Be careful!

Steven Lee Submitted this review about United Freight Of America
Review made Live: 7/6/2010 1:11:00 PM
As you all are aware, minutes into requesting a quote to transport your car, dozens of brokers contact you with a quote. They all tell the same story, that "they aren't the highest prices but they aren't the lowest price...the quote is firm with door-to-door service, insurance" blah blah blah. After comparing all the brokers, I decided to go with United Freight because Maria was one of the few people that kept in contact throughout the sales process. I was a first time shipper and thought I had the right broker. I was wrong.

Here are the things that went wrong:

1) My first available pick up date was June 3rd but I did not get my car until July 2nd. That alone should raise a red flag! I was promised 5-7 business days, from Maria, to find a carrier and another 5 days to have it shipped. Obviously, they did not keep that promise. They kept telling me that "the summer is the busy season and its tough to find a carrier from Missouri to Washington." I would have been okay with them telling me that from the beginning but when Maria promised me 5-7 business days, that's what I expected. Instead of under-promising and over-delivering, she over-promised and under-delivered.

2) They give you status updates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday but there is no point to them. Every other day, a different person from the customer service staff would call me to literally say "Hello, this is (insert name) with UFA. We wanted to let you know that we are working on your car. Please let us know if you have any questions." Well shoot, I'm glad you're diong the job I paid you to do, tell me something else! That is not a status update. A status update is something like "we have x amount of carriers interested" or whatever. I was considering going to another broker but they kept insisting that "going to another broker won't solve anything because we all go through the same database to get you a carrier." Well, if we you all go through the same process, what makes you different? They could very well be right, that going to another broker wouldn't solve anything, but I don't know for a fact. What I do know for a fact is that UFA DID NOT deliver on their promises.

3) Shady business! I got a call from UFA in mid-June saying that they found a carrier but the price has gone up $300 and the car was to be picked up the next day. My original price was $795 but I was willing to pay the difference because I just wanted my car! It was towards the end of business and I told UFA to send me a contract and I will send it over to them the next day. The next day came and I had to call UFA to find that there was actually no carrier to pick up my car. I am SO glad that I did not send in the new contract because I would have been stuck with UFA for another 14 business days.

In the end, they found me a carrier on the last day of my contract. I got my car in the same condition it was sent but would I use UFA again? Absolutely not.

Company Response
David from United Freight Of America Submitted this response.
Response Date: 7/12/2010 10:37:00 AM
Dear Mr Lee, Thank you for your review. We appreciate your business. We are really sorry to hear about your frustration. We agree that the service took longer than we expected but you have to understand that delays are part of this industry. Unfortunately these variables are not controlled by us. The fact that you got your vehicle in the same condition and for the original contracted price is great! As you mentioned we kept calling you and we were on top of your order throughout the process unlike many other companies in this industry. On June 14th, 10 days into your pick up window we contacted you and at that point offered you a refund. Please acknowledge that as a sign of good faith that we did not wait the 14 business days as stated on our Terms & Conditions. We wanted to be proactive and also advise that unless you have a confirmed driver, going with another broker would simply begin the process you were already in motion with. As explained to you during our phone conversations, there was an option to expedite your service by locating a carrier from a different state, changing his route and picking up your vehicle. Of course, this would be an additional fee. You declined this option which is understandable. You also declined a refund and asked us to continue working on your order. We were able to locate a carrier for your specific route and transport the vehicle in the same transit time window of 10 to 14 days. Finalizing all of this my phone call to you was well appreciated by you and I thank you for that. You were very kind in your apology for any rudeness and thanked us for our hard work. Here at UFA we are aware that transporting vehicles can be very stressful and therefor take all measures possible to fulfill our customers` requests. We are happy with your review. It shows that this is not an easy industry, but UFA took care of your business as a main priority and succeeded! Adi Gabison