Rusty’s Auto Salvage

Pathetic! They offered me $ 65 for a 2004 Jaguar x-​type with no exterior damage. Your company is a bunch of thieves. And you have extremely rude customer service representatives.

I was very pleased with my experience. In fact it exceeded my expectations. My customer service rep Ancilla very helpful. The gentleman who picked up my vehicle was very professional.

My experience was vastly different than the other reviewers. My car’s transmission was stuck and not worth fixing. The dealer offered me a low price to junk it, but I called Rusty’s and received a better quote. The customer service reps were friendly and walked me through the process. While I was uneasy about just leaving the keys and the title in the car without being present, they provided the local rep’s number and information. The tow driver called to confirm and provided his information too. Even after I forgot to sign the title, the service was friendly and helpful.

Absolutely the worst. If I could give it negative stars I would. I sent an online request on Thursday and got a phone call Friday. They said it couldn’t be picked up until Monday. I reluctantly agreed since their quote was the highest. I was told the tow company would contact me in an hour to schedule a pick up. That never happened. Of course they’re closed until Monday. So I call on Monday and spend over 20 minutes on hold then get transferred around. Finally talk to the right person and they can’t schedule it until Wednesday. Ok I’ll schedule it. They give me a 6 hour window for pick up. Ugh. So I agree and the driver is supposed to be here between 6am and noon. I was told I would get a confirmation call Tuesday. Never happened. It’s now Wednesday and after calling and waiting on hold forever I finally get the number to the local tow company. They don’t answer for hours and then when I do talk to someone they don’t know where the driver is and that the quoted time is not a guarantee. Really?! You can’t hit a 6 hour window? Even Comcast does better than that. Needless to say it’s now after 2pm and I’m still waiting for the driver. About to call other companies. Which I have done already which was part of the reason I was putting up with this. If you value your time DO NOT use this company!!!

Let me start by saying: I did it wrong! I had an old car that still runs, but needs more repair than the car is worth to make it safe to drive. I wanted to get rid of it without much hassle, so I called a few junkyards to sell it for parts, but they weren’t interested. Rusty’s is an umbrella company that works with local salvage yards. I called Rusty’s and got an instant quote for how much they would pay, then got a follow-​up call from the local yard. They wanted to pick it up the next day! I said yes.
What I should have done was shopped around, because I found another online salvage place that offered me $ 350 to Rusty’s $ 200. Also, when the tow truck came to pick up my car, they had me sign over the title without listing a buyer — that seems strange to me now, but I didn’t think much about it at the time. They gave me an envelope with cash and a basic receipt, but that’s about it.
If I were doing it again, I’d get quotes from a few salvage places, and then maybe list it online for a little bit more, to see if anyone can make better use of it. (The salvage quotes are based purely on the amount of metal in the car, so a working car should have been worth more than the sum of its melted down parts!). It’s my own fault for letting myself feel pressured to move quickly by Rusty’s, but I wouldn’t fall for it again.
One note: donating a car to charity is often a good idea, especially if the car runs and can be re-​used. But this old car needed $ 1000 worth of work with a blue book value of $ 1200. The legal tax deduction is only for the resale cash that your charity gets for the car, which in this case was likely to be its scrap value anyway. I’d rather get the cash myself and then donate some of it to charity.