Classic Auto Appraiser

Absolutely the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced in a business. Contacted Jeff Hyman about updating an appraisal he did for us in 2010. Very easy to do as nothing had changed, he said no problem it would be done in a couple days. Did not hear anything after a couple days so called and emailed and left various messages. No reply. Finally he picked up the phone and said the appraisal was done he would email as soon as he was in his office. Another week went by. Phone calls, emails went unanswered. We are getting down to crunch time with the insurance agency. Continually call until phone is picked up, again he will call back when he gets to his office to get CC payment and send appraisal. Of course no followup. Hired Steve Linden and had appraisal in hand in 2 days. I have no idea why Jeff Hyman couldn’t just say he was not capable of doing the appraisal and had to just string us along for a month. Really poor business practice. If you go on his website in the photo gallery you will see a picture of my 1954 Corvette, not an inexpensive car and we certainly are not used to dealing with such an unprofessional company. Hopefully he will remove the picture from his photo gallery as we would NEVER recommend Classic Auto Appraiser to anyone. Use Steve Linden he was awesome.

If there was a possibility to rate this company zero, I would. My husband hired Jeffrey Hyman to appraise his stolen classic truck, since the insurance company was trying to make us settle for a much less figure, than the truck’s real value was. Jeff Hyman agreed to appraise the truck, we emailed him all the information he needed, plus pictures. He told us the report will be ready in couple of days. More than couple of days passed by, no calls, no emails from Mr Hyman. The insurance company was waiting for Mr Hyman, we were waiting for Mr Hyman We called, emailed, texted. Eventually he made us happy by picking up the phone call and telling us the report is ready, time to pay. Very well, gave him my credit card number, I was told he will email it right away. A month passed by, still nothing, we moved on. The good thing he didn’t charge the card .
Mr Jeffrey Hyman, please do not disregard the customers, that you agreed to deal with. That’s highly unprofessional, that’s not a good business !

I needed an appraisal for a 66 Ford Mustang Fastback I was purchasing. I live in San Diego, CA and the car was located in Huntington Beach, CA. Mind you that It’s a holiday «Columbus Day» and needed the report ASAP to send to my bank for financing. I hesitated to call this company because of the review that is posted but I had no other choice, he’s the only one who does them in the area.
I call doubtful that it would be open today and Howard Hyman answers the phone. Great! So I explain my situation to him and he was more than happy to assist me. He went above and beyond for my satisfaction. I called him around 11am he tells me he’ll visit the car around 2pm and have the report emailed to me by 8pm. In my opinion, thats prompt service. Instead he calls me around 3pm and tells me he’s emailing it to me in a few minutes. I was blown out the water. I couldn’t believe it. In 4 hours tops he drove to the place where the car was at, did a detailed inspection and had the report completed and emailed to me and including about a dozen photos of the vehicle. The report was very detailed, and easy to read and follow (32pages). He knows what he is doing and talking about, because it was evidenced in the report I received and the telephone conversation we had.
I really appreciate the hard work and very prompt service Howard provided me with. I highly recommend him if you need a classic car appraisal. He’s priced within market and worth every penny. Customer satisfaction is his priority, and thats hard to come across these days.
I wish I could give him a 10 star rating!

If there were a zero star review, I’d have rated Jeff Hyman and this company zero. I first had Jeff appraise my ’68 Mustang Fastback in 2012. His initial appraisal was good overall, cost around $ 300, but it included some inaccurate specifications. Some of the listed components for my car were totally inaccurate and could have been accurate if he had simply taken note of what was actually on my car when he first assessed it. I asked Jeff to include the corrections in an updated copy of my appraisal. He obliged, said he’d fix it and then just plain old never did. He didn’t reply to my email or voicemail and I was in the process of a move (I’m military) so getting the updated appraisal fell off my radar. Fast forward to summer 2013, I had just completed over $ 10,000 in upgrades to my suspension, brakes and rear-​end and thought it’d be prudent to get my appraisal updated to reflect the increase in value. I contacted Jeff who answered the phone (miraculously) and we set up an appointment for a re-​appraisal. I flew to California (where I had my car stored), met up with Jeff who took new photographs and said he’d get the updated appraisal to me within a week or two for a $ 100 update fee. I wrote him a check on the spot and never saw my updated appraisal. In the subsequent months I have emailed and called Jeff on multiple occasions for an update on my appraisal. I need it so that I can update my insurance policy, which of course I can’t do without the appraisal. I have given Jeff my mailing address at least a dozen times (in fact it was on the check I wrote him that he cashed) and even offered to pay to have to appraisal FEDEX’d to me. The couple of times I have caught Jeff on the phone he has used the excuse that he didn’t have my address and that if I re-​sent him my address he’d mail it to me and send me an electronic copy as well. He has done neither. I even reached out to his counterpart, Brian Manning in the hopes that he could help make things right with no success. I have tried to give Jeff the benefit of the doubt and be patient, but he has blatantly ignored me and run with my money. I realize it was only $ 100 but it also cost me a trip to California (from Hawaii) to get my car out of storage and take time off work. The primary reason for this trip was to take care of the car. As a customer I am angry and totally unimpressed with Jeff’s lack of customer service and business savvy. I may not be Chip Foose or Kenny Wayne Shepard who he likes to take pictures with on his website, but I’m a paying customer who deserves the product I paid for along with a sincere apology! Do yourself a favor if you’re looking for an appraiser, find someone else. As far as I’m concerned Jeff is a thief and I don’t take kindly to thieves. This company is not reputable and now I have to arrange another trip to get my car appraised since Jeff didn’t follow through with his obligations, what a nightmare! In retrospect, guess I should’ve learned my lesson the first time when he didn’t follow through with making the initial appraisal right– I bet he doesn’t take guesses when he appraises Chip Foose’s vehicles.

I was involved in an auto accident that was not my fault and due to the accident, my new car (even after repairs) was not worth as much as it had been prior to the accident. The term for this type of loss is a diminished value loss and is basically the value difference between two like cars, except one having had structural damage at some time.
I had Classic Auto Appraiser inspect my vehicle and prepare a professional Appraisal Report identifying and explaining the diminished value caused by the accident and the results were impressive. Prior to my appraisal I had been in contact with the «at fault» parties insurance provider several times over a 3 week period trying to settle the matter, but they insisted upon having me find and pay for a «certified appraisal» to itemize my loss first. Not knowing where to turn, I asked a friend and was referred to Classic Auto Appraiser and Jeff Hyman. When I called I reach Jeff and after a brief conversation about my needs Jeff identified he was on the road and could come to my house for the inspection that afternoon.
Jeff arrived on time and did the inspection as agreed and within 48 hours I received a comprehensive 26 page Appraisal Report that documented the pre-​accident and post-​accident values of my car with the diminished value stated as the difference. To my surprise, within 4 hours of submitting the Report to the insurance carrier I was contacted with a claim settlement and release of damages for the full amount of the diminished value, plus repairs and car rental fees. I also feel it’s important to note that the diminished value offered in the settlement was more than double what I had tried to settle for prior to the appraisal.
I could not be happier with the professionalism, knowledge, accuracy and punctuality of Jeff and Classic Auto Appraiser and the product of their efforts was exceptional.
Should you ever need a professional appraisal, I HIGHLY recommend Classic Auto Appraiser.
Jay