Today is my first time attending an auction, so needless to say I don’t understand how any of this works. To add to my ignorance of this place, it’s early Saturday morning. Many of the staff here were really rude and appeared to have no patience or grace with some of the public. The rudeness from many of the staff has definitely impacted my experience and I won’t be retuning.
very very unprofessional and racist! im a car wholesaler who deals with auctions throughout the whole usa and when i got there i knew it was a mistake once i seen the owner screaming at hispanic people for not speaking english very well and then asked me to translate “im not of the hispanic decent”? Then yells at me as if it was my issue they did not run their auction house right! please respect your customers. i gladly will take my business else where
Horrible company especially the owner Susie who stole $1000 for me after I had already paid for the car with a receipt and accuse me of lying when there employee clearly pocketed the cash . Complete waste of time but i will
Be calling and filling suit since they strong armed me and wouldn’t return my money or keep the car . HORRIBLE PLACE SHADY PEOPLE STAY AWAY ALL THEY DO IS SCAM. Purchased car for $9275 paid in full and according to them they gave me the “wrong change “ and forcefully took my money . And banned me from buying for there lack of common sense and racism
They have very friendly people that work their but they need better signs for first time buyers. You can get very confused on where to go in order to get a bidders number. And then where to pay if you win a bid. There's a $200 deposit if you win the bid and it has to be paid in cash. They charge 4% of the total sale price if you use plastic. We had to pay the 4% for the purchase and another 4% to get the tags because their ATM machine was out of money! This was pretty expensive. Make sure you carry A LOT of cash with you. Dangerous but that's what you need to do if you buy.
I would give no stars if I could. I have contacted the Better Business Bureau and the Illinois Attorney General's office as Clinton Auto Auction won't even talk about the issue. On April 15, 2023, my 16 year old son and my husband purchased a 2008 GMC Acadia from the Clinton Car Auction. They were not able to inspect the vehicle before bidding or before paying. Once my husband got in, it smelled terrible of mold. Since this time, we had two vehicle detail companies look at the vehicle. They wouldn't touch it. We had to save money to have mold remediation done by a professional mold remediation company on the vehicle. Once the remediation was done, we felt safe letting a mechanic look at it. Windows don't roll up and down, front vents, front headlights, interior lights, dashboard don't work. The mechanic looked at the vehicle on 7/13/23, and informed us of more serious problems that include a costly and work must be done by a dealership. He also thought that no dealership would touch this vehicle as it is a "flood car". There is rust all over the under carriage, engine, and under the seats. We were informed there should have been biohazard stickers on the car. There is no way the lady that drove that car down the line, I assume an employee of theirs didn’t smell it. My husband was so sick when he got
Home. It smelled like it had been sitting in a dirty lake. Not to mention during our arbitration with the Illinois Attorney General one of the owners Susie Schmid called me a liar about the State of Illinois Vehicle Insurance Database. BUYER BEWARE. And apparently according to Susie Schmid you are welcome to walk down to the vehicle in line and open the door to check it out. I have it in writing it isn’t posted anywhere.
Auctions are pretty entertaining, for the price of couple cups of coffee you spend a couple hours just watching the action, lively environment, most of the vehicles sold for a fair market price, some deals to be made for a buyer, the only downside from this visit was one of the auctioneers made the comment over the speakers, "if you guys keep paying cheap on vehicles, then people will stop bringing their cars here". People go to auctions to find a deal, so ya can't really be upset for people wanting to get vehicles at the lowest possible price.
My husband and I decided to go to the auction after haven't been going in over 5 years. Long story short we paid 1500 for a car with more problems than it was worth. Couldn't even drive it out of town. We got another one paid 900 in the whole frame was rusted. The auction just isn't what it was back when we used to come. I noticed that when I was there. I wish I had followed my first mind I wouldve saved us almost 3 grand. I can understand you buy cars as is but there is no way I would let that type of junk sale for the prices they were sold for. You live and you learn! I will never return! Be aware of titles that you have to wait on. I would not purchasr those vehicles they are usually ran through the aiction sevetal times because people nhad issues with them
I have purchased vehicles here for a great price,overall clean and auction site allows you to check the vehicles before bidding. Be ready to have a trailer just in case you need to haul it away since I purchased one with a bad valve and had no choice but to drive home that way but I new about the problem. All they need to improve on is the cleanliness of the bathrooms and more bathrooms.
In the earlier days it was a great place to buy a car. The cars were a lot more dependable so my two stars that I gave are strictly based off the earlier times. In the last two to five years their cars have really been terrible. The last couple of cars I purchased for my daughters I spent thousands and thousands of dollars trying to get the cars right but in the near end it was a loss anyway. I was in denial about the establishment I have been dealing with for so many years was now trash. As time went on the cars got worse and worse. My mechanics would ask me where are you getting these horrible cars from. I now just go to the dealership. Any car you purchase is a gamble but dealing with Clinton your gambling to lose.
Great. Love it. I have gotten cars there before. All good. Today missed out on BMW 650I. 2012. Only IL police seized car worth it. Went for around $19000. They have a good crew there and I love seeing the same employee faces. I trust them!!!!
First time at Clinton auction and did not have a good experience bet it on the wrong vehicle brought it to the gentlemen's attention immediately after wedding he still made me pay the $200 cash so when I went into the next building explain to the lady that I bet it on the wrong vehicle so they told me that was fine but I would be banded from the property and coming back to purchase but they also kept the $200 in cash that I paid the gentleman that would be taken off the purchase of the vehicle one side after bidding they would take the $200 off the purchase of the car but I did not purchase a car and they still kept my $200 so now I did not have a very good experience and it was my first time there but don't worry I will not be returning I don't know why and how they could keep my $200 when it is not in the contract that I signed that if I reneged on bidding on a vehicle that they would keep my $200 I don't think that it was very professional business like to do such a thing the option was still going on this was only like the 6th or 7th car that was brought through so I know that they just went out drove my car that I had met it on back through and sold it today to another buyer so they made $200 off me plus $200 off another buyer
I went for a first time to check out the auction from more than 2 hours away to get a lemon! I thought all vehicles up for auction that day was in section A. They described the general ruling as entering, but there is no indication of the condition of what is being auctioned off or what section it is in until after the deal is made! So those who are in search of a good value vehicle to drive away from the area safely should search elsewhere!
The process to buy and look at cars before auction was easy, the only thing I would change about it would be a better selection on vehicles some of those are mechanic specials be ready to have a tow just in case it doesn't run well. I bought a 2011 Ford flex and had to drive it on a bad cylinder for almost 3 hrs. I had no choice. The only upside it was clean well maintained and great buy overall.
it was good until the ending and all the fees ... they cheat you out your money. they say it’s one price and then another price the next. that little white lady had an attitude. they was giving different answers which was confusing.
Breathing brings the flu & cold into your body which killed 22,000 people last winter. This virus enters the same way. It has killed 536,999 in the U.S. & 2,598,848 in the world. No workers wore masks at this facility. I thought they cared about themselves and others, but they do not. 3 Americans died in the time it took me to write this.
These guys are awesome, easy to work with and very nice. All of our vehicles have sold here for what we were asking and some for more. It's easier than trying to sell them ourselves.
I go to a lot of auctions BUT this auctioneer (Lance) really makes the auction with his high energy. Definitely a rare breed and we had a fantastic time even though the car I tried to get sold for over my budget. We WILL be back.
Thanks for a great day!
This place is a blast was my first time this weekend. They have something here for everyone. Smooth check in process as well. They even have a off duty working for safety. If you know what your looking for it helps the process alittle better as well. Alot of fun definitely will come back. Only reason I give 4 stars they need to work on customer service when doing the title transfer. I was in line for over a hour I don't know why it took so long but no big deal I got a nice car but the lady was very ignorant. Once we got to the front finally she told all of us in line she wanted us to move to another line and she was gonna only help the guy in the back because he had alot of cars and she was done. Everyone looked at her and explained so we have to cut everybody else now? She walked away once agin came back a few minutes later and started to do the process of paperwork again. I don't care how many cars anyone bought we all waited in line don't refuse us service because we didn't buy alot of cars. Other than that Ihad a blast!
I've been here twice, the 1st time was almost perfect. The 2nd time I was the winning bidder on two cars. Paid the $200 on each ($400.00) one for me and one for my brother. The problem was he realized he didn't have his credit card on him. I advised the female at the counter. She said if you do not get both you can't get anything. My thought was that you would lose your $200.00. I tried and tried to explain however she was not listening. Two minutes later I said okay I'll just pay for both... She said it's too late and we will run the vehicles back through the auction. Ok 👌 To add she said I had to leave... So I lost $400.00. The morale of this story is this woman was having a bad day. A mistake was made and she went crazy. I hope she doesnt make a mistake and get abused and taken advantage of like I did. Keep in mind this was my 2nd visit... Didn't know lose 200 ok but 400? Smh
Check in staff was very friendly, being my first time, they explained all the rules to include "you can drive anything on the lot, just don't leave the lot, don't speed, don't run over anyone and put it back where you got it."
I was only interested in the school buses and quickly discovered there were no keys.
Went back inside and spoke to the owner and he said "we don't start the buses as the batteries are usually dead and my jump pack can't handle starting all the buses and still be able to handle anything else."
I asked if we could just see if any of them would start as I'm sure they all weren't dead, he finally agreed.
Sent a young guy out with the keys, we got more than half started, found one I was interested in and got half way around the lot for the young guy to stop me with a little bit of an attitude saying I couldn't drive the buses.
I explained upon check-in they said I could drive anything on the lot, he repeated that I could not drive the buses to go put it back.
I put the bus back where I started for another guy to come over yelling at me that the buses are not able to be driven. I explained to him what was said at check in, he kept yelling that the buses couldn't be driven and if I drove another one I would be escorted off the property.
I went in to speak to the owner again trying to explain what had transpired and he repeatedly cut me off and kept repeating that the buses cannot be driven and he bent the rules to even start them.
At no time would he listen to the fact of what I was told at check-in and that his employees had zero customer service skills, I quickly see why they don't know how to speak to a customer because he didn't have that ability either.
I demanded my $5 fee back and was told not to come back, although I had already decided that on my own.
Attended this auction in April. It wasn’t a terrible experience but it wasn’t great either. First off, we called ahead of time to get more information and when we got there the people at the desk gave us different information. Then we arrived early to test drive cars and we had a list going on the cars we wanted to bid on and they didn’t even give us the option to bid on them when the time came. Some cars even got pulled into the garage area then they said sorry guys we can’t bid on this one today without any explanation. It was pretty upsetting. Overall, it was an okay experience with cool people running it.
Cars was nice this time, but the registration ladies are so rude. I’m 5 months pregnant and I just wanted to use the restroom while my boyfriend waited to get a car and they wouldn’t let me because I did not have my ID.
Recently went to a Saturday auction. I went for the items that were sold after the vehicles, police seized electronics, jewelry etc. This was starting at 1:30 so I didn't get there until around 1, since I had no interest in the cars. What turned me off was the lady at the front said they were out of the inventory papers. So go print some more? What's the problem, do you guys not have a printer there? Just thought this was kind of absurd, items are going for thousands of dollars and there aren't enough inventory lists for demand? Will try again in the future but this made the experience pointless.. I can't bid on something when I don't know the details.
We brought cars here to be sold, they didn't which is fine it happens. The lot os 90 percent mud. Of the 3 cars we had there they let the tires go completely flat on one, on one of the others the badges were stolen and it looked like they scraped the front bumper on something, badly. All 3 were shoved in the very very back of the lot. The people there are fairly nice but need to step up there game.
My gran daughter was in need of a good used car @ which time we attended the Clinton Auto Auction on Sat July 16 2016.We were able to acquire a late model Hundyi car for a very good affordable price. We consulted Lance regarding her needs & was very pleased with his integrity & help in acquiring her car. The Staff was of great help also.When I need another used car I will definitely return to Clinton Auto Auction.
From an 80 year old Grandpa
We had a great afternoon of looking at and driving cars the day before and the staff was very helpful...
The auction was a lot of fun and again the staff was very friendly and helpful.. And on top of all the fun and friendship we got a very nice vehicle for less than 1/2 of a dealers cost..
I will be back for sure.
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