Shipment with a lot of variables

Brian Submitted this review about Ship a Car Direct
Review made Live: 2/8/2015 10:51:00 AM
I needed to ship an older, high mileage car from the DC area to Tennessee. I had been borrowing the car from a family member while in DC for training, but the car developed serious mechanical issues during that time. It wasn't really safe to drive for long distances, and the repair cost in DC was about the value of the car. Shipping wasn't a much better option, but with time constraints, it was marginally less expensive than the repairs.

The good: David eventually found a carrier that could do the shipment. The carrier was excellent. Very professional and very efficient.

The not so good: final price was higher than the initial quote, shipment was door to door, but not from and to the exact doors I wanted. I guess I needed to ship at a slow time, but it wasn't great having to drive an hour from home with a mechanically unsound vehicle to meet the carrier. I was fortunate to have a friend to help me get back home after. Communication was tricky. Ship a Car Direct seems to prefer phone communication, but my training has me in a cell phone dead zone most of the day, so until we switched to more email things were tough. Also, trying to get answers from anyone in the company other than David was essentially impossible. I called once to the general number, got transferred to David's desk (even though I knew he wasn't there) and then no one answered the phone when I called back. Online chat was somewhat useful.

Overall assessment: Ship a Car Direct seems to be a solid company, but the complexity of my particularly shipment made my overall outcome less convenient and more costly than I had hoped. Overall, I believe they're an excellent company. If I were to do it all over again, I would still work with this company, but I would start much sooner to allow maximum time for finding the best option to fit my needs.