WISH WE WOULD HAVE KNOWN...
S&M
Submitted this review about
Auto Cars Transportation
Review made Live: 12/29/2010 12:24:00 PM
My greatest regret is not having known about this website sooner, or I would have checked the reviews out and based on the overall poor rating Auto Cars Transportation gets; I would have made the wise decision to not contract them for the transportation of my vehicle.
In a nuthsell, DON'T DO BUSINESS with this company. They are not running a legitimate business here and they are not doing business with people in good faith.
I contacted them on the 17th of November and spoke with a lady named Carol, who originally sounded very pleasant and down-to-earth. She gave me the lowest quote, so stupidly, I decided to go with them.
Carol asked me what was the date I wanted the vehicle picked up on. I told her that Friday, the 19th of November would work great for my b/f and I because we were planning on leaving town with a rental truck two days later. I explained to her that it was crucial that the car be picked up on that day because we were moving and had no one that could keep the car for us. She told me that there was a "two-day pick-up window," so the car would either be picked up on the 19th, 20th, or 21st. We figured that would be ok because we'd still be in town for the pickup of the vehicle.
Carol also told me that they were open 24/7 and that a dispatcher would be contacting me periodically to give me a status update on the driver and how close he was to the destination of pick-up and delivery.
The car was never picked up.
By Monday, the 22nd of November, I got in touch with the company's owner who seemed like he dealt with customers like me ALL the time. He was very calm, cool and collected. He was extremely hard to understand, as he is not American and doesn't speak English very well. He sounded Israeli. I asked him a few times if he spoke Spanish or Italian, as I speak both languages fluently and all he did was respond "NO" with a dismissive laugh and in a very arrogant way.
If he had REALLY been doing business in good faith, then he would have told me anything to keep my business and keep me satisfied, instead he told me that if I wanted a refund of the $195 "deposit" my b/f had already been charged, that I would have to send him an email stating so. I did just that, while keeping him on the phone with me, so as to make sure he received the email I sent him where I stated something like, "due to your company's breach of contract and non-rendering of services agreed upon, I would appreciate a refund of the $195 partial payment you charged visa card number..."
After receiving that, he sent me some standard, b/s email he probably sends every unsuspecting consumer that falls into this trap; stating that the refund would be processed within 7-10 business days.
Meanwhile, my b/f called a few times to ask for his money back and got into futile arguments with Avi, who insisted that the company had 10 business days to pick up the car and get it to its destination per the contract.
Well, nowhere on the contract does it state that, but the guy will make up anything in order to keep your deposit, which in the contract they try to make it seem like it's really a "registration fee" that the customer will forfeit upon cancellation of the contract.
Bottom line, DON'T HIRE THIS COMPANY!!! They will make a million misrepresentations to you and then use the bogus wording in their contract to their advantage when they fail to render their services. The owner, doesn't seem to grasp the difference between a dissatisfied customer asking for his/her deposit back due to services non-rendered and a cancellation of services.
I have since filed a claim with the Better Business Bureau, as I'm sure many of their dissatisfied customers have as well, but Avi is so intent on keeping your partial payment of services NOT RENDERED that he will reply to your claim and do the back-and-forth, he-said-she-said dance in an effort to try to wear you out.
In the end I realize that its unrealistic to have an expectation of getting our money back because what happened with Auto Cars Transportation is synonymous with having had our wallet stolen with almost $200.
I hope Carol and Avi are having a hard time sleeping at night. And I'm confident that one of these days, they'll meet their match.
***IF YOU ARE A CUSTOMER OF AUTO CARS TRANSPORTATION AND HAVE HAD A SIMILAR SITUATION HAPPEN TO YOU AND ARE THINKING OF FILING A LAWSUIT AGAINST THEM, PLEASE CONTACT ME USING THIS WEBSITE AS LAWSUITS AGAINST COMPANIES FOR CONTRACT BREACH ARE MOST SUCCESSFUL WHEN FILED TOGETHER AS A CLASS ACTION AND THERE IS ALSO A HIGHER PROBABILITY OF THEM BEING SUCCESSFUL THIS WAY.****
