TWO customers who bought from an online used car retailer have joined almost 400 others complaining about never receiving a title.
After paying more than $8,000 on the loan, he turned in the car despite never receiving the title.
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Maryland business owner Jack Boger was thrilled to purchase a 2020 Land Rover Range Rover three years ago.
He decided to go through Carvana, an online used car retailer, because of the convenience of everything being behind a screen.
“I was compelled by accessibility,” Boger told ABC affiliate WMAR in 2022.
“You don’t have to go to a dealership and they can drop it off right in front of your house.”
When he bought it, he used $20,000 as a down payment and received $17,000 to cover the cost of a trade-in, and financed the rest.
His Land Rover was delivered and he was happy – until he realized something about the title and the state registration process.
“They made me print different labels to stick on my plate for six months,” Boger said.
Nearly a year later, he read a shocking warning when he logged into his Carvana account after receiving an email about canceling his loan autopayment.
“So I log in and it says my car is in active repossession,” he said.
“I see I made all my payments, everything is as it should be, so I called them and no one answered me.”
Trapped, Boger decided to save face by surrendering the SUV, despite having proof that multiple payments of more than $800 had been successfully made toward the loan.
He paid more than $8,000 in payments.
“As a business owner, I really didn’t want them to come to my work or my house, which is really embarrassing, so I handed the car over to them,” he said.
“So now that we’re here, months later, there’s no resolution. I don’t have any of my money back and then there is no answer. I have no idea what happened.”
Boger isn’t the only Marylander to file complaints with the state attorney general about not receiving a Maryland title or license plate, causing stress after paying thousands for a car he can’t drive.
Jeff Mayko purchased a 2019 Dodge Ram from Carvana, drawn to the online experience, saving time and human interaction.
So now that we are here, months later, there is no resolution. I don’t have any money back and so there is no response. I have no idea what happened.
Jack Boger
Like Boger, Carvana never sent him a Maryland title or plates — instead, he received a 90-day temporary plate from a different state, which has since expired.
After that, he received another temporary plate.
“Then they had to give me another Arizona registration, which also killed me, so now I have a truck that I can’t drive that I’m still paying for,” he said in a video interview.
In 2021, Maryland customers filed more than 800 complaints and the company paid more than $17,000 in fines to the state.
The company’s statement stated that the high volume of customers during the Covid-19 pandemic was the driving force behind the delays.
“Our explosive growth in purchasing cars of customers over the past two quarters have created significant operational constraints on our system,” a Carvana spokesperson wrote to WMAR.
Carvana Declaration
“Our explosive growth in customer car purchases over the past two quarters has created significant operational constraints on our system,” a Carvana spokesperson wrote to WMAR.
“Buying more cars from customers leads to more last-mile pickups, more customer service interactions and more complex title processing requirements, which in turn leads to more complex registration processing.”
Regarding multiple customer complaints, a spokesperson wrote to WMAR:
“The vast majority of our customers enjoy experiences that reflect a significant improvement for automotive retail,” the company wrote.
“While we recognize that there are rare instances where a customer’s experience has not lived up to our brand promise, and we are working hard to correct these instances through continuous improvement, any discussion of these rare instances must recognize our scale and the number of customers we are buying and selling, as well as the success of most of these experiments.”
Source: ABC affiliate WMAR.
“Buying more cars from customers leads to more last-mile pickups, more customer service interactions and more complex title processing requirements, which in turn leads to more complex registration processing.”
They also wrote that most of their car sales go smoothly and that cases like Boger’s are rare.
“The vast majority of our customers enjoy experiences that reflect a significant improvement for automotive retail,” the company wrote.
“While we recognize that there are rare instances where a customer’s experience has not lived up to our brand promise, and we are working hard to correct these instances through continuous improvement, any discussion of these rare instances must recognize our scale and the number of customers we are buying and selling, as well as the success of most of these experiments.”
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TAKE IT TO THE COURTS
The state continued to pursue legal action against the company for failing to provide documents within 30 days of the purchase date, per state law, and in March 2024, a federal judge ruled that the case could move forward.
Carvana requested that the case be dismissed and that both parties enter arbitration, but both requests were denied.
The company denies any responsibility and claims the allegations against the company are without merit, according to the NBC affiliate WBAL-TV.
“Ultimately, our case is about consumers who purchased a car from what they thought was a legitimate dealership and discovered that they were unable to obtain a title and registration and were unable to drive their cars,” said attorney Phillip Robinson, representing another client of Carvana who never managed to win the title.
An attorney for Carvana declined to comment.
The start date of the test has not yet been announced, but it will be updated as soon as possible.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
