A-A Auto Transporters - Not recommended

james528 Submitted this review about A-A Auto Transport
Review made Live: 3/27/2003 5:59:00 PM
In early January I contacted A-A Auto Transport regarding transporting my 㥦 Firebird from Maryland to San Diego. I spoke with a wonderful customer service agent named Melissa. She informed me that it normally took 12-14 days for delivery and that it would cost me $835. I questioned her about insurance and delivery procedures and she was extremely helpful. She told me that my car was fully insured and that if the car was not received after 14 days, I would be rented a vehicle at their charge. This is one of the main reasons I chose A-A Auto Transport. Their price was not the cheapest, nor the most expensive, but they had a good rating with the BBB and I thought the price was reasonable. Melissa said the car needed to be picked up between January 28th and the 30th in order for it to be delivered on February 10th, my requested delivery date. On January 27th, at approximately 8am, I received a phone call from Accurate Towing, stating that they would be picking up my car for the transport. I informed them of the date written on my contract with A-A Auto Transport and the towing company said that my car would be leaving for San Diego that afternoon and would possibly arrive early.
On February 9th, the day before my car was to be delivered, I phoned A-A Auto Transport to find out if it would in fact be delivered on the 10th. I was told that a driver would contact me 24 hours before delivery, and after not receiving this phone call, I checked in with the transport company. I spoke with Isaac who connected me to Hamid, the truck driver. Hamid informed me that there had been some dilemmas with the truck and that an additional driver needed to be flown to Tennessee to drive the truck to California. He also said that my car would be delivered by Friday, February 14th at the latest. After speaking with Hamid, I called Isaac to find out how I would be rented a car, at their expense. Isaac informed me that in order for them to rent me a car, I had to have paid for the optional service, costing an extra $300. This came as a shock, as nobody had mentioned this before. I had also spoken with another customer service agent, who quoted me $835 for the transportation and talked of a rental car after 14 days of picking up my car. Isaac assured me that neither Melissa, nor the other customer service agent, had said this to me, and that if I wanted this service, I had to have paid an additional $300 before shipping my car.
On Thursday, Hamid called to say that he was running behind schedule and that my car would be delivered on Saturday, the 15th. On Saturday afternoon, after not receiving a phone call as to when he would be delivering the car, I called him on his cell phone. He said that he was done delivering cars for the day and that my car would be delivered on Sunday, the 16th. At approximately 2pm on Sunday, I phoned the driver to ask about his delivery time and Arman, the driver’s brother informed me that Hamid had been in an accident and was now in the hospital, but that my car was only in Los Angeles, not San Diego. He said that in order for me to receive my car in a timely manner, I would have to drive 99 miles each way to LA, to pick it up. I had to have a friend drive me 99 miles to LA and we each drove 99 miles back to San Diego.
When I checked my credit card statement, to see if the charges had been made, I saw that my credit card had been charged an authorized $200 for the deposit before shipping my car, and an additional $660.05 on February 5th, 2003. This charge was made 11 days before I received my car and therefore, before they had authorization to charge my card.
On February 25, 2003, after contacting the company to ask how the situation would be rendered, Isaac claimed that I AGREED to pick my car up in Los Angeles (99 miles from where I live) and that had I asked for reimbursement at that time, it could have been arranged. He also claimed that my car was promised on February 18th; no such conversation took place and no documents were signed to agree to change the terms of delivery.
I do NOT recommend this transporter, as my experience was horrible. I do understand that some problems may occur with the trucking company and that's OK. But I do not feel that A-A Auto Transport's customer service was adequate and their response to this complaint was less than desirable. Please feel free to e-mail me should you have questions about my complaint or want to know more about why you should not use this company.
Review from Epinions.com