Horrific Experience
Antonio
Submitted this review about
Auto Transport 123
Review made Live: 7/9/2017 11:44:00 AM
I've read a lot of reviews on this company and have read "great customer service" and "knowledgeable" many times. My experience was far different.
Yes, the first round of folks you will talk to are friendly and knowledgeable. The brokers, if you will. The people who help you figure out pick up date, delivery date, set up your contract, and take your credit card information. No issues with those folks. You should expect great customer service from the people who take your credit card number, and that is what you'll get with Auto Transport 123. After that, it's a crap shoot. I will explain.
I initially called the company exactly 30 days before my pick up date and gave them everything they needed to find me a carrier/driver. Three days before my pick up date, I still had not heard from a driver and Auto Transport 123 still had not found me a carrier. So, I called the company to ask some questions. I spoke to someone in the NY office and she promised she would find me something that day, to be patient, and that she would call me back later that afternoon. At close of business, she still had not called me back. I called their office and got the answering machine 4 times in a row. I thought they may have been on the other line, but when I called back the next day, two days before pick up, they told me their office closes for the evening. I spoke to a different girl in the office that day who made similar promises about finding me a driver, told me to be patient, and told me that a driver would be calling me "24 hours before pick up". I didn't hear anything back the rest of that day.
On the day of pick up, I called Auto Transport 123 and was connected with someone in the WA state office. Like his co-workers, he made promises that the company would find me a driver very soon and that the driver would be calling me on the day of pick up. He said he would start looking into it immediately for me, and that he would call me back later that day when he had me a carrier and a driver. He also informed me that it sometimes takes 24-72 hours after scheduled pick up date to find a driver. He never called me back, which was the second employee from the company to neglect me as a customer.
Two days after scheduled pick up, I called the company again and the same guy from WA answered. I told him that he never called me back, that I still didn't have a driver, and that I was leaving town the following day in a moving truck. He said, "I never said I would call you back, my friend." I was blown away with that response, but it helped because I instantly knew that I would not receive the level of customer service I had expected, and that I would have to work harder to receive the services I was going to pay for. That day passed, and again I did not have a carrier or a driver.
The next day, four days after scheduled pick up, I began my move from North Carolina to California. I called Auto Transport 14 times that day while I was on the road. Again, more empty promises and more "just be patient, someone will pick it up soon". At one point I spoke to the guy in WA and told him that his 24-72 hours were over and that he owed me an answer ASAP.
After that, I decided to do some fact checking. I read more reviews online at different sites and learned that hundreds of people have already reported this company to the BBB, customer service is extremely poor, and that dishonesty and carelessness are practically expected. The company points you to this website, tells you to uncheck a box for paid advertisements, and then "prove" to you that they are the best in the industry. If you're looking to ship your car, I urge you to ignore that and simply google the company - this will turn up all the reviews you need to make an educated decision about which carrier to use. My recommendation is to simply find a carrier, call them directly, work with their drivers directly, and avoid paying the broker fee and DEALING with Auto Transport 123 employees. Lastly, I decided to go back and re-read the contract I signed with Auto Transport 123 and noticed in the fine print that they have up until 10 days after the scheduled pick up date to find a driver for their customers, but none of the employees seemed to know that or point it out. This will be relevant again later on...
The next day, five days after scheduled pick up, I was already in Mississippi and called the company again. This time, a different girl from the NY office answered. I told her my situation - that I had been waiting for a carrier/driver for five days, that the company was failing me, and that my wife and son were getting on an airplane the next day to fly to California, and that I would have to start asking friends to help me get the car to the driver. She told me that I would have to be patient and keep waiting. At that moment, I had enough. I raised my voice and didn't stop talking until I made the point that they better have someone identified to drive my car by the end of the day or I was going to cancel my order. Not surprisingly at this point, she also raiser her voice and yelled back at me. This went back and forth for about a minute until she interrupted me by placing me on hold in the middle of a sentence. When she got back on the line, I asked to talk to her supervisor. "I am the supervisor." I said, "Everyone has a boss. Can I please talk to your boss or the manager or someone who makes decisions for your company?" She said, "My boss is the owner of the company." "Great, can I have his number?" She said, "He isn't here right now. He'll be in later." "Ok. Can I have his cell phone number?" She did not give it to me and thought I was overreacting for asking the question. She also told me that the dispatchers were not at work yet (it was 8:00am EST) and that she wouldn't be able to find out anything until they came to work. I said, "Can't you call their cell phone numbers and start working this? Everyone has a cell phone!" She still declined and told me I had to wait for them to come into work for the day. She also told me that it is routine for customers to wait 3-5 business days after scheduled pick up date to have a driver identified. I said, "WHAT?!?" I was appalled at the utter neglect for even attempting to show customer service aptitude. At the end of the conversation, she said she would call me back with more information by the end of the day. I said, "Absolutely not. I can wait while you get the information." She explained that there was no reason to hold and that she would call me back. I agreed to hang up and let her return my call, but she never did...
The next day, six days after scheduled pick up, my wife and son flew out of NC and left our car at a friend's house. I called the company again and luckily that same girl answered. By the way, the company already knows it is you because they see the phone number and pull up your information while you're on hold. She answered and all she said was, "I'm on the other line, can I call you right back?" I said yes. Five hours passed and she never called back, so I called the company again and got the guy in WA. He was the only person I spoke to for the next four days. He, like everyone else there, promised to work it immediately and that I should be patient.
The next few days, days 7-9 after scheduled pick up, the guy in WA kept promising to find me a driver. Over and over again, he told me to be patient, that it shouldn't have taken this long, that he was talking to his dispatchers about my car, and that drivers were competing to pick it up right now. Unbelievably, nine days after scheduled pick up, he called me and told me a driver had been identified and that he could pick it up the next day. Ironically, the next day was 10 days after scheduled pick up, so they didn't break their contract. By that point my entire family and I had already been in California for 3 days, and I already had to ask three different friends to meet the driver to pick it up, and I was already past the point of being angry.
The next day the driver called me, on the morning of pick up, and said to have the car at a specific location between 2-4pm. I relayed that to my friend who was driving the car, and he had the car there at 1:45. The driver didn't show up until 4:15, and he had his wife and two children with him in the truck. My car was finally loaded around 5pm that day. My friend had to wait for nearly 4 hours before the car was loaded, and he had to wait another hour for a ride home because his ride had to bail and head back to work.
I called the driver three times that evening to make sure my car was loaded safely, find out when he was leaving town, and find out when the car would be delivered. He didn't answer. The next day I called him again and he finally answered, but he said he would be in NC and SC for another two days picking up other cars. I called him six more times over the next three days and he didn't answer any of them. I called Auto Transport 123 and they told me to call the dispatcher. I called the dispatcher and he didn't know where his driver was, but told me he would find out and call me back. I'll also point out that Auto Transport 123 lied to me during my initial call with them - they told me that all their trucks had GPS and that I would be able to watch the truck on-the-move using their website. When I asked the driver for the link to the site where I track his GPS, he didn't understand what I was talking about. When I asked the dispatcher he literally laughed at me.
In the end, my car was picked up 10 days late and delivered 10 days late. This was an exhausting and frustrating experience that I don't want others to endure, which is why I am posting this review. I, like many others, will also be reporting this company to the BBB.
The auto transport industry is sub-par all around. I recommend you research carrier companies and call them directly to avoid going through the brokers. I realized after my car was delivered, I had paid all bills, paid the driver, and reviewed all paper work, that it took so long to pick up my car because Auto Transport 123 had to take a $100 cut in the broker fee to ensure my car got picked up within the 10-day window so they didn't break the contract. My quote shows a $225 broker fee but my final bill shows they only received $125. This whole scenario played out the way it did because of $100. Just call the carrier directly.
I would really like to speak to the owner of Auto Transport 123. You have my information. My phone is always on.
