Pickles Auctions

Please see extract of response from Pickles, by review from my husband below:

"Please note that....We sell on behalf of our Vendors (asset owner). We do not service or modify these assets as they are sold in as "as is, where is" condition. We also do not warrant the condition of the assets (vehicles), nor do we undertake mechanical inspections of these assets."

My husband received an email from Pickles that looked like it was for staff and it reads as follows:

Pickles Auctions now has the delegated authority to approve expenditure up to $1500 for the following items:

- keys
- minor mechanical repairs
- cleaning and detailing
- minor exterior touch-up
- safety and worthiness fixes

If Pickles Auctions determines further rectification and refurbishments costs would be required to increase asset value or saleability, they may apply to have costs approved....

Pickles Auctions must manage the asset expenditure to a minimum, only spending money to increase saleability and return where responsible to do so.

Pickles Auctions will manage asset sales to achieve the best possible result for customers....

Started bidding for a vehicle online, end time for the auction was 1:00pm. Two minutes Earlier I was out bid and remaining time changed to 3 minutes. I bid again and the remaining time appeared 9 minutes. I was outbidded within next 5 minutes. Now it is way pass 1:00pm. By the time auction finished it was 10 past 1 PM. This is very shonkey and cheap way to run business. I will be reporting this to fair trading soon. I would recommend all victims registering their experiences to fair trading. This is zero star service. They steal petrol, foot mates and for some reason spare wheels are always worn out. ....

Didnt realize that the salvage vehicle that I purchased at auction was advertised as noisy engine, when I went to pick it up the engine was shot.Pickles withdrew the sale and gave me a full refund Amazing service Thankyou

Pickles lied to me after selling a car with major fault in it. Car Gearbox was gone. When I contacted pickles they said bec i driive the car away from pickles they won’t take it back. In reality I had towed it. When I told them I towed it. Then they said because you serviced the car they won’t take it back. How does that make sense. It sounds to me as if they ripped me off..

Hi guys,

be very cautious when buying from pickles auction as I got very bad experience today. so below is my experience describe. I am from Sydney.

I purchase Toyota Kluger from Pickles Sunshine Branch. bought it on online auction. Made full payment same day they received payment next day. Send someone to Melbourne from Sydney to pick up the vehicle. while picking up found out things are missing from the car and wasn't describe on report. they gave us 2 choice.
1. they will refund full money including deposit.
2. or they can give me credit of $300.

where I accepted option 1 and they asked to send email to Person called Alexander Silver account manager. and Email was sent on the same moment to Alexander. since then they didn't return the money to my account and keep telling me they have done the transfer this morning. since one week they are saying same thing.

now today they said the missing parts they have ordered from wreaker and I have to purchase the car. if I don't purchase the car then they will not pay me my $1000 deposit. I have already loose the money since I have send someone to pickup the car and person come back urgently by Air. I told them they have to pay my lose of $1000 instead.

Please Guys never trust this Doggy company where the commit on something and not deliver. they think people are Idot.

My contact number is 0430505346.

Kind Regards,

I went online to see what was offering and found a vehicle that was of interest. It then started I had to log in and at sometime in the past there had been an attempt to purchase something from Pickles. So I typed in my email and a standard password that I use on sites similar to Pickles and it was accepted. The problem was that no way would Pickles accept me as a buyer. An absolute insult given my credit rating is spotless and more to the point Grays on Line have never rejected me in fact over the last 3 Years my Company has spent in excess of $500,000.00 with Grays and paid within 2 days of invoice date. To sum it up I will never attempt to go to Pickles on line site again.

Stay away from Pickles, they are dodgy as hell. Bought a mower, description said diesel, working. They had to fork the mower onto my trailer because it didn't work, never has worked, should have been sold for parts. it wasn't diesel and refuse to refund. Worse than graysonline and that's saying something. Shonky crooks. Not the first time they have been dishonest but it'll be the last I wont be back and I have cancelled my membership. If there were negative stars I would have given that.

Bought a car from Salvage that stated "theft recovered" ..Could not of been theft recovered because the Automatic transmission was not engaging, car only had 103000klms, I Contacted the specialist mechanic who serviced this particular rare model of a car and.. His words "I know the car and it had a failed transmission" to his knowledge the car was not going to be repaired and the owner traded the car in to a dealer, (previous owners details were in the glove box...so I simply gave him a courtesy call) he stated it was traded in to a dealer with the knowledge of the failed transmission. Dealer passed the car onto the auctions...auctions marked it as theft recovered and to my surprise no keys! This car is impossible to steal. No damaged to ignition or door locks(had expensive keys cut and programmed) the locks work perfect and again..no evidence of theft damage anywhere to locks. ..Haven't taken the matter further and simply accepted I got burned by Pickles and to avoid the "Mafia"

My wife and I bought a car from Pickles (Sunshine) in December 2018 and believe we were completely dudded. We paid over $15,000 for a Honda from the Government Fleet list that had six minor items listed on the condition report.

When we drove the car out from Pickles we noticed the warning indicator did not switch off with respect to the key battery and rear parking sensors. We pulled over and took videos and photos of all the things wrong with the car that were not listed on the condition report. The video included the km's and we did this so there could be no dispute that the car was in that condition just after leaving Pickles.

We noticed dozens of issues with the vehicle that were not listed in the condition report. Literally every panel was damaged and there were numerous issues mechanically and inside the car that were not listed.

We raised our concerns with Pickles and they initially ignored us. When we followed up further, we started receiving dismissive responses. Eventually it reached a point were we stated we would progress the matter to VCAT, at which point a manager emailed us indicating that "If Pickles has made an error we will certainly make good of that...".

This progressed and it seems that as soon as the same manager realised they may have made an error and they would have to make good on the error, they simply disappeared. Today I sent an application to VCAT to seek their assistance and I will keep everyone updated.

Please see below most of the issues NOT listed on the condition report. If it is proven that Pickles sold the vehicle with that many problems not listed on the condition report they will obviously have to close down as no one will ever buy a car from them once the truth about their practices is known and published.

The items we are alleging were not noted on the condition report, with respect to the inside of the vehicle are as follows:

- Front driver carpet - Worn through, most likely where heel of driver wearing shoes, boots or the like rests.

- Front driver door - Bottom part is completely covered with scrapes, most likely from driver wearing shoes, boots or the like hitting the door every time they have exiting the vehicle over a number of years.

- Front passenger door - About ten scrapes/dents where the holder is, where it looks like some sort of mechanical equipment was stored tightly over a period of time and was pushing against the door as the car bumped and the like.

- Front gear lever console - White, resin stain in front console in front of gear lever console.

- Front gear lever console - About a dozen scrapes/dents at the front of the that are clustered. It looks like someone was storing some sort of metal equipment in front of that console and it was banging.

- Centre console glove box - About ten scrapes/dents inside the lid of the centre console glove box - never in my life have I seen that in a car. Again, it looks like this console was used to store some sort of metal equipment that was stored tightly while the car was bumping around.

- Passenger seat (Left Rear) - Clear resin stain on passenger seat (which I think has been removed from scrubbing). Although, with resins stains this could come back with degrading or discolouration over time.

- Warning indicators on dashboard - One for remote key battery and the other for the rear parking sensors.

The items not noted on the condition report, with respect to the outside of the vehicle are are follows:

- Wheel (Rear Passenger) - Alloy wheel dented/scraped. Although the damage to this wheel is less than the other, more than 50 percent of the rim is still scraped/dented. The amazing thing is that some of the damage is exactly the same as the wheel on the front right ie a yellow substance, paint or the like has scraped onto the rim when the wheel is hitting what looks to be the same thing.

- Quarter panel (Rear right) - About 10 scrapes.

- Passenger door (Right) - There are what look like two resin stains, one about a foot long. Scrapes.

- Driver door - Scrapes, some large.

- Quarter panel (Front right) - About 100 small scraps that look like look like they done while someone was resting against the car repeatedly with tools on their belt or metal on their clothes. Perhaps even metal equipment leaning against the panel. Surprisingly, the scrapes were all just above or below the small dent and they aren't noted.

- Bumper bar (Front) - There are hundreds of smallish resin stains or dents or some type of marking. There are clumps of white resin, paint or the like under where the registration plate is screwed in that someone seemingly tried to clean but failed to clean from that point. The stains/dents seem to emanate out from there and it it looks like something that was splashed or spray, then cleaned, leaving the marks or indentations.

- Bumper bar (Front) - Large white paint stain scraped on.

- Front grill - It is minimal, but there is clear accident damage to the front grill were it is cracked and had some of the black layering come of.

- Bonnet - One stone damage that looks like it is rusting.

- Quarter panel (Front left) - Many scraps, some the length of the panel.

- Front passenger door - Scraps, some 2 to 3 feet long.

- Passenger door (Left) - Scraps

- Quarter panel (Rear left) - Scraps, some 2 to 3 feet long.

- Boot - White resin or paint stain just above the Honda symbol. It is like someone repaired the car and it was leak under the tape or again it could just be one of those unexplained resin stains.

- All doors - The metal frame around all four door windows, especially the large sections in the middle of the car have some sort of strange discolouration. I would call it sun damage, but it must be extreme sun damage and I find it hard to how a car this new can have this discolouration on the paint work.

I purchased a "Fixed Price" car through Pickles. I know they mainly do auctions, so perhaps there is an issue only with their auctions leading to the poor reviews here? I found Pickles to have genuinely helpful sales staff and the entire team were wholly professional throughout. My only issue was a minor fault with the car which Pickles diagnosed and rectified to my satisfaction immediately while I waited. Also they do not negotiate on Fixed Price vehicles, but I was still happy with what I paid.

What these guys do id they have a secret reserve. Even though the vehicle might start at zero in an online auction, even if your the highest bidder, you still wont win the goods. I got a call saying that the vehicle didnt meet the reserve. They wanted more money to purchase the vehicle. I found this very misleading and told the fellow so. If you have a reserve then start the auction on the minimum you want. If it doesnt sell then the market is telling you your reserve is to high. Dont actually place a $0 start and then cry once it doesnt go high enough? They are using auction like marketing bait.

They sold my vehicle without my permission, I went over seas for 10 days, and in that time they called me 3 times and emailed me once with a very under estimated quote on my vehicle for $1,500 than sold it for $4,000 the next day.

Call they don't answer
Pay for item day before pick up send a tow truck he's sent away haven't received payment yet.
Send remittance as a regular buyer.
Never deal with again after 20 years of buying cars. What a joke.

I purchased a Bmw 328i from Pickles Geebung Queensland. I was informed that the timeframe was 7-10 days delivery. Payment was direct deposit into Pickles account and cleared on the 15th of February. I was then informed that delivery date of the vehicle would be on the 6th of March.

Very dishonest. Sold a car with a preexisting audio issues. Realised it just after paying for the car. They refused to rectify, though the sales guy thought it was morally wrong to refused to rectify since I just bought the vehicle and it's an expensive vehicle. They also admitted that it was a preexisting conditions but they won't fix it for me. Very disappointed.

Beware of buying vehicles at PicklesOnline.. I have had the worst purchase experience of my life. The car I won online turned out to have a major engine issue (blown head gasket) that would require engine replacement soon after driving out of Pickle’s site. In other words the car was lemon. Pickles did not disclose information re :blown head gasket other than only a statement with “mechanical issue required”, and made it look like an overheating engine on account of empty coolant. This issue emerged a week after spending extra $1330 on service and rear shock absorber change. Overall I spent around $5500 for the car. Pickles offered to sell the car on SALVAGE auction for me even though it hadn’t been listed as salvage in the first place, or to refund me for $2000 (apparently showing good faith) in return of the vehicle. Accepting $2000 I have made a loss of $3500. I don’t recommend anyone to buy a car from Pickles. They were aware of the issue with the car but did not reveal it at the time of sale. I found their business is utterly dishonest being only interested in getting your money without any responsibility.

I bought a caravan by online auction. I relied on their damage report and description. I then got it freighted over and discovered that there was damage that was not listed, parts were missing (stereo stripped out), fridge not working, and no keys. None of that was mentioned. They are refusing to compensate me for any of that. Given the massive fee they charge buyers this is pretty rude I think.

Had many cars but never bought a car from an auction house type operation before. If you are expecting a dealer experience this is not it. Bought a recent model we sought from their fixed price inventory at the Sunshine location. The price was fair for a vehicle that appears to be in excellent condition, well taken care of, and reflects the 'inspection' paperwork. Nothing was hidden but one needs to pay attention. The fixed price cars are not bargains but prices seem fair. You do not get to test drive because vehicles can be out of registration and all are in a large warehouse; you can only start them. Not a place the naive should come. The 7-day buy back has a lot of gotchas making it unavailable for any but cash buyers. The 'sales' staff were as good as any in explaining the process, showing the vehicle records in the computer, and so on, as were the office staff who took money and arranged delivery. It was all good.

Bottom line is read what Pickles is and how they sell, and if attending an auction how auctions work (eg as is where is, caveat emptor) that somewhat applies to their fixed price offers. Appears many vehicles are corporate cars just out of warranty or at the end of leases.

WARNING WARNIG WARNING
Anyone bid on any car need to be 110% sure what he/ she is bidding on otherwise a little mistake can cost you $$$$ specially for new players as the auction people don’t consider your situation even if it’s a clear mistake that’s their ruthless policy
Which happened with me and costed me 1000$$
Plz guys very careful specially if u bidding online
And also if the problems in the car are not mention than plz don’t buy it thy only mention the issues which are not big problem
But big issues they don’t mention and if u buy such a car it will cost you more than buying a decent car from our side
nothing against the company it’s just cautions for the buyers
Company will do what is best for themselves
So the buyers should do what ever is best for themselves.
Thanks

I am so upset with how the process was to try and sell my car to pickles. I did the diy insect on the app which included many images of every aspect of the vehicle. I was then offered a price for my car and accepted the offer. As my car is financed I needed to pay the gap. The lady I spoke with told me to pay the gap and provide the receipt and payout letter from the financial institution and then to drop the vehicle at the branch for payment to be processed. 3 days after I drop the car at the branch I am then told my car is covered in hail damage and that the offer has now been reduced by 2000. I cannot see any hail damage on the vehicle personally so this was a huge shock to me. I had to get a personal loan to pay the gap in the finance and had no extra money to pay any more and take the new offer. I am now stuck with the finance of the car and the personal Loan while being on maternity leave. This has left me in severe financial hardship :(. I should not have trusted the process and paid the gap in the finance prior to dropping the vehicle off as I was asked to.

From one very upset struggling mother.