Review of NAT service BOS to LA

OZGOD Submitted this review about National Auto Transport Inc.
Review made Live: 7/24/2006 4:13:00 PM
I made my booking via National Auto Transporters. My vehicle was not picked up - instead I dropped it off at the terminal in Boston on June 22. The commitments that NAT (who subcontracted M&E Auto Transport to do the actual delivery) were as follows:

- the ship time would be "7-9 days" from the time I dropped it off on June 22
- I would be able to track the vehicle to know where it was going to be at any given time
- the total cost was going to be $1075

I engaged their services on this basis. The vehicle was dropped off on June 22, and I was expecting to receive it on July 1 (+ or - a couple of days). I flew to LA on June 23 and rented a car for the expected 9 days. I called the NAT office on June 27 to request a status update and left a message but my call was not returned. I called again the following day and got hold of my contact (Adrian) and he promised that someone from their tracking dept would call me but nobody did. The vehicle was not delivered on July 1. I left approx. 3 messages (on July 2, July 3, July 4) requesting a call back from NAT but my call was not returned. I finally managed to speak to a "live" person on July 5 and found out that my vehicle apparently only left Boston on the weekend of July 1, which was 10 days from the time that I dropped it off, and was not expected to be delivered until July 12.

I found this to be extremely disappointing and unacceptable as I ended up booking a rental car for much longer than I had originally planned. I sent NAT an email to see if there was a solution available to help me out but never got a response. Then on Saturday I received a voicemail from the driver of M&E Transport company advising that they were going to be delivering the vehicle in the next 30 minutes. Unfortunately this was too short notice for me to be home so they ended up dropping off the vehicle at their terminal, which I then had to pick up.

In terms of damage, I don't believe there was any major damage to the vehicle. The battery was flat due to the fact that it had sat in their terminal in Boston for a long time. The main issues I had with the delivery were:

- the delivery occurred 10 days after their previous committed date, which was the basis on which I used their services. I ended up spending an additional $600 on an insured rental car as a result of the delay
- the fact that their customer service was terrible and non-responsive. I never got responses to either my email or the voicemail messages I left. They only seem to provide a quick response when trying to secure your business

On the basis of my above experience, I would not use this carrier again, as reliability and customer service are key factors for me. Sometimes simple things like responses to voicemails and updating the customer on the status of their delivery can make a difference, even if the delivery is late. My impression was that as soon as they got my contract they didn't really care about service.