I first heard about Carvana from a friend who said that it's like Amazon but for cars. I had just moved to a new city and was interested in buying a car and from what I could tell it would make my life more convenient if I could choose a car online and have it delivered to me.
I quickly found out that the Carvana service isn't nearly as convenient as they describe.
Once I went through the purchase process (which was easy enough) I was given a delivery window of 3 days to receive the car. Assured of the accuracy by a Carvana representative, my wife and I went away on vacation for the week.
Literally 2 days later, we received a call from the delivery service saying it would be in San Francisco the next day and couldn't be delayed.
It turns out Carvana uses 2rd party delivery services who they don't seem to coordinate with and who have no interest in providing a great service. Which confuses me since the convenience aspect is the entire point!
The delivery service said they wouldn't deliver to my apartment so I had to drive 40 minutes to meet a truck driver underneath an underpass that was convenient for him in the middle of rush hour.
If I had known this was going to be the car buying experience I wouldn't have purchased a car on Carvana.
In addition, Carvana didn't ship any of the paperwork to get there in time so I couldn't get a temporary permit and instead had to park the car overnight in a local garage.
When I tried to take up my complaints with Carvana they said that none of it was their fault... they eventually (and very reluctantly) gave us half the delivery fee for the car back which didn't nearly cover the cost of the vacation we had to abandon, the overnight parking we had to pay for since they didn't ship the documents in time, and the time spent on the phone trying to get someone at Carvana to listen.
Anyways.... Carvana might seem like a great idea but it's clear they have a long way to go in their execution. I'd rather go to a Carmax or a dealership than meet a delivery person 45 minutes away under an underpass in rush hour.
I wouldn't recommend Carvana.
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