Company Response Review Report Review
Awful experience

Jenna Submitted this review about Suncoast Auto Transport Inc.
Review made Live: 7/13/2009 2:33:00 PM
I read all of these amazing reviews online about Suncoast, and after speaking to the salesperson I felt confident in their ability to ship my car cross country. However, I told them from the start that I had a really tight schedule.

My flight was two days after my pick-up date, and they assured me that this would be okay. I also let them know that I needed my car by a specific date, 11 days after my pick up date, which should have been plenty of time.

Since I did not know anyone in the area who was responsible enough, nor who had time to wait for them to pick up my car, I called them and emailed them a lot to check on things, because it would be so difficult for me to have them come after my flight to Maryland.

Repeatedly I was lied to and told everything would be fine. The week before the pick-up date, when I was supposed to hear from them the details of my pick-up, they began avoiding my calls and emails. Whenever I got in touch with someone, it was like a recorded message! "We are doing everything we can. Usually the drivers don't make their route arrangements until a few days before. We are adding $50 to make it more enticing to the drivers. We will call you as soon as we have a carrier" I talked to a few different people and it was always the same thing. No one seemed to care that I was flying across the country and didn't have any family or close friends in the area.

In the end, they were five days late to pick it up. No apology at all. No acceptance of the fact that they screwed me over. I had to ask some random friend of a friend to take my car key and hope that I could trust them to come through for me when the carrier arrived. All while I was across the country, and would have no way of fixing the situation if the carrier came late, or if the person ended up being irresponsible.

Then, they were completely done with me because it goes through the carrier, and so they did not help me at all in tracking my vehicle, which is one of the reasons I decided to use with them (supposedly they have online tracking).

Once working with the carrier, however, I felt better. They called me to arrange things and made plans, and seemed to actually care that my life was being turned upside down by Suncoast Auto Transport's mistake. Of course, my car got there 5 days late, but it luckily arrived the day before I needed it.

I would never use this company again. I felt like once they got my deposit they could care less about my situation or how much of an inconvenience they caused me. I almost canceled my reservation at the risk of losing my deposit and paid the remainder to a friend to drive it across the country for me.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
California
Pickup:
Late
Destination State:
Maryland
Delivery:
Late
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
1188856
Quote or Order Cost:
$900

Company Response
Becky from Suncoast Auto Transport Inc. Submitted this response.
Response Date: 7/14/2009 1:48:00 PM
First of all, Suncoast Auto Transport does not guarentee dates. It is simply impossible in this industry. If a particular route is backed up due to the amount of vehicles on that route, weather, problems with the truck, etc. it is completely out of our control. We do however, use the first possible carrier doing that route. When customers have a very tight schedule, this is the very first thing explained to them. Two days is not alot of wiggle room especially when the pick up of vehicles is a two day window. We try to ask our customers to give as much notice as possible. It is impossible for any driver to give exact dates of pick up and delivery. Many times they can have up to 9 vehicles on their truck and if they get delayed picking up or delivering any of these vehicles, it may set them back a little. Although drivers as well as Suncoast do everything in their power to avoid any delays, sometimes these things do happen. Second of all, Suncoast does not avoid any calls. We have many calls coming in at all times and unfortunately sometimes cannot answer every one on the first ring. We do however return each and every message left on the same business day. We are a professional, honest company and do not lie to our customers. We explain exactly how the industry works and on request will even send them paper work explaining it in detail so that our customers are not left in the dark. We even put our own money to go towards the driver in order to help get her vehicle picked up on time since she did not want to pay more. There is not another company out there that would do this. Our staff is very personable and understanding. We care very much about our customers and in no way want to inconvenience any of them. Lastly, we DO have an online tracking link on our website. Also, our customers can call and speak directly to our representatives with any tracking questions or any other questions they may have. Drivers do not answer calls all of the time due to safety issues but as soon as we are in contact with them we call our customers with the updated information. Also, drivers never just show up to a ppick up or delivery location. It is their job to call in advance to arrange the times on both ends. This avoids any delays. However we also will contact the driver for our customer if this is more conveniant for them. Suncoast is here to help and all our customers have to do is ask.