STAY FAR AWAY - DONT FALL FOR FAKE REVIEWS
Alyssa
Submitted this review about
Stateway Auto Transport
Review made Live: 1/18/2015 11:40:00 AM
This has been the most stressful ordeal I have encountered during a move, and that's saying a lot from a military family.
First of all, we scheduled transport on 12/29/2014. We spoke with Rachel, who assured us the vehicle would be delivered on January 11, 2015. Our contract, even notes that it needs to be delivered by the 11th. The total cost would be $495, $195 deposit once dispatched and $400 cash on delivery. We were told the vehicle would be picked up on the 9th and that we would have a confirmation all on the 8th. Well by the end of the day on the 8th, we still hadn't heard after several e-mails and phone calls to them. So, I called the company and had to leave a message because after you book - you cannot get a hold of anyone as they are always experiencing "an extremely high volume of calls." AKA, they screen all calls. Instead of hitting the button for customer service about an existing order I hit the button for a "new order" and left a message. Funny enough, I got a phone call back in 30 minutes. When the woman called back and realized I was not calling about a new order she told me customer service would need to call me back. I explained that I needed to speak with someone now. She then placed me on hold for - 55 minutes!! It was 55 minutes not because someone actually picked up, but because I eventually had to hang up.
Meanwhile, my husband e-mailed the new person in charge of our order, Toni, who informed us he would have it sorted out. Then the next day - we were delighted to get an e-mail stating they had dispatched a carrier for our vehicle and it all appeared to be working out. I found it odd that they didn't automatically charge the deposit, but figured it would kick in eventually. The 9th came and went. Called again, left more messages and e-mails. Called again on the 10th, more messages and e-mails. Again on the 11th and 12th, more messages. Then on the 12th at 5:55pm we received an e-mail stating the vehicle had been "un-dispatched." I believe they never had a driver to begin with which is why they didn't charge the dispatch fee. More calls and e-mails. Finally my husband was able to talk to a "supervisor" who apologized and promised to fix it - again. On the 13th we continued to call and e-mail. Then on the 13th at 5:23pm we got an e-mail stating the truck had been dispatched. We waited patiently for confirmation it had been picked up - the call from the driver came on the 15th saying he'd be there around midnight. Inconvenient but I honestly did not care. Car got picked up, got the confirmation - FINALLY!! But wait...it's not over.
The driver called today, 1/18/15 to say he'd be here either tonight or in the morning. Then the excitement came to a crashing halt when the driver says we owe him $600 on delivery - not the $400 in our original contract. The driver explained that he has a contract with Stateway for $600 on delivery. We have ours that says $400 on delivery and guess who is nowhere to be found. Yep, can't get anyone at Stateway on the phone. We will see what happens when my car gets here but if the driver does not remove our car from the truck I plan to promptly call the police to handle the situation. This is a contract dispute between the carrier and Stateway and my Audi is in the middle of it.
Update: We got a phone call about two hours after posting this review. According to Stateway, the additional $200 was because Stateway "expedited" the shipping of my vehicle with the new carrier. We were then assured that Stateway would pay the $200 difference. My car got here today, 1/19/15 at 11:30a in great condition and all is well. We paid the driver the $400 and off he went. We continued to get calls from Stateway all day today as they were very concerned about this review that was posted. I answered the phone after several calls and spoke with Anna, who informed me she is one of the owners and is concerned about my experience based on my review. I reiterated everything I wrote in here and she apologized profusely, she also stated that she would be looking into the issue personally and that she would be refunding my broker fee immediately. Anna also encouraged me to try Stateway again if we ever need to ship a car in the future. My conversation improved my opinion about the customer service. Anna asked me multiple times to take down this review and I informed her that I am not willing to do that because the facts are the facts and while I appreciate her willingness to "fix" the problem after the fact, it simply does not change what happened. Anna did tell me she can delete it for me which I declined to allow and I sincerely hope they do not take it down without my consent. I think that it is important to inform others of what could happen when shipping their car.
Here's another update: On 1/20/15, I received an e-mail from Mike Lowell at Stateway who again asked us to reconsider our review. Mike proceeded to call multiple times that day. My husband answered and Mike said he would call him on 1/21/15. At 7:33p on 1/21/15, Mike sent my husband a text saying that the meeting had gone longer than expected and offered to call in 1-3 hours or the next day (1/22/15). Drew agreed to have him call the next day. Mike said thank you then said that they are discussing our situation with the attorneys as well because our issue stemmed from the same source. Which, for the record, makes no sense to us. Why would our HORRIBLE customer service be the result of a hacking issue? My husband explained that it was not a website issue, it was the lack of customer service to which Mike replied that he "understands" but their manpower and resources were directed to resolving the hack (from two months ago). He then assured that no one was ignoring us or being negligent - and that they were "literally under attack." Funny thing to say to a combat veteran, but I digress. Mike then told us that they are as much victims in this mess as we are and that our bed review is hurting them even more. On 1/22/15, Mike texted to say that he had to leave early to get his kids from daycare and asked if he talk later tonight or tomorrow. He told us he is still "battling the hackers daily." My husband again agreed; we haven't heard from them sense.
This, again, demonstrates that their customer service issues are a systemic and I felt the need to update my post in order to show others a true and honest portrayal of this experience. I read some of these other reviews and can't help but wonder if they are paid to write them or if they are customers at all. The higher ups at this company assured me that it was not their typical practice but I don't believe that. If there was a zero tolerance policy for not communicating with customers or leaving them on hold for close to an hour, their employees wouldn't do it.
I realize that this review is lengthy but I feel it is pertinent information that others should have.
