Bring a Trailer Reviews

It took you three weeks to begin processing the listing after getting the photos and only after I complained. They greatly overexposed the photos making the car look a lot worse than it actually does - this seems to be a buyer friendly tactic but one that sellers should be very aware of so they avoid using your site. I had been warned about this by another seller and he was 100% right. These guys only care about the buyers. Their first step was to ask me to do more work taking photos after I bought the professional package because I DIDN’T WANT TO TAKE PHOTOS and would not do a good job. It was clear that their guy knew what he wanted but not where it was nor what it looked like as he gave me bad directions and then told me that since I couldn’t find it he couldn’t list it with the information.

The manager got on the thread after I complained about making this my problem and recognized I HAD found it but needed the other side of it which I did my best to send. So I had to do MORE pictures. I submitted the car on May 23. The auction went live on July 11. 49 DAYS. I paid for premium service and instead still ended up doing a ton of work to get the car listed. They should have offered to refund all or a portion of my photo package after the 3 requests for more photos but their poor understanding of good service continued. If I could give 0 stars I would.

For two days, I received no communication from BaT, so I had to reach out to them myself. When they finally got in touch, I informed them about my planned trip to Europe, scheduled for May 15th. Unfortunately, they ignored this information and didn't contact me until May 12th, completely disregarding the fact that I had already prepared my luggage. It was impossible to expect the car to be delivered from South Carolina to Indiana in just two days, and the risk of me not being there was too high. I returned on May 30th, but BaT hadn't scheduled anything to ensure a prompt delivery of the car. I had to wait until June 8th to finally receive it.

Adding to the frustration, the driver didn't provide me with at least an hour's notice before arriving (I asked for that in the shipping notes). I had to rush to reach the drop-off point, which was not conveniently located since I was working in another area. Despite selecting a large parking lot for an easier transfer to the shipper, the driver parked the car along a busy road instead. Furthermore, BaT had promised me a tracking service for the car's journey from South Carolina to Indiana, but they never provided it. Every aspect of this process went wrong, and I had expected at least some reimbursement for the pain, but nothing happened. I will never go through this again!

As a result, my requests were ignored and my last requests to cancel were deleted entirely from the record trail of messages. This they told me this "hiding of my pleas" was so they did not upset the other bidders. They wrote me later and completely left out mention of my requests to give up my bid to another and then to cancel. I got charged 4700.00 for winning bidder fee for a car I did not want to buy, and I should not have won. They offer no other avenue to communicate with the staff other than auction messages until the next day when they contacted me. And it is important to keep in mind, they are only offering a service, they do not create a binding contract between buyer and seller. They collect their fees regardless of whether they accurately provide an auction result, as was the case with me. I was not buying a car at that point before the auction ended, and BAT knew that! And so did the buyer.

1. Customer service is HORRIBLE. Good luck getting them to answer emails. They either do not, or can take hours/days. Hours don't seem so bad, however, when time is of the essence, minutes and hours can be a very essential component in the selling process of one's vehicle. It can be a make, or break situation.

2. The picture submission process is grueling. BaT wants 100 plus photos. Not a big deal, although it will take a day, or longer worth of work on the seller's end. And submitting the 100 plus photos does not guarantee that your vehicle will be accepted. In many cases, this just becomes a strenuous labor of love for many.

3. These "young kids" who are managing/running BaT, who appear to be computer/tech savvy, but have little to zero experience with selling vehicles. These are the people who are listing your prize possessions. These are the people that are forcing low reserves, or they will not list. Why??? And again, who are these people? High school students working a summer job? College students working a side hustle? The millennial sitting in Mom's basement?

If BaT were more transparent about this end, perhaps it would give sellers and buyers more confidence in using their site. This being said, due to BaT's lack of transparency, the listing staff experience is very questionable. Who are these people? Seriously, as they are the sole person(s) responsible for the success, or lack thereof regarding the sale of one's vehicle. I will get to our personal experience in a moment.

4. The BaT community is riddled with users who live on the message boards leaving senseless comments that are mostly untrue and do nothing but hurt the sale of one's vehicle. Too many in the community appear to be the old beer fart sitting on their couch in their tidy whities (Walter White style). Ironically, almost 80% of the people who make these insane comments claim to be "former racers", or "avid collectors", or "top notch restorationists" wanting to brag about themselves. But when you click on their profile, they have never even bid on a vehicle, or purchased a vehicle. These people are nothing but a nuisance to the auction process. And BaT allows this.

We recently listed a vehicle on BaT. No reserve. It sold for way too low. So low that the person who won it was shocked. But, fair and square the winning bid got the vehicle. What I will say, is that some of the comments were very damaging to the sale and had NOTHING to do with the validity of the vehicle. If the comments were true and held merit, then that would have been one thing, however, the few negative comments were false and defaming to the vehicle. Even though there were mostly positive/glowing comments, it only takes one, or two negs to disrupt a buyer's top end purchase price.

Crazy us, we decide to give BaT another shot. I wish now that we would have gone with the first experience and RAN FOR THE HILLS. We should have sold the vehicle privately, or used another auction site. Well, as we have seen from other sellers' reviews, there tends to be issues with vehicle titles, or proof of ownership. Where I see the disconnect in selling with BaT, they should get all of this information upfront from the seller, i.e. Vehicle title/proof of ownership. Let's face it, a lot of very nice vehicles that are worth boatloads of money are being listed and sold on this site daily. There are far too many trolls wishing that the said vehicle was theirs.

In our case, this wack-job contacted BaT and said that the vehicle we were selling was theirs. LOL... WOW. With ZERO proof of ownership. Yet, BaT, decided it was in the best interest of the seller and potential buyer to remove the listing. What a HUGE WASTE OF TIME!!! The decision was made even after we sent proof of ownership! This further confirms ours, as well as others' experiences regarding the experience/validity of the listing/auction staff at BaT.

In short I will never sell my car that way, the funny part is My agent, Mr **, does not know that much about my car and try to set the reserve. I guess they are the owner not me or you, I am a collector. I have a few old cars, and I know well what they worth, all I can say Guys be careful!!!! BT is not what they advertise! Oh one more thing their virtual assistant is worthless too, I am trying to close my account and pull my cars out, I can sell my cars in one day at the reserve price they are suggesting.