Help needed: Carmax want me to pay them $5000 after sold them my car months ago

Long story short: I sold my leased car to Carmax a few months ago and now they wanted me to pay them $5000. Try to find a solution but they don’t want to discuss anything. Googled and found this site. Thanks very much for any suggestion!

My situation:

Want to get rid of the leased car and also get some money a few months ago, so I went to a carmax store to ask about selling my car to them. They gave me a very good price ($18000) to sell the car to them and they also called the leasing company (VW credit) to get a fax about payoff price for the lease ($14000). As a result, the store offered me the difference ($18000-$14000=$4000) to take the car. And I am very happy to take the offer and sold the car to them.

After a few months, I realized that my lease account is still open and I am stilling paying the monthly lease to VW. I have to call the Carmax store to ask them. They told me VW credit gave them the lease payoff price ($14000+) when I was at Carmax store, and when they tried to pay off the car, VW credit gave them a much higher price ($19000) and I have to pay the difference ($19000-$14000=$5000). I argued with them that the payoff price of $14000 was got by Carmax from VW credit (Not me). So there is something wrong either at VW side (send wrong payoff price) or Carmax side (quoted wrong payoff price). But they didn’t want to discuss this with me and just said the case was send to corporation office and out of their control. And I don’t heard any feedback from corporation office.

I checked back my contract with Carmax and it indicated that I am responsible for any extra amount that Carmax need to pay to the leasing company. So it seems I need to pay the $5000 following the contract. It makes me feel very bad that Carmax or VW did something wrong, but I need to pay for it. I feel like I was fooled by Carmax.

Any people with similar experiences? I want to discuss a solution with them (I can pay some amount to them, less than the $5000; Or I can cancel the transaction, take the car back and give their $4000 back). But the store didn’t want to discuss a solution and just want me to discuss with corporation office, which didn’t give any reply.

Any suggestion is high appreciated!

Thanks very much!

Was there any document stating your payoff or did you view the payoff on your online account, before selling the car?

I’m not certain how VFS works with payoffs, but I know that it is not uncommon for a dealer purchase amount to be different than what you would be able to purchase the car for (from VFS).

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Yes, the $14000 amount is my payoff amount. I didn’t know the dealer payoff price is much higher in VW credit when selling to Carmax. And after about three months Carmax told me their payoff price is $19000 and they didn’t want to answer why they got a much lower price from VW when I was in their store and selling my car. Learn it in a hard way.

Thank you very much! Exactly the same situation. This is very helpful! I have message the user to see if I can get some suggestion.
The issue now is that Carmax didn’t want to discuss any detail with me~

You weren’t fooled. The person you were dealing with just didn’t know any better. You could try to escalate this to higher ups, but they’re going to tell you that it’s well known that VFS gives third parties higher payoffs than lessees. Just buy the car out yourself and then sell it to Carmax…

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How does it work if Carmax has sold the vehicle on? presumably they couldnt until they had received the title from VW? - which they wouldn’t have because the lease account was still open and OP was making payments. ??

So OP could very reasonably ask to unwind the deal and insist they take the car back? Puts Carmax in a very awkward position if they dont have the car sitting on a lot somewhere.

The only entity that fooled you and many consumers is VW credit.

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Made a few calls today and here are the updates:

  1. Called the Carmax store again and they said the corporation office has send the second check to VW credit so it is not possible to cancel the transaction and get back the car. I told them my lease account is still open so the car is not paid off. They said they will ask corporation office reply to me.
  2. Called VW credit again and after talking to a higher level staff, they found the second check (the $5000 payment from carmax) which was send to them a few weeks ago but they didn’t put into system for some reason. They said everything is good in their side now and they will close my lease account soon.

I am not sure what I can do now. It seems Carmax has agreed to pay higher payoff to VW and it is not possible to get back the car. If they don’t want to investigate this (why they got a lower payoff in first quote) and just want me to pay the difference, or send the amount to collection. Seems there is nothing I can do? Any suggestion is highly appreciated!

Thanks very much!

Carmax wants you to pay VW financial or they want you to write a check to carmax?

Does VWFS have record of the payoff quote they sent to carmax?

Not yet. They didn’t contact me at all. I found my lease account is still open months after selling to them so I called Carmax store to ask. The store manager told me it was handled by the corporation office and “think” I need to pay them the difference amount.
I am worried that they won’t discuss with me and just send me a statement later or send this to collection directly. So I am trying to talk to them first and find a solution before I have to pay the $5000.

Just to clarify, you have not received any formal request from Carmax for payment for the extra $5k, just the store manager saying “corporate is handling it, but you may have to pay the extra”?

Correct, no formal request for the extra $5k. store manager saying “we need to pay more to get the car so you need pay us the difference to pay off the car from lease company". I said it is not my fault so I won’t pay the $5000 but I can try to find a solution with them. Then she said "corporate is handling it” and don’t want to discuss any details or solutions. And no other people contact me. I am worried that they just send me a statement later or send this to collection directly.

By the way, for your first question, you mean the old payoff quote when I was at Carmax store? I didn’t ask VW about this. But I can confirm it is a fax send to the carmax store and the amount is $14000+. May I know what I can ask from VW to help my situation?

They have to first request payment before they can send you to collections.

VWFS should have some record of the fax that they sent to carmax with the buyout price on it.

My understanding for these company is that there are two separated departments, one handling the case and one dealing with payments. If this case is finished and send to the payment department, it won’t investigate or discuss anything, just payment for the statement. So I want to discuss this with case department before it is send to payment department or collection.

Thanks! I will request the fax from VW credit but may I know how I can use it to argue with Carmax, if the buyout price is $14k?

Super curious what ever happened with this?

Hopefully the OP read the link posted to a similar situation because in that case VW acknowledged their incorrect quote of the payoff and ate the difference.

If VW closed his account like they said I would say let Carmax learn a lesson, worst case they’ll ask a collector and OP just need to develop thick skin so phone calls.

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