1st time car shipper, IN to CA

Mike Submitted this review about Magic Carpet Auto Transport
Review made Live: 6/4/2010 8:41:00 PM
Overall, I'd rate my experience shipping my Pontiac Vibe from Indiana to California as OK. Not great, not horrible, just OK. The cost was certainly higher than I expected but I have no experience in this sort of transaction. I was certainly surprised to learn that my vehicle is "higher because it's a SUV." It's a real stretch for me to think of a Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix as a SUV. Last time I checked, the Toyota Corolla - on which the Vibe/Matrix is based - is a compact car....
The pickup occurred on the day that was scheduled but it was about 4 hours later than what I was expecting based on a phone conversation I had with the truck driver the prior evening. We agreed during the phone call on a time of 6:45 - 7:15AM since the truck was in town the evening before. It turned out that the pick-up did not occur until about 11:00AM which was fairly inconvenient.
I was not in CA to receive the car. Rather, I arranged for the car to be delivered to a friend-of-a-friend. Apparently, the delivery was a day earlier than what we agreed with the carrier. This was not a big deal but it's example of why the experience was OK rather than good or excellent. I had prepaid the driver 50% of the amount he was due at the time of pick-up and sent a cashiers check for the balance to my friend. When the car was delivered the carrier requested payment of the full amount and did not initially acknowledge that they had already been paid 50% of their fee. Again, this just reinforces why the experience was only OK. My friend explained that he had a copy of the bill-of-lading showing they had already been paid 50% of their fee and only had a check for the balance.
On the plus side, the car arrived just fine and is working out great for my son who is working as an intern in LA for the summer.