Eric M.
GovPlanet Purchase was flawless
Not to contradict the tremendous amount of bad reviews, but my experience and purchase with GovPlanet was flawless, so I believe credit should be given where credit is due. Caveat: I bought through their "Marketplace E", which is a reselling market for similar equipment that you get at regular auction, so maybe processes (or at least personnel) are slightly different, but this is still part of the GovPlanet (or Ritchie Bros) services, and for me this service worked perfectly. I found a refurbished HMMWV that I liked on their Marketplace E. I placed an offer for the vehicle and waited the 2 business days for what I expected would be an "accept", "decline", or "counter offer". After 4 business days I called the GovPlanet sales department to see what was up. They informed me that the seller had set a no-less-than limit that my offer did not reach, so my offer was deemed unacceptable and was therefore classified as "invalid". It probably would have been nice to know that "invalid" was another option, but they do provide you a number to call in the event that you have questions about your offer. So I guess if you are a serious bidder, you will call the number, which is exactly what I did. They were responsive to my questions, explained the reason that my bid was stuck, and offered to call the seller and mediate a fair price. They promptly called me back and advised me of the sellers "left and right limits" (to use a military term), to which I provided what I thought was a very fair bid for the HMMWV, which was promptly accepted by the seller. I received the title for the HMMWV before it even arrived, and the HMMWV I received was exactly as advertised by the seller. If I had to say something negative (or really "informative") for the buyer, it's that don't be off-put by the extreme inconsistency in business names. I read this on a review, so I knew what to expect, but it was still a little unnerving (especially when you're about to drop $30k+ on an HMMWV) to see. In my case, I found a vehicle on GovPlanet, yet the pictures were watermarked as IronPlanet. When I called sales, they answered as IronPlanet, yet when they called back, the Caller ID said Ritchie Bros. And finally, when I received my purchasing invoice, it went through TruckPlanet! Crazy and confusing, but if you expect it before you start, then you just roll with it through the process. I'd also like to add that the purchasing process was very intuitive (and automated): As soon as the offer was accepted by the seller, my account was updated with the next step (wire them the money). Once the wire transfer was received, my account was updated with the shipping options. The whole process was well automated and easy to follow step-by-step.