Tucson, AZ to Billings, MT
Daniel Hart
Submitted this review about
Mercury Auto Transport
Review made Live: 2/15/2009 5:57:00 PM
After many hours of research, I decided to entrust Mercury Auto Transport with the relocation of my 2004 Chevrolet Impala from Tucson, Arizona to Billings, Montana. I decided it was less expensive to have the car shipped than flying to Tucson myself and then driving it back. I was nervous because a car is a huge investment and trusting it to 'just anybody' is a big leap of faith!
My initial trepidation was eased a bit, however, when Kat Spilman called me within a very short time of sending her an email inquiring about a previous quote I had requested back in December. Due to a death in my family, I had never made the commitment and my car was still in a friend's driveway 1800 miles away. Although Billings is less than that from Tucson, my mechanic lives there and I live 300 miles from Billings, in Western North Dakota.
Kat was not only friendly, but immediately made me feel at ease with her frank and business-like demeanor. She explained the process in detail, and by the end of our conversation I was confident I had made the right choice for a broker to get the ball rolling. I felt their quote of $800 was reasonable, and so made the commitment. She mentioned that it frequently isn't terribly easy to find somebody going to Montana (just my usual luck), so it might take awhile to find a carrier.
Within fifteen minutes (!), another woman phoned and identified herself as Jill Jerome, the Dispatch Manager for Mercury Auto Transport. Not only had they found a carrier, the man was based in Tucson, Arizona, and wanted to pick the car up that very evening! Jill was also very friendly and matter-of-fact, which further put my mind at ease about trusting my Impala to this particular broker. Both Jill and Kat have the kind of personality that makes you feel like old friends rather than "just" salespeople or business associates.
My only problem now was that my friend in Tucson had hours instead of days to get the car ready for pick-up. To make matters worse, it had a dead battery! But as luck would have it, she got another friend to help and it was ready by the time the carrier arrived and picked it up. Chris, my friend in Tucson, told me the carrier was able to maneuver easily down her street and pick the car up from right in front of her house. She mentioned he had told her that with luck, he'd have the car in Billings the night before their initial estimate of Friday morning!
As Jill had explained over the phone, the carrier was Stumpf Express, and the driver, Allen Stumpf, remained in constant contact with me over the following two days. By Thursday evening at 5:45, he was in Billings at the drop-off site waiting while a friend and I were still 45 minutes away! He was friendly and efficient, and the car was delivered "on time" and in the same shape as it had been six months ago when I parked it.
I would not hesitate to recommend Mercury Auto Transport to my closest friends - or anybody else, for that matter - should they ever need an auto shipped to any location in the country, be it 200 miles or 2,000 miles away or more. They remained in contact with me and I always found a "live person" on the other end of the phone. They answer emails and phone messages in short order. Their confidence in Stumpf Express was well-founded and I am 100% satisfied with everything from start to finish. Montana can be a cold (literally) and unforgiving state in the winter, and roads are frequently closed due to snowfall and blizzards. Even with the weather as a continual threat, especially during this particular winter, my Impala was shipped in record time. This was a "five-star" experience any way you look at it.
