Bring A Trailer Reviews 

I purchased a vehicle through Bring a Trailer (BaT) and utilized their checkout and delivery service, which proved to be a massive mistake. Upon delivery, police intercepted the carrier because the driver was transporting a stolen vehicle and narcotics alongside my car. During the subsequent investigation, it was discovered that the VIN tag on the car did not match the original tag shown in the auction listing.

Despite the severity of this issue, BaT’s customer service was non-existent. They have no phone support, and my multiple emails went completely ignored. Furthermore, their 'checkout service' acted as a middleman dealer that delayed my title for an entire month, rendering the car undriveable. Because the transaction was processed through this third party rather than the private seller, I was hit with significantly higher dealer-related taxes and fees. Once BaT took their cut, they completely abandoned the buyer.

The car also had bubbling paint due to some rust (not pictured or mentioned), several fuel leaks, a dipstick that was cut off and didn’t touch the oil, and the clutch went out on the first actual drive once I finally was able to get it registered.

I am not surprised at all of the other one star reviews after my experience.

EDIT: In response you your reply, @BaT:
I already emailed that email address multiple times with no response. Maybe actually check and respond to emails. Another thought…. Why not have a phone number a customer that is spending thousands can actually call? Why would I waste my time sending another email that will not be responded to. Respond and take action on my first emails sent months ago, and I will happily update my review showing that you tried to make it right.

BAT is BULL.....Today it was an 06 BMW M5 that supposedly sold for $150,5555 there is no way in hell that was a real bidders who will actually close, and when I posted a few comments after that auction about my skepticism they were abruptly removed what the hell is going on here bat?

Many beautiful cars however the auction process is flawed. It seems to be run by a group of dealers that puff each others listings. Comments tend to be skewed towards glowing reports versus neutral observations regarding features of the listing that bear further examination. It’s definitely buyer beware here as often negativity is masked in order to sell the vehicle. Truly disappointing.

Scam website, you have zero protection. They block all helpful comments from people about condition of the vehicle that may help you to avoid mistakes.
They only carried that seller gets top price.

Potential buyers should look at the reviews for Bring-A-Trailer. I find it odd that you can leave questions asking the seller to disclose specific mechanical and bodywork issues and the seller can totally ignore the questions. If you don't want to expose issues, just don't answer questions right. Best to Read the reviews.

Allowed these blatant liars and trolls continue to make comments w/false information, lies, unwarranted attacks & made up bs to sabotage the sale of my vehicle. Even after the auction has ended this is going on! This entire experience, from before the auction went live to even after it's over, has been nothing but a headache, waste of time, disgusting and disturbing experience. BAT did the opposite of generate real interest or buyers. Actually did the opposite. I believe this bs will now hurt any future ads I post for my carThey also blatantly refused to remove clear bs comments even after being flagged. To top it off, they removed some of MY comments that were anything but attacks. They have also gone non-responsive after they got my money.

I was scammed by an unscrupulous dealer. I paid top dollar for a motorcycle which was completely misrepresented, and lost 50% of my $8700 upon realizing its true value when assessing the problems it had when I received it. The dealer was one of BaT's long-time alumni dealers. They make huge profits off these dealers. BaT requests that all dealers and private sellers are 100% transparent about the overall condition of their vehicles. My bike had fuel leak problems from the petcock as well as many long gouges in the paint which were touched up. These issues were not addressed by dealers. I contacted the dealer, and they denied that the bike had issues before it left their dealership. Since it took only 7 days for it to arrive at my home, there's no way that the dealer's private shipper made five long gouges in the front fender then touched them up. Nor would the fuel suddenly begin leaking in that short period of time. They gave me their shipper's name, phone number and email. I attempted to ask the shipper about the pre-shipment condition of the bike by phone and email. They refused to answer me, even after one week of attempts to get an answer. No pre-shipment inspection list or photos were available for me to see when the bike arrived. Here's how bad BaT is...I made truthful comments about my experience with that dealer on one of their other bike auctions, and BaT banned me from making any remarks on their site, no matter what was being sold or who was selling it. BaT didn't like me being truthful about one of their pet dealers, obviously. Interestingly enough, I found another buyer who had a worse experience with the same dealer. What I was banned for must have raised some eyebrows, because that dealer went off the radar from BaT's auctions. Another note. BaT refused to remove the dealer from their site, and didn't assist me in the least with my problem. I'm 71 years old, and you can bank on my truthfulness here.

The auctions themselves are great, and selling a vehicle on BaT is actually kind of fun. But, once the vehicle is sold it's not as represented. BaT touts their checkout process, and the buyer told me it seemed like the only option for payment (very misleading). The 3rd party vendor they use is unresponsive and has a needlessly complicated and time consuming process for paying the seller. Payment was needlessly delayed.

A no reserve auction (by a well known BAT seller) i’m bidding on was supposed to end today at 3pm EST. It was then extended to 5pm EST due to “outages.” Then extended again 24 hours later. BAT claims it is because of outages affecting all auctions but many other auctions ended today on original time.

Not to mention, 1 of the commenters stating there were outages and its affecting listings also happens to be bidding.

Seems fishy to me.

Any action under $15k is considered a no reserve auction. When asked if I had to honer bids under the value of my vehicle there was complete silence. I have transcripts showing that after the auction started, I would not accept any offers less than $10k. Silence, the car sold for $6500, the money i have in this car is $9500. Not taking a hit, refused to sell it, my option, not theirs. Well they blacklisted me which is fine, don't need them. Please do not waste any of your time with these guys. Bunch of penny pinching customers who expect to pay unrealistic values for your classic and customer service sucks to say the least.

Is anyone else tired of all the "additional security" websites are implementing to they can do less verification and provide minimal value for the fees they charge?

BAT has long had a history of providing a market for privately held unique (in most cases) vehicles at high prices. It is definitely built for sellers.

I purchased a vehicle using BAT in 2022 and paid their overpriced auction fee for literally listing some photos and information on their site. I had to do all the coordination with the seller, logistics to transport the vehicle, and took all the risk sending payment over a wire to the seller.

If BAT is going to charge such a high commission and provide no value then their business will fail as soon as the market turns which I expect it to do so soon.

It was fun while it lasted BAT but there are other more friendly auction sites for vehicles that I will use from here on out.

As this review site does not allow me to paste my actual review in question I will write what I wrote then:

I am beginning to get somewhat concerned and disappointed about the free flow of honest comments and information that is flagged by the “moderators” of this site and in this case of a post I made here with about two days left in this auction - that was not allowed. Firstly, as an owner of not one but two nut and bolt restored gold award-winning 1953 Skylarks I had made a comment about hoping the seller got as much money as possible for his beautiful automobile while making what ended up being a fairly accurate prediction on where the price would end up. I put to you BAT and dare you to not only allow this comment here to be posted but to respond in kind. I and would predict that many others would like to be assured that you’re not yet another victim infected by the “safe space” pandemic at the cost of cancelling honest, accurate, relative and productive conversation.

Bring a Trailer unfortunately cancelled my post as written. Makes me wonder- just like the news these days - what they’re not telling you. Market manipulation? Disappointing in the very least. Just sayin.

Bring a Trailer is terrible. I have been involved in multiple auctions, and the seller has had multiple accounts and bid on the car to drive up the purchase price. I contacted BaT, and they confirmed that the bidding was coming from the same IP address, but they never did a thing about it.

They do zero validation on sellers. So if a seller does a bad job with an auction, misrepresents the car or something, and gets called out on it. If they want to list another car, they just open a new account, so you won't see their past auctions.

I purchased a car on the site, and the car was completely misrepresented by the seller. "Does it have any leaks? No, nothing is leaking. I received the car and could barely find one thing that wasn't leaking. I am now about 10K into repairs on it. I blame myself as I took their word, but what Bring a Trailer does a horrible job on is not allowing buyers to provide feedback on the seller after the purchase. They need a seller reputation score and the ability for other buyers to see reviews of how past buyers' purchase experiences were. I reached out to Bring a Trailer multiple times after the purchase and never got a response.

Went to advertise my car, it’s not some type of regular mass produced vehicle, got told by Bring a trailer I could ONLY list it without a reserve.
They pushed it on 4 emails.
Don’t listen to them!
I’m not the only person
Bring a trailer is only out for sales
commission, will NEVER use that platform ever again!
They wanted me to sell my vehicle at 4 times below book price!
Avoid

Avoid this place. My experience was extremely disappointing. Vehicles sold here can have serious hidden problems, and you’re essentially bidding without knowing what you’re really getting. When it comes to selling, they pressure you to set a very low reserve so the car sells quickly—benefiting their commission, not you

Want to buy someone’s polished disaster of a failed project for the price of a clean car? Where the seller states’ hard hot starts’ but really means ‘engine is blown to hell’ or ‘minor fender bender’ but really means ‘car was totaled’. And good luck getting in contact with the bat customer service, non existent. You can get the same car on marketplace without the mark up and/or headaches.

This company is an absolute disgrace will try and sell your car at the lowest price possible what do they care what you sell your car for all they want is there commission this company should be investigated for shady business practices and shut down

I have been a fairly long-time participant in BaT, 5 years or so now and I have expert knowledge and huge experience in specialist marques. The level of censorship on BaT when that experience is being given for potential buyers to watch out for the traps they can easily fall into is shameful and the feeling that all the BaT team is looking for is commissioned staff pushing for maximum sales commission is tangible.
I have recently bid on a couple of vehicles and it was obvious that at least one was being bid up by a 'shill', whether it be an autobot, or just someone being mischievous. Same nonsense comments, as detailed by other Trustpilot contributors, goading the bidders, but when checking the suspected shill's background, loads of mid-level bids on a broad range of vehicles with about a one-month history. No sales, no purchases, no substantial input.
I raised a flag to BaT - forget it - ranks closed and all my comments are continuing to be reviewed by staff.
I really don't care any longer - BaT legitimacy is in the toilet and it's only a matter of time before this is more broadly exposed.
I have no intention of future bidding after the past two events experience, because the pattern is repeated all over the place once you look a bit more closely and there's already something pretty odd with a) the number of completely run-of-the-mill standard vehicles capturing prices way over what they are worth and b) the number of 'No Reserve' auctions on 'good' vehicles which others are regularly pointing out.

Whatever riposte you care to place, BaT, only continues to underline your 'teflon-shoulders' and real lack of a fair and open process. I expect it will be another 'AI' generated bucket of bile. Yawn...
The process only seems to serve you best and those sellers/buyers in your 'inner clique'.
The clock is ticking down on this house of cards - as the old saying goes, 'There's a fool born every minute'...

First hand experience here. Purchased a 1991 land cruiser. The seller took pictures of the car and purposefully did not put pictures of the items that were in bad shape. The cracked dashboard was shown as a minor crack ( turns out i could fit my whole hand in the dashboard from the other side), he took a picture of surface rust on a small section of the exhaust pipe ( did not show that a whole section was rusted badly). I contacted BAT and they said he showed the items.. well he did show pictures but not the actual extent of the damage. Purposefully did not take pictures at the right angles. I wouldn't use BAT again knowing they side with sellers while clearly misrepresenting the items.

Selling dealer was helpful with transportation & paper work, but did not disclose some items that did not function. Dealer didn't even have lift to get underside pictures. Most used car dealers put some effort into detailing their product, not with this car. Leaves & woodchips in cabin & trunk, French fries in map pockets.