Terrible Customer Service

Travis Submitted this review about American Auto Transport (FL)
Review made Live: 3/6/2012 2:56:00 PM
My girlfriend andI scheduled with AAT to move her Jeep from Virginia to California because we are re-locating. Initially they seemed great, said it would not be a problem and that everything was business as usual. We were told that the driver was picking up the Jeep on March 3rd, not plus or minus a few days, but ON March 3rd. The confirmation email from AAT said that if you hadnt heard from your driver and the scheduled pick up was within the next 48 hrs, then to call customer service. Here is a recap of our dealing with Customer Service
3/1/2012: 2 voicemails and 2 emails to customer service, no return call or email
3/2/2012: 3 voicemails and 2 emails to customer service, no return call or email
3/3/2012: Numerous phone calls and 1 email to customer service, no return call or email. Remained at home all day in case the driver did show up.
3/5/2012: (this is where it gets good, all times are EST)
9AM: Margaret says she is talking with the dispatchers, and that she will call back at 11AM with contact information for our driver. Never calls us at 11AM
12-2PM: Calls placed to Margaret, voicemails left, calls never returned.
2:30PM: Put in contact with Bob at Customer Service. He says he doesnt know what happned, but he will contact dispatch and get back to us by 4PM. Bob never calls us back.
4:30-5:30PM Numerous calls to Margaret and Bob, voicemails left, calls never returned
5:35PM Call main reservation line, they connect me with Customer service and a woman who says her name is "Amy". Amy says that dispatch has been busy, and that someone from customer service will call me back by 8PM. I hear her in the background playing on her Iphone (very distinct sounds). She is incredibly rude and short with me despite me holding onto my manners.
8PM Numerous calls to customer service with no answer. Call main number again, am told by agent that Customer Service agents all leave at 6PM. Also informs me that no one by the name of Amy works in customer service. So she gave me bad information on expecting an 8PM call, and either lied about working in customer service or gave me a bogus name.
830PM: Voicemail left with Margaret and email to Kevin Turner in sales saying that if someone doesnt contact me first thing in the morning, I will have to cancel my reservation with them.

3/6/2012
9AM-1030AM: Numerous voicemails and emails to customer service. None returned.
11AM: Girlfriend finally gets in contact with Margaret. Margaret says that no driver has been scheduled because "No drivers want to drive to Bakersfield California". But informs us that she can have the Jeep shipped to the Ontario Terminal (or something along those lines, we couldnt fully understand her). From there they can schedule a private truck but it will cost significantly more.

At this point, my girlfriend says we will have to cancel because they are now retracting their agreeement to ship to Bakersfield, CA and that customer service has been terrible. Margaret mumbles something unintelligible under her breath and hangs up the phone. Neither Bob or Kevin Turner ever got back to us.

If you've taken the time to read my entire recap, you understand my frustration and why I took the time to write it out. While dealing with relocating for my job, getting our household effects moved, and all the other things that come up with moving across the country, I really hoped that shipping the vehicle would be easy. Unfortunately, it has taken up way too much of my time. I hope to file a complaing with the company and I strongly urge anyone considering shipping with AAT to reconsider. I will not name the company we have gone with instead, as I dont want this hoenst review to be mistaken as a plug for another company.

Company Response
Nate Brady from American Auto Transport (FL) Submitted this response.
Response Date: 3/6/2012 6:06:00 PM
We address voicemails as we receive them. On a typical day, customer service receives between 100-200 voice mail messages. There are occasions where we may answer a voicemail the next day because of volume, but ALL issued are addressed. Period. Margaret and the customer (both Travis and Mariah were in contact with CS if I remember correctly) were in contact throughout the day regarding pick up. Margaret informed the customer that we were having trouble finding a driver that could deliver in Bakersfield and that she would call back with more information. Margaret informed the customer several times that the dispatcher was working on finding a driver and until a driver was contracted that there was nothing to say. American Auto Transport is a broker for the trucking industry. As such, we simply CANNOT provide guaranteed pick up dates. This is evidenced by the contract that we send our customers - all dates are clearly listed as estimated. We do whatever we can to make sure that our customers' vehicles are picked up on time, and more often than not they are, but sometimes they are not. When they are not, we let them know. In our view, we had addressed the issue upon first talking to the customer. Throughout the day, we spoke to the customer several times. But when customers call 10 times a day and we have nothing else to say, we take that as borderline harassment unto itself. Understand that, as stated above, we deal with a volume of customers every day and we simply cannot focus all of our resources on one customer. If that comes off as rude, then that is unfortunate, but also know that certain things were said to Margaret that do no bare repeating. Although things could have been handled better on both sides, we believe we did everything within reason to keep this customer informed and up to date on the status of their transport.