Carvana Reviews - How It Works, Warranty, Financing, Returns

Someone referred me to Carvana. I kept saying I'd rather buy a car the traditional way. But I caved and gave it a shot. After submitting all documentation, updating information on my credit report, receiving two hard inquiries, speaking with multiple reps who all placed me on long holds, contacting my bank and proving the funds were available, a week later I still have no car. Horrible experience. I will never refer them to anyone.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Think of every single thing you hate about a car dealership. Now take away the accountability of being able to physically visit the dealer and you've got Carvana. They are pushy, they lie, and they steal. That is the gist of this company. They will scam you. You will lose money. You will not get a quality car.

I bought a car from Carvana, and it was a total disaster and guess what? I don't have the car I paid for! They refunded me part of the money I paid for the car but not all of it - yet. That's how they operate. Avoid at ALL cost.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I was approved to purchase a vehicle. They asked for proof of my income. I have been in my career for 24 years. My check stubs are done strictly online, no paper trail. I offered them my W-2’s, and they did not want them. I offered to call HR on a three-way to prove to them that I worked at this job and my income was sufficient, and they refused.

I sent my offer letter with a letterhead, my orientation letter with a letterhead, my badge with the address of my employer, my electronic check stub and I offered to call my bank. This was from my second job. They want to finance my car based on income from my first job. The more money I make, the better the interest rate. So I sent them the proof that THEY asked for from my second job, and they still would not accept it.

I would not recommend anyone to buy from Carvana because they are non-trusting, but sell cars online that you have not seen.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

The first car we got from Carvana we drove it for 2 miles and we get the low tire pressure light, and the sticker on the windshield says it's due for an oil change! We returned the car! Also, the customer service has no idea about registration and titles rates and discounts. They also provided us wrong info for the downpayment! The agents don't know what they are saying! I will not ever buy a cat again from this company!

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

The whole process was not what I was expecting. They make you feel like you are going to get the car and then they block your account advising you there is an error and to call.

Well, I called and was told they can no longer continue with the purchase and if I had any questions I have to write to an address provided. I guess what's so frustrating is the fact that I just recently had an issue with my car and needed a new one asap. So after getting excited and the congratulations from them, they came and snatched it all away.

I would rather deal with the dealership, at least they are straightforward with you. This experience was a nightmare and to top it off, it was for my birthday. I will never recommend anyone to them. Avoid at all cost; you have a better shot at the dealership.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I went through the whole process with them, submitted all required documents, verified funds with my bank and signed all documents, and then they turned it down because they could not verify my employment on a landline! I tried to get in touch with my underwriter to see if there was another way to make the call and no reply. There was NO reason for the way they handled my deal. I wouldn't want anyone else to go through this! Stay away!

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

First, we bought a 2014 Ford Taurus, which we liked and were very satisfied with. Then we traded it and bought a 2015 Ford Explorer, and after having it for two months, I traded it back in for a 2015 Ford Taurus, kept it for a week, and decided I wanted my Explorer back.

Regarding the 7-day money back guarantee, I was misled and was not told that it started the day I got the car, which I didn't take possession of until 6 o'clock on December 11, 2017. So I called them on Monday and told them I was very dissatisfied and wanted my Explorer back on December 18th, 2017, and was basically told: "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do, and you are stuck with it." And they told me I would have to sell it on my own and refused to make it right after going round and round.

The car we received was not as what was shown in the pictures, and we will not be doing business with them again.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

It started off pretty well with Carvana, but in the end it was a big disappointment.

First off, I decided upon a vehicle to purchase. It was a 2016 Toyota Camry SE. Very beautiful car. I was purchasing it for my son. When I finalized my purchase, I had to call Carvana and verify my funds for down payment as well as sign some documents. That process was quick and simple, and the representatives were very polite and helpful.

After finalizing everything, my delivery date was confirmed: Saturday, December 29th, 2017 at 1:00 PM, which was four days away from the day I purchased the vehicle. I was very satisfied and pleased that the delivery would be quick.

Well, here comes the bad part. On my delivery date, around 7:00 AM, I receive an email that "there's been a delay" in my delivery and so my vehicle will be delivered on a different date. Shortly after, I received a phone call from a representative explaining what happened. She told me that the driver broke down in Valdosta, Georgia (I live in St. Augustine, Florida), and they don't have an ETA on when he'll arrive. She said they would call me back.

An hour after, I called Carvana to check on the status of my delivery. The representative didn't seem like he wanted to help much and told me that the vehicle has an expected delivery date of January 2nd, three days late, but he said it wasn't exact. I waited another hour and called back again. The representative then told me that the truck driver was back on the road and was on its way to my closest hub (Jacksonville) to be delivered and it would be delivered today or the next day. I was at ease at that moment.

A few hours later, I receive a phone call by a woman who tells me that when they took the car to the car wash in Jacksonville, they found out that the vehicle had a leak in the windshield. Oh no Carvana, I thought you do a full inspection on your vehicles before listing them for sale, no? She told me that I could 1) Have them take the vehicle to repair it at a dealership at their cost, 2) They could deliver the vehicle to me and I could take it to repair it at their cost as well, or 3) I could switch out the vehicle.

The representative recommended that I take the vehicle to a body shop of my choice because if they take it from a dealership to another dealership, it would be at the end of the line and it would cause a delay more than it already has. But, why doesn't Carvana have body repair or body shops for situations like this? Why do I have to be responsible for taking the vehicle to a body shop even though it's been "inspected?"

At this point, I was frustrated. The delivery had been delayed, and on top of that, I was told I had to take the vehicle straight to repair it when I receive it. It rains a lot in Florida, and at random times, so this is an issue that had to be fixed immediately. I was very excited about the vehicle and wanted to drive it right away when receiving it, not take it straight to get it repaired. This wasn't our expectations.

Ok, I then called Carvana back and told them I would like to switch out the vehicle because I didn't want to deal with a car that had issues to begin with. I explained to them that I found the same car online on their website for $500 more. Nope, they said I had to pay the difference. Even though I already had paid $200 to insure the vehicle since they had to have proof of insurance when delivering, they still refused. This was the point where I had enough. I told them to just cancel the entire order and that I did not want the vehicle at all. They canceled the order right away.

I then emailed them with my feedback and a couple of hours later, I received a call from someone and they said the maximum they could offer me was $250 off the vehicle price. I told them I'd think about it, but I have decided that I will not be purchasing a vehicle from their website. I didn't want to deal with this process again when it seems to me like customer satisfaction wasn't a priority. I did not get charged for anything since the vehicle wasn't delivered.

Carvana, you have disappointed me big time. This was a bad first impression, and I am not satisfied at all. If you actually do fully inspect your vehicles before listing them, you would find out about the crack in the windshield. But no, you found out when you did the car wash. Who knows, water could've slipped through and messed up other things in the vehicle. Get your things straight because you obviously don't perform full inspections on your vehicles and also don't even have mechanics/body repair in place for when things happen like what happened to me.

I am so glad I did not get the car delivered and I didn't get charged. I will never purchase a vehicle from here again. To be honest, I've had many vehicles in my lifetime, all of them from car dealerships. It may be a hassle negotiating there, but I have never experienced what I've experienced with Carvana. Back to the dealership it is!

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Oh my goodness, where in the heck do I even start with Carvana? Basically sounds like a lot of other people went and got close to the entire experience of buying a car and getting financed with Carvana.

Yesterday, after I did the agreement of the down payment that would be taken from my account on the day I was to receive the car and signed the paperwork for the car itself as well, I was told to call Carvana for finalizing verification of the bank deposit and deposit information. The bank told the guy that yes, the funds were available for ACH payments, and yes, I got deposits that come in each month, and yes, I am who I am as the bank required, with this man from Carvana listening to everything, including my social security number and birthday, to confirm that I am the owner of the bank account and as to verified who I am!

Hello, there is already your verification in itself, but the bank confirmed all this and the man said "great, you're all set and verified." He said the next thing was I needed to have my bank statements uploaded showing my deposits. I am thinking well, the bank already verified a lot of what you are wanting, but ok, this is understandable. Mind you, I already got verified and green check marked for that already.

Now as I continue, keep in mind again that I was already completed and verified on the phone with my bank and with Carvana asking them the necessary questions. Now since this morning, I've been jacking around with Carvana about the verification of my bank statements in their crazy format.

First they said my uploads were not verifiable because I didn't show three consecutive months for deposits. So I had to upload October, November, and December and they came back when I called to see if they got it, and then they tell me they have to have my name on them. Well instead of uploading all the same three again, I uploaded just one (the middle one), which was November, and made sure it showed the bank logo as well as my name on it, and then the same deposit information on it again. Well, lo and behold, Carvana didn't disappoint me with their crazy verification ways. She then tells me "now we need all three of them showing your name and bank logo as well as the entire statement." What the heck!

Why would you need the full statement, which is two more pages or so on each month showing transactions of where I spent my money at ranging from gas stations to restaurants, to Walmart, to utilities? I mean, why does Carvana think that this is a guarantee of verification any more than the bank statements that I sent where the first page showing you what you need to be concerned with, and that is the deposit along with my name and bank name.

Then she adds that after I do this, she will need to call my bank and verify my bank deposits and available funds! What, wait, what the heck?! I said I already did this yesterday and I am not going to call my bank again and go through all that again when I did this with you already, and it was to your satisfaction yesterday, but now you feel you want to redo other processes and can't get this one completed correctly.

This company is full of crap folks. They are nosey as heck and want just about everything you can think of just shy of a blood sample and urine test. I refused at that point to go any further with them and to tell you the truth, I never had this many problems and way less verification with a dealership, and the finance companies are all virtual because they are not in-house financing to begin with. Carvana is crazy, and I am very angry that they treated me this way.

I also should be relieved because the finance company they use is called GO Financial and these folks seem like criminals considering the reviews on them, and is owned and part of Carvana, and it makes sense why they want so much information and verification to your bank information because they are known for taking unauthorized money from people. Go read it for yourself.

So in my opinion, I will not deal with them, and they lost a really good customer that has always paid his vehicles off on time and paid a lot of cars off in my lifetime, and they bombed this one for their stupidity and crap they pulled on me. I already sent in everything they wanted and more and should have gotten nothing, but ok, your day to pick up your car is ect., etc. I will make it my lifelong quest to tell everyone, and I mean everyone everywhere I go about Carvana and how to stay away from them. They costed me time and headaches and stress so I will cost them bad experience as everyone will be asking me soon "what happened, I thought you were getting your car from Carvana?"

And I feel like an idiot for even talking so highly about them, up until now, so I will look like an idiot. And sure, there will be jokes about this and I will eat crow having to tell everyone how Carvana played games and screwed me over, but hey, they lost a good-paying customer! They will never last long in the future with people like me and how they treat us! Period!

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

Carvana is the worst brokerage company ever. They changed loan requirements, policies, and procedures in the middle of the underwriting process after initial documents were received and verified! Zack, one of the supervisors in Arizona in underwriting, tried every way possible to make my experience with this company unpleasant and draining. I spent a week going back and forth with this and got nothing accomplished! He was very discriminating with some of the questions he asked during or conversations about my income and employment, made me jump through hoops to prove things and in so many words encouraged me to seek out other car dealers because my business was not needed by Carvana.

Not only did I waste my time, but I still don't have the car I was supposed to pick up on January 5th, nor has anyone from this company reached out to me about my complaints.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I agreed to purchase a 2015 Subaru from Carvana in November 2016. After waiting several weeks for the car to undergo its 150-point inspection, it was finally ready, and I agreed to pick it up 100 miles from their distribution point in Alabama. I had to drive over 200 miles to meet the carrier.

When the car carrier first pulled into the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly, I immediately went to view some scratches that had been identified in the 360-degree pictures of the car that Carvana had posted. Those scratches were not bad, but there were scratches next to it that had not been identified in the pictures. My attention was then drawn to the bright brass glow of an exposed tire valve stem. This would normally not be a big deal, but how could a car pass a 150-point inspection and no one notice that the stem cap was missing? Also, how could someone tie that tire down to the carrier without noticing? These observations would become more pronounced as time went on.

From the missing stem cap, my attention was drawn to two holes in the wheel well. These were holes meant to fasten the wheel well liner and the rear bumper to the car. Both fasteners were missing, and I could easily shake both the bumper and liner. The representative said that Carvana would mail to me the fasteners.

I then walked to the rear of the car, where I didn't notice anything and on to the other side. When I reached the other rear wheel. The same fasteners were missing. I am now becoming suspicious. This bumper had been removed and they forgot to reattach it. Now I noticed overspray on the black parts of the bumper. The masking tape marks were now very obvious. Whoever masked and painted the rear bumper should find another profession. The representative was being quiet, but taking pictures. He could see and sense my frustration.

I asked him to take the car off of the carrier, and in my best-used car salesman impersonation, I opened the tail and looked in the spare tire well for signs of damage. I didn't see any, but did notice that the tools were not tied down (were they all there?), and I noticed that the cargo cover was missing. This is a $100 part and not mentioned as missing in the description of the vehicle.

If I had accepted the car as is, I would never have made it home. The bumper and well liners would have ripped off on the interstate. This was as far as I went inspecting the car. Less than 5 minutes. I didn't even look inside. I refused to accept the vehicle. The rep said that he understood and that Carvana would pay me for my time and trouble (he said things like it had happened before).

That's where my distaste for Carvana grew. Not only were they trying to sell me a car that had been in some type of collision, they were trying to hide it and then just playing dumb and not talking to me. They never contacted me to apologize. I was told by email after I contacted them that someone from the executive resolution team would contact me within 48 hours. That was two months ago. I did finally get the $100 check from them with “goodwill/poor experience” in the memo field only after complaining several times.

I cannot say that Carvana is any worse than any other used car lot. But I would not recommend them to anyone. At least at a lot, you have someone to talk to. The customer care is awful and their “executive resolution team” probably doesn't even exist.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend