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| Drive Time Star Ratings |
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StarREVIEWS loved just about everything about the website, but there
were two features that stood out above the rest. The first is the make a
payment feature on the website. So many 2nd chance car dealers are
shady and a bit behind in the times. This feature makes the site stand
out as one that’s looking to be as helpful as possible to the consumer.
While yes, there are fees to make the payment, that’s growing
increasingly common with most utilities and not un-expected. The other
feature we loved was the ability to search for the car you’re most
interested in through their drop down menu. We arbitrarily picked a
Dodge Pickup in our local city and found that there were actually
several to choose from. Additionally, every other type of car we tried,
we found. How convenient is that? Why bother going to look at a
dealership if you know before hand they don’t have what you need. With DriveTime’s easy to access drop down menus, you can know before you go what you have to choose from.
What’s New with DriveTime?- GOLD Program that allows you to make money off those people you refer to the company and are approved for financing.
- Military Merit Program that allows members of the military to get started with a lower down payment and more affordable payments.
- DT Champ program whereby good consistent on-time paying customers are awarded with trade-in opportunities with no money down and reduced interest rates.
The DriveTime Experience:
Here is where DriveTime exceeds the expectations of StarReviews. The website is uncluttered, easy to navigate and answers just about any question you could have without having to call in the customer service department to help. It’s written in easy to understand language and anticipates your needs with a fantastic FAQ section. They explain on the site how they are different from the competition, by providing financing on the majority of their transactions themselves, instead of having to seek out financing for you. The site also easily allows you to make the transition from online to real-time by allowing you to schedule an appointment or drive in to a local dealership yourself with a list of all locations.
Tools the site provide you with include an online application, find a dealership drop down menus, set or reschedule an appointment tools and find a car inventory locator. We tried all these various tools and found them easy to understand work through. When searching for a specific car, we simply entered our city of choice, the model and make we were most interested in and it populated the specific ones they had at that location to choose from. The year and color were included in the results, but no pictures. Additionally, you could not find more out about the car without contacting the dealership. That’s truly the only “problem” we found with the site, it’s endless loop to get you in touch with the dealer. Understandably, they want their site to drive you in to DriveTime, but many times, you want to do all the research possible before heading in to the dealership.
All DriveTime Features:- Online Application
- Online Appointment Scheduling and Re-Scheduling
- Online Inventory Shopping
- Online Chat
- Make A Payment Options
DriveTime Pricing:
Pricing is not discussed at all on this website other than to give details of the Military Program. They do not give you any idea how much the various cars will cost or what you should expect as a down payment or interest rate. They expect you to come in to the dealership to discuss these items. Additional programs they have that will cost extra, but you should consider include the DriveCare Package, a 36-month/36,000 mile comprehensive warranty. Again, the price is not revealed, but its features and benefits are disclosed on the site.
DriveTime Customer Service:
The website offers quite a few options for the customer to contact the business for customer related issues. The 800-number is available, a customer service email link and a chat option all are intended to help the customer out. While the intent of good customer service is there, the execution is a little lacking.
There is a comprehensive FAQ section to answer most questions and an email link too, they encourage you to call in, not email them. This we found to be wuite different than any other website, industry related or not! They also provide a chat feature that we tried out during office hours, but it took eight minutes for them to respond to us. And when they did respond, they took 2-3 minutes between answering each question which we found highly frustrating. We submitted our questions via email and did not receive even an automated response within a 24-hour period. Finally, we decided to give in and try the 800-number, which is actually an 888 number. There, you receive automated instructions on how to apply on line but not talk to an actual person.
Overall, we were not impressed with the level of customer service found on the website. We feel that there needs to be a more immediate answering of the chat and email inquiries and a way to speak with an individual at the corporate level number listed on the site. We ended up calling the local DriveTime representative and received professional and courteous answers to our questions along with the invitation to make an appointment.
Upsides:- Un-cluttered easy to navigate website with lots of information
- Incentive programs offered for good customers
- Extensive Search and Find Inventory Online
- Easy to Pay Options and links provided online
Downsides:- Customer Service online was lacking with its long hold time on the chat and lack of response on the emails.
- No mention of how much monthly costs could run or interest rates.
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