Beware of Draconian, Double-Standard Cancellation Policy

Amanda Submitted this review about SGT Auto Transport
Review made Live: 1/6/2025 3:06:00 PM
Beware of SGT Auto Transport's draconian and double-standard cancellation policy! Be sure to carefully read the 11-page contract (!) they send you to sign (unlike any of the other 5 auto transport companies I have dealt with). (Also, I wish I had looked at their Yelp rating of 3.1 before booking with them.) I placed an online order on Saturday, 1/4/24 at 12:32 am and canceled it via both phone and email at 3:41 pm that same day. They are closed on Saturdays. They called me Monday am, informing me they had been closed Saturday when I placed & cancelled my order, but that the contract I signed called for a $149 cancellation fee--even though they had literally done no work to fulfill my order! He asked how they could keep my business. I told him Montway Auto Transport was picking up my car today. In the fine print of their 11-page contract (which I admit not taking the time to carefully read--who does?) they list 6 reasons they can charge a $149 cancellation fee, while at the same time stating they can cancel the order at any time (apparently without penalty to them--what a double-standard) including: "(A) Customer cancels without sending a written cancellation notice to info at sgtautotransport.com. (B) Cancellation occurs before the estimated pickup window expires. (C) Cancellation occurs for a transport that is double-booked with other broker companies. SGT reserves the right to cancel the order at any time, at SGT’s discretion. Additional fees may apply per our Dispute and Collections policy." I write this review in hopes of sparing future potential customers similar distress and financial gouging. I highly recommend Montway Auto Transport. Good luck to you!

Company Response
SGT Auto Transport from SGT Auto Transport Submitted this response.
Response Date: 1/6/2025 8:45:00 PM
We appreciate any honest feedback, we offer the same. As any business, we put in a lot of time, money and effort into serving our customers in order to achieve overall success for them as well as us as a business. No one is forced to use our services, but utilizing our resources and choosing not to pay for the costs associated, is unreasonable and unethical. SGT was hired to utilize our auto hauling industry expertise and proprietary vetted motor carrier network to set up transport with a licensed and insured motor carrier. Unlike most brokers, we stand by our commitment to providing you the best service possible by executing contract agreements that bind our commitment to our customers. This is to help our customers not hurt them. We take that commitment seriously and expect that from our customers as well. What the general public and most first time shippers do not understand is a tremendous amount of resourcing goes into the set up transports and the vetting of our motor carrier network to ensure proper carrier government and insurance credentials. The moment the service contract is signed by our customer, there are no delays in taking action to resource that transport. We therefore maintain a strict cancellation policy and we go to great lengths to be transparent by communicating this in many ways- verbally, on our website, linked in customer emails, and within the signed customer contract. Unfortunately, the customer breached our mutual written contract, used our resources, then canceled, making a cancellation fee applicable.