Would you look online to purchase your next car or truck? Judging by their growth in recent years, the likes of Carvana and Car Max have found a substantial number of people willing to answer that question with a resounding “Yes.” And if you’re in a tech company that’s also in the business of selling vehicles, that’s a good thing. But one of the promises of companies re-inventing existing industries is the suggestion that they would do a bette job at it. But when it comes to Carvana, a recent report casts doubt upon that notion.
At The Wall Street Journal, a new investigation by Ben Foldy and Mike Colias reveals a host of complaints against Carvana. Foldy and Colias unearthed a number of complaints regarding “incorrect paperwork, delays getting titles and registrations, and other troubles with the purchasing process” sent to state agencies and the Better Business Bureau. It’s prompted multiple states to take action against the company.
The most alarming of these complaints, made by several people who bought their cars on Carvana, related to documents that they needed for registration purposes. In these cases, Carvana did not send the required documents on time, which meant that the buyers were unable to drive their newly-purchased cars — causing understandable frustration.
As Jalopnik noted in their report on this issue, this doesn’t seem to be an industry-wide issue. Car Max received significantly fewer complaints than Carvana, despite selling significantly more cars. All of which might serve as a wake-up call: if the person you just sold a car is unable to drive it for weeks or months after the sale, they’re probably not going to buy another one from you.
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