Omni channel is the wrong direction - Senior Sales Consultant CarMax Employee Review

1.0
8 Jan 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

When I started in was a fairly good place to get a feel for the car business with some training and good customer opportunities

Cons

The pay was always low by car industry standards and if you wanted to make a career of car sales moving to a traditional dealer was always necessary. But omni channel will make working at Carmax not even worthwhile. First, it's a horrible fragmented experience for the customer who will first talk to some minimum wage call center employee that knows nothing about the business. The customer will then be pressured into an "express pick up." With this option Carmax doesn't pay it's salespeople anything, instead trying to force low paid hourly employees to be car salespeople. If that fails the customer will arrive for an appointment, only to discover the car they thought was on hold for them wasn't, and all the time they spend on the phone was a waste of time because they have to be sat at a desk wherein the sales person has to go back over everything they discussed with the call center. For this great help the sales person looses half their commission and the customer is set up for a redundant frustrating experience. It sucks for the hourly employees being pulled outside their role for no extra pay, it sucks for sales people that are loosing half their paychecks, and it's frustrating for the customer.

Explore other reviews about CarMax

5.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing benefits with 6% 401k matching and tuition reimbursement.

Cons

Highly reliant on the quality of management at the store location.

4.0
13 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The perks of working at CarMax are quite extensive. Associates are offered an aggressive 401k program, Stock Purchasing Plan, in store discounts on sales and service, access to the CarMax Wholesale system, excellent healthcare, plenty of PTO, and at my location we are given as much OT as we want. My coworkers are generally good people, that I enjoy being able to work along side day in and day out. Management is very understanding in regards to calling out sick family emergencies, and schedule requests.

Cons

Despite doing the work of 5 people, and very politely asking for a raise management will not give me more than my 3% annual raise which is the single biggest let down. The bonus change of 2025 being labeled as "exciting" was straight corporate gaslighting unlike anything I've ever seen. Since the start of 2026, as of this review being written we have lost 7 associates largely due to pay, and I am soon to join those associates. Management from the store level up to corporate needs to understand that to retain their top performers they need to be compensated like a top performer. Some members of management are cliquey and moody which is very frustrating to deal with. Quality of Management varies wildly from store to store as well

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