Let me start by saying I love Carvana. I love how easy it is to buy a car. I love that I can buy a car from my couch if I want. In fact, my first purchase a few years ago, that's exactly what I did, while watching a college football game on a Saturday night. Unfortunately, it feels like they either grew too fast and haven't been able to get the infrastructure built to support the demand, or they're going through a rough spot with the current job market, or something else entirely. But the reality is, the current model is not focused on a good client experience.
With my purchase this time around, and the subsequent exchange during the 7 day guarantee period, I was given an initial delivery date of two days after I completed the purchase. As a consumer, this is exciting! Especially with a new car! One of the biggest purchases of someone's life is to get themselves in a new car. A lot of emotions get going when you finally pull the trigger and buy the car, and then you get excited and start telling all your friends that it will be there in TWO DAYS! How awesome! And then you get your first "unforeseen transportation delay". What a bummer! What a letdown. :( That's okay though, maybe it really was unforeseen. When's my next delivery date? Two or three days later. Okay, I can handle that. You even get a call from a real person apologizing. You get text messages the day before confirming that they're on track. And then, bam, another unforeseen delay. This goes on at least 3 or 4 times before they actually meet their delivery date. By this time, the consumer is just frustrated and either ready to cancel their order, or they've just given up and resigned themselves to "believing it when I see it" in terms of the car being delivered. It is totally deflating and takes all the fun and excitement out of the car buying experience. How many friends asked me, "Did it come today?" And I've have to say, "Nope. Another unforeseen delay." It became comical.
I wouldn't be so upset about it if it was a one-off situation. But going online, it was clear that this was happening regularly. And then, when I decided to get a different car during my 7 day guarantee period, and the EXACT same thing happened, at least this time I was prepared. I didn't get my hopes up for getting the car delivered. That was I didn't feel so let down or deflated when it didn't show up the first, second or third time they told me it would be delivered.
This could be so easily corrected. People enjoy this experience. It's proven in so many other industries with fast food, grocery shopping, regular shopping, etc etc etc. But why not live by the mantra, "under promise and over deliver"? If I purchase the car and you know that two or three weeks is a realistic delivery time, tell me that and let me decide if that's still worth it to me. You may lose some sales because some people won't want to wait, but you'll also keep customers happier because you do what you say you're going to do.
I really hope these challenges are worked out in the future because I do enjoy the car buying experience this way. And let me also emphatically add, the employees you have in place are wonderful. They are helpful, knowledgeable, patient and understanding. You are doing a disservice to these awesome people by continuing to put them in difficult situations to cover for your logistical challenges. Just set more realistic expectations up front and over deliver on them if you can. Thank you. Rant over. Love you!
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