This is a somewhat difficult review since the work Iron Clad and Joanna performed was excellent but the overall experience was dreadful.. Should you find yourself in the position I found- which hopefully you do not- Iron Clad is a good choice of a broker.
If this review seem equivocal it's because my experience with the industry was absolutely awful to say the least. First, if you're an ebay buyer don't be fooled by the uShip page on the site- it leaves the impression that ebay will participate and to some extent be responsible for the transport of your new vehicle- WRONG! No sooner than you close the deal, the uShip information disappears and you're left wondering what do I do now. And so in my case I Googled "how do I ship my car" and then chose uShip, again, naively thinking the process would be relatively simple: WRONG again. I was soon inundated with countless email offerings 'quoting' wildly varying prices for shipping. As you've undoubtedly noted by now I'm not only naive but gullible as well and so, thinking these offerings were from the 'transporter' themselves, I contacted the first that seemed reasonably priced- no answer. Then another, no answer. Finally, Joanna from Iron Clad texted me, I responded and we were off to the races, so to speak. Joanna walked me through the process and within 2 hours had preliminarily arranged transport. We then went to contract and a fee to Iron Clad of $200. I was to pay the transporter $375 on delivery. All this after uShip had estimated- and I'm not so naive to believe an estimate is a quote but . . . - $400. By this time I was frustrated with the process and agreed.
Approximately 2 hours later I received a call from Kim from All Day Auto Transport who proceeds to tell me I've been swindled, that I should never have contracted with Iron Clad, should never have paid their fee and presented a thoroughly apocalyptic view of Iron Clad and the decisions I'd made- I was beside myself. And so I shot off a text and phone call to Joanna and she called me back within minutes. She attempted to soothe my concerns and was somewhat successful. Had it not been for Joanna's attentiveness to my out sized concerns, I'm unsure what I would have done. Later in the day, not having heard from anyone- a lack of communication for which I was ill-prepared- I contacted Joanna who in-turn had the dispatcher for the company scheduled to haul my vehicle- Channel 19 Logistics- call me and I spoke with a justifiably agitated but still very professional and informative man named Nate. I told Nate all I needed was someone, anyone to communicate the process to me: who would call, when could I expect the calls, expected calls to the seller, etc.? Nate provided the specifics I needed and that was that until the car was delivered.
Now, the actual transporter- Maurice, the owner of Channel 19 Logistics- and I had an excellent conversation about all the above and his comments were the industry is populated with brokers who do little more than act as middle-men posting available jobs which in-turn he and his brethren then accept- he believes prices for shipping are high because of broker fees. I don't know. I do know, the $200 I paid Iron Clad seems a smidgen high BUT the service Joanna provided, the assuaging of my fears without waiting, was worth the price.
And so, as long as the transporter industry continues to be a cut-throat business with nearly zero ability for the buyer to deal directly with the actual transporter, the need for ethical middle-men (brokers) continues. Should you find yourself in similar circumstance to mine, I recommend you work with Joanna and Iron Clad
Lee Smith
919-231-9358
