Company Response Review Report Review
HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE

Craig Submitted this review about Direct Express Auto Transport
Review made Live: 11/21/2007 7:39:00 PM
I did plenty of research and felt that Direct Express was a reputable company, not to mention their quote was $200 less than DAS. I placed the order on a Wednesday hoping to give them plenty of time in advance for my first available day of Monday. I figured I should have it quick because the trip is only 7 hours. Unfortunately my car was not picked up for 9 days after the first available date. Their website says "typically one to several days"; however, I never expected 9 days. I called a number of times for status updates and the customer service people were quick to remind me that there is no guarantee. Finally my car was assigned a carrier and my pickup person was notified that they would be there in an hour (this was 4pm). She and her husband waited up until 11:30pm and the driver never showed or bothered to call them. They did try calling the number provided and got an answering machine. The next morning the driver shows up unannounced at 10am. The pickup person happened to be home alone with her 3 small children. Now here's where it gets really good. The driver does not know how to drive a manual transmission! The car is a Mustang Cobra. So he asks her to drive it on the ramp. He's using wooden planks to avoid scraping the low front end of the car. It's snowing outside and the car can't get traction on the planks and slides sideways down the ramp, getting stuck somewhere underneath. My pickup person told me that she had to really gun it to get it free. They then waved down somebody driving by to drive it on the ramp which took 45 mins. She immediately called me, practically in tears, to relay the story. I then call Direct Express who tells me to make sure I take plenty of pictures of any damage. They also assured me that they would contact the driver to make sure he calls me to arrange pickup rather than just showing up. I tried calling him first thing the next morning and left a voicemail. About 9:30AM I get about 10 calls to my cell during a client meeting. I finally excuse myself from the meeting and call the driver back. He's outside my house and is demanding that I get there in 20 mins or he's going back to Massachusetts. Now on the Direct Express website it says that the driver will call the day before to arrange delivery. So I am forced to rudely cancel my meeting and rush home. The guy (who barely speaks english) tells me that he's learning manual and wants me to drive the car off the ramp. Ok this is a double-decker car carrier and my car is at the very top front, about 10 feet off the ground. Needless to say it was one of the most terrifying things I've done in a long time. I'm sure the guy's insurance company would flip if they knew he had his customers driving their own cars on and off the trailer. Anyway, the car was fine and at least it was delivered in 24 hours (but it's only a 7 hour trip). Long story short, if you use Direct Express and they assign you "Q Express - MA" cancel it immediately and pay the extra money for a good carrier. Overall the broker was okay and maybe could've been a decent experience with a good carrier. I did ask if there's anything they could do about my $150 broker fee for all my trouble and they said that they couldn't. If they would have given me some sort of refund (which would have been the right thing to do) I probably wouldn't have written this review. Of course it is their job to select competent carriers so they probably deserve it.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
New Hampshire
Pickup:
Late
Destination State:
Pennsylvania
Delivery:
Early
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
25314
Quote or Order Cost:
$425

Company Response
Mike Rupers from Direct Express Auto Transport Submitted this response.
Response Date: 2/18/2009 4:47:00 PM
Craig of Pennsylvania correctly says, - Overall the broker was okay and maybe could've been a decent experience with a good carrier. - Craig's real issue here is with Q-Express, not us. We weed out the bad apples one by one over time, and rest assured whomever is reading this that we no longer assign Q-Express to any shipment. We agreed with Craig that their service was not up to our standards. We find it regretable, however, that Craig admits to using this site in a vindictive way against us.