CarMax sold my reserved Tesla after I had already completed the test drive and scheduled pickup. Is this normal?
I’m trying to understand whether this is normal for CarMax or if anyone has experienced something similar.
I found a 2024 Tesla Model 3 at CarMax Fremont and went through almost the entire purchase process:
Reserved the vehicle
Paid the transfer fee
Completed the test drive
Authorized the inspection
CarMax found a few issues and kept the car to complete the repairs
We scheduled my appointment to return and complete the purchase
A few hours later, I received a notification that the car had been reassigned to anothers branch customer.
I immediately contacted the store and was told that the situation might still be resolved once the vehicle reached its destination. I waited for updates over the next several days, believing they were trying to recover the vehicle.
Instead, the car was sold to another customer.
Customer Relations later offered only a refund of my transfer fee and up to $500 toward another transfer. The problem is that comparable 2024 Model 3s in CarMax inventory are now several thousand dollars more expensive, so that offer doesn’t actually put me back where I was before this happened.
I wasn’t asking for a discount—I simply asked CarMax to provide a reasonably comparable replacement vehicle, since I had already completed nearly every step of the purchase process. That request has been denied.
Has anyone experienced something similar with CarMax?
If you work for CarMax, I’d also be interested to know whether this is expected policy or whether something clearly went wrong in my case.
I’m currently pursuing the matter through Customer Relations and other consumer channels, but I’d genuinely like to know if this has happened to anyone else.