Vroom Customer Testimonial

When we found out that one of Evans Cars Direct's customers had previously ordered a car from Vroom, we asked if he would sit down and compare the experience. Below, you will find our interview with Steven K., a local Dayton customer.

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Hi Steven, thanks a lot of taking the time to give us your testimonial. We are really interested to hear about your experience with Vroom.

It's my pleasure. I've been sure to tell my friends about how it went with Vroom, because it wasn't the best experience. So I want people to know what was involved with the process, outside of what you see on their website.

So, it sounds like it didn't go as you had expected? Walk us through the experience.

Well, I am very interested in tech and online companies, so I thought the idea of buying online was really interesting. After shopping the website, I decided to order an INFINITI SUV from Vroom. I guess I'd been spoiled by Amazon, because I thought it was just going to be a couple clicks, and the car would show up at my door. But buying a car is not like buying a TV.

The first hiccup was with financing. As you know, when you finance at a dealer or your local bank, the process is normally done in one sitting. But due to paperwork requirements, financing with Vroom involved them sending me paperwork to sign, and then me sending it back. So with time in the mail, getting financing with Vroom worked out to about a four-day process.

So once you had the financing, how did the delivery go?

The delivery process was actually pretty smooth, on the first SUV they sent us. It only took a few days, and then there it was at our door.

You said the first SUV. Did you have to return it?

Unfortunately, we did. And that's where things got really complicated. While Vroom said they thoroughly inspected the vehicle, we took it to our local service center just to be sure. Our mechanic pointed out that the oil hadn't been changed, and had begun to burn. That sort of gunk can cause real problems in the engine, and there was no way to tell what issues we would have down the road. We also couldn't be sure if they had inspected the rest of the vehicle, if they never even checked the oil.

So we called Vroom, and told them we needed to exchange the vehicle. To their credit, they came down in price on the only equivalent INFINITI model they had in stock. However, we had already sold our other vehicle, so now needed to be without a vehicle while we awaited delivery.

But Vroom doesn't do their own deliveries. They have a third party logistics company. The driver was delayed, and a delivery that was supposed to be three days stretched to two weeks. We have two kids, so going a total of three weeks without a vehicle was a real stress on our lifestyle.

So after two weeks, they finally delivered the replacement SUV?

Actually, no. We were tracking the shipment, and though the driver was only a couple miles from us, his schedule had him going all the way to Pennsylvania first. That would have been four more days without a vehicle. After some unpleasant discussion on the phone, we were finally able to Uber over to the truck stop where he was resting. So in the end, we took the delivery of our luxury SUV in the truck stop parking lot. It's a funny anecdote for us now, but at the time it was a really negative experience.

So now you've replaced the INFINITI with a newer model, which you bought from Evans Cars Direct. Any thoughts on the experience?

As a family with two working parents, having the test drive delivered to my house was really convenient. But once we decided we wanted to buy the new SUV, we just went into the dealership, traded our old one, and got financing in the same day. I like that Evans Cars Direct offers good online options, but that I was able to finish the whole process in one day. We also bought brand new this time, and were able take advantage of specials that aren't available on used cars. Overall, it was a very different experience, and I have no complaints. And this time, I was able to check the oil myself, no purchase necessary.