GivemetheVIN offered me about 6% more than what the other major car buyers like Carvana were…read moreoffering me so I went with them. Matt Cortez with their Texas team was awesome; very helpful and responsive throughout the whole process. Sadly to say, I didn't have the greatest experience when turning in my car to their California location/team. I was told it would take 15-20min. Not so.
I will say the lady I worked with there (I'll refrain from using her name) was nice and polite, and never directly rude or disrespectful to my face. After parking and waiting by the gate, I was finally able to get her on the phone and get her to get the security guard to open the gate, and go in. I then had to listen to her complain to a coworker how I parked my car over the red line so the gate wouldn't shut, so they'd have to get a security guard to stand by the gate. I interjected and apologized, volunteering to move my car which her coworker told me would be great, so I went ahead and did that. I was then told to wait in a room while the lady finished up a phone call. There was no AC and I had to wait in this hot room on the verge of heat stroke while this chatty Kathy was in a casual conversation on speaker phone in the room next door with a coworker or supervisor FOR AN HOUR that easily could've waited. Her coworker was nice enough to offer me a cold water as he probably realized how hot it was in there. After I waited in what felt like a sauna for almost an hour, the lady would occasionally break away from her phone call to give me forms to fill out and sign, then go back to her phone call in the other room. I filled out the forms and was told to leave the keys and was all done (I don't think they even inspected the vehicle).
Maybe because I was so delirious from the heat, I made the mistake of leaving my other keys on my keychain with the car keys I left with them, including my key to a personal safe. In order to get out, I had to go back in and ask the apathetic younger security guard with his feet kicked up on the counter to open the gate so I could leave. After I was standing by the gate for a few minutes waiting, he finally got around to opening it remotely from the office, so I was able to finally walk out.
I later realized my mistake of leaving my other keys on the keychain with them, and called the lady first thing the next morning to try to get them back, offering to drive back there to pick them up. She was going on about something having to do with seeing if my old car was picked up already, and what the people who picked it up did with the keys if it was, saying it was standard procedure for them to throw out extra keys for security purposes, which shocked and worried me. A few hours go by and she still didn't call me back with the promised update, so I reach out to Matt, who in turn reaches out to her and tries to get her on this. About 4 hours after my initial call, I call the lady back who tells me she hasn't walked down the hall yet to ask the person she needs to talk to about the status of the vehicle/keys, which I'm shocked by. I pressure her to do so which she finally gets up and does, then tells me "Sorry, we threw your keys out. That's standard procedure for security purposes," which I'm shocked by. I said "what do you mean you THREW THEM OUT?? Can you stick your hand in the garbage and pull them out? I need those keys," and she made some other excuse that the trash was gone or something and it was clear I wasn't getting my keys back. They could've easily put them in an envelope and mailed them to me, they could've called me, there's so many ways they could've better handled this.
I was the only customer there for the whole hour+ I was there the previous day and they had several employees working in that office. It's not like they were overwhelmed or busy, but this lady sure acted like it, and then just "threw out" my personal keys. Given all the factors, such as them giving me a generous price for my car, Matt Cortez and their Texas team being great, and losing my keys being partially my fault for leaving them on the keychain, I'll only deduct 1 star and give them 4 stars.
