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When I published the first post on my car saga, CarMax is Less, I felt a little bad. Not for CarMax, but for my blog followers, because it was not the type of subject I typically address with them. However, since CarMax is Less continues to be far and away the most hit post on my site, I’m going to conclude that my usual writing isn’t so bad, but there are simply a lot of CarMax shoppers that are ending up reading about my saga regarding the shocking after-the-sale treatment by CarMax in Merriam, Kansas.

So, here’s a brief update. After the service manager started to make great strides to help us and was quickly cut off by the local general manager, I published the first post and tweeted my displeasure. Within a few days, we were contacted by a CarMax entity that tracks social media sites, and we were told they wanted to look into our dilemna. I’m working in Asia for a while, so my poor wife had to tell the entire story again, and was told they were genuinely concerned and that a response was forthcoming. We were guardedly optimistic.

They called back as promised, only to say they’ve talked to the local general manager, who says we should have found the nearest CarMax where we were stranded, so they could have installed a used part. As a result, they will offer $1,800, representing the cost of the used part, against the $4,800 we spent getting the car and ourselves home, and offer nothing for the $20,000 car sitting dead in our driveway. Hmm. Well, since this general manager has emerged twice as the dubious decision maker for our issue, I’m going to name names. And the name is Dave Cantu.

Why, Dave, would I sit on the highway, 500 miles from home in the broken-down car I bought from you only six weeks before, on a Sunday, with my wife and son in the car, and turn to them and say, “You know what we should do, family? We should ignore the tow truck driver who just told us that the only place open on Sunday to fix the car here is Sears Auto. Let’s have him take us to the closed CarMax instead, so they can advise us tomorrow how to best limit CarMax’s liability.”

Funny thing is, I did call the Merriam, KS CarMax first thing the next day when they opened, and I was never told to get my car to a CarMax. Come to think of it, instead of not returning my call, Dave Cantu could have called me back and explained clearly what I should have done. No, the fact is, I did what any reasonable person would have done in my situation – I got my family and the car off the highway and to the nearest place that could start repairing the car right away. And now Dave has had several weeks to come up with this lame reason to avoid doing the right thing.

Your $1,800 offer is declined, Dave. And a complaint has been filed against CarMax with the Johnson County District Attorney. Just as importantly, when I return from Asia, I’m going to follow up on a meeting I had with a local media expert and make your bad logic as public as I can. I’m calling your $1,800 and raising you much more, and we’ll let the public decide if Merriam, Kansas is where they want to buy their next car.

This entry was posted on July 27, 2012 at 8:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized with tags CarMax, Carmax Merriam KS, Dave Cantu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.