My complaint:
From: CARFAX Consumer Research
Date: December 14, 2022 at 14:06:25 EST
To: nini.lawson@gmail.com
Subject: Case 13760080 –None– [ ref:_00DA0aWjO._5003j26D82N:ref ]
To: Kimani Lawson
Good Afternoon Kimani,
My name is Tia and your Buyback Guarantee claim has been forwarded to me for review.
I see that you’re submitting a claim due to missing recall information. As Danielle had mentioned, the buyback guarantee covers missing state issued title brands. A brand is a specific mark on a Title to indicate certain problems with the vehicle. Examples of title brands include Salvage, Flood, Lemon, and Not Actual Mileage. CARFAX does not offer compensation for unreported accidents or other problems that do not result in a title brand.
I have searched the title history for the vehicle, and I was not able to locate any brands issued to the vehicle. The New Jersey title you provided does not have a brand listed on it. I also checked with KIA, and there are currently no open recalls reported to the vehicle.
Each CARFAX Report explains that it can only report what has been reported to CARFAX at the time, and that other information, including problems, may not have been reported to CARFAX. Every CARFAX Report also suggests using our service as one important tool along with a physical inspection in the car buying process.
Before purchasing the vehicle, did you get the vehicle inspected? That inspection would have uncovered any hidden problems, damages and or repairs made to the vehicle.
Since there are no branded titles that CARFAX has missed, we are not able to approve your buyback claim.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Best,
Tia
Senior Resolution Manager
CARFAX, Inc.
We’d love your feedback!
Thank you for using CARFAX. You may be selected to participate in a brief customer satisfaction survey to let us know how we can improve your experience. In the next few days, please look for an email containing your survey.
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Kim Lawson
10:41 AM (0 minutes ago)
to consumerresearch, Kimani
Good evening,
Thank you for your response. I am very much looking forward to receiving your survey. I have a lot of feedback that I would like to provide.
The recall is not open because the opportunity to present the vehicle for repair has expired. If it were open, I would have, of course, had it repaired at my local Kia dealer, and contacting you for help would not have become necessary. You mentioned an inspection. The vehicle came with a valid inspection sticker. Should I have questioned Carvana about the validity of the inspection sticker? Maybe. It may be that Carvana trusted CARFAX. Any way you consider this situation, as a consumer, my daughter has been left with a $14,000 loan on a car that does not run.
It appears that I did not read the fine print regarding your service when I should have. No, I didn’t have it inspected before I purchased it. I didn’t think it was necessary, as the CARFAX report came back clean. How stupid was I to trust your company? Super stupid.
What service do you REALLY provide for us as consumers? How much does your company make on every report that is provided to a dealer under the rouse of protecting Joe and Susie consumer? A dollar amount shown on the vehicle purchase order goes to CARFAX for running the report, apparently, even if it is inaccurate. CARFAX is no better than asking the previous owner (for free) if there are any problems with the car that I should know about.
Buying the 2012 Kia was my 22-year-old daughter’s first experience purchasing a car, and she completed the process independently. She purchased it from CARVANA and cried happy tears when the car arrived. Would you like me to send you the video? The down payment came from the internship money she earned as a psychology major during her final year of college. She was proud of her, and I was proud of her too. Then the car stopped running less than a year later due to a manufacturing error that Kia acknowledged existed with the engine. And neither Kia nor CARFAX have attempted to make her whole.
I trusted that the vehicle I was purchasing was a good purchase based on the report that your company provided. Neither Kia, Carvana, nor CARFAX informed my daughter that the engine on that vehicle had been recalled. It is now a $14,000 paperweight.
Your company sucks and is not anywhere as important to consider when purchasing a vehicle as that Fox indicates in your tv commercials.
CARFAX is untrustworthy, and people should know that they should do their due diligence and NOT trust your company to be a reliable source of information on a used vehicle.
May you, as the Senior Resolution Manager, receive all of the things that you deserve.
Suggested solution:
Buy back the car!
