Fraudulent

Ivan Submitted this review about A Unique Transport
Review made Live: 6/23/2009 8:35:00 AM
Just picked up my car from storage yesterday; the culmination of my dealings with this company. Had my car been cheerfully delivered a week or so late, I'm the type of person who would still give the company 5 stars. The conduct of A Unique Transport was fraudulent on all levels, however, so I am compelled to post my experience here for all potential transport customers to consider.

My car is a 45-year-old Lincoln Continental that I moved from California to Florida, and the deal was brokered by a company called Continental Auto Movers; my contact there was Alan. When my car was promptly picked up two weeks ago in Los Angeles, the pickup person gave me a bill of lading with the name & address of A Unique Transport printed on it, and he explained that Continental Auto Movers merely brokered the deal. I was told by this pickup person that the car would arrive in Florida in 6 days, which is what Alan at Continental had told me as well.

I flew to Florida where I awaited drop-off of my car. After a week elapsed with no delivery, I began calling every day, alternating between Unique & Continental. Continental became increasingly hard to contact, as a live person never answers the phone there. Curiously, the only time I was able to get through to someone at Continental after things began to sour was when I opted for the "press one to get a quote for shipping your vehicle," and that person told me Alan hadn't been in the office for a week before hurrying off the phone. Hmm.

Today is Tuesday; Unique told me on Friday that my car would finally be delivered "90%" by Saturday, and at very latest on Sunday. When I heard nothing by Monday (yesterday) morning, I called Unique back. Nina told me that I'd left them an incorrect 845 contact number and that my car was left at an undisclosed storage yard pending my payment of the outstanding $750 on the transport deal as well as incurred storage fees. She read off an 845 area code number that no way matched any number I ever supplied Continental Movers with-I don't even know where 845 is-and she claimed they didn't have my cell phone number. I then faxed in my copy of the bill of lading which proves to the contrary, but Nina claimed that the fax wasn't clear enough. OK. I then scanned a copy of the bill of lading into my computer in a large file to send via email so they could read my cell phone beyond any reasonable doubt. This satisfied them to the point where I was told, "We'll waive the storage fee, but we won't tell you where your car is until you go into a Bank of America branch and deposit $750 cash only-no wire transfer-into our account."

At that point I asked to speak with the owner. Someone named Greg got on the phone and proceeded to rip into me in broken English about how he's fed up & the problem is 100% my fault for giving Continental Movers the wrong contact info. "But the bill of lading shows de fact proof that I...," I injected, but he cut me off by saying, "You listen to me. Seven hundred fifty green cash money into our account if you want your car. No more discussion." I was speechless.

Is this whole thing a scam, I wondered? I had seen online that Unique gets a 4/5 rating, so they must be legit. Feeling I had little choice, I went to a Bank of America branch and deposited the $750 into their account. Upon their verification, I was told that the car had been left at an auto body shop 60 miles north of me called Scratch-N-Dent, and my next step was to call the shop. The shop owner reassured me that my car was ok and safe, but his account of the situation was quite telling...

According to him, the Unique truck showed up at his shop out of the blue this weekend & asked if he could arrange a quick patch-up job for (yikes) some body damage that one of the vehicles on his transport had received. My car was allegedly in back of the damaged vehicle, and as my address was purportedly the farthest south/last stop on the route on which the driver was running late, the Unique driver struck a deal with the body shop to store my car for a few days until the owner-me-came to claim it. Incredible!

Even more incredible is the fact that the transport driver's copy of the bill of lading was inside my car with both my cell phone number & drop-off land line number not just crossed out, but completely obliterated to the point where there is no way of deciphering any of the numbers written. Did the driver not realize that I have a copy?

Though I'm thoroughly astounded by Greg's sense of ethics and customer service and I'm tempted to take legal action, I think this testament to A Unique Transport that you're reading will provide sufficient closure for me.

Facts: I paid for door-to-door delivery but I did not receive door-to-door delivery; the Unique company lied to me by telling me they'd been given incorrect contact info; and the Unique transport driver tampered with the bill of lading.

Zero stars out of five.


Company Response
Mike from A Unique Transport Submitted this response.
Response Date: 6/29/2009 2:19:00 PM
All claims issued by the customer above are a result from misinformation. When we conduct business with the broker, they give us all the necessary information. The broker receives this information from the customer whose vehicle we are transporting. Our company depends on the information given by the broker, which in this case, was incorrect. The customer claims to have his contact info on the Bill of Lading, which is true but, we do not use the Bill of Lading as a reference for contact information. Its sole purpose is to serve as a before and after inspection sheet for damages. The reason behind ''obliterating'' the contact info was to prevent the storage facility from making a mistake. For example, a storage company unknowingly called the customer and asked them to pick up their car when the customer had never paid and the company had made a simple mistake. We also didn't let the customer know the location of their car for similar reasons. We have had customers go to the storage facility and use a spare key on their car and leave without payment. There has also been a customer that has gone to the storage facility and said they have paid for it, when they haven't, and driven off without payment. Therefore, it has become a company procedure to take such steps as keeping the location undisclosed and requiring the customer to pay before receiving the vehicle. Our ''fraudulent'' procedures are carried out to ensure that we aren't victimized of fraud by our customers, rather then trying to scam them.