long holding, price increase, and unfair rebate requirements

Yadong Yu Submitted this review about Magic Carpet Auto Transport
Review made Live: 9/14/2009 6:44:00 PM
1. Long holding
On August 16th, I contacted Magic Carpet for our car shipping from DC to CA. Agent Crystal made the quote $876 after $50 rebate. It's quite appealing and considering this company is the No.1 rated, we ignored even lower priced quotes from other companies and placed the order on August 17th.

It's a stressful process for us because we were moving from DC to California on September 8th. We had been nervously tracking the progress. I was told it takes 1-7 days to assign a truck for our car, but after 10 days we still had not heard from them. I called Crystal or other agents on 10th day, 11th day, and 14th day asking about the progress but got no result. On 15th day, Sep. 1st, right after I was about to give up my faith on Magic Carpet and made a few quotes from other company Crystal sent us an email telling the truck was assigned without noting any price change.

On 17th day, Sep.3rd, 2 days before the long weekend when we scheduled to have our car picked up, I found out the price increased significantly, losing most of the time to find optional plan, I was forced to take this last approach. Crystal misled me that there's only $40 difference and they will send me $50 rebate after car delivery as a compensation.

2. Price increase
Original quote: $876 after $50 rebate
Final price: $746 for car shipping company, and $270 brokage fee for Magic Capet.
Differece: $140

3. Unfair rebate requirements
It turns out they will send me $50 rebate only if I post 5-star review. I emailed Crystal that I can not post such review and ask for $90 refund. She passed over some information which insisted I have to post 5-star review to get some compensation. Later I talked to her supervisor Kathy who refused my request, tried to educate me how the business runs without consenting to any of my complaints.

Company Response
Terry Williams from Magic Carpet Auto Transport Submitted this response.
Response Date: 9/15/2009 3:54:00 PM
Yadong, I do apologize for the cost of the shipping going up. My job is to get your vehicle moved. We do not take any monies from our clients until our truck partner picks up your vehicle. I offered you a carrier that was requsting more money. The extra money went directly to the carrier, not to MCAT. again I do apologize, I made every effort to schedule your vehicle at the price quoted. -Crystal Warner-