investigate the trucker they hire - mercury will not do it for you
BJM
Submitted this review about
Mercury Auto Transport
Review made Live: 11/5/2010 11:15:00 AM
The short version: Mercury told me that they are very careful about who they contract to ship the car and only work with reputable truckers, but this did not turn out to be the case. They picked up the car the same day I called and gave me an estimated delivery date in four days. This seemed fantastic and I was very pleased at that point. However, there were multiple delays and it was nearly impossible to contact the trucker, who did not answer his phone or return calls. I looked up the trucker on this site, and it turns out that he had horrible reviews, including cars that he had damaged and not responded to claims for. When I sent Mercury an email complaining about the situation, they did not reply. They will tell you that they're great, that they'll get you the car on time, that they are very selective about the truckers they contract out to, but this is obviously not the case. I am pasting the email I sent to Mercury below. The lesson I learned is: WHEN THEY TELL YOU THE NAME OF THE TRUCKER, CHECK OUT HIS REVIEWS BEFORE ACCEPTING THE OFFER. IF HE DOESN"T HAVE GOOD REVIEWS, TELL THE BROKER TO FIND A DIFFERENT TRUCKER. Don't trust the broker to find you a good trucker. They obviously just went with the first person who showed up. When the car did arrive (see below), the mileage was 75 miles higher than when I gave it to the trucker. That made me suspicious that someone had been driving my sports car around.
This is the email I sent to Mercury describing the situation:
I am extremely frustrated. When my car did not arrive on the estimated
date (10/29), I called the company. They said they would contact the
driver and call me back. They never called back. The following day I
called the driver directly. He said, "Oh, I was delayed, I'll be there
monday." I called them yesterday morning to ask when they would be
here. They said they would be here at 8pm, and that they would call me
an hour before they arrive. They never called last night and they did
not answer the phone when I called, nor have they returned my
message.. They never once called me to give me an estimated delivery
time frame and both times I called they acted really annoyed at me.
The car been in transit twice as long as the estimated delivery time.
You told me that you only work with trustworthy, reputable shippers,
but the trucker you chose has horrible reviews on
transportreviews.com, including reports of uncompensated damage to
vehicles. I waited around all evening yesterday for them to call. I
work all day today, and I can't drop everything to show up to meet the
auto transporter somewhere. (Also, I was relying on my car to get to
work today.) I assume there's nothing you can do to fix the situation,
since I understand that you pretty much wash your hands of the matter
as soon as you contract the car out to the shipper. I just want to let
you know that whatever story you made up about only dealing with good
shippers (to get my business) is obviously false, and I'll be leaving
a review to that effect. I regret the hundred and twenty five bucks i
gave you to hire these people and i'm very angry that i'm going to
have to give them another five hundred and seventy five to get my car.
I understand that delays happen, and whatever, but telling me
yesterday morning that they would be here yesterday evening, and then
not showing up or calling me to let me know that I shouldn't wait
around for them is completely unacceptable. I have no idea when/if the
car will get here or what condition it will be in.
CODA: when the car did show up, I had my phone off because I was in a meeting. I had told mercury that I was unavailable to accept delivery on Tuesdays, but they did not convey this information the the trucker. the trucker left me a message saying that because I was unavailable, I would have to pay the storage fee at the location where he was leaving the car. This was very frustrating because I had spent four days trying to find out when my car would arrive so that I could make arrangements to receive it, but the trucker didn't respond to my calls or gave me a delivery time and then never showed up. when i finally picked up the car, it was located in the driveway of a private home (a relative of the trucker's). It was dark and I was unable to do a proper inspection. The whole situation seemed really shady. I was never given a receipt or invoice; I just handed $600 in cash to an old lady who had my keys and drove away.
