Carfax Inc

In correspondence with the customer from October 2013 through January 2014, the customer stated that he owned a dealership.  During that time, he was informed that he was ineligible for consumer purchases on www.carfax.com, and, per the terms of customer agreement, if CARFAX identifies the...

consumer purchase as associated with a commercial entity, the account will be closed and no refund will be provided.  The recent purchase was made under information for [redacted], and thus the account is closed and no refund will be provided.

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 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: They keep referring to repairs and paperwork from the repair center. The repair center clearly states they fixed nothing structural. We sold the car Saturday and only received $17,000 dollars that has a [redacted] Blue Book value of $22,000. I hope Carfax is proud of themselves for costing us over $5000.00 dollars. They should be ashamed of themselves costing consumers money because of their mistake. Since Carfax now sells car it's obvious its a conflict of interest rating cars since now they can benefit from our losses and their gains. I am done dealing with these clowns and hope the Revdex.com gives them a poorer rating because of this crap!
Regards,
[redacted]

We can't always prevent errors from being reported to us, but we can help you fix them.  Please complete a Data Research Request form and our research team will be happy to help you.  http://support.carfax.com/c_datarequest

CARFAX is not reporting frame damage on the subject vehicle.  However, structural damage was reported by the data source.  We requested the customer provide a copy of the final estimate from the repairs in order for the customer to dispute this further, but no such document has been provided.

The customer raises three concerns.
1) That only after her purchase did CARFAX inform her that the Unlimited plan is by license plate only.
2) That she was only able to run four CARFAX Reports
3) That she atttempted to contact...

CARFAX customer support but did not receive a response.
I offer the following responses:
1) The product selection box on the CARFAX order page states that the plan is unlimited using the U.S. license plate.  This is also listed in the Customer Agreement on the order page.  CARFAX does not offer or advertise an unlimited-by-VIN plan.
2) It does appear that there was a system error and only four CARFAX Reports by VIN were run.  I have added an extra search by VIN to the account.
3) We have no record of being contact using the email address or name provided in the complaint.  Our customer support team is available for contact through our Help Center, http://support.carfax.com.

As one can plainly see
from this copy and paste of the order page below, the Unlimited plan clearly
states that the plan is limited to U.S. license plates only.  The customer should not have expected any searches by VIN.
 
Unlimited CARFAX Reports
only $54.99
Unlimited Reports by U.S. License Plate

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I provided solid evidence of how their order page contains misleading information which confuses customers into believing that unlimited CARFAX reports means unlimited VIN report by their own definition. They are simply biased about this issue since they are not reading the description from a customer's perspective and are either unaware of how confusing and deceptive their ad is or are purposely not admitting it. I demand to be refunded and I am currently reaching out to other CARFAX customers who were also victims of this false/deceptive advertising.
Regards,
[redacted]

The
customer purchased...

the license plate only plan. The order page lists the plan
as "Unlimited CARFAX Reports / only $54.99 / Unlimited Reports by U.S.
License Plate" and also states this on the order page under the Customer
Agreement, to which the customer read and accepted before placing their order.
If the customer does not have a need to run CARFAX Reports by license plate,
then perhaps the 5 Pack would be the better plan for them. As a gesture of
goodwill, the customer was given an additional five CARFAX Reports to run by
VIN. 
 
Each
order does come with a money back guarantee if the customer is not 100%
satisfied. To take advantage of the money back guarantee, as outlined on the
order page in the Customer Agreement, which the customer certified that they
read and accepted before purchasing their account, the customer must request
the refund within 90 days of purchase, run two or less CARFAX Reports, and
cannot have received a refund within the last twelve months.

I purchased access to CarFax VIN look-ups for a period of time and immediately cancelled it within a few minutes when I discovered better access through another service. It was within their policies as stated on line. Rather than issue the credit created and executed online, I received an email offer 2 days later which required me to respond if I still wanted my credit. Not ok. This is my accounting:
I purchased and CANCELLED access to your service. You have charged me and have NOT credited my account. confirmation # P... cust ID 2... for $58.62 on Jan 6, 16
I should not have to chase you down for this and think it is a dishonest practice. I CANCELLED the service and expected a refund or no charge. Offering me extra VIN 'looks' and telling me I must ASK for MY money back, is MANIPULATIVE. Please send my complaint to MANAGEMENT. I shall report to Revdex.com.
I did not send you an email, it was an online cancellation & credit with a reason given in a question box.
As far as I was concerned, the transaction was cancelled and I read the policy online carefully.
This practice is not forthright.

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
It does not state after 5 free vin checks the license plate is required for a car history report.
Regards,
[redacted]

The customer states in the rebuttel, "The ability to run unlimited reports SOLELY using license plates is not stated ANYWHERE in the order page."  However, this is not correct.  This is listed clearly and directly in the product selection box on the order form: "Unlimited CARFAX Reports only $54.99 / Unlimited Reports by U.S. License Plate."  It is also listed in the Customer Agreement, which is not only liked on the order form, but the customer is required to check the box stating they have read and accept the Customer Agreement before they ask us to place their order.
The customer also states that, "your return policy states you are eligible for a refund if you run 2 searches or less. I was given 5 VIN searches and only used ONE. the other two searches were using license plates."  The refund policy does state that two or less CARFAX Reports must be run to qualify for a refund, and by the customer's own admission, the customer ran three CARFAX Reports and therefore does not qualify for a refund.

The customer purchased...

the Unlimited CARFAX Reports. The order
page lists the plan as "Unlimited CARFAX Reports / only $54.99 / Unlimited
Reports by U.S. License Plate / Valid for 60 days" and also states this on
the order page under the Customer Agreement, to which the customer read and
accepted before placing their order. If the customer only wanted a single CARFAX Report then the "1 CARFAX Report / $39.99 / 1 Report / Valid for 60 days" option should have been selected.
 
If the customer would like to discuss their account and refund options
further, she can contact our customer support team through our Help Center at: http://support.carfax.com/c_contactus

CARFAX receives vehicle history information reported from
over 80,000 sources.  CARFAX receives the
information electronically, directly from the source, and does not receive any
paper documents or perform any data entry. 
We cannot always prevent a source from...

reporting an error, but we do
have a simple process to get an error corrected.  Simply complete the Data Research Request
form through the link below to get the process started.
[redacted]

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
 Complaint: 10726720
I am rejecting this response because: Carfax is saying that the vehicle was not just "stuck in the mud" yet the vehicle was never towed away to any facility. They need to change the verbiage on the Carfax report to reflect the fact that vehicle was never damaged and was never towed away.
Regards,
[redacted]

From: Vince L[redacted] <[redacted]@carfax.com>Date: Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 6:31 PMSubject: RE: You have a new message from the Revdex.com of Metro Washington DC & Eastern Pennsylvania complaint #[redacted].To: "[redacted]@myRevdex.com.org" <[redacted]@myRevdex.com.org>[redacted], Reading the latest response, I’m not sure what else I can tell him that I haven’t already and I feel I would just be a broken record.  As I explained to him several times: The police report clearly states the vehicles were impacted and damage was found, and therefore, unless the police report is amended, we cannot change the CARFAX Report.

The CARFAX order page states: "Unlimited CARFAX Reports only $54.99 / Unlimited Reports by U.S. License Plate".  This is a license plate only package, although it does come with five CARFAX Reports by VIN for free as a courtesy.  The details are also outlined in the Customer Agreement, to...

which the customer must certify that they have read and accepted before processing their order.  It is then provided in the order confirmation screen, in the receipt email, and each time the customer logs into their account.  CARFAX does not offer or advertise an unlimited-by-VIN plan, and has not offered such a plan in five years.

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
They are not doing their due-diligence for this report.  I have given them the information in the previous email about who to contact for the body shop record.  Since the claim was years ago the insurance company has deleted some of it's records.  In any event I am not responsible for contacting the North Dakota DMV, and they can contact the insurance company as they have a copy of the report.  They got it wrong, tjey can fix it.  If I have to do it I will be billing for my hours which I don't think you want to have happen.  I also suggest they contact the auto body shop that did the work for clarification.  Either way the other points that I brought up in my last response need to be removed fr the report.  If they are unwilling to make these changes then I will be asking for a check for the difference in trade value as it is this report and the negligence of CARFAX that is driving the value of my vehicle down far below trade value.  Since this is the only report that dealers look at that makes them responsible for the valuation of my vehicle.  Since they got it wrong and are continuing to get it wrong so they can pay the difference.  Every dealer thinks my car was in an accident based on the incorrectly stated report to this moment.  
Regards,
[redacted]

The customer emailed CARFAX over the weekend and our customer support team will contact him shortly.  Based on the VIN he provided, [redacted], none of that...

information is showing.  Under his ownership, we are not showing any liens, salvage titles, or emissions inspections.

When the customer purchased an account from CARFAX, he checked the box stating "I agree to the Customer Agreement and understand that CARFAX may not have the complete history of every vehicle."  Within that Customer Agreement outlines the refund policy, which states:
If you...

purchased the Plan and are not 100% satisfied, you qualify for a refund if: •  You have not, nor has any member of your household, received a refund from CARFAX within the last 12 months;
•  You have run two or less CARFAX Reports on your Plan account; and
•  Your refund is requested within 90 days of your date of purchase.
The customer has disqualified himself from the refund policy by running more than two CARFAX Reports.

The CARFAX order page states in the product selection box that the account is valid for 30 days (now 60 days).  This is also listed in the Customer Agreement on the order page prior to placing the order.  Immediately after placing the order, the details are also listed on the purchase...

confirmation page, the receipt email, and the expiration date is listed in the account.  The account is not eligible for a refund because of the amount of time that has passed.