Company Response Review Report Review
Vehicle Shipping Broker.

William Gray Submitted this review about Ship a Car Direct
Review made Live: 1/5/2012 8:14:00 PM
After my experince dealing with the vehicle shipping broker I learned that it was a waste of my time and money. My phone interactions started off fine, I provided the initial information about my vehicle and the requested pick up and delivery dates. I was informed on numerous occasions that a carrier my wait until the last minute to select my vehicle bid for shipping. We started the process early knowing that it could take time to arrange the shipping of our vehicle. It was a couple weeks later that the emails and phone calls started. The emails requested information that had already been provided, this gave the impression that the broker was not very organized or didn't retain the information the first time it was provided. The follow up phone calls were very annoying, the broker again would ask about pick up and delivery dates, and tell us that it could take a while for our vehicle to be selected by a carrier (this was understood, the first half dozen times it was communicated!). It was the last few days before my vehicle was picked up that convinced me that I had made the wrong decision to work through a broker. I received an email again verifying pick up and delivery dates. When I called the broker he again! explained the process, he then proceeded to complain to me, the customer, he said he didn't know why a carrier had not selected our vehicle. He then mentioned the price in which the vehicle was listed; I thought "here we go this is when the price starts to rise from the original quote! He then assured me that the price that was listed was on average and commpetitive, nut he just didn't know why the vehicle had not been selected? The next interaction via email basically said no one had selected the vehicle, and if we wanted him to, he would personnaly contact dispatch to try to make the arrangements. What the heck is dispatch I thought? So I phoned the broker once more, he said that he could call dispatch but they didn't really like him bothering them? Not sure what he was getting at, and frustraited I told him that if that's what he needed to do to get the job done, then to please just do it and take care of it that what I thought I was paying for. To sum it up he asked for another $50 and it finally was arranged. The car carrier company was great, but my experince dealing with a middleman not so much. I will definatly deal directly with a carrier the next time I ship my vehicl.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
California
Pickup:
On Time
Destination State:
Washington
Delivery:
On Time
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
266296-XL
Quote or Order Cost:
$720

Company Response
Michael Strickland from Ship a Car Direct Submitted this response.
Response Date: 1/7/2012 1:51:00 PM
Good stuff to learn from this, but first, our apologies to Mr. Gray. We have compensated him. Yes, going direct to a carrier is great, but unless you know how to tell the good from the bad and the real carriers from the brokers pretending to be carriers, it can be real tricky. The biggest issue is that the order was placed 11/30 but wasn't available to be picked up until 12/20 and couldn't be delivered until after 12/28. 90% of carriers are off that week for the holidays, so our options were greatly reduced. Also, prices quoted are valid for 7 days, so orders placed that far in advance may sometimes need an adjustment. We are glad that he was happy with the carrier selected and that his car was delivered fast and safe, though, because that's the ultimate goal. Please remember, don't book too far in advance and try to avoid holidays if you can and you can avoid many headaches. Hope this review helps.