website thubmnail of Autotrader.com
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1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow MICKY M.
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BEWARE OF SCAMMERS
January 15, 2025

This company is nothing but a fraud! I had trouble getting my withdrawal approved, and their support personnel was completely unhelpful. They even wanted me to pay for the liquidation. Fortunately, S I M O N C H *C O M stepped in and helped me recover my investment and profits in only a few days.

Date of experience: November 6, 2024
California
1 review
0 helpful votes
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You are selling your car?
I would not recommend wasting your money and time on this platform and FB marketplace.
They need your money and that's it.
Just go to car vana.

Date of experience: November 19, 2024
New Jersey
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow C C.
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I would give zero stars if I could. If you plan to place an ad, DON'T. You will get nothing but illegitimate inquiries. Scams. AutoTrader does NOT screen these inquiries. I placed an ad in the morning and within an hour my email was blowing up with messages from AutoTrader about an inquiry. All fake or scammers. They would not refund my $49 for the Ad. Oh, and they have the worst customer service.

Date of experience: August 8, 2024
Minnesota
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Avoid at all costs
April 23, 2024

Paid to list a vehicle for sale on their site. Received a constant supply of scam buyers. No legitimate buyers. Contacted customer service, they did not care at all that their site was solely providing scammers trying to swindle my vehicle. Refused refund and did not even offer an apology.

Date of experience: April 23, 2024
Arizona
1 review
0 helpful votes
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No refund on ad
September 26, 2023

I put an ad on auto trader and was not happy with their service. After four days, I asked for a refund of $49 and was declined. I got scammer responses and as an elderly person, I fear for my safety. I have had no problems with Facebook marketplace and get many legit responses without paying for an ad. Auto trader is very rigid and not helpful at all. They are in it for the money. I would suggest not to go that route.

Date of experience: September 26, 2023
California
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Tom H.
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Don't waste your money on this site. Very few legitimate inquiries. Most are from dealers who will low ball the heck out of you even though I specified I did not want dealer bids. And you will be constantly harassed by the "Auto Seller Exchange" "service" they offer that is deceptive as all get out. It is easy to inadvertently sign up for this which will cost you hundreds of more dollars. It constantly comes up when you will try to check for any offers. Facebook and Craigs List produced more activity although the low ball dealers are their also. At least I didn't pay $45.00 for the harassment.

Date of experience: December 8, 2023
Maine
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
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Scammer Central
July 2, 2023

After 3 weeks I've had 6 inquiries, all scammers. They ask details that are in the ad then offer to send a certified check with a promise to send for the car once it's cleared. I never went that far but it's complete waste of time and money.

Date of experience: July 2, 2023
California
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Placed an adv over a year ago and was contacted by scammers only. One made it through and got my DL after sending my a fraudulent certified check. My DL was then used by the scammer in effort to purchase other honest people cars (they posted on autotrader and contacted me independently once got my DL). All my repeated attempts to get autotrader fraud unit to help failed, attempts to get formal letter in support of changing my DL by the DMV failed - be aware - you are on your own!

Date of experience: March 10, 2024
North Carolina
1 review
3 helpful votes
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Waiting for months for a title
July 13, 2023

When I bought my jeep from someone online I was charged $200 for an escrow fee. They issued me a temporary plate and then took almost 2 months to send me the title and registration in the mail. If I just had the guy give me the title, I could have had it done within two days, instead of driving around with cardboard taped to my car as a temporary license plate. As far as I remeber, they told me my paperwork would be shipped to my door within a week. DO NOT BUY through their platform--pay cash or do something else if you dont want your time and money wasted--$200 to wait two months to get a license plate on the car--crazy!

Date of experience: July 13, 2023
Rhode Island
3 reviews
2 helpful votes
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It only takes one
November 6, 2023

After a month of getting only bogus inquiries (not wanting to only go through auto trader) it seemed like a once great service had declined. But then in one day I got a request for a test drive. The buyer made an offer within 2 hours of his test drive. We agreed on price and with auto trader facilitating the sale the buyer picked up his new car 24 hours after his test drive. I received my cash the next day. It could not have been an easier transaction and I have auto trader to thank. Their system minimizes risk for both sellor and buyer and is very reasonable. I would use them again.

Date of experience: November 5, 2023
Arizona
3 reviews
0 helpful votes
Follow Uncle M.
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Autotrader was fantastic. Then for some reason, they added a lot of clutter and unnecessary " qualifiers and tools ". I use it daily for a second job. I use it enough to understand they do not pay attention to their own site well enough to grasp how useless most of it has become. Firstly, the header takes take up too much space, the search parameters should be better focused on realistic distance of 350 mile increments, default should be NEW, NATIONWIDE, LOWEST PRICE.
Models not currently produced should be removed, and trim levels should be listed IN ACTUAL ASCENDING ORDER. Colors NO ONE MAKES should be removed, AND THEY NEED PROOF READERS TO MAKE SURE LISTINGS ACTUALLY HAVE WHAT THEY LIST ie... sunroof, leather etc ( cloth is not leather). They also add used cars to the NEW search you perform...WHICH IS JUST LAZY AND UNPROFESSIONAL.
The entire site could be uncluttered and cleaned up to actually operate quicker and smarter.

Date of experience: June 17, 2024
California
2 reviews
11 helpful votes
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I put two cars for sale on Autotrader...all the (fake) interested buyers are fraudsters and cons artist who are phishing. Autotrader needs to find a better way to filter these people out instead of just 'flagging' and telling consumers to deal with caution and sometimes they don't screen them right. I had five appointments so far that did not show up and no reply to text or phone calls after getting my home address and phone number. When I called to speak to someone at Autotrader management said they look like they usually are calling from other countries. After a week of nonsense, I called autotrader to get a refund on the $100 I paid for the two ads but she said according to their policy they couldn't do it. All that work and time spend and information about the car and downloading documents were a waste of time. This makes sellers feel unsafe.

Date of experience: September 3, 2023
Colorado
2 reviews
8 helpful votes
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Scams only
May 11, 2023

Save your money. Only responses I received were obvious scams, asking me to text info that was already in my ad, and never being specific about my vehicle. Will never use auto trader again nothing lasts forever, I guess. Waste of $50.

Date of experience: May 11, 2023
Spain
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
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Good job
April 12, 2022

My first car buying experience was made easy by a smooth transaction and very helpful staff, and the crew has given me their full attention to all of my car needs. Thank you once more for your excellent assistance!

Date of experience: April 12, 2022
Pennsylvania
1 review
2 helpful votes
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What an absolute waste of $49. If you are a private seller, the only thing you are going to get in your inbox is scammers and frauds. Go use a free resource like Facebook Marketplace. We sold our car in 5 days there. Repeat after me: Autotrader is HORRID!

Date of experience: January 15, 2022
GB
1 review
2 helpful votes
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Have nothing to do with Autotrader, their customer services is a disgrace. Informed me of impending large price increase of advertising which I rang up about either to cancel package or re negotiate. Package was agreed at approx £211 and order confirmation sent out, then they send an invoice for £350 declaring that re-negotiation did not take in the new price increases which I specifically re-negotiated on, then they have a cheek to insist on a 30 day cancellation period. Stay away, they would charge for the air your breathe if they could and the response from their advertising is poor.

Date of experience: May 8, 2018
Indiana
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
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Scam Shop
February 12, 2023

After placing the run until it sells I quickly noticed some things odd. Most replies to my ad had the same phone number with different emails and different names. The replies also, if there was more effort, would say the exact same thing "kindly what is the price and condition". Its in the ad with pics! After contacting Autotrader they replied with "we do not give refunds" "we filter all scams". At this point I have received 45 replies, not one of them are legit, I replied to roughly 35 of them and gave up. So if there was to be a real buyer he/she will be unable to purchase this rare antique. Try Facebook, I know, now have people that remember me and I have no clue.

Date of experience: February 12, 2023
Washington
1 review
2 helpful votes
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I listed my ad on Autotrader and a social media marketplace. I listed for a very reasonable price and while the marketplace offered many potential customers, Autotrader got me one scam email trying to 'send me a check'. I don't hold that against them, but taking my money and offering nothing helpful. Not cool, would not use again.

Date of experience: June 5, 2021
Connecticut
1 review
3 helpful votes
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Phishing responses only
December 20, 2021

I advertised my car for sale on Autotrader for a fee of $49. All of the responses I got were from "people" named Anonymous Buyer who gave their email address and asked me to contact them outside of Autotrader's msg platform via email. I had no legitimate responses. I assume they were trying to gain access to my email address. I replied back to each of them through Autotrader msg platform and didn't hear back from anyone. I got several legitimate responses through Facebook Marketplace and sold my car. Autotrader's fee of $49 was wasted money possible also dangerous. Facebook Marketplace was free and effective.

Date of experience: December 20, 2021
Texas
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Fraud attempts.
February 14, 2022

95 % of the contacts was fraud attempts. We got more serious contacts on Craigslist and even Facebook Market... Completely waste of money. I even contacted them 2-3 times telling that they could take all my email and I was happy to give them the fraud attempts phone numbers... No answers at all yet!

Date of experience: February 14, 2022

Overview

Autotrader.com has a rating of 1.9 stars from 126 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Autotrader.com most frequently mention customer service, complete waste and facebook marketplace. Autotrader.com ranks 564th among Car Buying sites.

service
36
value
35
shipping
10
returns
15
quality
28