Five Towns is horrible

Patrick W Submitted this review about Five Towns 1889 Inc.
Review made Live: 5/13/2009 12:43:00 PM
Five Towns Transport are dishonest crooks. My family went to California to collect the belongings of my brother who had just passed away. We were there for only a couple of days. I contacted Five Towns Auto and spoke to a Lou Angel and made arrangements to have my brothers truck picked up and brought to Wisconsin. I was very specific with Lou as to what dates the truck could be picked up on. He assured me that he would have the truck picked up on one of the requested dates. I gave him a $250 deposit. Unfortunately the dates came and to our surprise, there was no one there to pick up the truck. I called and spoke to Lou and he said he would check on it and call me right back. I waited several hours and did not receive a call back. I repeatedly tried to call Five Towns Transport to find out what was going on. Every time I called it went right to voice mail. Then I tried from my brothers phone (different area code) and to my surprise they answered right away. Lou said he would have someone pick it up the next day. I told him to forget it and refund my deposit. He said he would.

I proceeded to call another transport service who was very helpful and informed me that Five Towns Transport is just a broker. Meaning they do not have any of their own trucks, they are just the middle man. They take the reservation and the deposit you give them is actually the amount they get paid for your transport. After taking your reservation, they just list your requested transport on a national database and wait for some trucker somewhere to pick it up if they happen to be going your way. The amount you pay the driver upon pick up is the actual amount you are paying to have your vehicle shipped.

This other company informed me that our requested transport was still on the database and no one had signed up to pick up our vehicle. So when Lou told me he would have it picked up the next day, he was again lying. Even though we did not end up using this other company, they were very helpful. They could not guarantee someone would pick up our truck the next day so we couldn't use them. We ended up calling another company who went out of their way to pick it up that day.

In the 6 months since this nightmare, I have been in contact with Five Towns Transport on many occasions trying to get my deposit refunded. Every time I call, I speak to Anthony who is as dishonest as they come. He has one excuse after another as to why I have not received my refund yet. It is always "going to happen next week" or "it's in the mail". Of course, they are once again lying as I have still not received it. I will do everything I can to make sure that no one else has to go thru what we went thru. DO NOT USE FIVE TOWNS TRANSPORT. THEY ARE DISHONEST TO THE CORE.

Check out this link to a website that refers auto transport companies- http://www.autotransportcentral.com/auto-transport-companies/3-blacklisted-auto-transporters/18-profile-for-five-towns-1889-inc
They actually have posted in big red letters "WARNING: WE RECOMMEND AVOIDING FIVE TOWNS 1889 AT ALL COST!!!" This should be a sign to all of you who are even thinking about using them. STAY AWAY or you too will be ripped off. Anthony, if you are reading this, you can kiss my ash! I will post on every possible website I can find and do everything I can to put you out of business. It isn't just about the money, it because you are a dishonest SOB who takes advantage of people.