Don't recommend them at all

Chris Submitted this review about AutoStar Transport Express
Review made Live: 1/31/2017 3:38:00 PM
My name is Chris and i am a member of the US military. I recently used autostar to transport my vehicle and it was an absolute mess. We called Michael to schedule a pickup in my hometown in KY and went through the contract signing of $250 with a member named Ben around 06Dec2016 and scheduling a pickup for 2Jan2017 to ship to Hawaii due to me flying out on Jan 6th. On the day of pickup nobody showed up and i called and left a message asking where the driver was to pickup my vehicle. This was strike one, i didnt receive a call back that day. I called back the next day requesting Ben and was told he was busy and we'd have to leave a message. 4 hours later i called back requesting to speak to a manager and got in contact with a member Ben worked with named Tom. Tom reassured us that Ben was working on the case and that he would call us with a driver as soon as possible. Needless to say Ben didnt call back that day either. The next day i got in contact with Ben and he told me that he wasnt able to find a driver in the price range that we agreed upon in our contract and if we wanted a drived we'd have to pay an extra $100 on top of the $750. But we discussed with him that a contract is a contract and we weren't going to pay any more out of pocket since they were 2 days behind schedule and i was flying out in 2 days later. The next day Ben agreed that they would take the hit because we were firm in our contract but the driver wasn't able to meet until the 8Jan17. Fortunately my father was able to drop off the car to the driver and then it shipped. Well today is 31Jan17 and i just got an email from the shipping company saying my vehicle was ready for pickup. This confused me because in the contract it stated the vehicle would be a door to door shipment meaning they would pickup from my house in KY and deliver to my house in Hawaii. I just got a call from their central office in tallahassee, FL and they told me they did their job the picked it up from my house in KY and delivered to Long Beach, which is as far as their jurisdiction reaches. They can't door deliver to hawaii which is part of why i used this company. All in all this company is absolutely terrible. Terrible customer service and it seems like they just want to use the military because were easy money to them. I would not recommend this company to my brothers and sisters in arms or anybody for that sake.

Company Response
Mike Cannon from AutoStar Transport Express Submitted this response.
Response Date: 2/1/2017 7:10:00 PM
Christopher, we appreciate your feedback and are always open to work together with our customers in order to grow and excel as a company. Yet we wanted to also take the time to include facts about your vehicle’s shipment that you failed to mention in your review, thus vaguely showing future customers what AutoStar customer service is all about. You placed your order on 12/14 and selected 01/02 as your first available pick up date. In conversations we had with you, it was stated you would prefer pick up to happen that week, preferably between 01/03 – 01/05. On 01/05, we call to present you with an offer. As a Broker, like a Real Estate Agent, we present all offers to our customers. This does not mean they have to take it, it is simply an option. It seems our interaction was misinterpreted and understood for some reason like we were asking for more money for the transport, when in fact it was simply just an option in order to expedite the process. That same day we were able to secure a carrier at the price listed in your contract with an estimated pick up date scheduled for 01/08. As far as it goes for nobody contacting you, on 01/02 your wife contacted our Customer Service team believing vehicle would be picked up then. Unfortunately, it seems the concept of first available pick up date somehow got confused with guaranteed pick up date, a term anyone in the industry knows is unrealistic since it will depend on traffic, weather conditions, other pickups and deliveries, etc. We told your wife we did not guarantee any dates or time because of the nature of the industry and once a carrier was confirmed we would proceed to share those details. On 01/04, we were told you would be leaving KY on Friday 01/06 at 4 pm. That is when we tried to expedite your order and presented you with an offer you both decided to pass, which takes us back to the carrier confirmed on 01/05 with estimated pick up date on 01/08. AutoStar is a vehicle transport broker licensed with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (MC# 600908) to contract independent carriers for the transport of clients’ vehicles. As such, AutoStar's service is to screen and assign carriers for land transport. AutoStar provides land transportation and hires Matson for shipments to Hawaii. Once again, it seems it was not clear that door to door was for land transport and not for shipments to Hawaii. We booked with Matson at a discounted priced, which would have been around $200 more were you to have decided to schedule this on your own, and kept you updated as much as we could every single week to let you know where your vehicle was and when it was estimated for arrival in Hawaii. So you can understand why we take it to heart when someone provides feedback but fails to disclose important information that could sell us short of the excellent customer service we at AutoStar pride ourselves to provide. We wish you the best, Regards, AutoStar Transport Express LLC.