Did not meet contracted deadlines, unreachable, dishonest

Joy W Submitted this review about Stateway Auto Transport
Review made Live: 9/30/2011 2:58:00 PM
Working with Stateway made getting my vehicle more stressful than it should have been. They did not pick up my vehicle inside their "guaranteed" 1-7 day window and actually took 13 consecutive days to have my vehicle picked up. Stateway customer rep told me that they use their own employees as drivers and do not contract out - a manager later told me that they do use contracted drivers. Stateway staff was unreachable by phone 100% of the times I called; calls always went to voicemail and were frequently not returned in a timely manner or at all. I wrote a review on this site while in the midst of trying to get my car picked up and a Stateway manager asked if I would take it down; I said I would if my car was picked up by 5:00 the following day - the manager took it down herself! And my car was picked up 4 days later.

The whole process was needlessly frustrating. I think a good company should respect their customers before AND after payment is made, return phone calls, have someone available to ANSWER the phone, adhere to their contract, and not LIE about their procedures. I would never use this company again and would not recommend them.

On a more positive note, the contracted driver was fantastic, kept in touch with me throughout the drive and delivered my vehicle in perfect condition and in an appropriate time frame. I would use him directly next time and have his contact information if anyone would like a referral.

Company Response
Anna from Stateway Auto Transport Submitted this response.
Response Date: 10/2/2011 4:35:00 PM
Stateway Auto Transport would first and foremost like to apologize to Joy for her shipment not going as she would have liked it to. At the same time, we feel it is important to state our side of what happened. Joy placed her order on 8/29/2011. Our Standard Pickup option is 1-7 business days. However in this case, due to Hurricane Irene, certain routes took longer to service. This was explained to Joy on more than one occasion. In fact, in South Carolina, a mandatory evacuation order was issued on August 23 before Joy even placed an order with our company. Massachusetts, where the car was being picked up from, was under evacuation on the 26th. We did everything in our power to make the pickup happen as fast as possible. Unfortunately, due to the serious weather and dangerous winds, most carriers were grounded during the storm (and rightfully so!). As soon as the hurricane passed, we assigned Joys car to a carrier. A truck was dispatched out on 09/08/2011. To compensate Joy for her delay, we refunded her deposit in full before the vehicle was delivered. Joy posted a review for our company on the 7th and after speaking with our manager agreed to remove it due to the unique circumstances involved. In terms of the phones being busy, we had so many incoming calls from the people under evacuation that our lines were jammed most of the day. We have since then hired more employees to better serve our customers. We did everything we could to make this shipment happen for Joy and we will continue to do everything we can to satisfy ALL of our customers. Stateway would once again like to apologize to Joy that her vehicle took longer than the estimated 7 business days to ship. We tried our best to meet the requested pickup date but were greatly hindered by the hurricane. Thank you for taking the time to read our response.