In short, they promised a lot, could not deliver, raised the price last minute, and dragged their feet in refunding me until my visa company stepped in. This is definitely not a good company to trust even though everyone I talked to was very pleasant and smooth talkers on the phone.
Here is the detail story:
Global Express started out on the top of my short list because (a) they had an excellent rating when I checked in July 2010 (b) staff were nice to me on the phone (c) they quoted me the best price (d) the best pick up/deliver dates (e) gave me the best assurances, saying that since I am giving them more than 3 weeks to locate a driver, they can give me a good price and that I should rest assured that all will be well.
The first sign of trouble, which I brushed off, was that the actual wording of a few items on the contract was different than what Don said on the phone. Before I signed it, I clarified with Don, and he guaranteed me that those clauses in the contract were meant for other customers, not in my case, and despite my gut feeling, I signed the contract.
I started to get nervous after I realized that they were only in business for only a month or so and the excellent rating was only from a handful of reviewers.
A week before the car was supposed to be picked up, I started calling Shannon and Mary in dispatch to find out the driver contact information. Usually, the response from either Shannon and Mary was “we’ll get back to you”, and would not call back. When I was lucky enough to actually talk to them, they were always very pleasant on the phone, but they constantly used delay tactics - when it was a week away, they say they will contact me a few days before the picked up date to give me the drivers contact number; when it was a few days before the picked up date, they changed to say that the driver will contact me directly a day or two before; when it was two days before the picked up date, Shannon told me to give her some time to locate the driver because she just received my file (even though I talked with her multiple times previously). She also informed me that some drivers would not contact me until a day before or even just hours before they come pick up the car. This was very upsetting to me.
When “the day before picked up date” came, Shannon was not able to locate the driver for Thursday, so I gave her a few more days, till Tuesday. When Monday came, I called her. She told me there was a driver, but he wanted $200 more. When I refused, she told me that I would not get a better price than that anywhere because she already “put me on the board” and apparently there is some penalty involved if they pulled me “off the board” to look for a different driver at the original price, like I would be blacklisted among the driver community or something. They claimed they will split that penalty with me, but it will still mean more than their original quoted price. At this point, not only has she lost all credibility with me, I am disgusted at Global Express and the whole auto-transporting practice, so I cancelled the order.
Shannon promised me a refund. Again, it was empty promises. When I didn’t get my refund in 2 weeks, I started to call them. When I’m lucky enough to talk to a person, the answer is always along the lines of “there is no reason I don’t get a refund, it usually takes a few days, and they will take care of this right away for me”. When it got close to 4 weeks and my refund still did not show up, I called them one last time, this time to Don, the original sales guy. Upon getting the same response, I proceeded to call my visa company to dispute the charge. The visa company helped me recover the money and the dispute is over at this point.
Yes, my nightmare is finally over, so I write this to warn people who want to transport their cars: Please think twice about relying on all these smooth talking brokers who do not keep their promises.
To add to the injury, Global Express deleted my post the day after I posted the above review, even though I have the correct order number and used my real last name. They claim the following: “ The reason for removal is that Global Express Auto Transport is unable to locate your order and has no way of proving that you are a customer of theirs.”
Needless to say, I have all the documents to prove it, and now, I am definitely going to report this incident to the Better Business Bureau!
