Review Report Review
MA to CA one way (parent payer - millennial owner)

Christopher F Submitted this review about AmeriFreight Car Shipping
Review made Live: 11/5/2015 9:57:00 AM
For anyone who hasn't shipped their car before - be on notice that this process is far from transparent. The first thing you'll need to contend with is poorly designed websites.

These sites are laden with terminology that a non lawyer or someone not in the shipping business will find hard to understand. The main points are: you pay a broker like AmeriFreight a $250-400 fee to find you a carrier whose driver(s) will transport your vehicle.

This intermediary fee is quite high but necessary until there is an Uber like app to match owners with drivers. AmeriFreight has a veterans affiliation (which I liked). They have a relatively easy exchange of quotes and contracts - but both could be improved with some info graphics - the message is you'll pay more for: having your car inside a truck (as opposed to on a open rack like trailer), for definitive dates, to carry the car to far flung rural areas.

The number of options is dizzying and you'll not get many specifics that can be reassuring: where the truck / driver is based, how to contact that person, where the truck / driver is licensed, who owns the company.

Although most of the business is phone oriented - there is an over reliance on phone messages, and lengthy cryptic eMails. Texts would be better especially for West Coast people who are getting these things at 4a-7a. Now a warning - after paying a broker fee I was contacted by another company asking for a smaller $115 fee. From the message it appeared this was so a driver would agree to pick up the car. That required a fraud claim to my card issuer - and because your information is shared you can assume this business is awash with identity / information protection issues. Despite many voice messages and a few eMails - most of the communications were misdirected towards the person paying not more helpfully to the person who directly has the car. We did make a destination change from Tucson to San Francisco - but many weeks later the various links in the chain couldn't sort out addresses, who owned the car or when / where the final delivery was supposed to happen / a simple Google Maps pin drop appeared to not be a business practice. At the end the local drop driver was going to every possible alphabetical variation of our home address even when the drop was at a truck laden industrial pier.

Every call to 'see how things went' from Atlanta to Los Angeles was very confusing and elliptical. In the end we think the car came across the US by train - something that would have favorably influenced our limited choices because of environmental reasons.

These companies could do more to equate monetary value (trains are cheaper) with environmental advantages. In the end the car arrived in perfect condition, at roughly (+\- 5 days) the time it was expected - so the process worked.

There is very little price negotiation, few choices and lots of hard to follow entities: the carrier we used was identified variously as 4 separate LLCs sometimes in the same pick up receipt. Unless you directly connect by phone - and most numbers are indecipherable - you'll be wading through automated phone directories filled with mostly male names - the people you talk to will ask you for almost every detail.

A veterans owned woman enterprise could make a HUGE difference, as could a few interns with texting and social media skills. If you think renting a car is sometimes headache inducing - this process is 10x worse. AmeriFreight did what we asked (specifically) and should be recognized for trading discounts for honest reviews. They also employ some women (our agent for example), and they care enough to follow through. In a very imperfect and customer unfriendly commercial world - AmerFreight did stand out (and did not engage in poor monetary transactional etiquette).

I think a firm endorsement from USAA would make this an obvious choice for many people - adherence to that organization's mission, values and business expectations would be awesome. A simple photo of the trucks / drivers they use would give customers a better idea of what was happening - and attention to the most basic details before reaching out to someone would make a huge positive difference.

The hypothesis of many in this business is that this vehicle transport need only arises once (or infrequently), it would be great if these companies took a more empathetic approach. So I would work with AmeriFreight again - I'm optimistic we'll both do better next time.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
Massachusetts
Pickup:
On Time
Destination State:
California
Delivery:
Late
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
1501518156-OU
Quote or Order Cost:
$1245