I was contacted by a sales rep from GreatCarsandTrucks.com after I ran an ad in the Truck Trader. My first instinct/feeling was one of skepticism (I should have listened to myself), although I thought I should give the sales rep the benefit of the doubt. He quickly explained (throughout the course of this report, please feel free to replace the word "explained" with "lied") about how they work and what a great site it is.
I had asked him several questions regarding the working of the website, their services and how I would receive my refund, in the event that my vehicle did not sell. He assured me that they had a no hassle guarantee for a refund and that they had numerous buyers looking for vehicles like mine.
When I asked specifically about refunding, the Sales Rep said I had to fill out a refund form from their website. I viewed the form and asked about the portion stating that I had to get a notary public to notarize my form. The Sales Representative said that it was not needed and all I had to do was fax the form back in without that present.
As he assured me that I did not need to use a notary public, I consented to the ad and gave him my credit card number. I also gave him all of the information about my vehicle, which he correctly repeated back to me, so that my ad could be posted to the website. Within a few days, I emailed him some pictures, as per our discussion to be posted along with the ad.
Upon checking the ad a few days later, I noticed several errors, most notably, incorrect engine size, incorrect price, incorrect kilometers, incorrect options as well as several omissions, including 4x4 option (listed as 2 wheel drive), no photos (which I had to call back to try to get posted), no email address and no cell phone number.
I called the rep about the photos several times and had to speak to someone else about sending my photos in to them to get them posted. Finally, after about a week, I was able to get them placed with my ad. The rep never returned my calls.
I had also asked about changing the incorrect and missing things in my ad and was told that I must make the changes myself. I made the changes and exited the website. However, when I re-checked the ad a few days later, only some of the changes were made and much of the information that I had changed was not posted by them. I could not get them to change the information for me, even thought I was unable to do it myself.
A while later, I wished to lower the price on my vehicle and was successful. However, when I went to lower a few weeks later, I was unsuccessful. ALL of my calls from this point on went unanswered and I could not get the incorrect items in my ad fixed by them. As a result, there were several items that were incorrect or missing from my ad and with inaction from them, my vehicle was not sold.
Neither the Sales Representative nor the General Manager would return any of my calls and when my vehicle was unsold at the end of the allowed time frame (90 days from the posting date), I was told that I would not receive any refund without the notary public section being notarized. When I mentioned that the rep told me specifically that I didn't need to, I was told that he was wrong.
With all of the errors and omissions and not being able to change the ad, the company did not fulfill their portion of the contract. Technically, the service was not rendered as it is stated on their website, nor verbally. They have, in every way, committed fraud.
My words to anyone else; STAY AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE. THEY'LL SAY WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO SAY IN ORDER TO GET YOUR BUSINESS.
They're todays equivalent of snake oil salesmen.
Jason
London, Ontario
Canada
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