Toby Russell thinks nothing is more stressful than buying a new or even a used car. With new car buying stuck in the analog age of the 1960s, Russell and his friend George Arison set out to create a new platform.
Shift.Com was founded in 2014. The company operates an online marketplace where clients can shop for a used car or sell their car online.
Russell believes that buying or selling a car has many obstacles that using an online marketplace removes, such as women being ripped off or men feeling less than adequate because they don’t want to buy a huge truck or if they can’t buy a top of the line model.
Buyers and sellers never meet. Buyers see a car, they ask a Shift.Com employee to bring them the car so they can test drive it and look it over. If they want to buy it, the employee has a tablet with financing options or a platform is available to pay from the seller’s bank. If the client doesn’t want the car, it is returned to stock.
Clients can also get a manufacturer-style, like-new warranty. There are multiple lending options and a totally transparent price. There’s no negotiation, no haggling, and clients can do it from their driveway, work, or wherever they would like to meet.
Shift.Com maintains a corporate office building in San Francisco, California.
I had a bad experience trying to sell Shift my car. They would not accept my car title with 2 names, mine and my deceased spouse. They said your policy was not to accept such titles. I explained DMV had said it was a legal title as I had a death certificate to show. I was not informed of your policy until the end of 2 hours. Contact with acquisitions was unsuccessful in explaining my case. I was told I couldn’t make contact with any other employee because I had said the policy was discriminatory and might be cause for legal action. I think these employees need more training in policies and customer relations.