We live in a world of fees. They surround us and have a funny way of penetrating just about every transaction that we make, no matter how big or how small.
Want to have chicken shawarma from your favorite restaurant delivered to your doorstep? There’s additional fees for that.
Need to book a hotel for an upcoming ski trip? Pay a booking fee, please!
Looking to buy concert tickets for that band you’ve been dying to see? Prepare to pay that handling fee.
At some point, we as people became conditioned to sit back and accept the fact that fees were just part of the cost of doing business. That no matter how exorbitant or senseless they may seem, fees were a necessary pill to swallow in order to eventually get what we wanted. In fact, there’s a psychological explanation behind this feeling called the “endowment effect.”
In essence, the “endowment effect” explains that when someone wants something badly enough that they’re committed to it, they’ll be more willing to pay more money for said product or good. And nowhere is the endowment effect more prevalent and capitalized upon than during the traditional car buying process at a dealership.
Anyone who has bought a car the traditional way has likely experienced firsthand the tractor beam pull of the endowment effect. It begins with the anticipation of finding the car you want before encountering a salesperson who boasts about the vehicle’s features and affordable price, encourages you to take a test drive, and tells you how great the car would look in your driveway; planting a seed that with the right amount of pressure and persuasion begins to quickly germinate in your excitement-filled mind. Then gravity returns and reality grabs you by the shirt collar.
Before you know it, you’re back at the dealership sitting in an office staring at a stack of paperwork that explains that the deal you thought you were getting is no such deal at all. On top of the price you were expecting to pay for the vehicle, there’s a several-hundred-dollar doc fee to print your paperwork, not to mention an additional rogue dealer mark-up on the vehicle that, in the blink of an eye, has you beginning to wonder whether you’re actually making a sound financial decision. But having come this far, you feel like there’s no turning back. You’re committed, and you still love the car, but now it’s just an eventuality that you’ll drive off the lot with the stinging feeling that you were “had.”
At Carvana, our goal is to have you drive off without feeling ripped off.
Our promise is to never charge these last-minute, hidden bogus fees. That’s why Carvana has created a car buying environment that doesn’t rely on trickery or mind games to earn your business. Instead, our mission is to empower you to do more of what you love by providing you with a better way to buy a car. One that motivates you to “Live Feelessly.”
“Living Feelessly” means putting an end to awkward moments of dealers demanding more money. It means giving you the power to ‘take a stand’ against bogus dealership fees and the option to never step foot inside a dealership altogether. Living feelessly is about having more time and money to do the things you love – no matter what they are. To live feelessly means living your best life knowing you bought your car the best way – by shopping, imagining, and buying without ever worrying about fees ruining your fun.
However you choose to do it, you will always have the choice to Live Feelessly with Carvana.
