Unbelievable Auto Shipping Experience: MUST READ before using Montway!!
Shannon
Submitted this review about
Montway Auto Transport
Review made Live: 3/10/2022 11:06:00 AM
My car shipped from Los Angeles to New Jersey, two large metro areas (the latter is in the New York City metro area). I paid approx.. $1,200. I am not someone who writes reviews, but my experience was so bad that I feel compelled to comment.
When I was looking at options for autoshippers for my move, I decided to go with Montway due to positive reviews, the fact that it is a large carrier, and that their quote was middle-of-the-road and priced competitively. I selected a long pickup window (a week) as I needed my car to definitely ship before my March 1 move date. Two days before my first available date, Montway sent me an email saying my car would be picked up a full day before my first available date, even though I had expressed strong preference for the end of my availability window. This was a bit stressful, as I was never available for that day and had taken it off to move my things out of my apartment with my car. After a long hold, I finally reached Montway customer service and they said this was their mistake and we adjusted for a pickup within my indicated window. I let this annoying, time-consuming miscommunication go.
Upon pick up, the driver, George of Rubber Duck LLC, was pleasant and professional. He loaded my car on the truck on time and was highly communicative about his arrival time. Soon after, I received an email saying that my car would be dropped off between 03/04 and 03/06. After that, I received no updates from the company until I called them on the first day in the drop-off window, 03/04, for an update. The driver I spoke to had to send me a new number as my car had been handed off. So I called the new number. The guy told me he would drop off my car on 03/07, a day later than the original window, between 10am-12pm. I planned my schedule accordingly. At 03/07 at 9:30 am, I called the driver to see what time he anticipated arriving within the agreed upon window. He replied that he had been confused on Friday and that he gave me the wrong drop off window. He said that instead he would drop off my car between 4pm-8pm that night. At this point I am annoyed, as I have to now take the afternoon off work and rearrange my schedule extremely last minute to accommodate this, plus this new window is huge: 4-hours. Nevertheless, I understand that this was an honest mistake, reschedule my afternoon and evening meetings, and let it go. At 2pm I call the driver to get an update about timing. He does not pick up, so I leave a message. 4pm arrives, no call. 5, 6, 7, and 8pm pass, no call from the driver and no car. I call the driver again; nothing. All of my calls go to voicemail. At 8:45pm I call Montway. After a very long hold, they tell me they cannot reach the driver but that the car will likely be dropped off tomorrow. They have no idea when. They agree that the total lack of communication is unprofessional, but do not offer any kind of compensation or price reduction due to the work hours I have lost.
(As an aside: The next day my partner notices that he received a call from the driver's number at *1 am* in the morning! Was the driver too sheepish to call me because he knew I'd be angry? Why would he assume his client would be willing to accept a car at that time? So unprofessional! And at 1 am! Imagine if his phone was not on silent-- we both would have been woken up after waiting all day for the driver and getting stood up twice! Of course, now I am thinking to myself that the guy in charge of my car has some kind of drug or alcohol problem, calling his clients backup contacts at 1am in the morning after disappearing on the dropoff day.)
When Montway customer service says they cannot reach the driver, I am thinking: So am I supposed to take *another* day off of work last minute with no guarantee that the car will arrive tomorrow and no confirmation from the driver? And now the car is two days late? I was not going to rearrange my schedule again without confirmation from the carrier, as he has already missed 2 long pickup windows and I cannot take time off.
The next morning around 10:30am (driver has now been MIA for over 24 hours), I get a call from Montway customer service, not from the carrier. They say the driver will drop off the car at 1pm. I tell them no, that is not an option for me as I am working and the driver has not called to set up a time with me after ghosting me since 9:30am on the day my car was supposed to be dropped off, missing two scheduled drop off windows, and not communicating with me *at all.* (Why didn't he call me himself to apologize and ask what time a dropoff would work for me?). I tell them I will be available after my work day at 6pm; the driver agrees.
At 5pm my car arrives, of course I am not home because we agreed on a 6pm dropoff. My phone is off as I am in a meeting. The driver, despite our agreement, calls everyone he can think of to reach me multiple times, leaving many voicemails (including my backup *pickup* contact, back in Los Angeles, who has no idea what he is talking about). When I call him back around 5:15, he has *the nerve* to say "Wow your phone does work!", after standing me up for two long dropoff windows and not picking up the phone!!.
The next day, even though I did not drive the car *at all* since dropoff, a front tire is flat. I imagine it slipped when it came off the truck and slapped on to the pavement, damaging the tire (lucky for the auto shippers I did not see them take the car off the truck). The whole experience was so ridiculous it was actually unbelievable. I have only written reviews once or twice in my life, but this was a horrible enough experience that I felt compelled to record this for others (and this is a simplified version, omitting the many calls from Montway with no direct return number, and then waiting on hold for another 45 mins, and customer service having no idea what I am talking about when I say I'm calling them back, etc).
I went with Montway originally, even though I received lower quotes, because of the positive reviews and because of the professionalism of the customer service agents I spoke with, but, even though I make regular moves across country due to work, I WILL NOT be using Montway again as they have not made this right. My advice to you is to STAY AWAY from Montway, and if Rubber Duck LLC is listed as your carrier, REFUSE and tell the company to use another contractor.
