke-up a sophisticated crime syndicate. This helped me appreciate their processes better.
Here we go:
My only experience selling a car with one of these services was through Carvana just as the pandemic hit and before Carvana started having significant problems. Carvana made it simple...enter VIN, get a price and take the vehicle to a drop off location. They didn't even test drive the car! There is no wonder that so many people ended up with lemons through Carvana, but I digress.
This time, I collected offers from Carvana, Vroom, CarMax, Driveway, and CarBuyerUSA. Oh...I was selling a 2019 Tesla Model 3 (calm down Tesla haters; I didn't send gas prices above $5/gallon). In order of lowest to highest offer (difference from max), CarMax ($6700 difference), Carvana ($4500), Vroom ($2700), Driveway ($1000), and CarBuyerUSA (max). So to lower my risk, I worked with the top three (3) simultaneous. I took this path, actually, because people made it clear that the offer price changes. CarBuyerUSA, Driveway, and also WeBuyAnyCar (too complicated and did not pursue) make it clear that they are showing you the maximum amount until they have reviewed your vehicle to their satisfaction. I didn't like it, but this is actually normal for a typical trade.
CarMax did look at my car briefly (10 mins) and had a super low price which is normal for them now. Vroom and Carvana did nothing to inspect the car except a few pictures. Both Vroom and Carvana are well-oiled machines and were ready to move on their offers quickly. In fact, I actually felt too much pressure from them, and this practice is probably part of their business model to get sellers to pull the trigger quickly. Because Vroom and Carvana are known commodities with all of their advertising, I would have gone with them had their offers been competitive.
Back to the story, I did all paperwork and uploads for Vroom, Driveway, and CarBuyerUSA. Vroom had power of attorney documentation ready within 48 hours. It was very fast, but I kept them at arms length. I was trusting that CarBuyerUSA would not screw me over.
Driveway required a virtual tour of the car and tons of pictures. Their representatives were very friendly. However, there were times when I felt like I didn't know where I was in the process with Driveway. They were responsive to text messages and phone calls. After the virtual tour, they were satisfied with the my vehicle and did not lower their offer. They shipped the documentation to me, and I only had to complete and return the title. I sat on this to finish with CarBuyerUSA.
CarBuyerUSA sent a representative to my home very quickly after the offer. I received the offer on a Saturday night and someone came to my home on Tuesday. The inspector from 360 was extremely thorough and spent an hour looking for any and everything wrong with my 3 year old vehicle. This was annoying compared to Carvana and Vroom because I knew it would lead to an adjusted offer. The guy was super friendly and was doing his job. At any rate, I knew things had changed when my primary representative, Hayden, sent me to Hal. Hal was also very friendly and professional. The offer went from the best to the 2nd best, and I was completely prepared to drop them. After 30 seconds of discussing the situation, Hal took my desired number and said I'll call you back. He called back a couple of hours later and met my number. The final number was better than Driveway, but only by $500. If I were a hardcore negotiator, maybe I could have done better, but I was satisfied since my vehicle did not have the 19" wheels that actually came with it. I installed smaller 18" wheels to improve the range.
At any rate, CarBuyerUSA was very responsive to my emails and voice calls. Their text messaging service died during this transaction. Initially, I worked with Hayden; followed by Hal; and, completed with Ryan to schedule the pick up of my vehicle. My experience was very positive with this team and they have their act together. I would not hesitate to use them in the future.
YMMV 06
