Great Work Julia!
Jeff Pagano
Submitted this review about
AA Motocycle Transport
Review made Live: 3/24/2012 10:55:00 PM
I just can't thank Julia at AA Motorcycle Transport enough for unraveling the mystery of my missing motorcycle. See the story below for details...
There was a time when I thought I would never see my motorcycle again.
Ship Your Car Now had contracted another company, Auto Transport of Salem, Oregon to bring my motorcycle from Eugene, Oregon to the dock in San Diego. The motorcycle would then be put on a boat and shipped to Hawaii.
My original quote from Ship Your Car Now for shipping the motorcycle was $1076, but after talking to a sales rep the price jumped to $1350. I was pressed for time and agreed, but already I felt as though this was a bait and switch.
We set a pickup date of December 6, 2011 and my roommate agreed to coordinate with the driver and schedule the pickup. This turned out to be unnecessarily frustrating with dispatchers and sales people calling me when my shipping record indicated my roommate was the contact person. After many phone calls and a missed pickup the driver finally arrived and collected my motorcycle, but only after making my roommate miss about a half day of work. It was extremely frustrating and very unfair to her. I very much got the impression the people at Ship Your Car Now were not communicating with each other, or even reading the notes in the shipping record.
I sent an email to my sales rep stating expressing my concerns, and he replied assuring me everything would go smoothly, but due to the holidays it might take a little longer to get my motorcycle to Hawaii. So I let it go and thought I would see my motorcycle in late December or early January.
On January 6th I emailed Ship Your Car Now asking, "When will my bike get here?" No response. So I called.
Now begins the drama...
It turns out there was a "problem" with my motorcycle's delivery to the dock and the bike was in fact still in San Diego. And they didn't know where it was because Raya Galitsina with Auto Transport of Salem, Oregon was demanding $400 in storage fees plus a $150 redelivery fee. And she wanted cash deposited into her bank account.
I received this information in bits and pieces. It was quite common to call or email Ship Your Car Now and get no response. So I'd call again. First I talked to a sales rep, then a manager, then the president of the company, then the CFO. I was promised daily updates but this never happened.
I was very patient and understanding of the dilemma and I didn't get angry or chew them out. I told them, "I can see you're between a rock and hard place and I have no intention of being another rock." But their communication was extremely poor.
I had to continually contact them and by this point I thought my motorcycle was goner.
It's important to note that each day additional storage fees were accruing. Rather than admit their error, pay the storage fees and get my motorcycle released, Ship Your Car Now hired an attorney in Oregon to send a letter of demand to Auto-Transport. Ship Your Car Now was offering to pay $400 or we go to court.
Raya Galitsina of Auto Transport ignored the letter and replied by sending another invoice with the current storage charges. She flat out refused to disclose the location of the motorcycle and the people at Ship Your Car Now were adamant she was committing extortion. They wanted to call the police and report the motorcycle stolen.
Then one day I received a phone call from Raya Galitsina at Auto Transport. She told me she felt sorry for me and that the people at Ship Your Car Now were not telling me the truth.
She informed me Ship Your Car Now never booked the passage of the motorcycle to Hawaii and she had was unable to deliver the motorcycle to the dock without a confirmed shipping number. She said she tried contacting them for a week, but after no response she had to put my motorcycle in storage. It sat there for several weeks until I contacted Ship Your Car Now asking, "When will my bike get here?"
She then proceeded to inform me a lien would soon be placed on my bike if the storage fees were not paid. But if I paid her $1600 she would tell me where my motorcycle was so it could be delivered to the dock. I told Mrs. Galitsina I had no involvement with paying anyone and that she should contact the attorney hired by Ship Your Car Now.
I then contacted that attorney. I told him Mrs. Galitsina was ready to negotiate. He was very helpful during the course of our brief conversation and he said he would call me the next day but never did.
At that point I called my attorney and got her involved. It took several attempts before my attorney could reach their attorney. After several days my attorney called me and told me, "This isn't our responsibility in the least, but do you have any way of finding out where your motorcycle is?" I had no clue. Again, I'm wondering if I'll ever see my motorcycle again. We were now in the middle of January 2012, six weeks after the bike had been picked up in Eugene.
I emailed and called Auto Transport and virtually begged Raya Galitsina to do the right thing and cooperate. She was not giving. She wanted her money. She threaten she would soon have the title to my bike. I demanded to know the location of the motorcycle. I threatened calling the police. She hung up on me.
It was then that I gathered the contracts I've received from Ship Your Car Now and began to read them. It turns out Ship Your Car Now is only a broker and they are responsible for very little and I'd waived much of their responsibility when I signed their contract. My heart sank. I hadn't heard from Ship Your Car Now for days. My last (unanswered) email to their CFO was entitled "Please Help Me."
Among the paperwork I had was a contract with A-A Motorcycle Transport. They were the company hired by Ship Your Car Now to ship the motorcycle to Hawaii. I called the number on the contract and spoke to Julia. I asked her, "Do you have any idea where Auto Transport might be holding my motorcycle?"
She replied, "Wait a minute... I think that vehicle is here at our storage facility waiting to be put on the next boat." She then put me on hold and two minutes later came back on the line and said, "Yes, we have your motorcycle."
She remembered the delivery of my bike because it had been a problem. The delivery to the dock occurred on January 10th, after hours, she said "The shipment had not even been booked so we issued an emergency booking number."
January 10th was the day the Ship Your Car Now attorney had issued the letter of demand. So even though Auto Transport delivered the bike to the dock that day, they never told Ship Your Car Now they had done so. Raya Galitsina continued to act as though she still had the motorcycle and continued to tell everyone storage fees were still accruing after the 10th.
It was by shear luck I contacted A-A Motorcycle Transport and spoke to Julia. My motorcycle was at the dock. This was a huge relief!
Julia then gave me the name and number of the dock manager, Josh Freeze. Josh works for Pasha Hawaii, the company hired by A-A Motorcycle Transport to ship the bike to Hawaii. Josh went into their storage bay and confirmed for me they had my motorcycle. He said, "It's dirty, but it's here."
Wheeeew! I can't tell you how relieved I was. I had definitely lost some sleep over this one!
He told me the bike would depart on January 25th from San Diego and arrive in Hawaii on February 1st. I described the nightmare I'd been through and he assured me he would personally see it safely on the boat. Twenty minutes later he had me on a conference call with their corporate office because he wanted the details documented in Pasha Hawaii's records.
Josh Freeze and Connie Christian of Pasha Hawaii were extremely helpful and Connie emailed me their inspection report so I had proof they had my motorcycle. She also gave me the tracking information so I could track the shipment on their web site and told me, "Call me immediately if there's *anything* that's not right."
At this point I breathed a huge sign of relief.
A few days before arrival I received a couple of emails from Pasha telling me how to collect my bike when it arrived. Everything about the way Pasha did business was top notch.
On February 2nd I drove to Hilo and there was my motorcycle!
It was covered in a thick gray muck, and I mean completely covered. It was filthy but it was all in one piece. It wouldn't start but the very helpful staff at Harper Car & Truck Rental had a portable battery. We jump started the bike and I drove back to Kona incredibly happy.
Departure date: December 6, 2011
Arrival date: February 2, 2012
So if you need to ship anything to Hawaii, I highly recommend Pasha Hawaii.
If you need to move a motorcycle, I recommend A-A Motorcycle Transport.
Clearly, I do not recommend Ship Your Car Now. The last time I heard from them was January 24th. After all of this, they never followed up or apologized for what they'd put me through.
Finally, as far as Raya Galitsina and Auto Transport are concerned I will be filing a complaint with the District Attorney in Oregon. I called the police in Salem, but they said they couldn't do anything since no money was exchanged.
Now that this ordeal is over I'm incredibly thankful to have my motorcycle here in Hawaii. Thanks again to the folks at Pasha Hawaii and AA Motorcycle Transport for getting my motorcycle to me.
