Consumer complaint received 2023-07-12
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Getting a loan or lease — Credit denial
Company: CarMax, Inc. (TX)

I knew that at a score of XXXX depending on the credit report, and being self employed, finding a car loan would be difficult. I purchased a lemon in cash in XXXX and remain cash poor from that loss. 

On carmaxs website they advertise both preapproval subject to verification and also an express pickup option that allows a consumer to pickup his/her vehicle after all verifications are complete and the loan is formally approved. 

After submitting my initial application and the documents I was asked for on the website, I received pre-approval. Recognizing this did not mean my documents were accepted, I began working with a salesperson over the phone named XXXX and a woman from the finance department named XXXX. I explained that I hated the car buying process and was in a precarious situation needing financing. I explained that before my credit was formally ran, I was expecting a full document review to ensure that my ability to prove up my income as a self employed person had been verified. I did not want hits to my barely fair credit score nor did I want to subject myself to unnecessary wastes of my time should my documents not be acceptable to the lender. 

I was assured by both XXXX and XXXX that my documents were verified. They even reviewed the specific deposits into my account, because they adjusted down my income from the number I got from my XXXX tax return. They stated that the documents were good and that I would be informed if they needed additional verifications. After hard pulling the first time, they informed me I was approved and asked when I would like to pick the car up. Hesitant about the cards fuel type and plug in requirement, I asked for review of my application against another vehicle. Same process and same approval. I recognized some defects in the interior and ultimately decided on the first vehicle again, and by doing so they pulled my credit a third time. Throughout I kept asking why multiple pills were necessary and XXXX told me not to worry, that a little known fact of law was that after the car buying process was complete that credit reporting agencys would consolidate all of my inquiries related to a transaction into XXXX single inquiry. Having been to law school myself and never having come across that regulation requiring consolidation of inquiries, I asked XXXX if she was certain that was a thing and she offered to find the documentation stating it occurs. Despite my disbelief, I was assured I was approved and continued with the process. 

The following day, I gathered my down payment and insured the vehicle as prescribed and was told I could pickup the vehicle that day. Despite offering express pickup before, suddenly the computer systems were down and the software wouldnt allow them to set that up according to XXXX, and so I was told just to attend an appointment at XXXX where in XXXX minutes Id have signed my docs and would walk out with my car. 

When I arrived, no one knew I was coming. I was issued a salesperson who as able to review my application. He began working issues with the documents that were supposedly approved before pulling my credit XXXX times which included getting XXXX document in odd form and then highlighting the deposits on my bank statements so they could recalculate my income. ( XXXX and XXXX had already done this as they felt they needed to adjust down my stated income based on the average of the XXXX months preceding the transaction. ( Although these are my quietest months I still showed an income of XXXX per month according to them. I had stated my income was closer to XXXX based on my adjusted gross income from my XXXX tax return being XXXX. ( XXXX a bigger year, was under an extension ). 

Ultimately the salesperson rejected my documents and application, stating that certain types of deposits were not acceptable to prove income, specifically deposits from pay apps. Owning a transportation business, pay app transactions are the majority of my business accept for larger deals which are paid by check or bank transfer services or potentially pay apps as well. 

How this is not classified as acceptable income by CarMax, but is by the IRS is incredible. My complaint however is that a condition precedent to my approval to run my credit was that my application was fully approvable and all documents had been collected that would/could be necessary were properly reviewed prior to me taking a credit hit. They assured me falsely not only once, but 3 times, bringing my already fragile XXXX to a XXXX, leaving me virtually unfinanceable as a result. Then they subjected me to undue embarrassment and missing income opportunities as work, to come in and be rejected despite telling me I was fully approved and ready to sign and go. 

Both their pre-approval process and the express pickup features as described on Carmaxs website are false advertising. I was lied to about my application status to entice me into credit pulls that served no purpose. I only allowed them because I was led to believe my application had been fully approved and all my documents were already accepted. As a result, Im left carless and now unfinanceable due to the impact of their unauthorized hard pulls made without my informed permission and made only through a dishonest or misleading set of statements intended to make me believe my documentation was already vetted.