Ken Porter Auctions

I am infuriated. The customer service is non existent and the female staff members are rude and incompetent.
I called in this morning to sign up to bid online for an auction today before it became live tomorrow morning. When I first called to get more information about sign up, the girl over the phone seemed very displeased with providing me any information. I got the bare minimum out of her and signed up online. After waiting a few hours, I didn’t receive any emails or contact from them. I called again around 1 and spoke to a friendlier rep who told me to call after 3 if I still don’t receive the welcome email. Shockingly enough, it was after 3 and I hadn’t received anything. I called again around 3:30 and spoke to a very rude and unprofessional rep named Jewell, who also seemed very displeased with helping me. She said it was strange that I hadn’t received my welcome letter and that she would resend it. Another hour and still no email. I called around 5:02 and spoke to Jewell again.
She made it seem like I was lying that I hadn’t received the welcome letter and kept repeating, «welllllllll, everyone else I asked got the letter so you should have gotten it I don’t understand why not»
Well, I haven’t. She continued to say that they are now closed and that there was nothing she could do to help me until tomorrow morning. Just an FYI, the auction is tomorrow morning, and my whole purpose was to bid today. I explained to her that I’ve been trying to get an answer ever since this morning and that no one has helped me, and it’s unfair that they’re «now closed» and unable to do anything about THEIR mistake. Of course she continued to be rude and make it seem like it was my problem.
I have never dealt with such rude, unprofessional, and unwilling staff members who lack basic knowledge and customer service skills. I don’t see the complexity in sending a simple welcome letter. I can only imagine how they go about complicated tasks or purchases.

Amazing! Proxy bids submitted online are maxed out without a single person bidding against them. Invisible bidders, I guess.

Came here looking for some equipment they were auctioning the place looks run down the equipment is old and run down not enough drivers to move equipment I seen shit sold for over what it was worth but here nor there stupid people over bidding we’ll never been here before but it’s back to Martin and Taylor and ritchi bros this place sucks

Staff seems very incompetent. When I went to pay for my items they showed me winning an item that I had not bid on. In order to leave with my deposit I had to wait 2 hours until the auction ended and let the staff review the video of the auction. They reviewed the video (which I believe did not exist) and still attempted to hold me responsible for the item. When asked to see the video they quickly released me from being responsible for the item. 3 hrs from the time I first attempted to settle up and leave, I left without purchasing the phantom item. I purchased 3 items totalling $ 40, but only 2 of the three were on my invoice. $ 128 later after their fees I was paid in full. So to sum this up, my invoice showed an item that I never bid on and was missing an item, besides this they wasted 3 hrs of my time and left me leaving late enough in the day that I had to endure 47 miles of southern california traffic. I was charged an extra $ 25 per item in lot fees besides the buyers premium %. NEVER AGAIN MR PORTER!!!

Parents bought a 1997 Ford Taurus in 2009 for $ 1000, 1999 Contour in 2012 for $ 1800, and 2003 Ford Taurus for $ 2000 last year. All three were good buying experiences. Make sure you look the cars over thoroughly, take note of the buyer’s premium (10%-20%), factor in about 10% for taxes, look at the KBB values + craigslist vehicle prices, and bid accordingly. You can save a lot of money going through here!

I have been going to ken porter for the last 27years, the passing of DAN broke my heart, new owner great people and staff

This was perhaps the best buying experience of my life. There was no pressure. The staff there was very nice and helpful and I got a better deal on my Prius than anyone else I know.

I bought my car (an 04 Saab 9.3 convertible) here in February 2009 and I would recommend this place to anyone who’s looking for a good deal on a used car. I’m so happy that I found out about this place! Thanks to them, I was able to buy a car that’s nicer than I ever expected to own and for less than half of Kelly Blue Book value!
An auction is probably the only fun way to go about buying a car! Everything is really easy. After you win a car, the whole process of paying for it is pretty quick (depending on how many people are in line ahead of you) and easy. They even take care of all of the DMV stuff for you (if you want). I think I was on my way home in my new car in less than an hour after winning. No dealing with annoying sales people. Everyone who I dealt with was really friendly.
If you’ve never been to a live auction before, I’d recommend going to one before you intend to buy, just to see what it’s like. I had never been to one and was sort of intimidated by it all. You’re allowed to check the cars out the week prior to the auction, so definitely do that. And if you can, bring someone with car smarts along so you know what you’re looking at.
I only wish they offered a warranty of some sort because after about a year, my car developed some problems. I’m pretty sure they’re normal for it’s age. You know, certain things only last so long before needed to be replaced. But still, repairs are expensive and a warranty would have been nice.

Do your homework and you will most likely be okay. A great selection of newer low mileage vehicles (especially Saab’s for some reason) and older higher mileage fleet vehicles.
Some words of advice: Take care of the DMV yourself, I have bought two vehicles here, (one good deal, one great deal) and never recieved the title for the vehicle I paid them to take care of DMV on.
I recommend showing up to a couple auctions before bidding to get a lay of the land.
15% buyers premium is rather high, but occasionally they sell vehicles with a 0−10% premium. KPA also offers a buyback contract for vehicles which allows you to take time to get the vehicle inspected and potentially lose only a couple hundred as opposed to a couple thousand if the vehicle is a lemon. However this is not available on motorcycles.
Oh, and don’t listen to the dudes who walk around in vests talking about how such and such car is solid, and if they had the money, they would buy it in a second. Not sure they actually worked there — maybe volunteered, but both times that happened, they were talking about vehicles that had major problems.
Do your homework!!!
Also, I see that some of the filtered reviews indicate that they sometimes use phantom bidders to up the price of cars that there is only one bidder on. I can confirm this as I stopped bidding on a car once — it was just me and one other guy — and the bidding continued up several hundred beyond what I was willing to pay. At first I was freaked out that I was somehow signaling the auctioneer and still somehow bidding but realized later that this was just one of their techniques to increase the price of the vehicle. (It still ended up selling for well below KBB.)

Turns out the spray paint comes off with Goof Off Grafitti spray, a bucket of water, and a Scotchbrite pad. It won’t hurt the decals if you decide to keep them on. Im still leaving a star off because of the portopottys. I have gotten some other deals here through.