Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Bring A Trailer LLC's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

close

Find a Location

Bring A Trailer LLC has 2 locations, listed below.

*This company may be headquartered in or have additional locations in another country. Please click on the country abbreviation in the search box below to change to a different country location.

BBB accredited

Near

Country

USUnited States

Please enter a valid location.

Filter

• 

  Bring A Trailer LLC

  1300 17th st San Francisco, CA 94107

• 

  Bring A Trailer LLC

  3084 17TH ST San Francisco, CA 94110

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/07/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I won an auction for **** *** ****** car at Bring a Trailer (****************************************************************) 12/28/2022. I paid service fee of $1,875 at 12/28/2022 to ***. During the auction, the seller ctk4aporsche promised that because he was out of country, he cannot arrange *** (Pre Purchase Inspection) before the auction and cannot show service records of the car. (screenshot of the proof attached). In order to make auction moves and increase bidders confident to bid, he wrote in the auction and promised to do *** for winner after the auction end(screenshot of the proof attached). Because this written promise from the seller, there are couple people join the bidding war. I was out bidded a lot of times, but I increase my bid a lot and won the auction.I contact seller immediately after the auction end. 3 days after the auction ends (12/31/2022), the seller said he back home. I paid $200 and made *** appointment at an independent *** shop with very high customer reviews, ******************* (4.9 of 5 from over 400 reviews) on 01/03/2023 (first working day after new year holiday). The seller dropped car on time. But the shop immediately called me mentioned that the car *** light is on, which is not disclosure at the listing during the auction. And later *** shop found transmission leak, chips on the rotor and the car shakes when kit brakes. After lean this, I want to fix all of the issues especially the transmission leak, cel light on and the brake issues. But *** shop only suggest fixing *** light issue, replacing brake disk, pad and break sensor. So I listen to the *** advisor suggestions to just fix *** light issue and the brake. The seller paid $370 fixed the *** on issue. But the seller refused to fix the brake problem. *** shop gave me a quote of $1900 to fix the brake. The seller said he didn't trust the *** report about the brake. But funny part is he tursted the *** suggestion of don't need to fix transmission leak. So the seller didn't obey what his promised during the auction.I have no choice. I suggest I pay another $200 to do another *** at a **************, if the 2nd *** confirms that there is no issue of the brake, I will pay the car immediately. But after this, the seller didn't get back to me. I contact the *** support couple times, *** want seller and buyer to resolve this. Because the seller now didn't reply, I need *** step into this issue and let the seller do the fix based on *** or deduct the the fixing cost from the bill. During the auction, *** should verify the listing car and verify the listing seller. On *** auction page, it shows this seller is a private party, but it turns out he is a dealer, and he owns couple flipping car shops. As the buyer, I paid $1875 to ***. *** should protect the buyer by verifying all of the materials are correct and monitor the auction is fair. *** need to resolve this.

  Business Response

  Date: 01/13/2023

  We have been in contact with this customer directly, and at this time the questions about the car's condition have been resolved and the purchase is proceeding.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/24/2022

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  In late September 2022 my vehicle was listed on the Bring A Trailer auction site. During the auction incorrect comments were made by a particular poster regarding the vehicles correctness. The vehicle did not meet reserve and did not sell, so at the auctions conclusion I contacted Bring A Trailer on October 23 2022 requesting that my car's auction be deleted since incorrect information was posted that could and did hurt the vehicles future value. Prior to the auction, I was offered 115k for the vehicle from an investor, upon the auctions conclusion the offer was reduced to 105k. The investor owns many other vehicles and planned to resell the vehicle sometime in the future. But the investor was concerned that once he owned the vehicle and then went to sale it that the negative comments could influence potential buyers offers. So he reduced his offer to me by 10k. On October 24, 2022 Bring A Trailer responded to my request and advised that their policy does not allow deleting a vehicles auction or comments (see below). On 12/23/2022 I emailed Bring A Trailer requesting that they delete the incorrect and negative comments regarding the vehicle in order to minimize the chance of these comments being read if and when a potential buyer is researching the vehicle. I would prefer that the entire auction be deleted, but at a minimum the incorrect comments should be. Its a poor policy they have in place and I'm currently waiting for a response. FROM BAT October 24th: I have reviewed your listing's comment section and although some comments are more critical than others, none of the comments outright go against our commenting rules. You also received many positive comments about the car. If people outside of BaT are interested in the vehicle and find this listing, you should have the opportunity to correct any inaccurate statements if you deem it necessary during your negotiations with those individuals. Removing the more critical comments is not something we'd do.

  Business Response

  Date: 01/06/2023

  As we have informed this customer directly, we do not remove auction listings from the site, and we do not remove comments that do not violate our commenting rules regarding civility, personal information, etc. Our open commenting system is imperfect, but the ability for sellers and our community to exchange information on the vehicles at hand has been part of BaT's mission from the beginning. Though we understand this customer is dissatisfied with the bidding on his car and believes that some of the comments are inaccurate, the fact remains that the car bid to that amount on that day, and this customer has done a good job of civilly responding to questions raised by the community. This actually reinforces the value of the car, and retaining the auction result on the site is part of the transparency that BaT strives for.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/07/2023

   
  Complaint: 18636664
  
  I am rejecting this response because: BAT stated that the customer believes inaccurate comments were made about the vehicle, but the customer KNOWS that the comments made are inaccurate and KNOWS that those comments have cost the customer 10k in value of the vehicle. BAT and the customer agreed on a 125k reserve for the vehicle, but the final bid by a dealer fell well short of this due to the comments made during the bidding. A week prior to the auction the customer was offered 115k by an investor who intended to resell the vehicle, following the auction the same investor lowered their offer to 105K due to the negative comments made regarding the vehicle. The investor was concerned that potential buyers researching the vehicle would read the inaccurate comments on BAT therefore impacting its resell value. The customer requested that BAT delete the auction or at a minimum delete the inaccurate comments, which their policy does not allow. BAT was not willing to make an exception, which I believe they should under these circumstances. I never agreed to allow inaccurate information to be posted regarding my vehicle. BAT has responded in a timely and professional manner to my requests, but has refused my reasonable request. Potential customers of BAT should be aware that this policy could impact the value received for their vehicle, which it certainly did in my situation.  

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

  Business Response

  Date: 01/10/2023

  Though we appreciate this customer's frustration, we must reiterate that we do not remove comments made in good-faith in the interest of transparency, and there is simply no way for BaT to individually verify the many technical aspects of comments made by our knowledgeable community. Again, this customer has done well to address the comments made during the auction, and we would argue that actually increases the perceived value of the vehicle. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/12/2023

   
  Complaint: 18636664
  
  I am rejecting this response because: I understand and appreciate the *** reply, but an individual posted several items regarding the car during the auction which made it appear that the car was not restored correctly. Several of the comments were negative and incorrect, but by the time I could confirm the inaccuracies of the various comments the auction was over and the damage was done. Once negative and inaccurate comments are posted during a live auction, it places doubt in the minds of potential bidders, which will influence bidders in a negative manner and any potential future buyers researching the car. The high bid during this auction was far below the reserve *** and I agreed upon because of the incorrect information that was posted that I respectively requested be deleted and which they have refused to do. I understand that they have a policy of not doing so, but in this case I believed that an exception was warranted.     
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/10/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This reporting is a **** within itself. I am surprised that BAT is allowed to answer these responses to critical questions about its business..and that is it. Nothing further....period.
  They, BAT never do anything wrong, NEVER.
  I have been banned for almost 1 year because I asked the HARD questions of sellers, NEVER had I once asked anything with malace. I even sold a car with BAT. They are consumate at NOTHING. There are 20 year olds selling your MILLION dollar Mercedes. Nonnenberg is not even the owner anymore. You can NEVER get a real person, who gives a crap on the phone. I guess this will work till it doesnt. Rats and a sinking ship syndrome.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/15/2022

  Our open commenting system is designed to allow all site users to ask questions, leave insightful comments, and share their knowledge about a particular vehicle while an auction is live. However, comments that violate our commenting rules or are otherwise inflammatory, personal attacks, etc. are prohibited. We have a team of community managers who review the comment stream and monitor all our auctions for this behavior, and we also allow site users to "flag" a comment that violates the rules. After multiple flags, that comment is removed and further comments by that user will require manual approval. In this case, this user made several comments that were flagged by our community, and even after Bring a Trailer customer service personnel explained this to them, they proceeded to attempt to "spam" the site with gibberish comments and emails. Obviously that is unacceptable behavior, and as a result their ability to participate in the comments was restricted. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/23/2022

  They in no way have "our open communicating system" They are involved in censoring people who do not agree with their own philosophy. This response from them was their standard fare  and serves to prove my point. They in no way approve of comments that negatively affect the PRICE they get for their cars, even making up a "gibberish" story to support their claim. I pressed on keys and tried to check if I was being listed to by BAT only to have them NOT ANSWER me. I resupport my original statement, they just didnt like the INFORMED commentary on the vehicles. Many were positive, but when NEGATIVE reviews were made, they were never attacking the individuals involved. Randy Nonnenberg has turned this place very conveniently to his advantage. Again, by the comments in this section, THEY NEVER DO ANYTHING WRONG. This is a JOKE of an auction office. If you want a CLERK who is in his 20s to sell your 1 million dollar Mercedes, with only a list of questions for you to fill out, and NOT be a JURIED sale.......then go ahead.

  LW

  Business Response

  Date: 12/28/2022

  Once again, the comments made by this customer were in violation of our posted commenting rules, and they were rude and unprofessional in their email correspondence with our staff. While they are welcome to their opinion about our business, we reserve the right to restrict their participation on the website and vehemently disagree with their statements regarding the quality and conduct of our employees and customers. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/10/2023

  Bring A Trailer still has not answered the facts. One, They have a rating by the BBB of a little over 1 out of a possible 5. BAT NEVER does anything wrong as evidenced by their comments. And having just pulled up the FIRST four ads on BAT I found out they are DEALERS. Does anybody else see something dreadfully wrong here. Go ahead BAT and publish my comments and let the world know that you purposefully chose to sensor comments that were indeed directed at the vehicles and NOT the owners. I would never again join your organization no matter what you do. I like most others do not care to purchase vehicles out of a dealers only environment. Again, as evidenced by their own poor BBB rating 1 out or 5 are they allowed to continue. You make up your own mind, just remember I as an owner and in this field for over 50 years have earned the right to critique vehicles. I do not take this view lightly. If you have it for sale....it will be criticzied. There are two types of this......one is that you mamby pamby play up a bad vehicle to only appease the new owners and two, is the way I do it, trying to inform and not leading the new buyer down a PATH. I repeat, I have never attacked an owner just called out a car or two that was posted as nothing wrong. If the previous comment is false, why would I praise some vehicles on your site. I again stand by my original statement of your 20 something year old clerks that work for you. Do they fill out a form for listings? Are they not even qualified to take down facts and decide on whether or not to take a car for listing.Really what is the AVERAGE age of your CLERKS? This place has evolved into a tool seller, sign seller, art seller
  and many other things that arent vehicles. What vehicles that are sold are dealers......remember that 100% of the first 4 I viewed were that. Ok if you know that going in. By the way BAT, what percent of vehicles sold are dealer?
  
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/07/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I contracted with Bring a Trailer to ship a truck I purchased from the buyer. The truck was picked up by a third party car hauler. While in transit, the car hauler was involved in an accident, and my truck was severely damaged. Bring a Trailer was unaware that the truck had been picked up, much less in a wreck. When I informed them, they began to look into the incident. They helped locate where the truck was. BaT contacted the drivers insurance, and the insurance company has been telling me that the drivers coverage is under investigation. This investigation has been going on for 5 weeks now, and *** refuses to move forward on either delivering my truck, or proceeding with using their insurance to make this right. Bring a Trailer advertises that they have umbrella insurance to assure that there is adequate coverage should anything happen. But they have not done anything to resolve this situation. I have called and sent emails, and now, they will not reply. I contracted with Bring a Trailer, and not their third party. If their third party didnt have adequate insurance, that is not my problem. I was in contract with Bring a Trailer. So they need to make this right. I am hoping to leave lawyers out of this. But if Bring a Trailer wont contact me, I have little option. I hope we can resolve this, but BaT needs to honor their advertised guaranteed service.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/12/2022

  I have researched this situation on our end, and have been informed by our shipping team that there is an open investigation happening with Progressive, the transporters insurance. Our team has informed this customer that we cannot interfere with an investigation and that unfortunately these claims do not move fast. Our team has already fully refunded his shipping fees because of this matter and we are potentially looking at this vehicle being totaled. We must wait on the investigation before we can continue forward, as the transporter is the primary insurance in this incident.

  Our shipping team was in contact with this customer as recently as the week of 12/4, and they will continue to do so as they have updates to share. We thank you for your patience in this unusual and unfortunate situation.

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/14/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me so far. 
  

  But this is an issue that is still not resolved.  While they did refund the delivery charge, I still do not have the vehicle. It was never delivered.  Eventually the truck will have to be delivered.  Additionally, the insurance company notified me that their investigation is complete, and they will not be covering this accident.  The insurance company told me they notified BaT. I also forwarded a copy of the claim denial. So now it is back on BaT to remedy this situation.  I am hoping for a speedy resolution. And will update this in the future. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/02/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am angry and frustrated with my experience on Bring A Trailer. Below is a timeline of my experience.October 2: Submitted vehicle.October 10: Submission was accepted (why did it take 8 days?). **** charged $99.November 15: Auction went live (why did it take so long?)November 22: Auction ended.November 29: Vehicle picked up.Why did this process take 2 months?During the auction, I never heard from the auction specialist. Furthermore, commenters were not following the commenting rules. It's funny how many of the commenters have never bid on an auction.On November 29 at 1:15pm, I received a phone call from an unknown number. No voicemail. Another call at 1:42pm. I was informed that a driver was enroute to pickup the vehicle. I was supposed to be given 24 hours notice. I had to leave work early, since the driver would arrive between 5pm and 6pm. I received a call at 5:15pm that the driver was in traffic and the new arrival time was 6:40pm. At 5:36, I received a phone call that a transporter had been arranged. I notified her that a trailer was on the way. At 5:48pm, I received an email confirming the transporter. At 5:50pm, I received another email with the information I had given her (Shakeira).At 7pm, I tried to call the shipping company and there was no answer. I called BaT Shipping and voiced my displeasure. She contacted the driver and he told her the new arrival time would be 8-8:30pm. I told her this was unacceptable and demanded the driver call be directly. She told me the driver did not speak English. I spoke to the driver, but it was like speaking to a brick wall. He didnt understand anything I said. He finally arrived at 8:45pm. I asked to see paperwork. He did understand that and said no paperwork. He said app on phone. I asked to see the app on his phone. It did have both correct addresses, so I allowed him to take the vehicle.Due to everything I had to endure, I feel that BaT should issue me a refund of the $99.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/07/2022

  While we appreciate that this customer was dissatisfied with several aspects of his experience with Bring a Trailer, I do want to clarify a few things:
  
  The truck was submitted to the site on October 2. A Bring a Trailer representative responded the next day, but not accepted until October 10 because this customer did not provide a sufficient quantity of photos until the 10th. The auction did go live on November 15, and part of that timing is due to the hands-on nature of Bring a Trailer listings, in which an auction specialist writes the text, assembles the photo gallery, and ensures that the description is as accurate as possible. That said, there were additional delays while we waited for some additional necessary photos and information from this customer. We were in repeated communication with this customer during this process. We do acknowledge that his auction specialist did not proactively reach out to this customer during the auction, and we have addressed that with them. 

  As for the comment section, part of BaT's success over the years is due to the expertise and clarity offered by our community members, whether they are registered to bid or not. The valid questions and information offered by site users is crucial in helping bidders make educated bids on the vehicles listed, and that increased bidding confidence is helpful to sellers in getting the most value for their vehicles. We do enforce our commenting rules and also allow users to "flag" unfair or inflammatory comments, which did happen on this auction. 

  Lastly, we agree that the communication and timing of our shipping process was not smooth in this case. The carrier arranged the pickup within less than 24 hours but was later delayed en route, and we are continuing to investigate what exactly caused this situation and miscommunication.

  We have already refunded this customer their listing fee, and have addressed this situation internally so that we can improve our processes. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/07/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I did receive a refund for the listing. Please close this complaint.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/10/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Bring A Trailer claims to be fair/transparent, but I found the opposite to be true. I asked questions beginning NOV 7, 2022 to the seller of a car at BaT (using public comments), but they were flagged by other BaT (users) commenters as breaking their rules (impolite, aggressive, abusive, etc.). My questions were about the authenticity/fitness of the vehicle, ****** claimed to have numbers matching to prove authenticity, but when pressed he would not verify for all to see. That dropped the value in half. Many commenters directed me to talk to the seller privately, but I didnt think that would be transparent enough to others who wanted the same info to make informed bids.I had been deemed a bad actor by the admin and my comments began to get deleted. These were questions about the car, but they certainly showed the seller was misrepresenting.The other users did not like my questions and attacked me/my motives one by one. These are the user's that flagged my comments.Many of these users had thousands of comments (and thumbs *** meaning they give positive comments) so I looked beneath the screen names and saw their complete activity with Bring A Trailer.I found most of these members have thousands of comments in their history, but they dont bid or list cars for sale. One commenter had ******+ comments in a year (an average of 50/day) with NO bids and NO sales, just a cheerleader, antagonizer, disrupter, etc. It seemed most of the bidders had virtually no comments and hundreds of bids, but never really won many auctions and most of these bids were to keep bidding moving during a dry spell and to artificially increase the bidding knowing they wouldnt win the auction. It is so plain to see it is ridiculous. Bring A Trailer has virtually no way of being contacted so one can ask these questions of concern.The Attorney General should look into them and investigate my claims. I have uploaded JPGs of just a few of the users I spoke about above. Thank you.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/23/2022

  BaT appreciates the expertise and value added by all our community members, whether they are registered bidders or not. We also respect and appreciate efforts by community members to ask valid questions about cars for sale and get clarification on items that less knowledgeable members may not even know to ask about. That interaction is a large part of BaT's success. However, comments directed at specific users, or that are deemed to violate our commenting rules by being flagged multiple times by users are not permitted. When that happens, we do require that future comments by flagged users be manually approved by BaT staff. Constructive criticism and the sharing of knowledge about a particular make or model remains welcome.

  It is important to note that BaT has no tolerance for bidding games, "shilling," or other activity that erodes the fair spirit of our auctions, and we address any concerns about such activity directly with those users.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/29/2022

   
  Complaint: 18384630
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The business response was; BaT has NO tolerance for activity that erodes the fair spirit of our auctions. I sincerely wish that were true as I would like to use their auction site.
  
  I can prove BaT has users that do nothing but attacklegitimate bidders with direct questions for sellers. They have them flaggedby BaT admin (so they cant comment anymore), cheerlead the prices higher and higher and shill (acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice or encourage others) all sellers with idiotic positive statements that keep the auction moving along in a cheery manner. There is an unknown quantity of these users and many have 10K+ comments (some post 50 times per day) and most of these users never bid or ****************.
  
  Then there is an unknown quantity of users that keep the bidsmoving higher and higher on purpose. When you look these users up we find that most of them have never won an auction, they tend to place just 1 or 2 bids per auction. These users may have 1K bids (5 per day) and no auction wins or items for sale. They work in conjunction with the above cheerleaders.
  
  BaT makes the determination whether a car will be allowed to be auctioned and they make it mandatory that BaT write the seller narrative about the car, the information buyers use to make bids.
  
  Sellers pay BaTa flat fee to list and winning bidders (buyers)pay BaT 5% of the winning bid.  
  
  BaT has NO tolerance for activity that erodes the fair spirit of our auctions; to say this would be disingenuous at best
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************************

  Business Response

  Date: 11/30/2022

  As we noted earlier, BaT appreciates the expertise and value added by all our community members, whether they are registered bidders or not. Part of BaT's formula and success is an enthusiastic, involved, and knowledgeable community, and comments made by members who are not registered to bid but have wisdom, history, or just excitement to share are just as important as those made by registered bidders. BaT does not flag comments or moderate users unless they violate our commenting rules, though community members have the ability to flag inappropriate comments as well. 

  Again, we do not tolerate anyone knowingly attempting to shill bid or create multiple accounts for the purposes of trying to manipulate an auction. We would encourage any community member with concerns about that to contact us directly with specific information so that we can respond accordingly.

  Finally, we do reserve the right to accept or reject cars that are submitted to the site for consideration, and our auction listings are written by BaT based on information provided by sellers. We do not physically inspect any vehicles on the site. Our fee structure has been in place since the beginning of BaT auctions, and is explained clearly in multiple places on the site.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/25/2022

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am a member on the *** web site. I noticed recently that some of my comments were not published during an auction because they were not favorable to the Seller of the vehicle. Not in any way attacking the person or seller or making rude comments. The comments were professional in every aspect. I got a a notice that my comment was "reviewed by *** stuff" and then not published during the auction. If this is a public auction site which makes it money by transparency and makes it buyers believe that all issues have been addressed how can comments been reviewed. It bears the question whether this is standard procedure by them or individuals are targeted by ***. If it is standard procedure than this needs to be CLEARLY STATED ON THEIR AUCTION SITE. If individual accounts are targeted its discrimination.In another matter *** which is a CAR auction site discourages SELLERS to have PRE PURCHASE INSPECTIONS done and published during the auction.I am very curious why.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/26/2022

  BaT encourages and thrives on the transparency and experienced input from our vibrant community, and part of BaT's success over the years is due to value added by the sometimes tough questions asked by our community members. However, ****** critical comments, personal attacks, and other violations of our commenting rules are not permitted. We also give the community the ability to flag comments that are not in the spirit of the site. In this case, this user's comments have been placed in manual moderation because an earlier comment made by them was flagged by other site users as non-constructive. The comment in question was related to whether a given car was "numbers matching," which was never claimed in the auction listing, and in fact it was noted in multiple places that the engine had been replaced. A later comment was not posted as it was regarding a topic unrelated to the auction at hand and was an apparent attempt to discuss value or the vehicle's reserve, which is not fair to the seller.

  This ****** aggressive approach by this user was cause for concern from our community, and we will continue to monitor and approve in real time their future comments. Our community management team works diligently to monitor our comment section on a daily basis and to ensure that our standards and rules are being followed.

  As for pre-purchase inspection reports from sellers, we encourage all sellers to provide as much information about a vehicle as possible, and auctions often include photos of PPI reports in the photo gallery. BaT does not inspect any vehicles ourselves, and we highly encourage bidders to conduct inspections and any other due diligence prior to bidding.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/26/2022

   
  Complaint: 18313409
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  This is a standard approach by BAT. My comments were not flagged to begin with. I am one of the few experts in the field. 

  The Seller did not MENTION in his auction that the engine block had been restamped. He admitted to it after several members pointed it out. It is standard procedure onBAT not to claim number matching anymore. It states engine number matches documents or COA. The other members were not flagged. BAT removes comments and CENSORSHIPS their auctions. ALL my observations were very correct and did not offend at all.  I was only pointing out my observations.  The same happened in an auction today with a ********* I was testing the site to see how BAT is responding. Again I only stated facts and was in no way derogatory. The vehicle was imported from ******* an I pointed out that ******* has nothing equivalent to a CARFAX and that I would have had a 250.000$ vehicle inspected by *************************** in ********* before Exporting to the US. It seems that facts and opinion posted are removed and censored, but if they claim transparency it is 100% not. IT is CENSORSHIP. I would be surprised if I am the only person running into this problem. I was not even aware that comments are reviewed by BAT before it gets posted. I took photos to proove. 

  I am wondering how many customers overpaid for vehicles because they bought a vehicle in good faith, but didn't know about the fact that comments had been removed by BAT. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

  Business Response

  Date: 10/31/2022

  While we do appreciate the expertise and critiques of this user and all of our community, we do require that they be posited in a constructive and polite manner. Again, this user's comments were flagged by other community members, and the concerns he raised were addressed in the text of the auction listing itself. We do not censor users, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our commenting rules or are otherwise unacceptable. Now that this user has comments flagged by other community members, his future comments require manual approval by BaT staff until we can be sure that further violations will not occur.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/31/2022

   
  Complaint: 18313409
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Again this is not addressing the issue. I never ever mad non conceptual facts or made derogatory statements. 

   

  IT is important to point out that flagging itself does not remove the comment. IS So the Seller could flagl any message he does not like or his ******* could do. No that it is not how it works. It is removed by STAFF OF BAT. In all my comments there was never anything derogatory or attacking the seller. It was just simple pointing out defects or making suggestions. 

  IT IS A PURE CENSORSHIP WHICH IS AGAINST the COMPLETE IDEA PORTRAYED BY THIS AUCTION SITE. Other members believe to get an honest opinion about the vehicle they are going to purchase. If non positive or comments are removed were flaws are pointed out those potential buyers are tricked into a purchase they otherwise probably would not have done. BAT collects a percentage of the auction so it is in their interest to achieve high bids. 

  I am merely laying the ground work. I am wondering how many factual comments were removed in order to achieve a higher auction result in hundreds of thousand of auctions!!! Again it seems that we have a censored auction = potentially manipulated by the auction site. Very plain and simple. 
  The district general attorney should look into this. 
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/26/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Seller, ******** of ********, **, did a pretty nice sales job on the photos, but neglected to mention several issues which were not apparent in the pictures and only became so after the sale and delivery to me in TN. They are: Tailgate has taken a hit at some point in the past and so is not true with a bend in the middle;Multiple creases and dents on bodywork; ************* antenna; Stains on leather driver seat; Fisheyes and fading on repainted hood; Missing trim on drivers rear cab top; Air filter element had not been replaced, leading one to question other noted filter/fluid changes. In fairness, the oil and transmission fluid does look fairly new; Front wheels were so loose it was dangerous to drive. Vehicle needed significant front end replacement parts including new upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rods ends, adjusting sleeves, ****** arms and associated bushings.Whiles some of this is fairly normal when buying a used vehicle, the associated suspension issues were not expected on a truck with this low mileage. I dont mind doing the repairs, but the seller, ********, should have known better than to sell this vehicle as ready to be driven cross country without any hesitation. Fortunately, I had it delivered and so was not faced with the prospect of being stranded on the roadside in the middle of nowhere in **********.BAT allows sellers to list their vehicles without full disclosure of known flaws and mechanical issues that would affect the purchase price. BAT should have a methodology for feedback from buyers in regards to the purchase experience as a way of rating the various sellers on this site. Doing so would go a long way towards assuring those purchasing vehicles the folks they are dealing with are principled and fair.Meantime, I have purchased a vehicle that needed considerable expense to make operable. BAT and the seller, '********' should be responsible for that outlay.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/07/2022

  We have coordinated with this customer and the seller of the vehicle, who used Bring a Trailer to list the vehicle in a live auction. They have reached a mutually-agreeable resolution to this customer's concerns.

   

  Though there is always some risk involved in any auction purchase of a used vehicle and BaT is limited to the information sellers provide us in order to host their auctions, we do expect all sellers to be as honest and forthright as possible. 
  

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/07/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

  **** at Bring a Trailer was very responsive and diligent in helping resolve this issue with one of their sellers.

  His and BAT's assistance is very much appreciated.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/15/2022

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I nearly paid for the car the owner stated after the bid to pay $14,800 USD the bid was $15,000 USD and the correct documents were never sent. They won't send a **** of sale as requested by the website. I'd like to file a complaint.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/16/2022

  Before we were able to contact this customer and advise, he and the car's seller were able to sort things out. Sellers are advised to provide buyers with a photo of the title and a **** of sale prior to the transfer of funds.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/16/2022

  case number is ********. Cancel it please.