Company Response Review Report Review
I would not recommend this company

James F Submitted this review about Auto Transport 123
Review made Live: 11/16/2017 3:50:00 PM
EDIT on November 16th, 2017:
Shortly after submitting this review (November 12th) Ross reached out to see if there was anything he could do to help resolve my issues. I did not reply back. After the experience I had I was ready to just move on. On November 16th Michelle from AT123 reached out and spoke with me regarding this review to see if there was anything they could do to help things. I told them that I would like to just move on and part ways.

__________________________________________________________________

If I could give this site no stars I would. I had a friend who shipped a motorcycle through these people and everything went fine for them. My friend told me about this company and how easy it was (for the bike they were also about $300 cheaper). So I decided to call them and get a price quote. The price was about what other companies charged. The guy I spoke with (Ross) during the first call was very nice. He was pushing the company pretty hard, saying it was family owned and he was the owners son. I was in a hurry trying to get the car moved because I recently had some family business that I was more worried about. He kept talking about checking TransportReviews.com and how they were the #1 company and had 4 and 5 stars. As I said I was in a rush and didn't do my research. I asked several times if the vehicle could be picked up within my timeframe (it was about 4 or 5 days away) he said everytime that it would be no problem because they don't use the same system that other places use. He made it sound like they had their own drivers. I ended up agreeing to do business with them and signed the contract.
As it was getting closer to the date I wanted it gone by I started calling and trying to get answers (starting the day before I wanted it gone). At first I could at least get in touch with Ross and speak with him. He would consistantly tell me that he would find out what was going on and call me back. This NEVER happened. Not once did he call me back out of the ~7 times or so that he said he would. Finally I just couldn't get in touch with him. I was being sent to voicemail or he just wouldn't answer. So I started calling the main number ( (888) 885-9123 ) and tried finding out the answers to my problems. That didn't get me anywhere. They were very unprofessional. A couple times they just would answer and hang up right away. They asked why I kept calling (because my questions weren't being answered) or they would tell me that they would have Ross call me back. One time they said they would have his manager call me. That never happened. I did get a little help once though. One of the employees told me that you are able to check the full status of your order at http://portal.autotransport123.com/. That was helpful. All you need is your portal number.
My deadline ended up coming and going. So after all these issues (50 calls, I just checked my phone) I tried to cancel because the other companies I was talking to said they could not complete my order until they took me out of their system (their meaning AT123). This was after Ross told me they use a completely different service then the other guys. So I looked over my contract and ofcourse there was a cancellation fee. In the contract I noticed the following "If an order is canceled due to something out of Auto Transport 123's control, the reservation fee or $100 will be charged and either put on ?le or be deemed nonrefundable on an as per situation basis.". I understand this as there doesn't HAVE to be a $100 cancellation charge. I figured based on the incredibly terrible service I had they wouldn't charge me a cancellation fee. After trying numerous times to get Ross on the phone I finally was able to and after a couple more calls with him because I wasn't receiving anything saying it was going to be cancelled I had him email me saying he was going to cancel it. During all these conversations about cancelling he never mentioned the fee to me. Shortly after I noticed a declined charge for $100, then one minute later one for $50. After speaking with him he said that ofcourse they were going to charge me the fee still. The status for my order still hasn't changed though from "Currently being worked on" to "Cancelled".

Now lets move on to this review site that I heard was basically the gold standard from Ross himself. First, as I mentioned he said he was #1 on TransportReviews.com. This is a small thing but as of this review if you check the past 2 years, past 1 year and past 30 days they are #2 on all of them. They do however have 5 stars out of 5 on TransportReviews.com for the last 30 days. After having such a terrible experience I really questioned how this could be. I came across this FTC (Federal Trade Commisions) letter to the CEO Keith Hecht. In it the FTC speaks about an investigation they conducted "focused on whether Auto Transport 123 adequately disclosed that the company offered consumers incentives in exchange for five star reviews.". After their review the FTC basically didn't find anything wrong. "Among the factors we considered in making this determination is that, prior to the FTC's inquiry and in response to a an FTC enforcement action in a similar matter, the company voluntarily discontinued all activities ofconcern and related claims.". That sounds good right? After a little more research I found some other stats:
Yelp! has them at 2 stars with 161 reviews.
Better Business Bureau (BBB) has them at at a letter grade of F with 125 customer reviews and 141 customer complaints. The composite score comes out to a 1.54 out of 5.
ConsumerAffairs.com has them at 1.5 stars out of 5 with 20 reviews (that contain star ratings).
I just found it weird that all these other sites have such a drastic difference in their reviews.

FTC.gov: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/closing_letters/nid/autotransport123closing_letter.pdf
TransportReviews.com: https://www.transportreviews.com/Company/Auto-Transport-123
Yelp.com: https://www.yelp.com/biz/auto-transport-123-baldwin
BBB.org: https://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/business-reviews/auto-transportation/auto-transport-123-in-north-baldwin-ny-122375
ConsumerAffairs.com: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/auto-transport123.html

Auto Transport 123 Portal Access: http://portal.autotransport123.com/ (you need your order #)

CEO Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/khecht1
CEO LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithhecht/
Shipment Details
Origin State:
Minnesota
Pickup:
Not Provided
Destination State:
Maryland
Delivery:
Not Provided
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
00000000
Quote or Order Cost:
$995

Company Response
Keith from Auto Transport 123 Submitted this response.
Response Date: 11/16/2017 9:39:00 PM
we are very sorry to hear about your issues and concerns with what transpired we like to accept all forms of feed back to help provide our customers a better overall experience. we apologize that the it took longer then requested and anticipated to get a driver to pickup the car. at the same time, when you requested to cancel your order, we did so for, you and stated that you would not be charged a fee to do so. we are not in the business of charging customers fees for services that are not provided.every call that came inbound was answered and notated on your file, which are too many to post here but were all notated and addressed. we understand you may have not received the answers you were looking for, however we were here at all times to answer any calls or questions you had. we have also reached out to the customer on a few occasions after the fact to make sure everything was ok on their end and if there was anything else we can do for them. at that point the customer was ok with parting ways and dissolving the relationship. so again we are very sorry for any inconvenience as some areas are tougher to get carriers in and out of than others. but we are always here for our customers. and make sure we provide them with top of the line customer service on all occasions.