Is it a scam? Gov Planet

[bluegoose]

What are your experiences with Gov Planet? I am finding a lot of complaints of ghost bidding.

A recent trip to the Yermo yard I was permitted to drive behind the fence and found a slew of rebuilt Humvees. After seeing all the trash Humvees loaded out of that yard. I am suspicious they are nothing but a chop shop (luckily I have not bought a Humvee from them). Seems like Gov planet is kind of shady.

I have been to multiple yards and spoken to multiple people. I will no longer be buying from them. What is your experience?

 

[NDT]

Seriously? Nearly every HMMWV in civilian hands came through GP. Maybe a few hundred through GSA and a few hundred through GL. If you bid on and win a HMMWV from GP, and pay for it, and show up at the yard, you are going to leave with whatever you won. And yes, Yermo has to do a lot of “chop shop” type work, Uncle requires all armor to be removed prior to sale.

 

[02smokemaker]

I bought an r1 model from GP brand new engine trans tcase,etc that being said I think a blind mouse did the work lol. Missing or loose bolts from one end to another. I'm now chasing electrical gremlins. But for a selling price of 5200 bucks I'm still very happy!! I knew going in these have been abused since day 1.

Chris

Sent from my ASUS_I003D using Tapatalk

 

[bluegoose]

Seriously? Nearly every HMMWV in civilian hands came through GP. Maybe a few hundred through GSA and a few hundred through GL. If you bid on and win a HMMWV from GP, and pay for it, and show up at the yard, you are going to leave with whatever you won. And yes, Yermo has to do a lot of “chop shop” type work, Uncle requires all armor to be removed prior to sale.

Nice try, of course I know they de-militarize them. I'm talking about gutted machines i.e. missing bolts, gutted clusters missing doors and critical body components. I have pictures of where they all are lined up with those missing parts attached. If you haven't been in the back yard you wouldn't know.

All I am doing is sharing my experience, I could care less I have never bought one. Nor will I after what I have seen. I just feel bad for they guys who have. I can only imagine what they do with the larger equipment.


There is no accountability from my understanding. They get equipment and the yard can do whatever they like until they list it. Word on the street is the Yermo yard boss has equipment he leases to Hollywood.

I personally don't like getting sloppy seconds from cooperate whores so I will spend my money else where.

Gov Planet is shady enough as it is. This is what stopped me from bidding on anything further.

 

[marchplumber]

Nice try, of course I know they de-militarize them. I'm talking about gutted machines i.e. missing bolts, gutted clusters missing doors and critical body components. I have pictures of where they all are lined up with those missing parts attached. If you haven't been in the back yard you wouldn't know.

All I am doing is sharing my experience, I could care less I have never bought one. Nor will I after what I have seen. I just feel bad for they guys who have. I can only imagine what they do with the larger equipment.


There is no accountability from my understanding. They get equipment and the yard can do whatever they like until they list it. Word on the street is the Yermo yard boss has equipment he leases to Hollywood.

I personally don't like getting sloppy seconds from cooperate whores so I will spend my money else where.

Gov Planet is shady enough as it is. This is what stopped me from bidding on anything further.

We all make choices. Buy from PO and pay a huge amount extra. Buy from GP and roll the dice. I ain't "standing up" for them, but I realize they are among the few places a person can buy one at auction. I don't think many of us here think they are a "saint" and have halo and wings. If ya want something, ya gotta go through where it's available.

like most things, opinions will vary.................

 

[NDT]

Auction trucks that have been “cannibalized” typically get that way at the DRMO “cann point” and not when in GP’s possession. Of course people can steal stuff when nobody is looking and trust me that happens.

 

[MDdeuce]

I had a poor experience with GP out of Chambersburg PA. ~2yrs ago I won a A427A load bank there, when I showed up provided my paperwork and ~2hrs later I still didn’t have my lot. After a lot of being ignored it turned out they accidently loaded my lot on a 3rd party freight carrier going who knows where. By the time they figured it out and contacted the carrier he refused to turn around since he would time out. Warehouse staff said they would try to get it back, but nothing they could really do. GP customer service could only cancel the sale (which I didn’t want), after a lot of complaining they begrudgingly reimbursed my travel/gas costs. ~2wks later it was returned to the GP warehouse and I was able to get it.

Since then I also got a lot of 4 MEP-531As from the same warehouse and a MEP-804B from a nearby yard. Those pickups all went well and the MEP-804B was turn-key, fully operational and a full tank of diesel.

I don’t think GP is a scam, per say, but I do think they are reasonably incompetent and cut every expense possible. They must be making a killing on this, uncle same pays then to surplus this stuff and they make the buyer’s premium and fees.

My dealings with GL were better than GP.

 

[simp5782]

Nice try, of course I know they de-militarize them. I'm talking about gutted machines i.e. missing bolts, gutted clusters missing doors and critical body components. I have pictures of where they all are lined up with those missing parts attached. If you haven't been in the back yard you wouldn't know.

All I am doing is sharing my experience, I could care less I have never bought one. Nor will I after what I have seen. I just feel bad for they guys who have. I can only imagine what they do with the larger equipment.


There is no accountability from my understanding. They get equipment and the yard can do whatever they like until they list it. Word on the street is the Yermo yard boss has equipment he leases to Hollywood.

I personally don't like getting sloppy seconds from cooperate whores so I will spend my money else where.

Gov Planet is shady enough as it is. This is what stopped me from bidding on anything further.

You can change how gov planet handles the surplus distribution in 2026 if you don't like how things are going. Just submit your own bid for the surplus contract from the government.

You are new here so we will go with this, there are no deals and steals to be made from surplus buying anymore. You would probably complain at the GL days when you could buy 3 or 4 complete trucks, filled with tires,tarps,ammo cans for $3000 total. You would say that they just didn't care about what they were selling and were throwing stuff away to just anyone who buys stuff.

 

[williamh]

When you buy from the ones contracted to depose of “junk” or surplus , you get what you get. Yes Thier going to remove “all” equipment that may be needed for some other project or yes , the movie industry. They pay way better than us. That said , I’ve got my funvee from them, they described it pretty well and I can’t complain. ( my wife might ) it was in the exact condition they said it was. Did I want a fully armored truck with A/C for 2k. Hell ya I did but that ain’t the real world. If you see a bunch of un molested trucks “just sitting there” , yup. Just waiting to get destroyed before getting sent out to the people who already paid for them just to pay again.
You got gl ,gsa and your local gov selling you back the vehicles you buy.
If you were complaining about government waste , we all would be on the same page. I have no love or hate for gl or any other company doing the job they were contracted to do, it would be nice to get trucks that weren’t demilled.
At least we can get them and they are no longer sent to the crusher or just given away to some other country who hates us for free

 

[Mainsail]

Auction trucks that have been “cannibalized” typically get that way at the DRMO “cann point” and not when in GP’s possession. Of course people can steal stuff when nobody is looking and trust me that happens.

There's a small parking area on a nearby navy base with a handful of HMMWVs destined for DRMO. I walk through them from time to time to see what's new, and one day some USMC or Navy mechanics drove up in their greasy coveralls, pulled some parts off, and went back to work. It's expedient.

 

[Guyfang]

If its going to DRMO, that's what is going to happen anyway. What most of you do not know or care about, is that the Government can not stock every single part, on every single type of equipment. If you look in a Parts TM, there is a block for the SMR Code. That code tells you if can order the item you want. If the SMR code is XA, XB, XC or XD, is is not stocked, and can only be procured through salvage. Salvage is DRMO. The only other option is to order the next higher part, that includes the part you want. Not all the "damage" you see is "DEMIL". Lots of it is simply Salvage.

 

[TechnoWeenie]

I'm pretty convinced they're shill bidding.

When they were bought/merged with Ritchie Bros. OVERNIGHT, prices went through the roof, and the trucks that went for ridiculous prices were seen at auction again a month later.... some I saw cycle through 3 or 4 times before finally 'selling'.

So, 2 things I'm thinking...

1. They're shill bidding, but overdoing it, and having to relist the trucks.
2. They're shill bidding, and after so many 'failed' bids *wink* they tell FedGov that no one wants it and they buy it for scrap price and then auction if off anyway where it goes for the 'real' price.

I just don't see a rational explanation for why, again, virtually overnight, it seemed like their payment default rate on trucks went from like 1-2 per auction to 10 per auction.

Just my opinion.

But it surely doesn't help when they have a truck with no wheels, bad tires, rusted to crap, and they start bidding at 5K$... it's insane.

 

[TechnoWeenie]

Auction trucks that have been “cannibalized” typically get that way at the DRMO “cann point” and not when in GP’s possession. Of course people can steal stuff when nobody is looking and trust me that happens.

I personally have been advised of a situation where a GP EMPLOYEE was taking specific pictures of trucks (mostly LMTVs), then intentionally leaving out things like the push button drive selector, alternator, etc. from the pics and TAKING the parts off the truck, so when someone went to pick up their truck, he'd say 'It's not in the pic, so it doesn't come with it, but oh, by the way, if you come over here to my trailer, I might have what you need for $500'...

I've heard way too many stories of near mint trucks that someone went to pick up and the one spot they didn't photograph has a metric #(%& ton of damage and makes it either worthless or undrivable, or are missing some OBVIOUS parts that weren't photographed.

I know another situation where someone went to pick up their lot of tires, and they tried to give him a couple pallets of absolute garbage tires because they already gave HIS tires to someone else... They basically said 'take the tires and we'll refund you'.... and of course, when he goes to complain, they said 'You took the tires, so you got what you paid for - tires are tires'.... Then doubled down when questioned about the guarantee and told that it doesn't cover the first $500 or something like that, and he had bought the pallets for like $200.

 

[ronbo-3]

What are your experiences with Gov Planet? I am finding a lot of complaints of ghost bidding.

A recent trip to the Yermo yard I was permitted to drive behind the fence and found a slew of rebuilt Humvees. After seeing all the trash Humvees loaded out of that yard. I am suspicious they are nothing but a chop shop (luckily I have not bought a Humvee from them). Seems like Gov planet is kind of shady.

I have been to multiple yards and spoken to multiple people. I will no longer be buying from them. What is your experience?
[/QUOTE

My experience is that if you look for complaints, you will find exactly what you're looking for. Everyone will have different experiences with GovPlanet and depending on your expectations, your experience could get frustrating. I see very few complaints from people once they finally receive their vehicle, most complaints are about the process from bidding to attaining the MV. I spent 2-3 months following every auction and would make lists of vehicle I was interested in and followed them through the bidding process to better understand what I was to expect when I was ready to bid. There are many videos on youtube with individual experiences documented on the process, do your research. I was fortunate enough to win a bid on my second auction and have learned quite a bit on auction behavior for the few variants I was interested in. I noticed new bidders getting frustrated because they want the cleanest truck at auction, 4 speed trans, completed hard top w/doors and get blown away that the price is 20K plus. In my research i did not witness ghost bidding and actually found that vehicles that did not sell, came back to the next auction with their price reduces from prior auction. If you don't trust GovPlanet, there are likely many members on here that have vehicles for sale that you could touch and drive before you buy. Maybe that will be a better path for you!

Good Luck my friend...