Poor Communication, Conflicting Information, Late Pickup

Ritse A. Submitted this review about Ship a Car Direct
Review made Live: 8/21/2017 4:11:00 PM
The first big issue was that the pickup was over 3 hours later than expected. During the initial call I explained that the pickup contact would need to go to work in the afternoon and that a delivery before or around 12pm would be ideal. Apparently this information either was not given to the driver or the driver ignored it, because he called the pickup contact and told her that he would be there that night or the following morning. She was already at work when she received the call, and at the time the Ship A Car Direct representative had not even informed me that a driver had been found.

The primary mode of communication was text messaging, and at times the representative's responses to my questions were short, dismissive, and seemingly impatient, for example one-word replies of "No" without any further explanation of why something couldn't be done. Similar to the lack of notification about finding a driver, updates about the search were irregular and often given after the fact. For example, I would be ask if a $25 increase in the delivery offer was acceptable after the change had already been made.

I also received conflicting information about the delivery date that seems to have been the result of miscommunication with the driver and carrier company. The estimated delivery date I was provided with was 4 days after the actual pickup- however, when the driver picked the car up, he told the pickup contact he would be in Illinois the next day. When I tried to call the carrier during business hours that same day, there was no answer, and no phone number had yet been provided to contact the driver. Because no drivers were likely to deliver to the town where I live, I had to have that car delivered to a major city two hours away. I needed to rent a car to drive out and meet the driver, so I couldn't afford to have any confusion about when to expect the delivery.

I called Ship A Car Direct that evening after my text message about the situation went unanswered for nearly an hour, and the representative I spoke to was able to contact the carrier and confirmed that the delivery would not occur on the following day, which was a Friday. He gave me an estimated delivery range of Saturday afternoon or Monday morning, and told me the driver would call me later that night. The driver did not call, and I was told by the original Ship A Car Direct representative that he wouldn't call until he was about to make the delivery.

Ultimately, the car was delivered that Saturday in good condition, but the process was far more stressful than it needed to be.