A complete nightmare- stay away from bill and shiela!
Joy
Submitted this review about
Domestic Auto Transport
Review made Live: 9/15/2011 2:10:00 PM
This is not my first time to ship a car, but definitely the worst experience ever. Shorter version:
They couldn't find a driver, there was no sign that they could find one after 36 days of signing the contract
Bill never returned my calls as he promised. For the whole time (40+ days), he only called twice, one for his business pitch, one for my credit card info after eventually find a driver
After taking taxi for a whole week in my new work place, I had to change the delivery place otherwise I had to indefinitely wait
The contract did not seem to have binding power for them, in terms of the pick-up and delivery date and the shipping price. According to their terms and conditions, everything is an estimate. Giving them 1 week's range was apparently not enough for their estimate. It only forbade me from using another shipping company
Calling their manager was no help- it only made me even angrier. She told me to read the terms and conditions (which said everything was estimate) and shut my mouth.
The driver threatened to take my car to their next stop if I didn't show up by Wed. noon. However, they didn't show up until Wed. night
Longer version:
I was moving from downtown Chicago to Idaho due to the job change. After submitted a web quote which I believed was sent to a number of car shipping brokers, I received Bill’s call within minutes. It seemed they were really interested in doing the business—well, perhaps not really doing the business, but getting the business by all means without actually doing it. We set up the pick-up date and the delivery date, and I gave them a week’s range for both the pick up and the delivery. Everything seemed ok until the last day of the agreed pick-up week. My car was still not picked up and I had to take my flight to leave Chicago that afternoon.
I called Bill (in fact called several times before the last pick-up date, but didn’t get to talk to him and never got a call back) and the only answer I got was, “I don’t know”. What do you mean you don’t know? In the midst of packing and flying, this is probably the last thing I want to hear. Hopeless and desperate was the only feelings left in me. What could I do? I don’t have a residence in Chicago any more, I don’t have a parking space any more! Where should I put my car to in downtown Chicago? I frantically began to call people around, most of whom I barely knew. Finally a friend is willing to help to give my car to the driver if he/she could eventually come. Just a few hours before I had to fly out, I found a parking space, costing $250 per month. Not knowing when the driver can come, I told the clerk that I needed parking indefinitely.
After arriving at my work place in Idaho, I called Bill almost every day. Every time he greeted with dead silence. Then he promised to call me back by the end of the day, but I never received a call back. Without a car, I took taxi to work every day. I called his manager once, Shiela(?). She apparently was not interested in my side of the story, but told me to read the terms and conditions and the dates in the contract were estimate. What do you mean by estimate? A week’s range is not enough for you’re an estimate? The worst part in our conversation, I received no comfort or sympathy or things like “we will try our best”, but she told me to shut my mouth otherwise she would hang up!
After a whole week of being in my new workplace and without any sign of the car being picked up, then I called to move the delivery place to Salt Lake City, 3 hour’s drive from me. After another two days and many other calls (notice that Bill never called back as he promised), he finally called me the second time for the whole month (the first time was his business pitch). He found a driver, but I had to pay $80 extra. I again wondered about the validity of the contract. If everything is an estimate, why would we sign the contract? I had no time or energy to argue anymore so I agreed. Because of my meetings, I told him that I could only pick up the car on Wed. or Thursday between noon and 5pm.
The driver called me on Monday and Tuesday evenings, telling me to be there on Wed. morning and threatened that if they couldn’t see me by Wed. noon, they would take my car to Las Vegas. On Wed., I headed off to Salt Lake with the earliest bus. When I got there, the driver told me they expected to arrive around 5pm. Then around 4pm, the driver said there would be another 4-hour delay. After more than 10 hour’s wait at Salt Lake, I finally saw my car!
I learned so many lessons from this nightmare and also learned about their dirty business. Before I signed the contract with them, I read many reviews—in fact, Bill took me to this website. I knew that he is giving 30-dollar cash back (perhaps for good reviews only). I don’t expect to receive the cash. While reading the reviews, I did see some bad ones about Bill but never thought it would happen to me. But it did, much worse than I could have imagined.
