Really Consider Your Choice - Sales Consultant CarMax Employee Review

There are a lot of things that could be reconsidered when looking into employment as a sales consultant with CarMax. The first being that you get paid $12 an hour during training, which in the new training program is supposed to take a full time employee around 28 days. During this time period you are doing a combination of online video trainings, question & answer forms, role playing, shadowing, and about 10 tests throughout the process. If you fail 3 tests, you are released of employment. If you happen to make it onto the sales floor, your take home pay turns into strictly commission. That's right, no base salary. Unless of course, the total amount of your sales grosses less then your total hours worked at minimum wage. In that case you would get paid a subsidy, basically your hours at the current minimum wage. Then, during the next pay period if your commission exceeds minimum wage, you pay the company back the difference between your last paycheck and your sales. When you start on the floor, you get paid a flat fee per car. $160 per car. You also get paid if you add on anything to the car. MaxCare, the extended warranty, $100. GAP Insurance, pays the difference of your loan that normal insurance does not cover, $25. Accessories, leather or GPS, vary depending on the price of the installment, normally between $5 and $30. The average car tends to be around $260 if you are good at closing MaxCare, company average is 40%. So you need to sell at minimum 3 cars per week to make a decent living. Also, you are scheduled on a rotation, 5 days on-2 days off, where you are required to be there certain hours but you cannot be on the sales floor. For example, they schedule you at least once a week to attend an hour long morning briefing meeting, they also schedule you to come in an hour early to merchandise the lot, etc. This is time you are not getting compensation for as you cannot make any money if the store is closed. They also require you to wear a uniform, but it is up to you to purchase the uniforms out of pocket. In addition, there is an eoffice where employees get scheduled in 3 to 5 hour shifts to solely answer phone calls or emails, during which you cannot be on the floor. This can either be a money pit or a death trap, because if it is busy you can set a lot of appointments. If it is slow, that is however many hours of your day you did not get paid for, but also did not get the opportunity to sell. Lastly there is a split policy, where someone can literally set an appointment, not even keep it, and take half of your paycheck. If anyone is in contact with your customer within 3 days of you selling the car or within 3 days of an appointment they set for the customer, they are entitle to half of your money, even if they didn't do any work on the deal. To me, that is ridiculous. Throughout my entire experience at CarMax I have stood behind their 'core values' of respect and integrity. It would be nice to see that reflected by management. They preach a open door policy, but negate anyone's approach to actually honor that. They give constant 'observations', basically write-ups where they analyze every move you make. Micro-management is a huge problem. They literally have a report for anything you do while you are on their property, down to minutes on the phone, and keystrokes on your computer.