DIY when possible

Mike Submitted this review about Luxury Auto Transport
Review made Live: 8/10/2009 10:58:00 AM
This is a cross post from a review of 1-2 Go 2 (broker) where Luxury Auto Transport was the actual shipper.

The subject is meant to sum up my car shipping experience. The summary advice being.... drive the car to it's next destination IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. And at the very least AVOID LUXURY AUTO TRANSPORT (IL). Maybe my experience was close to average for the car shipping industry but by "normal" professional standards it was absolutely horrendous. By nature I'm not much of a complainer but here goes. First, the positive. I found Dwight very pleasant to deal with and within a day or two he found a truck and scheduled a pick up for my recently purchased car to get from NJ to MO. Cool.

Well now starts the fun. I was originally told that the car would be picked up on a Tuesday and delivered Friday... possibly even in the morning Friday. The driver was a day late picking up the car and it wasn't until he called my dad at 10 o'clock at night on the original pick up day that we knew for sure that the original pick up date was not going to be met. I figured that if it was picked up a day late I would get the car a day late but was told that Friday was still a possibility but more likely Saturday. Well on Friday I called the driver directly to find out that Friday was a no go and that Saturday was possible (though he needed to be in Chicago.. approx 500 miles from my house) Saturday afternoon ... so of course I'm wondering how he thinks he's going to get from Chicago to my house at a reasonable hour Saturday evening. So he asks me if Sunday is better than Monday. To which I replied yes, Sunday is better than Monday and sooner is better than later. That communication took place on Friday afternoon about 4 o'clock.

Well.... No update occurred on Saturday. So now I have no idea if the car is coming Sunday and with zero returned calls it certainly appeared that Saturday was out. I made several attempts to contact the driver on his cell and left messages for Dwight, Scott and Allison at 1-2 Go 2 as well as with the trucking company's business number (which by the was was Luxury Auto Transport). Finally Sunday afternoon Allison from 1-2 Go 2 was kind enough to return my call and let me know that she was attempting to reach Luxury Auto. I appreciated that someone was there to work for me for sure, but still had no idea where my car was and when is was going to be delivered.

Monday morning I was updated by 1-2 Go 2 and Luxury Auto that the driver was leaving Chicago and would delivery my car sometime that afternoon or early evening. Well believe me when I tell you that I'm trying to spare you the nearly endless string of BS that accompanied excuse after implausible excuse. At around 2:30 Monday afternoon I contacted the driver for a current ETA to be told he'd be arriving around 9PM (he was about 6 hours away). Well as much as I wanted to see my new car, it was wisely advised by Scott and Dwight not to take delivery of the car after dark. So I figured let the driver keep driving expecting to make delivery at 9 and then at around 7 or 8 ask him to come first thing after sunrise in the AM (Tuesday). So at 7:30 I call the driver only to find out that he's still like 4 or 5 hours from my home. By this point this whole mess had clearly qualified as one of the most (if not the most) frustrating consumer experience of my life.

We're almost done. Tuesday morning (in the rain) the car was delivered to me at 6:40 am at a haggled discount of $100 off the $850 I owed Luxury Auto Transport on delivery. So the moral of the story: If you care about the car you're shipping and/or when it is picked up and dropped off not wanting to spend that whole time managing the process ...whenever possible take matters in to your own hands and drive the car... even if it mean buying a one way plane ticket to pick it up. Paying $1,000 to be fed day after day BS while your car is in the hands of some random trucker is worth avoiding if possible (from my humble opinion and experience). Good luck!
Mike