Company Response Review Report Review
worst experience got even worse...

Jessica Submitted this review about Auto Transport 123
Review made Live: 7/31/2014 9:17:00 PM
this is the SECOND time I have edited this review. I'm sure no one will read through it entirely, so I will say a couple important things:

- this business has a BBB rating of "F". they have had almost 100 complaints to the BBB

- if you write a bad review on this site they will make every attempt to get your review removed (first by calling you and harassing you to take it down, if that doesn't work they claim you weren't a customer. I would guess 90% of people don't take the time to go through the process to prove they were a customer, so that tactic takes care of a lot of complaints) so if you write it CHECK and make sure they didn't take it down!!! PLEASE!

- if you ever read Yelp reviews (they are big out here, not as much in other places) then check them out. just google "yelp" and "autotransport 123"). doesn't look that bad, right? only 18 reviews and there are a few 5 star reviews (friends?)...until you scroll down and see that they've blocked 125 1 star reviews on yelp, too.

- see that "gold" symbol by their name? thought it was because they are a great company? nah. it's because they give this site lots of money...because they think these reviews are so important...(except the bad ones): "About Sponsors and Supporters:
We do not recommend any specific company. The supporters and sponsors of our site have made a monetary pledge that shows that they value your opinion and the mission of TransportReviews.com. For this support we recognize these companies with supporter designation. "

I am writing this review at 8pm on a Thursday. I am guessing it will take approximately 1/2 hour for this company to respond to my review...sigh...

I initially wrote this review 2 days ago. about 1 hour after I wrote the review I got an immediate call from the manager asking that I take the negative review down and she would do all she could to help me get my car transported. I agreed under the condition that I would receive a discount on the transportation of my vehicle. the price I was originally quoted was $1650. I requested that I pay no more than $1200. I was asking the company to incur part of my fee due to, what I feel, was negligent and poor customer service.

if you read other negative reviews they almost all end with a response by the company that somehow blames the customer. I know the owners of this company will come on and "respond" to my "negative" review by saying that they did all they could to correct the problem and attempted to work with me, but I was unwilling to compromise...or something similar. it is the company's right to refuse to reduce their fee and incur some of my cost. it is my right to re-post my review in hopes that others will not be made to go through my experience.

bigger than that I wonder how many other consumers have had horrible experiences with this company, wrote a negative review, and then were called by the manager and asked to take down the negative review in order to get their car moving faster. don't know if this is a tactic or not, certainly hope not and that I'm the unlucky one, but here is my original review:

I understand every single transport company drops the ball with someone somewhere sometime...and this time it was me. I will say they have an AMAZING sales pitch! I got a quote from Able Auto when Auto123 called me and spewed some great lies at me. Irene talked to me and told me that the other company would never find a driver who would pick up my car for the price quoted. that they had my car up on the board and were waiting for drivers to bid on it, whereas Auto123 already had drivers ready. she told me the car would be picked up in the next 3 days. this was Wednesday 7/16. I explained to her I needed the car here by 7/30 (I know this is very tight) and she told me it would be no problem whatsoever. she told me exactly how to call Able and cancel my order with them.

by Friday I hadn't heard anything from Auto123 so I called. when I called THIS day they told me it was always at least 3-5 days from quote before they could find a driver (wait...I thought Irene said they HAVE drivers? that they DIDN'T bid on them...1st inkling something was wrong). I called every single day thereafter and was told they were working on it.

finally when I called on Tuesday I spoke with Casey who told me they couldn't get a driver because the job was still up on the board under Able Auto. WHA????? why didn't anyone else tell me this since I had called every day! SO, I called Able. they told me it wasn't. they called dispatch themselves. dispatch confirmed it had been taken off last week on Wednesday. so I called Casey back to let her know. she told me she would call dispatch herself (um...Able already did) and she would call me right back. 1/2 hour later still no call so I called. she said he had been at lunch (don't they have more than one dispatch? no? ok.) and she would call me back most likely in 5 minutes. 2 hours later she still hadn't called. I called back. OH, she said, NOW it's off. magic. NOW she can put out a bid for my driver (WAIT...I THOUGHT YOU ALREADY HAD DRIVERS?!) and she would call me back RIGHT AWAY but at least by Wednesday noon. can you guess when she called? if you guess never you were right. so I called AGAIN. and AGAIN. until she finally stopped answering my calls.

it's now Sunday (12 days after my initial "promise" of pick up within 1-3 days) and I've heard nothing. nada. zilch. zip. so I am asking for my deposit back and going with another company. I know no transport company is perfect, but this was the most horrible experience I've had in a long time. my car (obviously) won't be here by Wednesday and I'm basically SOL. oh well. I'm sure many more will use this company than not, and I'm sure the majority will have a fine experience, but hope you aren't the one who gets crapped on by this company. once you are, they will do nothing to make it up or make it right. they probably don't need to. they have enough people they actually work professionally with. maybe.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
Kentucky
Pickup:
Not Provided
Destination State:
California
Delivery:
Not Provided
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
226239
Quote or Order Cost:
$1650

Company Response
Keith from Auto Transport 123 Submitted this response.
Response Date: 8/1/2014 9:38:00 AM
AS this customer states in this review we contracted at the price of $1650. She wrote us a bad review because she was still listed on the board with her former company and we had yet to assign a driver. As we state in our agreements if you are posted on a competitors load board we will not assign a driver in the event that a car is picked up by another company incurring dry run fees for not only us but the customer. We were told by this customer as she states if we do not ship her car for $1200 and incur her shipping fees that she would leave negative feedback all over the internet for us. We provided her driver for her Monday July 28th at her contracted rate. She declined our driver and now is sitting on the board with a new competitor at $1250. As if her car is going to be shipped for that price. Keep your eyes open to read her next review about that company. As one of the top providers on this site on every major list we ask that customers manage their expectations when coming to us from other companies. We inherit problem orders from companies who were unable to complete service multiple times a day and we work our magic on every single one of them ! :) As per our BBB rating 95 complaints over 5 years with well over 100,000 cars shipped..The BBB does not account for volume companies such as ourselves. Its interesting Walmart's all over the country are F rated yet they are the largest outfit in the country... If you do the math that leaves us with 1052% succession rate. We don't vow to be perfect, we just do whatever we can do get it done for our customer. We apologize you feel because we wouldn't discount you $450 we are horrible people.