Last November I had CarChex do an inspection for on a 2003 BMW 330i at a
dealer 300 miles from my home. I "booked" the $80 inspection via their
web site and made a point of indicating in the order that I was
particularly interested in car's cosmetic condition as the dealer
claimed it was in perfect shape. The very nice inspection report came
back stating that the car did not have a single paint chip on it, was in
very nice shape overall, but noting that the inspection was performed in
the rain. Encouraged, I negotiated a price on the car and took a one-way
rental to buy the car. On examination of the car (clean/indoors) I
immediately noticed several small paint chips and one fairly large paint
chip on/near the hood. I also noted significant wear on the alcantera
(or however it's spelled) fabric covering the steering wheel; but since
that is in warranty I was not too upset about that having been missed. I
mentioned that the car had been inspected by CarChex to the dealer's
service manager and that the inspector had looked at the car "wet". The
manager said that they do a lot of Internet sales and that they are
always willing to take a car in, wash it, and dry it for an inspection
on request by the inspector. No request had been made in this case. (By
the way, these guys had late model two Ferraris, two Lamborghini's, and
a new Saleen S7 on their showroom floor - that's about a million dollars
worth of used cars.) The dealer touched up most of the paint chips, but
the largest one was too big to do anything about quickly. We bought the
car anyway.

After we got home I contacted CarChex to complain about the quality of
the inspection and the missed paint damage. I made several phone calls.
They asked me to send digital images of the paint chip area, which I
did. The customer service person I spoke with at CarChex consulted with
the inspector who had done the inspection and he confirmed that he had
not requested the car be brought indoors. The CarChex representative
then acknowledged that the inspection had not been done correctly and
said he would refund my $80 within 48 hours. The refund occurred the
same day.

While I was not pleased that the inspection was not done correctly, I am
very pleased that CarChex stands behind the quality of their. They are a
reputable firm that does not try to "screw the customer" when there is a
problem as so many firms do nowadays. I know that anyone can make a
mistake; the important part is what you do when the customer discovers
the error. CarChex did the right thing. I would not hesitate to do
business with them again and would recommend them to anyone. (I think
that they will be more careful about "wet" inspections in the future.)

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George Litwinski

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"It's good to want things."

/

S. Barr (philosopher, poet, humorist, chemist, Visual Basic.Net programmer)