My story with Magic Carpet, Jim Egly 360-853-2867
Joon Park
Submitted this review about
Magic Carpet Auto Transport
Review made Live: 8/9/2013 1:28:00 PM
Hello,
Most of us don't transport cars regularly unless you own 4 used car dealerships. So, when you shop for the transporters you get cautious and nervous. You’ve heard horror stories from your coworkers and on the blogs. As you should know if not already, most of the companies listed here are just the brokers, aka middle layer. If that's the case, first of all, wouldn't you want to pick a company that has the most/quality reviews? This tells you that the broker company has most connections and have ways to find you a transporter on time. I'm spending my sweet time writing this for Magic Carpet without any incentive, right?? Anyway, this should get rid of 2/3 of the companies out there. Then you look for the ratings. Then you look for the proximity of the company to you. These are some of the qualifications I checked out for.
Ok, now the Story time! I followed these steps and initially chose safe-direct car shipping (local to LA, CA). Not a bad company on paper and on the blog. Only issue, this guy, David, only know first name, gave me absolutely no warning/updates until up until two days before the move. In his words, "nothing is guaranteed, I'm just a broker who bids". But said he may be able to find one if you fork out 450 bucks more. He knew I would go for it, desperate. WTF. I realized choosing a broker doesn't mean it's finalized that you will get your car transported.
I would still search more even if you’ve picked a broker. Two days prior to my move, that's NOT the kind of email you send out to your customer. If he worked for me, that would have cost him the automatic 3-months probation period with a daily status call. Anyway, I panicked, so intentionally I left my number on the dreadful quote sites. I still get some of their calls, peeps I moved, it's done and over with.
Many of them responded, despite the short notice (2 days).
Only issue was that every company said 2 to 10 days to pick up our car except for one. Magic Carpet, I'm not here to sugarcoat this company nor need to. This company was ever so helpful for my situation. Jim, immediately checked any available drivers in my city as any good brokers would do with the price quote they gave me. Now you see, that's how you do customer service, even the result may not be good, I felt he tried to help me. Everyone else never even checked, they just said 2 to 10 days. Just show some concern towards your customers, it goes a long way. Not hard at all!
Amazingly Jim found a driver the next day, except I never made it on time to the pick up spot. We had to give a different address because our home was soon to be ex-home. We didn’t expect him to find them that soon and weren’t prepared for a pick up. For missing that pick up time, I’m still feeling sorry.
I don't know how Jim found them though. Safe-Direct Car shipping guy told me, no way in the hell unless I pay more (he had two months to look), yet Jim found drivers with two days notice.
Next day, he found another driver and they picked up my car right on time. Magic Carpet certainly made one part of my move to Kansas easy by reacting so quickly. The driver was courteous and didn't forget to write down every darn scratch on my car. Not complaining here, again he is doing his job and doing well, and that's what we want as a consumer, right?
Overall, Jim from Magic Carpet to that driver with the orange coat, the process was painless. Magic Carpet wasn't the cheapest quote, and you know what? that's ok. You are trying to ship 25k to whatever the value of your car is. Extra 50 bucks for the fine service, it's so worth it.
It's not the 50 bucks you saved, which I would have spent on beer anyway would make you go back to the same company. It's the quality job you do for your customers that will make you go back to use Magic Carpet Auto Transport.
For making my move easy with two kids(5 and 2), Jim from Magic Carpet Auto Transport, I sincerely thank you.
End of my story. Our move was from San Diego, CA to Overland Park, KS.
