Pay no attention to ACT’s high overall ratings. ACT is a bad joke and the free gas is a scam.

Todd Submitted this review about American Century Transport
Review made Live: 12/30/2008 11:56:00 AM
My son is in the military and I needed to have his vehicle transported from Florida to South Carolina for him. ACT quoted me a price of $650 and told me that I would get $300 worth of free gas as part of the deal. That would make my net cost only $350. I figured it would cost me $350 in gas, food and lodging to go get the vehicle myself let alone two days lost time. After seeing the high overall rating ACT had here on this website, including a high mark review by a person who seemed to be in the military, I signed a shipping order with ACT on 11/24 with an available pickup date of 12/01 and paid them in full up front.

My son’s vehicle was on a military installation in Florida and I sent keys and release authorization documents via overnight delivery so that everything would be ready on my end on the 12/01 pickup date. ACT did not show up on that date. When I called ACT and asked why, I was told that they were behind due to the Thanksgiving holiday but would have a driver there on 12/06. I made arraignments with military installation to have the vehicle available for pickup on 12/06, per ACT’s statements. Once again, no one showed up on 12/06.

I called ACT, several times, trying to get an actual pickup time so I would not be running people around needlessly. I also told them that I needed delivery by 12/12. On 12/09 ACT told me that for an extra $100 they would cancel another pickup and pickup my son’s vehicle on 12/10 and deliver on 12/12. I paid up the extra money and made arrangements for a 12/10 pickup. 12/10 came and went with no pickup.

I called ACT again. I now found that ACT had farmed the delivery out to another company called INR Transport. ACT gave me a number for INR and pretty much washed their hands of the matter. I called the INR number and ended up at a voice mail box which was full so I could not even leave a message. When I finally talked to the INR representative I was told that the driver of the transport, which was to pick up my son’s vehicle, did not even have an operable cell phone so INR did not know exactly where they were or when they would pick up the vehicle!

INR finally picked up the vehicle on 12/12. During the actual transport no one at INR or ACT could tell me where the transport was or when the vehicle would be delivered. The driver called and stated that he would deliver at noon on 12/16 but did not show up that day. Delivery was finally made on 12/17. ACT was not interested in giving back the extra $100 I gave them for an earlier delivery that did not take place.

All that was pretty painful but the vehicle was finally delivered and I figured I still had my $300 free gas to look forward to. Wrong. It turned out that the “$300 worth of free gas” is a certificate with an outfit called CLAIM your GAS (www.claimyourgas.com). The deal is you have to select a station and save receipts from buying not less than $100 worth of gas from that brand station each month. Then you send in the receipts and you get back a $25 gift card for use with the selected brand station. You can not combine months so if you do not routinely buy $100 worth of gas in single month the certificate is worthless. The document I signed with ACT states “Customer will be receiving $300.00 worth of free gas”. It does not state that the customer has to buy $1200 worth of gas at $100 per month to receive $25 gift cards.

American Century Transport service is horrible. ACT does not meet pickup and delivery commitments even when the customer pays extra to expedite the process and will not even refund the extra amount paid if they miss the new dates. The ACT free gas offer is, at best, misleading.

Company Response
Evelyn Molly Monica from American Century Transport Submitted this response.
Response Date: 1/5/2009 9:59:00 PM
AS TO OUR CONTRACT DUE CERTAIN CONDITIONS DATES CANT BE PROMISED OR GUARANTEED VEHICLE WAS PICKED UP AND DELIVERED. AND IN REGARDS TO THE GAS VOUCHER, THIS IS NOT A SCAM, AS AN INCENTIVE WE ARE GIVING CERTIAN CUSTOMERS A GAS VOUCHER REDEEMABLE IN MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS WHEN YOU PURCHASE FUEL UP TO $100.00 A MONTH .YOU RECEIVE TWENTY FIVE PERCENT BACK IN A GIFT CARD TO REDEEM AT GAS STATION OF YOUR CHOICE WITH A MAXIMUM OF $25.00 PER MONTH EVERY MONTH TILL THE BALANCE OF YOUR VOUCHER IS FURFILLED DEPENDING ON THE INCRAMENT OF YOUR VOUCHER WE OFFER $300.00 AND $500.00, BUT YOU WILL RECEIVE THE FULL AMOUNT AS LONG AS YOU CAN PROVIDE PROOF OF PURCHASE OF THE MAXIMUM $100.00 TO GET YOUR MAXIMUM 25% BACK . THIS IS A CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROGRAM PROVIDED BY THE MAJOR GAS COMPANYS , UNFORTUNATELY SINCE GAS PRICES HAVE FALLEN RECENTLY IT MIGHT BE MORE DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE TO CONSUME THE MAXIMUM $100.00 , BUT THEY CAN GET CREATIVE AND COLLECT RECEIPTS FROM FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS .WHEN GAS PRICES BEGIN TO RISE AGAIN IT WILL BE ALOT EASIER TO REACH THOSE $100.00 .BESIDES REASONABLE PRICING WE ARE GIVING YOU AN INCENTIVE TO RECEIVE 25% OF YOUR GAS PURCHASES REIMBURSED I DON'T KNOW WHATS WRONG WITH THIS IT'S NOT ALL AT ONCE BUT YOU WILL GET YOUR MONIES WORTH AS LONG AS YOU FOLLOW RULES OF THE PROGRAM .