10 Days waiting, No Delivery

Ryan Submitted this review about Montway Auto Transport
Review made Live: 7/18/2011 9:16:00 AM
Cons: Montway's business model is as follows: place lowest bid - > get customer - > make no guarantee to deliver. If Montway is able to find a driver willing to transport the car for the agreed price, great- everyone wins. If not, Montway loses nothing and the customer (you) loses valuable time. In my case, I wasted 10 days from pick up date waiting for Montway to assign a truck. After 10 days, they suggested I increase my bid and wait longer. No thanks. I ended up having to fly up to Ohio with 2 days notice and drive the car back myself because I couldn't risk wasting more time with another unreliable transport company.

I am sure someone from Montway will respond and say "the website has rock bottom prices and you agree to the terms of service when you order".
This is true, but what Montway does not consider in placing the bid is that MY TIME IS MORE VALUABLE THAN MY MONEY. I would have gladly paid more KNOWING that the car would be delivered within a reasonable amount of time. I was naive to think that I could simply accept the lowest quote and have the car delivered. Learn from my mistake.

Pros: To be fair, Montway DID refund my money promptly, and they had decent customer service.

Summary: My main issue is that in Montway's eagerness to place the lowest bid, they provided a quote that was unfulfillable. Quotes should only be made if they can be fulfilled, PERIOD. If a quote is found to be unfulfillable, the vendor should be responsible for making up the difference. It is our job as consumers to keep Montway and other shipping companies accountable.

Company Response
Montway from Montway Auto Transport Submitted this response.
Response Date: 7/18/2011 6:05:00 PM
This is actually a very accurate and positive review in a way that whoever is going to read it will LEARN something from it and we would like to thank this customer for submitting such precise review. PRICE is one of the major factors for customers when they decide to ship their vehicle and is maybe THE only factor with which company they'll sign up. 98% of ALL customers are going straight for the lowest price without asking questions what are the risks etc. As you can imagine, there is no way Montway will bump the regular shipping prices to a level where we'll have a 100% shipping satisfaction, because we will have no customers! There is a huge competition out there and if you go searching Internet for car shipping price on particular route you'll get so many responses and I can bet all them are going to be for a different price. Why is that: There is ONLY ONE National database / loading board for car hauling in USA and ALL car hauling companies are dispatching / assigning their loads through that system. Some transport brokers are lowballing rates just to get the customer and his deposit and they keep the deposit no matter if shipping was provided or not. Other companies have ridiculously high rates that almost no one can afford. Montway is in the MIDDLE , try to keep prices affordable to customers and on the low edge of the trucking market for what a trucker would be willing to take to move a particular vehicle. Of course we're not perfect and sometimes our rate doesn't match what a trucker requires on that particular run, which was the case with this customer. Our advise is to stay in the middle price range and not always hunt for the cheapest rate possible. We all use the same truckers and the chances your vehicle will get shipped when you pay a higher price are much better then sign up for the lowest rate possible. Imagine a huge list of cars with price tags and truckers are going after the ones that have HIGHER price and if you're at the bottom of the list, then no one will be even considering loading your vehicle for such low rate. The only thing is that we can EXPEDITE shipping for extra cost, but most people get upset when they hear about this option, but on the other hand they don't have the time to wait for the car to be moved for a cheap rate. The customer here said his time is valuable, but he was not willing to spend more then $50 to expedite the shipping, which is his right, but I'm asking here: Is your time to fly out there and drive back $50 worth? As the customer admitted he was aware that there is no guarantee for any shipping dates for the regular ROCK BOTTOM PRICE. We've treated this customer with respect and we took the time to explain how this industry works and that's why his review is so accurate. At the end, I'd like to disclose some info that will be useful to our future customers, if they read this post. Our prices generated on the website don't guarantee service on any particular schedule. We have about one thousand orders a month and 95% of all orders are shipped within 7 days from the date the vehicle was ready to go and for the quoted price. There are 5% that we've failed to move because of a low price or a remote / rural location that is not serviced. If you need an EXPEDITED service with GUARANTEED options ASK US and we'll provide the cost OR you can always sign up with the regular price and later on increase the shipping rate if we don't get a trucker assigned within couple of days. Montway is giving you options you can work with and make this less stressful for you. We also have m the MONEY BACK GUARANTEE that your deposit is refundable at any time prior trucker being assigned to your order.