Company Response Review Report Review
Liars and thieves

Sean McAllister Submitted this review about Reliable Car Transportation
Review made Live: 6/3/2009 2:39:00 PM
I chose Reliable Car Transportation because of the 5 star reviews on this website. After dealing with the company, I suspect the employees have planted these reviews.

I bought a 1976 AMC Gremlin as a restoration project. It was in Oakland, CA and I needed to get it to my home in Alabama. When I spoke with Reliables's representative, Brian, he told me he could definitely have it picked up within 5 days, but the average pick-up time was about 3 days. I flew to California to be there for the pick-up. After waiting 2 days to hear from someone, I contacted Brian to see if he had been in contact with the driver and if he could ballpark a pick-up day/time so that I would know approximately when I'd be back to work. He emailed me a dispatch list that showed my car in a queue with 9 other cars. It was then that I learned he had no business relationship with any of the actual drivers. As a broker, he simply takes the order and pockets the $100 deposit. Truck drivers can choose whichever vehicle they want to pick-up and deliver based on the fee that shows on the dispatch list. Needless to say, truckers are more likely to pick up the vehicles of owners willing to pay higher fees first. Had I been told of this situation beforehand, I would have made a higher offer to the drivers.

Based on the information on the dispatch list, some cars had been waiting weeks for pick-up. I cancelled the order with Reliable Car Transport and have stored the vehicle in California until such time as I can go out there and transport it back myself.

In my last email to Brian, I asked him why he lied to me about the pick-up time and if he would let me know if he would return the $100 deposit. I never heard from him again. There has been no credit to my charge account for his fee. So I am out the $100 I paid him, plus the cost of air fare, car rental, time away from work, and the storage fees I will pay until I'm able to retrieve the car myself. Not to mention the cost of driving to California and back to transport the vehicle myself or the expense of hiring another company (if I can find one that I can trust).

In conclusion, it is my opinion that this company could be described using any number of adjectives but "Reliable" ain't one of 'em. Their motto should be "Buyer beware."
Shipment Details
Origin State:
California
Pickup:
Never
Destination State:
Alabama
Delivery:
Never
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
11002-DS
Quote or Order Cost:
$775

Company Response
from Reliable Car Transportation Submitted this response.
Response Date: 6/10/2009 12:59:00 PM
We at Reliable do not plant reviews. Any of the customers to which has posted reviews and have there names highlighted in the color orange have agreed that they can be physically contact for review purposes. Additionally, It’s a third degree felony to plant reviews about a company that are not legitimate reviews. As for the second paragraph, yes we are a brokerage company. The Department of Transportation states that 98% of truck drivers own and operate one truck. Therefore, they do not have the ability to have a customer service center etc. Its simply a one man operation. It wasn’t a secret to Mr. McAllister. If you visit our website you would see that it clearly states that we locate trucks for our customers as does 98% of companies on the 1st page of google. Yes, our fee is $100 dollars as Mr.McAllister states. We find out what the truck would require to move the vehicle and we mark it up accordingly. This fee of $100 dollars being the least expensive fee. Most brokerage companies will take a larger deposit such as $150 to $200 dollars. You can determine there fee by asking how much the “deposit” is on the credit card. And then, you will be told what to pay the truck on delivery, which is what the truck required to move the vehicle. Most importantly, where Mr. McAllister stated in the 3rd paragraph that we sent him a copy of the national list. We did, we explained to him that the route was not that common and that less trucks traveled that route than other more common routes and it may take longer than he may anticipate. And this information was determined by looking at other brokerage companies and that dates they posted there customers cars for pickup and how long they waited for pickup. Unfortunately, the only thing we could do is be completely honest with Mr. McAllister and show him the nature of the business. In the end, we realized that Mr. McAllister was upset due to the wait time on such an uncommon route and we offered to reimburse him for the time and expense the route may have caused him and additionally to pay for the transport. He explained, that he had money and didn’t need ours. We were only trying to make the situation right as it was not his fault in any way. We take pride in our customers as the other reviews we have received state and unfortunately could not please Mr. McAllister. In our eyes the customer is always right. Mr. McAllister did receive his $100 dollar refund as you may feel free to contact him by clicking his orange highlighted name.