Carvana is a disaster! Not hassle free. Don't ever do it!
Would you like tbuy a car through a company that operates like a startup that doesn't know what it's doing? You should totally check out Carvana.
Back in November, I purchased a Ford Fusion Energi through Carvana and boy I'd like to hit the undo button.
First, and amazingly smallest, issue: The car came heavily detailed and wreaking of armor all to the point of a fault. It took ten days (three days longer than the seven day return period, convenient) to figure out why. On the tenth day the smell of cigarettes revealed itself. Now I'm stuck with an ashtray for a car. Lovely.
Second issue (prepare for major hassles): I ordered the car in November and it came with temporary paper plates that expire 1/17/19. However, before I ever bought the car, I had confirmed with the phone representatives at Carvana several times that the regular plates would arrive before January tenth. I had a trip to Europe planned from 1/10 until an indefinite return date - if I left the car parked on my street beyond the 17th with those paper plates, it would get impounded for expired registration.
Over the months leading up to my trip, I visited my mailbox each time to find a concerning lack of license plates. I called Carvana's registration team dozens of times over the course to make sure the hard plates would still arrive by the time I left for Europe.
I was told on several occasions the plates would arrive around Christmas. When that didn't happen, several days after the holiday I called in and was told that they would arrive shortly after the new year.
When 1/5 came and went, and I was still without plates. I called in to find out the registration hadn't even been processed yet. Turns out Carvana's acquisition team had entered the mileage incorrectly on a registration form, which in turn delayed the process for weeks.
Needless to say, I had to cancel a large portion of my long planned Euro trip because if the plates didn't arrive in time, I would have to be present to figure out a way to hide the car from Johnny Law.
Fast forward to 1/16: I've been informed that the plates are still several weeks away from being delivered. Which means I'll have to pay my own money to have the Fusion stored to avoid it being impounded.
Carvana's registration team's proposed solution is to pay me for up to five days of storage fees (five!) when the car will need to be stored for a likely twenty-one. They're basically handing me a substantial bill, not only in missed Euro travels but now hundreds of dollars in money and hours of stress, for doing business with them. And to make it more infuriating, Jenna, the customer service rep (if you can call her that) acts like she's doing me a favor by paying me a pathetic portion of the costs in the form of a check that will take up to fifteen business days (fifteen!) to even reach me. So I'll have to pay out of pocket for all of it up front, and the majority of it in the long run. I'm so sorry Paris!
Unless I've missed something and we're living in a world where good is bad, up is down, and left is right, none of this is hassle free.
Additionally, I'll have to continue paying car insurance for a car I won't be able to drive. But what's a couple hundred more wasted dollars in return for the miracle that is buying a car through Carvana.
Their solutions to problems they created fall embarrassingly short of satisfying. Yet the people working there seem to think very highly of their efforts to resolve the issue, like they're doing you a favor by paying a tiny fraction of the assumed costs that have been handed down to you by way of their own mistakes. (See: unskilled and unaware of it).
Carvana claims to aim at providing a hassle-free buying experience, which is what sold me in the first place. However, they function like a startup that doesn't know what they're doing. And to go along with an evident lack of business acumen is an undeserved self-instituted sense of ability.
While touting themselves as a hassle free alternative that revolutionizes buying a car, Carvana has managed to take something that has worked for decades (in buying a car at a dealership), and made it much, much worse.
Carvana has successfully turned this car buyer into a lifelong supporter of buying cars through dealerships.
I would highly distrust the high ratings by customers through the Carvana site. I can't even find a way to add a review myself onto their site. And any third party review platform I've seen has Carvana well below three stars. They are deplorable.
Leave the car business to the pros, Carvana. You suck.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
