So I have since dropped my vehicle off at the body shop to begin the cosmetic repairs, I reached out to Carvana who is paying for a rental vehicle until at least Friday although the body shop is projecting my car to be done on Monday, they did indicate I can contact them to get approval for additional rental time, but I'm dreading the wait time as it seems once you are past the 7-day "trial" period, customer service becomes somewhat unreliable. Even using the online chat feature seems to take over 30 minutes to get an actual advocate to chat. I was originally told that they had the car rental set up through the 15th but then when I got the email it was only good until the 12th.
My recommendation is that if you are unable to get past any undisclosed cosmetic issues, swap out the vehicle within the 7 day trial period vs having to have work done on a fairly new, low mileage vehicle.
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
3 people found it helpful
Link to this ReviewI originally selected a 2017 Hyundai accent SE sedan for pickup at the Nashville vending machine on 6/15, ended up rejecting the vehicle due to it not having Cruise Control (I might add that it did not list as a feature, I just assumed that all new cars automatically had cruise). While I was still there, I went online and found the same year/model but the hatchback version which did list cruise control as a feature, I then set that up for delivery on 6/20 as I am located just over 200 miles away from the vending machine in Nashville.
Delivery day comes and I get a call from the driver about 45 minutes prior to original scheduled time (2 pm) and he indicates that they were short staffed and he was running behind and would probably be there about 2:30, he actually got there at 2:15 so within the original delivery window.
He drops the car off the transport and pulls into my driveway where we go over some paperwork. In the meantime, my fiance is doing a walk around on the vehicle and found 2 significant cosmetic issues not noted on the website. Passenger side rear tail light cover is missing a chunk and the front bumper has a significant scratch and chip out of it. We bring that up to the delivery driver who indicates that it's possible it happened during transport. He takes pictures of the areas and submits to the repair department.
I get an email back from the repair department indicating that I should take the vehicle into a body shop and get an estimate for repairs and submit the estimate to them. I get the estimate and submit it to them on the 24th, I then get an email on the 26th that good news, the repairs have been approved.
Here is where the trouble comes in, so I take it back to the body shop shortly after I got the email and tell them that they need to contact Silver Rock to initiate the claim. Body shop contacts Silver Rock and "no record" in their system, tells body shop they need to submit the estimate to them before it can be approved? What? I took off work to hopefully get the work started yesterday as the body shop won't start anything until they know they are going to get paid for the work. The body shop also tells me that between ordering the part and the actual paintwork that needs to be done, I'm looking at being without my vehicle for probably 3-4 days.
In looking over the Silver Rock FAQ's, they will only reimburse for a rental vehicle if labor is over 8 hours, I don't believe the actual labor is going to take that long? Also, reimbursement is limited to $40/day, the cheapest going rate for a vehicle here in the Memphis area for the smallest compact car is $42/day! Not sure how I'm going to deal with getting to and from work while my car is in the shop, can't exactly afford to pay for a rental out of pocket since my extra money went towards my down payment.
I also never received a call from Customer Care towards the end up my 7-day "test drive", I guess it's partially my fault for not reading that the 7 days starts on the day you take possession. I honestly thought I had until the 27th to reject/exchange for a different vehicle.
My final take away from everything so far is I would recommend Carvana to friends and family, but I am soured on the process for cosmetic repairs not noted on the website and how long it takes for approval and still needing to go through Silver Rock for cosmetic issues. With next week being the 4th of July, I think I'm going to end up having to wait until the following week providing everything gets approved before I can have the body shop start the work.
Company Response from Carvana
Thank you so much for providing such insightful feedback on your Carvana purchase. We sincerely apologize that your vehicle was delivered in less than ideal conditions. We appreciate you for allowing us the opportunity to correct the issues with your vehicle. While the issues are being remedied, we understand how frustrating it may be to be without your vehicle. We are glad that we were able to assist you with your transportation needs in the meantime. It is wonderful to hear that despite the issues encountered, you would still recommend Carvana to family and friends. It is our goal to improve our process and customer experience with every customer interaction. We hope to have the opportunity to provide you with a better experience in the future. Please contact us with any additional questions or concerns that you may have.