Technician's beware !! - Retail Technician CarMax Employee Review

1.0
10 Dec 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The hourly rate was good because they gave yearly raises. But they would find a reason to fire you after 10 years because you were making more money than a lot of the managers. It made no sense, but be ready.

Cons

I worked as a retail mechanic for 11 years at Carmax. They would send me 10 or 15 cars first thing in the morning, and expect me to diagnose and have parts ordered for all of them by 10 am or so, every day. Anybody knows, you can not really diag that many cars in 2 hours. So everybody cheats .... they just guess. One guy used to diag his cars at his computer terminal ............ he would not pull most of the cars in the shop. If you can not diag 10 or 15 cars in 2 hours, you will be considered slow and no good. So you had better be a good lier and scammer if you want to make it has a retail mechanic at Carmax. Management knew it was all a big scam but they played along with it because they were part of it. The pay was flate rate Mitchell time only ..... which is very close to factory warranty time ............. which means a small pay check for the mechanic unless you were really fast .............. wink, wink.

Explore other reviews about CarMax

5.0
3 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You are your own boss

Cons

Slow days can be demotivating.

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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