Tara O.
I still can't register my vehicle or drive it! You may get a deal, but is it worth it?
After dealing with RideSafely for weeks and weeks (and their customer service has been nothing but lackluster) I finally got a vehicle. I was so excited! This was going to be a second car for my family of 5 and it would really help with getting the three small kids where they need to go. I paid for it in full on 3/6/23 and was able to pick it up on 3/08/23. This is where the headache really began. First- after you get your vehicle you will have your title mailed. You can either have it mailed via snail mail and receive it within 7 or more business days, but this comes without tracking and if it gets lost it's your own issue and you have to pay for a new title. I elected for it to be shipped via FedEx. With this, it is priority shipping with tracking and received in 3-5 business days. I was happy to pay the extra $15 to get tracking and get it sooner. Keep in mind, I cannot register or get a license plate for this vehicle until I have the title. I wrote the company on 3/13 to get a status on the title and hopefully tracking. In order to keep this as impartial as possible, I will share my messages and include all typos: 3/13 Me: "Hello. I purchased a vehicle and paid for the title to be sent via FedEx with a tracking number and still have not received this. Please advise." Agent: "I have reviewed your account, your title arrived and should be mailed during this week due to loads of titles coming in." Me: "is this a normal time frame? I thought I paid to expedite it.." Agent: "As there are a lot of titles to be mailed, we send in the order of the queue." The agent did write back a minute later with a second email to say "we do apologize for the inconvenience." Me: "Can I be refunded the expedited fee for this delay? I would still like it to be shipped with a tracking number but I picked up this car 5 days ago and have not been able to get it registered at the DMV without the title..." Agent: "We collect the carrier fee to protect the title. Insure the document in case it is lost. However the auction does not mail the document out until the item is picked up and it usually takes about 2 weeks if the title is not pending. If you get refunded for the carrier service, the title will go out regular mail and you will be responsible for the full amount for the duplicate if it gets lost. At least with Fedex they will cover up to 100$ if package is lost in transit." Admittedly I did not reply to this email as I was frustrated and did not want to write angrily. 3/16 Me: "Hello. Just wanted to follow up and see if the title was mailed?" Agent: "Dear Customer, I have reviewed your account. The representative spoke to the auction, your title would be getting mailed to us this week. We do apologize for the inconvenience and delay." Me: "Do you have an idea when this week? Does this include weekends?" Agent: "I think, that the title will be sent tomorrow till the end of the working day. The representative will contact you." Spoiler alert..no one contacted me. 3/21 (This was a Tuesday when it was supposed to be mailed the previous Friday) Me: "Do you have an update on this?" Agent: "Dear Customer, we do apologize for the delay. We received your title yesterday, but it needs to be flipped. T hat means when we received the title it has no more reassignment space. By law we have to send the title to our stat so they can provide us with a new title with reassignment space to reassign to you. Usually it takes 2 to 4 weeks." Me: "Was CS planning to reach out and inform me of this? After it's flipped will it be mailed immediately or will there be another waiting period?" Agent: "Just today we got the information from title department that title has to be flipped. The representative had to call you, but you reach out to me here, that is why, I gave you this information in message. After the title will be flipped, it will be mailed to you immediately. Again, sorry for inconvenience." I did not write back. I'm beyond frustrated from talking to their customer service department. It's now been 21 days since I picked up a vehicle that I can't drive. I've already put over 1500 into repairs to get this car running so that we can drive it, but now we are just waiting on a title. I do not expect good communication at this point. To find out any information, I have had to contact them first. At this rate who knows when or if I will get the title. If I don't, what happens next? Do I need to sue them as I own the vehicle but have no documentation of this? I just wanted a vehicle for my family...Now I have a vehicle in my driveway that can't be driven, and a massive migraine from this company. Be careful purchasing from this company. Edit- The manager reached out to me and spent the majority of the time explaining how I was confused and was not given inaccurate information. There were lots of incidents where she argued over minute details and I learned they do not record their calls.
Response from RideSafelyApr 3, 2023
Dear Tara, We are sorry that we could not exceed your expectations on purchasing a vehicle from a salvage auction. Please understand that when you are purchasing a vehicle from an auction using a broker service (us), you will be challenged with some delays as the auction has to receive the title from a donation company (which sold the vehicle in your case), process it and then send it to us (the broker). In return we have to process the title and send it to you, our customer. All this processing takes time as you can imagine. Most of this process takes time not by us, but rather by the local DMV's which handle the processing in the order they come in. We have tried to explain this process when you first contacted us as well as over the phone yesterday when we tried to follow up on your written concern. We understand how not knowing all the details can be frustrating and concerning, therefore we encourage customers to call us before they start bidding so we can go over the process and expectations. We try our best to be as proactive and responsive to all our customer's concerns. Once we receive the title from our DMV, we can contact you to let you know it's coming your way. Thank you. Team RideSafely www.ridesafely.com



