Round Trip Western Washingto to San Diego and back
Fran Huntington
Submitted this review about
NTA Motorsports Inc.
Review made Live: 6/16/2010 7:52:00 PM
I needed to transport my vehicle from Western Washington down and back to San Diego California for some alterations. The company I contracted with to work on my vehicle had recent experience with another client who had used NTA Motorsports, Inc. and he believed his client was quite pleased with their services.
Being total new to this realm of shipping cars from one place to another in the country, I tried to do a bit of research on the web in addition to contacting several of the prominent nationwide carriers you’ll find in the phone book. Frankly, neither the web, email, nor the phone calls I made raised my level of confidence with any of them. Plus, I was badgered with emails and phone calls from brokers for weeks. I then discovered this site and began reviewing most of the firms I’d been considering and was astonished—all of them had multiple negative reviews.
When I typed in a search for the carrier my alterations contractor recommended (NTA Motorsports) and got results I was frankly shocked! At the time there were only two reviews and both were pretty terrible. I phoned my contractor and told to him about the reviews. He looked NTA up himself on the web while we were talking and was also quite surprised.
Still not knowing what I was going to do or who I was going to hire to haul my vehicle I received a phone call from Nick Bradshaw (Owner, NTA Motorsports, Inc.). I expressed to him that I frankly wasn’t too comfortable to contract with him based up the reviews I’d read on this site. He said he understood how I’d have those feelings as he was quite familiar with the reviews posted about his company. He told me his side of the story with respect to the individuals who posted the reviews. His story turned out to be compelling enough for me to consider giving him a chance. I asked him to provide me with a quote for hauling my vehicle round trip and he agreed to do so.
Within two days I received a written quote for my vehicle from Nick along with information about his company and the type of fully enclosed trailer he uses. I found his price to be very reasonable—especially since his trailer was fully enclosed rather than an open rig. We continued to communicate back and forth with both emails and phone calls. Within a few days we reached agreement and built (together) a contract identifying pickup and delivery time-frames, contact information, costs, etc. As I was planning 3 months in advance it was fairly easy to fit dates for transport out in the future. Nick explained up front that some degree of flexibility is both necessary and should be expected by the client for a number of issues so a few days should be allowed on both sides of your “optimum” date. Building in this flexibility turned out to be extremely useful.
Cutting to the chase, Nick and his wife Tami were on-time for my initial pickup and I immediately felt they were both very friendly and at the same time extremely professional. They took meticulous care in handling my vehicle, loading it and also prepared a thorough report on its condition, mileage, tank status, etc. They contacted me and my contractor several times while in route to San Diego and updated me with anticipated delivery times. They reached the destination on-time without incident.
Coordinating the return pickup of my vehicle took extra time for a number of reasons with both the shop and the carrier having issues. But the vehicle was picked up within our agreed upon time frame. Delivery back to my home turned out to be slower than expected and ran a full week rather than the anticipated 3 or 4 days. Nick took excellent care of my vehicle on the return ride as well, although the delivery time was later in the evening (around 10:00pm) then I had expected and later than we agreed to in our contract.
All in all, I’m very satisfied with the service I received from NTA Motorsports. I received regular updates and status checks from Nick while in route. I found him and his wife to be very friendly and extremely professional in their care of my vehicle. I have no regrets using NTA Motorsports and would recommend their services to anyone interested.
Having provided my recommendation, I have several final comments for anyone who is new to hauling their vehicle with a carrier whether you use NTA Motorsports or anyone else;
• Do your research and checkout a number of firms well in advance of the time frame you have to work with.
• More than anything else make sure you add in extra days for your schedule. Even the best carrier can have unforeseen events, changes, and/or breakdowns. (If you don’t you will be disappointed.)
• Get references and contact them.
• Negotiate your specific needs into a written agreement / contract with the carrier. If they are unwilling to indulge you in this activity—simply move on to someone else who will.
• Get names of contacts within the company, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.
