Pretty good; some problems

Laura Submitted this review about Ship a Car Direct
Review made Live: 11/10/2018 3:58:00 PM
Overview: Requested quote after business hours on October 25. Received quote overnight and set up order on October 26. Order was put out there and a carrier accepted the order that same day, indicating pick-up would be the following day, October 27. I was willing to have my car picked up on October 26 or as soon as possible thereafter. The estimated delivery date was November 7. Later than I had hoped, but I was shipping coast-to-coast. The actual delivery date was November 8. That's a total of 13 days. Pros: Worked with Eve, who was very kind, responsive, and patient answering my questions. I contacted her several times to request assistance in contacting the carrier, and she always responded quickly. Appreciated how quickly a quote was sent and the order placed. Also appreciated how quickly the car was picked up, given that I gave very short notice. $30 rebate for writing a review (though I believe strongly in writing reviews and would do so even without rebate – it's important for companies and even more so for consumers!). Every dollar is appreciated, but it's hard to feel that enthused about $30 back on a bill of $1475. Transparency – I elected to go with this company because of their many short videos answering FAQs. I got information I needed quickly and the company seems to value transparency, which is important to me. Cons: The carrier was okay, not great. This carrier's communication with customers needs improvement. I had to reach out to Eve multiple times because I did not hear from the carrier, and I was told that I could expect a call from them the day before pickup and the day before delivery. Also, I was told to be ready for car pickup between 11 am and 4 pm. The carrier arrived around 4:30 pm. (There was terrible weather that day, though, so perhaps due to weather.) The driver did call about 45 min in advance to let me know his arrival time (after I contacted Ship A Car Direct for help). On the delivery end, I was called at nearly 10 pm the night before delivery asking if an early morning delivery would be okay. I would have preferred to be called a bit earlier in the evening. No apparent damage on outside of car – it was transported on an open rig – just very dirty (of course to be expected!). Unfortunately the car heating and air conditioning system is no longer functioning. The system had always functioned well; this is the first time I've had any issue with it. Of course it's possible that this is unrelated/coincidental. I have not provided this information to Ship A Car Direct yet but plan to do so. I suspect that estimated delivery dates are usually earlier than the actual delivery dates. Maybe not. I had heard nothing from carrier as of November 5 and when I called the carrier to ask about the delivery timeline, I was told it was estimated to be November 7 or 8. This suggested that the car would almost certainly be arriving on November 8 (as it did). Found Ship A Car Direct's 24/7 customer service line not very helpful. It was very noisy in background and difficult to hear. A lot of (sometimes repetitive) auto-generated emails from Ship A Car Direct. I did use the app to take before and after pictures – the app was heavily recommended as an easy way to report any potential damage. (Obviously this works for visible external damage alone.) Final verdict: Because I have to take into consideration my experience with the carrier, I have to give an overall rating of "average" to the experience.