Yesterday we shared Part 1 of our investigation into Carvana, that began with exploring potential fraud regarding Carvana’s eBay listings and feedback rating. We strongly encourage you to read Part 1 first. You will be directed back to this article at the end of Part 1.

PART 2

In Part 1 we couldn’t explain how Carvana has such terrible feedback on eBay, yet is able to maintain eBays coveted “Top Rated Seller Plus” status without secret intervention behind the scene at eBay. While this theory may sound insane, in 2020 the government had to get involved when Amazon employees were caught accepting bribes. Well, to add to the Carvana feedback confusion, let’s take a look at their Better Business Bureau (BBB) profile, on which we find the same oddities…

As you can see in the image above, Carvana is loaded with BBB complaints. After scrolling through 8 pages of reviews, I cannot figure out how Carvana is even maintaining 2 stars because 99% of what I saw is 1-star, but what’s more concerning is that despite seemingly endless awful reviews, guess what their BBB rating is?

YEP, the BBB rates this company an “A-”, which is dangerously misleading for potential buyers because there is a large percentage of Americans who falsely believe the BBB is a brand of the government. I encourage you to read our blog post The Truth About the BBB (and Why We Aren’t a Member, and NEVER Will Be!) for more details

Once I discovered that Carvana is able to maintain a near-perfect BBB rating and a near-perfect eBay rating, despite very few positive reviews, the possibility of “behind the scenes” help is incredibly probable.

But the oddities of a great rating based on terrible reviews doesn’t end there. If you simply search the internet for “Carvana Reviews”, you’ll find more review websites with more sub-par ratings:

On Carvanas Facebook Page, they flat out TURNED OFF Reviews. There’s only 1 reason for any company to choose not to show reviews and trust me, it ISN’T because the reviews are excellent. But, even though they won’t let you see their reviews, they can’t stop pissed off customers from commenting on their Facebook posts:

If you can’t read the comment above it was posted by Jen DeSaint and says “Day number 122 with a carvana car that I am unable to register that I am being charged for with no response from Carvana: Please please stay far far away from this company!!!!!!!!!! I have a car since August 29th and they still haven’t sent me the paperwork to register it. It is sitting in the driveway unusable, depreciating in value, while they continue to take my payments and get this…. Threaten to sue me for nonpayment of a car I can’t drive. I just had to hire a lawyer. Carvana could care less and hasn’t even contacted me to update me. Worst company and customer service ever. You are better off going with a sleazy car salesman where you are protected by your state.”

In fact, you can click on almost anything Carvana posts on their Facebook page and you will find livid buyers, like these ones:

Justin Baker: Carvana just got finished wrecking my Christmas. Thanks for nothing!

Zach Funk: Can spend all this money on a festival, but can’t replace the flood van you sold my wife… what a shame, man.

Jimmy Dunn: How bout delivering vehicles on time.. let’s get the basics of your business model right first.

Dave Moore: Where’s my car I’ve been waiting for the past two weeks?

Chris Kelch: I bought my car from carvana when they first started. They were good, honest. Now no! Stay away from these scam artists. And DON'T sell them your car.

Edward J Valdettaro: TERRIBLE SERVICE FOR A REPEAT CUSTOMER.

Does hiding your reviews make you a "scam"?  Surprisingly, the Federal Trade Commission has an answer that may shock you.  The Consumer Review Fairness Act was passed in response to reports that some businesses try to prevent people from giving honest reviews about products or services they received.  The Review Fairness Act states that companies are legally allowed to remove reviews that slander the company, provide outright false information or are in violation of US Laws in general, however the Review Fairness Act protects reviews that are accurate, yet negative. With that being said, Facebook has an option to hide ALL reviews, meaning your profile simply will not accept any reviews, therefore it will not show any reviews, regardless of if the rating is good or bad.  So, since Carvana has chosen to "hide all" (including good reviews...if there are any), it is lawful in this instance. 

To add to the seemingly deceptive Carvana Review practices, Carvana has managed to have smart consumers who look up “Carvana Reviews” see this:

And as you can see, this states the reviews are “Mainly Positive” - which is blatantly untrue. Additionally, I have always found it odd when any company has awful reviews on pretty much every review website, yet has excellent reviews on a single website, and this is the exact case with Carvana. Somehow Carvana managed an almost-perfect rating on a site called Dealerrater… a website where all of the reviews are ANONYMOUS and it looks like Carvana gets their reviews in waves, meaning a whole bunch on the same day, then nothing for days, then a whole bunch more. Interesting, eh? Additionally, these reviews all rave about the same thing; Excellent Customer Service… which is odd because literally every other site says the service is terrible.

You may be wondering "How on earth did Carvana get the internet to tell people reviews are mainly positive"; the answer is usually one of the following:

An affiliate program.  Carvana runs an affiliate program that pays out $100 for each referral.  That means if a blogger, YouTuber, etc tells you Carvana is the BEST EVER and you click their link to buy a car, you earned them $100.  The more people they get to buy cars, the more money they make, so it makes financial sense for them to rave about Carvana, even if completely untrue. 

Paid posts.  Paid posts are an entire industry of its own, and it is pretty lousy for honest people trying to find a truthful answer about a company.  Paid Posting is exactly what it sounds like; the business pays a blogger, writer or content creator to write about them.  

NEXT:  PART 3 Carvana Investigation