Texas Direct Auto review: Fraud and scam 57

We just bought our vehicle last month. We found it online and we called so that we could get them to hold it for us, for $500 ofcourse. This was on a Sat. and we let them know we wanted it Mon. ready by 2:00 p.m. paper work and all. We left our home at 9:00 and got there at 10:40 a.m. We had to wait an hour for someone to get a hold of the guy that we had spoke to on the phone. After finally finding him our self outside he informed us that the front and rear bumpers were being painted because they had some scratches on them. It was aggravating because we hadn't even test drove it yet and wasn't for sure if it was the vehicle we wanted. I had to leave at 1:30 because I had to get my children off the bus so my husband stayed behind. Another reason we were aggravated because the vehicle was for me and I didn't even get to check it out or drive it! He called me on my way home about an hour later and said that it drove real good but it was dirty on the inside. I asked him to get them to clean it up then before he left with it. He asked them to shampoo the seats because they looked filthy so "they did". When I got the vehicle at 7:00 p.m. the seats were still wet and still looked dirty, there was gum dried to the base of the seat belt and food beside the other seat on the side. The seat belt straps looked terrible but I was just happy to finally get my husband home after he'd been up there all day. I looked at the seats the next day and they had water spots all over them. My husband said they weren't like that when he test drove it. I called a car detail and they said that it would cost $75 to shampoo and get the food out. When I called to talk to Rod about it that day, I couldn't get a hold of him. I called and left several messages and talked to other people that said they couldn't help me because they didn't do the paper work! He called me back one day but I was unable to get to the phone and when I called back of course he was unavailable AGAIN! The next week when I finally got to talk to him I explained that I felt like I should be reimbursed for having to get the water stains out and the food and gum. He explained to me that it was too late that I should have contacted him sooner and maybe something could have been done but since it was a week later it was too late. I told him I tried getting a hold of him and left several messages and one guy said they could see what they could do to get me compensated for it but he wasn't trying to hear it. He said that unfortunately there was nothing he could do because it was so late after the sale. He said to look at it as getting a good deal on the vehicle and putting money into it! Even though I spoke to others and left messages it was my fault that he could not be reached! I'll never buy from Texas Direct Auto again! I'll stick with Carmax where you don't have to pay an extra 2, 000 for a warranty and you get a car that looks and SMELLS clean!

Here's my expierience with TDA over the past couple of weeks...
I found the car I'd been searching for in the right color at a reasonable price. I called Boris and he took my $500.00 via CC to hold the car. I already had financing and was expecting a seamless, quick transaction. I wanted all the paperwork Fed Exed to me to examine BEFORE I went to Houston to pick it up. Alan, the finance guy, said he could oblige me and even offered a better finance rate if I went thru him. True to his word, he beat my bank by a couple of points. Great! Sign me up and get me the paperwork. Upon receiving the contract, I see that Alan tacked on a $3000.00 bumper to bumper warranty on a car that was still covered by a factory warranty! When I called to correct this, he told me he discussed it with my wife and she agreed. What? No way. My wife would never agree to a warranty. Why is this guy not telling the truth?! He was now noticibly miffed, had a bad attitude and voiced that he'd "Have to do everything over again" So now...since I wouldn't buy the warranty, I was no longer going to get the special low finance rate. I objected to this as well and Alan basically told me "too bad" and then hung up on me! I couldn't believe it. I was on the verge of spending $39k with this company and he hang's up on me. Amazing.
At this point, the deal is dead but I want someone to know what kind of employee just cost thier company a car sale so I get a hold of a GM and he apologizes profusely and provides a slightly higher rate and still beats my bank and we agree to salvage the deal.
I flew into Houston 9 am two days later from Dallas and was picked up by a scruffy pair of guys and loaded into a van with 4 other guys. Like me, they had flown in to check out / purchase / and drive thier vehicles home. When we arrive at TDA, it's like a hotel. You check in by giving them a copy of your license and insurance. Next, they bring the car you are interested in and let you drive / inspect it at your leisure. And I do. I drove a few miles away to a clean, empty strip center parking lot and start my inspection. Mechanically, the car was perfect for a 40k mile car. Cosmetically, the photos and description on Ebay were not accurate. A few scratches here and there, some chips on the hatch handle, missing hitch cover Nothing to squelch the deal but still a disapointing surprise. The worse part was a 1/2 chuck of rubber was missing out of the side wall of one of the tires! I take it back to my delivery liason, and Chaz was on it. "No problem, we'll fix that now." Great! I go back to the check in counter where they give you a pager and then wait for a finance guy to sign the papers with. 10 minutes later they tell me I'm going to meet with "Alan" Alan? Ummm...no way. That guy's a [censored] and you better get me someone else...which they do. Got the papers signed and I'm ready but my car is not...Chaz is on the ball but "it's lunch and the guys can't find the same make of tire..."blah, blah blah. I sit outside and wait...While doing so I 'm privy to a heated discussion between two employees over "commissions, favoritism, upstairs policies, downstairs policies" and all of it taking place right there on the delivery floor. Classy.
Over an hour later, I'm ready to roll. I was disapointed about the long wait and mention to Chaz that if he could somehow find the missing hitch cover, I'd really appreciate it. He called me 2 hours later when I was halfway home and said he had found it and would mail it to me...and he did. Nice job Chaz. In closing...Boris, the salesguy, took my $500.00 deposit and I never saw him in person or spoke to him more than 4 times on the phone. Alan was a complete horses' [censor] and I can't believe he can keep gainfull employment anywhere. Chaz was the closest thing to a concerned employee I found and should probably move up the ranks quickly in the sea of mediocracy found at TDA.
I like the pricing. I like the selection. I do not like the impersonal service. I do not like the represenation of thier products on line. My advice...Good deals can be had at TDA but do your due diligence on any car, dont expect to receive a "thank you" for your business, and remember...you're a wallet with legs at TDA, not a person.
Alan...I'll see you in Hell.

thinking about buying a Yukon Denali 2007 with 56k miles, reading these comments makes me nervous, but i've also heard really good things about them too. I want to them to come off the price a 1000 r so, I was wondering if they do that? Has anybody traded in there car there and do they give a reasonable price for the trade?

Texas Direct Auto is a rip off scam trust me I have been in the ebay (houston) market since it began one of the first guys out there listing cars for dealers and also sold cars on franchise lots. The sales people dont give a ### cause they only get a 100$ per car so the have to move big numbers just to eat. The whole operation is nothing but a disorganized circus ( one of my best friends worked there for a little while and after coming from real dealerships, he couldn't deal with it so he quit. They lie and lie anything just to get you to buy. The whole operation is based on a lie the pricing is padded far more than you think because of sub standard vehicles and people getting ripped off on thier trades. The average mark-up on a vehicle is between 3000.00 and 4000.00 dollars. and they don't want to budge off of the price. I know a guy who traded in his truck for 29, 500.00 he had a friend that wanted to buy it but his lender would not do private party deals because of a fraud problem they had been expierincing so the sales guy told him that they do $1000.00 turnarounds and his friend could come back the next day and get it for $30, 500 seemed fair enough so when he came to the dealership they told him that the price was $32, 500.00 and that there was nothing they could do about the price and that it was already listed for live auction which it wasn't another lie, also the guy who was trading in the truck had to wait almost two weeks to get the vehicle that he was buying because they had to do repairs to it. BUYER BE VERY AWARE! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The business practices that the sales people exhibit are what is acceptable and practised by the upper management. The sales people will even tell you of horror stories of (TDA) screwing family and friends of thiers. The risk is not worth the reward in some cases and if you get stuck with a lemon that ain't worth the rubber its rollin on you are in for a hard lesson learned. It is always better to pay for piece of mind a little service, common courtesy and a dealership you can trust go along way.

What a bunch of whiny babies!
TDA is exactly what they appear to be- a high volume low price take what you get dealership. If you want to be coddled and pampered go to a new car dealership and pay thousands more. Sure you're taking a chance with these guys, which would be true for any used car from anyone. Private sellers offer no warranty, and besides you never know how good any warranty is until you have a problem.
I've purchased 3 cars from these guys and their customer service was adequate, especially for a dealership which moves 400+ cars a month. The cars were exactly as they described. One of the cars I purchased was $7000.00 under loan value. I'll take that deal all day long.
Chip Haymond

On march 23rd I called Ben Rader from Texas auto direct about a roush 500RC F150 truck they had on ebay. I asked if the truck had aver been hit or had any paint work. Ben Rader tells me that the truck is perfect and has never had paint work. He tells me that they have commissioned people inspect the trucks so that nothing goes over looked. He really wants to sell it to me off ebay, so I save 500.00 and buy it off eBay (Big Mistake). A week or two later i get the truck and see bad paint work. I called Ben the day after I get the truck and tell him about the issue. The truck has been hit in the drivers side bed, the paint work was done without taping the bed off. So the bed has black spray paint, over spray and NO CLEAR COAT. The bed is rough to the touch. I take it to a paint shop by my work and he says "this was spray painted". I get a quote to fix the paint issues at 614.00. The rear bumper has to come off and the tailgate has to be fixed from over spray. I fax the quote to Ben on the april 21st. He tells me Rod Smith, his manager, will call me back that day. I wait a week, no calls. I finally call them on April 30th and Rod Smith has no idea what I'm talking about. I sent him pictures on may 3rd and May 4th I get a response: " After looking at the picture it seems as if the trucks condition is average or better wear and tear for the year and mileage.". So they are willing to pay for no damages. No problem, ill post this on every site I can find and deal with the paint issue my self.

The Short Story: Texas Auto Direct is the same shady car dealership that is on every corner, in every town. They simply have a larger location and sell online and on ebay.

This place is a huge scam! After I found the vehicle I wanted, I applied for lending through their finance company. I sent an email to the salesman and waited for several days. He responded and told me that vehicle was sold. I had asked about my financing and he did not respond. I then get a call from financing and they say, since I am self employed, they need all this additional info. I faxed everything over. I get a call the next day stating the bank needed one more document. During all this downtime, I had searched other vehicles and found two I emailed the salesman about...no response on availability or if he knew about my financing. After 4 request with 2 different people, they pass me on to a 3rd person. As I wait for him to call to give me the terms of the loan, I finally get a call from the salesman. He tells me all is approved and the vehicle I want is there and ready...I asked for the stock #. It was not even a car I had EVER been interested in AND this is the car they got approved with the lender. I gave him the # to the car I actually wanted and he said it was available. Later that day, I get an email with an attachment, a form I needed to sign and return. Finance even called and said "it's not for a transcript for your tax returns, It's just to have on file saying that you filed your taxes the last 2 years." That's funny because...I can read. It is clearly an IRS form requesting my transcripts and had already been filled in by TDA on the type return and years requested. I don't like dealing with liars, so I pretty much decided I was not buying from them at this point and of course never sent the form. I sent 2 more emails over 2 days and finally got a call from Brett. He tells me I've been approved at a ridiculously high interest rate (my credit score shows me as low risk), definately NOT the low interest rate they post on their site. They had me putting a large deposit down on the car that I never said I would do and it was not the length of the loan I told them I had to have. He said if I would pick a vehicle with less miles, the bank would go longer and possibly reduce the interest rate. I gave him the other stock # and waited for him to call. I get a call back the following day about closing time. He tells me that the bank will go longer and the interest rate is now 4% higher than what he quoted me the previous day. I said, "okay, so they went up on the interest rate?" He then said "no, they went down a point" as if he had not given me the information just the day before. He clearly wanted me to take responsibility for "hearing him wrong". Between trying to sell me a car I had not even contacted them about, TOTALLY dodging telling me the conditions of the loan, trying to get me to sign a document they assumed I would/could not read and then changing the interest rate for the worse from one day to the next. Praise God I told them to keep it and I'm not stuck with a piece of junk that I pay through the nose for every month!

When I brought my 2003 Mercedes E320 in to get appraised, the appraiser gave me an insulting offer stating that my windows does not roll. I offered to show him how to roll windows since he locked the window rolling device. But instead, he stated rudely "anybody knows how to roll windows - doesn't take a genius." Well it comes to show that he is pretty incompetent at his job and very unprofessional.

I LOVE Texas Direct Auto. We are local though and so did not have to deal with them through Ebay. It is a wonderful, clean facility with lots of friendly people (and nice amenities for little ones). They let us take our first choice to our own mechanic to get it looked at and he recommended us not getting it. We then took our 2nd choice to our mechanic and he said it needed a few things here and there (leaky valve, new tires, etc). They made all the repairs (including new tires!) at TX Direct Auto and detailed it before we bought it. They also gave us a SWEET deal on our trade-in, about $3000 more than what Carmax offered us. I have 3 other friends who have bought vehicles there as well and all had WONDERFUL experiences, but again, they were all local. While I understand all the negative comments are valid, I think buying a vehicle off ebay is a risk. The listing says 'sold as is', the pictures are not going to be able to show every little piece of damage on the unit. As for the lack of communication, sounds like they should definitely work on that. I HIGHLY recommend dealing with Tx Direct Auto if you can be there in person.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE PERIOD ! Bought 2011 Cadillac Escalade pictures looked perfect, great talked to my salesman Lindsey asked him about if there were any chips in the paint dents etc, nothing wrong but a small door ding in the driver door but there professional dent removal people were removing the dent as we spoke no big deal, ran carfax everything went as planned, shipping would be a little delayed because of Christmas that was ok so waited patiently and the shipping department guy called and the unit was being shipped, great! Truck driver called and met me in our local walmart parking lot, the first I noticed was how dirty the caddy was and had black tar all over the running boards when I pulled up! WTF in the pictures the rig looked spotless? Driver got out and asked me about some people he knew with my last same name, he wound up being good friends with my late cousin they used to rodeo together as he was handing me a paper to sign with all the damaged places in the vehicle, I was like man what happened? It was like this when it got picked up in Houston? Now what? the delivery guy just shook his head, I give them a call if it was mine, I said ok thanks. I got on the phone as fast as I could pull it out of the parking lot, Lindsey dude this rig is beat all to hell, he told me it must of been the transport people? (ok let's see the transport people know my family I'm sure they were thinking we know him or his family let's beat the he'll out of his rig) Good one Lindsey, told him how upset I was so he let his supervisor give me a call, she told me about how many dealerships she worked at and how there was no way that they would ever sell a car in that condition blah blah blah, told her that I wanted them to pick up the car and take it back O no, she asked me if I had the car inspected by one of there in house flunky f*** ups for $200 bucks? told her no I didn't how it inspected then she said there was no way to be refunded gave me a a bunch of more lip, said that it was a used vehicle and the things wrong were superficial and are usually on every used vehicle( the rig had 12300 miles on it come on)told me that there salesmen look over every vehicle sold and told me she would send me a $150 dollar refund and a new hitch covert boy that really helped ### (which looked like they had spray bombed) the body guys down there could not even paint for Macco, there awful! I was like what a great $60, 000 Christmas present that is going to have to go to the body shop before I can give it to my wife, I've never wanted to make a drive down from Arkansas and drive a vehicle right thru there showroom front doors >>>TOTAL ###! After taking it to the local cadillac body shop got a bill for $1200 and now it's pulling hard to the right prob been t- totaled the f***ing headrest tv's won't mute (there junk) going to see if I can get it aligned
Wish me luck! So Buyers Beware they are a bunch of cons if I make it down to Houston to visit a buddy or two sometime, I'm thinking about pulling in there and kicking the ### out of a person or two!

Purchased a car from out of state. They tried to sneak in this BS Gap insurance. I declined it and they said they will take it off the agreement. After three months of fighting with them, it still has not been credited. They are very unresponsive.

Not a complaint, just my experience…. I am local and was able to inspect the car in person before putting money down. The car I wanted was really hard to find and TDA had one in stock at a rocking price. The customer service was pretty horrible. Really sad, because I had a much different experience when they were a smaller company. The sales floor was a mad house. I understand why they suck, they are just too busy. I almost left before taking my test drive because I was so irritated, I only stayed because the car I wanted was so hard to find. The pictures were accurate and I bought the car. If you are a perfectionist, small imperfections will not show in the photo. A warning light came on during the drive home. Fortunately the car was still under manufacturer’s warranty and I haven’t had any issues since. Moral is they are a high volume dealership. You go there to save thousands off the price. They really do have great prices; higher volume lets them sell for lower price. If you want a warm fuzzy customer experience, go somewhere else. You are dealing with used cars, so make sure you get it inspected by a 3rd party, you should do that with any used car at any dealership. Unless it is a lease, everyone I know gets rid of their car when they think major repairs are in the near future.

Hmmm...I am thinking to get the LS460 from TDA...but after reading all these complaints...I think I will pass.

Whao...! I was about to make deal with TDA to purchase the Lexus LS460...after reading all these complaints, I think I will pass. Thank you guys.

DO NOT USE TEXAS DIRECT AUTO - IT'S A COMPLETE SCAM.

Purchased a 2010 F250 from this place. The price was a good deal and well . . . . now I know why! I flew into Houston to pick up the truck and on my drive home was the first time the truck BROKE DOWN. This story could go on and on . . I don't have the time. A month and 1/2 later, 4 trips to the Ford dealership and $16, 000 + in repairs . . I contact Texas Direct Auto to work out a new deal and get another car. To say the least, they are freaking CROOKS . . don't care about people what so ever, they only car about screwing people over. I ended up trading out of this truck into a lux car (because I was stuck with them, if I had my choice I wanted a refund so I could run away and never speak to these people again) and rolling a $3, 000 negative balance to the new vehicle. I begged and prayed they would meet me in the middle, they should have took the truck back and got me into a new car without a penny out of pocket, but that wasn't the case what so ever. The lux car ended up in the shop within a month. I had to change out the rotors because they were warped. The brakes were bad and discs had to be replaced. There was a leak in the radiator and duct tape over the hole. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM . . . IT'S NOTHING BUT A MONEY PIT. I WISH NOTHING BUT FAILURE TO THIS COMPANY BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY DESERVE.

I wanted to purchase a Lexus GS 350. we already settled on a price and my financing. i took the car to a lexus dealer to inspect it, they told me i had some belts, filter and alignment issues that would cost me about $1000 to fix. While i was there they showed me a certified exact replica of the car i was trying to get at TDA that had 10K less miles for $4000 more with dealer warranty with an Interest rate much much lower. I already paid the 500 deposit but now im thinking of backing out and getting the dealers deal. reading the comments here it sounds like it would be impossible to get back the deposit. i paid with a CC, has anyone tried calling the CC company to see if they would reverse the charge?

I got ripped off for just under $5-K by trusting the sales person's at VROOM/TEXAS DIRECT AUTO. I was provided a clean Carfax Report and trusted that the car was in 100% great shape. I did not find out that the car needed over $1000.00 until I had the car in service and they washed the car and the paint bubbled up on the front bumper. Please see attachments for yourself and see for yourself that VROOM/TEXAS DIRECT AUTO has been ripping off customers for years. I believe that they have been very UNGODLY IN BUSINESS TO MANY. If you would like to be one of many that would like to file a CLASS ACTION. Please contact me at [protected] and leave a message.