Ship a Car Direct

With all due respect, there’s so much in this complaint that is just plain untrue that (in my humble opinion) it really just needs to be thrown outI’ve included many attachments including the signed bill of lading for her order and screenshots of our communications to show that not only were we polite, the customer was happy with our service until she damaged her car and decided to try to pin that damage on an innocent driver in what appears to be a ‘social media slander’ effort to cover her $deductible.As accusatory as that sounds, it’s no different and slightly more politely done than what the customer is putting forth.Here are the factsFrom the beginning the customer was well and politely informed about dates and timelines and that they can be requested but not guaranteedAll of which is also clearly put forth in our terms, which are readily available on our website and must be agreed to prior to placing an order request.Yes, her driver was assigned and wanted to get the car on short notice, which her contact person on pickup was able to accommodateIn filling out the inspection report, the driver found the car to be so scratched up that going over each scratch one by one would have taken a long time, so he circled the vehicle and asked the pickup contact to acknowledge that it was covered in scratches on a designated spot of the BOL, which the pickup contact freely did.The driver then delivered the car from SC to CA in only days, a trip that normally takes 7-days on averageYes, it was on a Monday, but he gave fast service and called her when it was time to arrange deliveryShe was given an estimated delivery date from the beginning, so to expect him to call her with daily updates was unrealistic and never an expectation that we put forthAlso, had she contacted our 24/support team via any of the means they are reachable (phone/email/text) they would have retrieved her update and reiterated that drivers typically call the evening before a delivery.Upon delivery the customer was given the opportunity to examine the car, which she did, and asked to sign the BOL indicating that everything was okay and that she released the driver of liabilityWhich she also did(copy attached) She now claims that she did not notice the damage that she presented in the photos, which, even with the car as scratched up as it is, boggles my mindI don’t know about most folks, but even little new scratches on my car catch my eye immediatelyBut that’s me.Here’s the kicker; her battery was deadSo this nice driver (who she’s now trying to falsely stick with her damage claim) helped her by jumping the batteryHood goes up, hood comes downShe’s very thankful and gave him a $tip(he waived what is normally a $surcharge if your car doesn’t run, btw)Now, if the hood had sustained this damage in transport, surely it would have been tweaked enough for both of them to notice it at this point, no? I can’t imagine the hood opens and closes normally now that it’s been damaged, and neither of them said anything was out of the ordinary when he assisted her with the batteryAnyway, my performance improvement team contacted her on June 14th, the day after delivery, to see how everything went and they were informed by her at that time that everything went fine and that she was happy with our service(a story which has now conveniently changed, because there was no talk of timeline or communication issues in our follow up)In fact, she was asked if she wanted to become a customer advocate and offered our $rebate for her time if she did, which they followed up on two more times, the last of which was on 6/25.Well, a full FOUR WEEKS after the delivery of her vehicle we get a call that she wants to submit a damage claimMy team was polite and professional and within minutes had provided her with the carrier’s insurance info and everything she needs.She then proceeds to tell us that she already HAS an estimate through her OWN insurance provider; an estimate that was run FIVE days prior to when she chose to contact us about this, on July 6th per the attached estimate.As a side note, in years of shipping cars I’ve only had one previous experience where a customer went to get an estimate BEFORE contacting us and starting the claims process, and that claim was also bogus and that customer also went to social media to try to bully us into payingBut that didn’t work then, and it doesn’t work nowI tell my children and the kid’s youth sports teams that I coach about the importance of standing up to bullies, so when situations like these come up, I have to walk the talk myself.No one wants their insurance rate to go up, so contacting their own insurance is usually a customer’s LAST step, not the first.But back to the estimateYes, the adjuster said this definitely happened from the hood, but he made NO claim (and I’m sure is smart enough not to) that this was ‘definitely damaged during transport’ as this customer alleges.No one disputes that the hood caused it, but the hood damage came after delivery, which the CARRIER’s insurance pointed outI’ve submitted the close up photo that the customer provided as their exampleThe photo shows the impact point of the cause of the window damage, and the photo was taken on July 6th during the estimateThe carrier’s insurance company pointed out the lack of any dust, dirt or debris on the impact point and that even if kept in a garage for weeks, there would be SOME type of build up, but that this impact looked as if it had occurred within less than a week(and, btw, all of the insurance people have been nothing but professionalTheirs is not a fun job, but they’ve been as ‘pretty’ as they can be) I, unfortunately, have to agree with the insurance folks and deny that this happened at the driver’s hand, so we are unable to offer our Damage Free Guarantee only because of the substantial lack of proof that the driver did anything other than a great jobAs you’ll see on the submitted estimate, the customer has a $deductible on a $estimate and (again, in my humble opinion) she’s just trying to find someone to pay for itSo, five days after she received the estimate on 7/6, she (pure speculation here) probably thought, “why not turn to the nice folks with the great reputation and the damage free guarantee”I say this because in the previous case, the customer was equally quick to turn to every review site they could find when the insurance adjusters rolled their eyes at the claim.The only thing that I will offer is a full refund of the $fee the customer paid for our serviceEven though my staff has been nothing but professional and friendly and spent and inordinate amount of time trying every way they could to give this customer the benefit of the doubt, I need them to stop working on this and go back to assisting our other customers with their needs.If this customer would like to continue to try to make her very nice and professional driver the scapegoat on this claim, she has all of the contact info that she needs to do so, but we cannot continue to spin our wheels helping her, and for that reason, she can have a full refund of our fee

Revdex.com: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] , and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me Sincerely, [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: I understand some of the reasons are from holiday season, but my order was made on 13th which was way before the holidayEven if those emails were automatically sent by the system, before the salesperson left for vacation, at least he should had informed me he would leaveBecause there were other salesperson who stayed during the break and indeed helped moving the carI don't think there is any reason I should wait for salesperson come back from a break and take care of the business without any notice Sincerely, [redacted] **

Apologies for being so blunt, but his whole story is a bunch of Mularkey and this complaint should be thrown outOur carriers spoke perfectly understandable English and had all the directives and paperwork necessary to pick up the vehicle in their possession - the only problem was that THE VEHICLE WASN'T THERE.Attached is an email that we AND the customer received on March 29th stating that the car missed it's initially scheduled ship from Hawaii and was put on a later voyage that would not arrive until April 19thI've attached both a version for Revdex.com reference as well as one to make publicly available.Once the vehicle was actually present in CA our carrier picked it up and delivered it safely in NC days laterIf there were miscommunications on our part, it would certainly be our failure to update the first two carriers with that info, but those miscues were an inconvenince to our CARRIERS and not the customer at all.In spite of the fact that the delays were on [redacted] side and not ours, we generously refunded our fee in full - back in AUGUST.The only reason that the refund was so long after delivery was due to the fact that we would need to leave multiple follow up messages for [redacted] , as well as her mother, but would only get calls returned an average of two weeks laterWhen we finally were able to reach her and verify a proper mailing address, she thanked us for our refund offer and was sent a check for $So, any claims of being hard to reach and/or communicate with are, in fact, the polar opposite of what is written about in this complaintWe have multiple notes in her file indicating such, a screenshot of which is also attached.I'm not sure why [redacted] is so dead set on trying to make us out as the bad guys here, we can't be any nicer than doing our job successfully over and over again and then offering a full refund for it

We are very sorry for the way the first carrier treated you and we have since removed them from our list of approved carriersWe also apologize that our customer service team did not handle you concerns properly when on the phone with youWe have refunded our fee of $back to the card on file We will work on improving our communication and customer service based on your feedbackWe apologize again for the poor experience you had with us and if you decide to give us another chance in the future you will find that our service has greatly improvedThank you

Every shipment is based on the availability of the carriers that are hauling the vehiclesWe try our best to accommodate the customer's dates, but we can not guarantee pick up by a certain dateWe have since set him up with a carrier for his vehicle and it is currently being shippedWe are monitoring the shipment to make sure that the rest of the trip goes smoothly and follow up on delivery to make sure that the customer is satisfied with the shipmentWe have also refunded our fee to the customer since he was not satisfied with our service up to this point

We have reached out to the customer to resolve this issueThe first carrier contracted was not transparent in communicating when the car would be picked up and ultimately cancelled on us causing delaysWe have refunded our fee to the customer and will be sending a check for the remaining balance of the rental cost she incurred due to the first carrier's inability to communicate and pick up the car in a timely fashionWe have since fulfilled the order and shipped her car with another more reputable carrier

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: Carrier claimed delivery was to be scheduled on The evening of the 3rd or morning of the 4thIt is now afternoon on the 4th and no further contact was madeI now cannot get a hold of their selected carrierCalls to the Broker's the"24/7" customer service line are useless- they have no information and were not tracking the vehicles progress at all (contrary to what the business' response claims)Because of ShipACarDirect's failure to schedule the carrier in a timely manner, the pickup was lateThe delivery appears to be late as wellBecause delivery and pickup were both late, I am incurring additional costs to arrange for alternate transportationTheir estimate was 7-days, and they failed to get a carrier until days before I was availableWe will be going into the 11th day and still no information about where the car isThis company cannot effectively manage itsbrokered services or schedule effectively. ShipACarDirect's failu3rd or Additional calls to the carrier
Sincerely,
*** ***

I agree with youWe will make sure that our marketing settings are such that no auto responder emails go out over the Christmas holiday or other major holidays and that all salespeople notify their customers when they will be outI'm glad to hear that both our other sales staff and our 24/customer support staff were able to handle your order and that you car have been delivered safely to it's destinationThat you for your feedback on our areas in need of improvementYou have my assurance that I will address them

You can find
exactly what we advertise for our Damage Free Guarantee right at this link: *** We have had many move orders with * *** and do not have any outstanding issues with them other than this oneIt is true that * *** does need to provide the documentation to their insurance company but have not done soIf they do not honor the damage claim, we will take them off our list of *** and no longer use themWe will also continue to honor our Damage Free Guarantee that we advertise and have already offered to the customer which they continue to declineWe can reimburse up to $towards the repair work or their deductible if they choose to go through their insuranceMost customers, if it is a legitimate damage claim, can easily go through their insurance and have it covered without it effecting their premiums since they are clearly not at faultTheir insurance company can then go after the carrier's insurance, it is a very simple processUnfortunately we cannot offer anything outside of our existing policyAlso, to address the issue of the rebate, we offer $rebate to all of our customers regardless of whether or not the review is positiveWe have done everything on our end to move the claim forward, if the claim is currently on hold then it has nothing to do with any negligence on Ship a Car Direct's partWe have gone ahead and refunded the customer's deposit of $towards the total amount of the $we offerWe can send a check remaining amount once we have proof of payment of either the repair work or the customer's deductible

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:The payment was not declined when I put it throughIt shows approved which I can email a copy or attachAnd I did call ***, the contact person appointed to me, times in days and never heard from her - she never indicated any rejection of paymentMust have been their systemI used another company thankfully who had no problems - cost $MORE which I don't care because my husband's company is reimbursing and got my car here in daysSo I OBVIOUSLY went with the better choice Ship a Car Direct further insulted me by posting racist comments against my name and heritage in response to my yelp complaint on this abhorrent company and since they are rude and certainly are 'itic' at customer service or any service for that matter and taking away jobs from AmericaThey refuse to apologize and lost my business to boot so they can suffer the continuous loss of business then as I will not remove either complaint with their sad attitudeI am surprised that they have not been downgraded sooner and not quite sure how they maintain such a good Revdex.com rating.
Sincerely,
*** *** ***

We have attached screenshots of our email correspondence, phone records, and texts showing that we have responded through multiple avenues of communication to this customerWe have never lied about delivery dates, the truck was delayed and was delivered two days late, within a perfectly acceptable
time frameDelays unfortunately do happen in the transport industry, but we have been open about this and have communicated this with the customer as shown in the screenshotsWe have already issued a full refund of our fee ($450) for both cars prior to this complaint, which can also be seen in the email screenshot where we communicated this with the customer

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/02) */
First and foremost, I am sorry to hear about your relative's passing and offer you my sincere condolencesWe have refunded the $you paid for our services and offer our apologies that you were unhappy with our serviceThe $rebate takes
many forms and is given for the valuable feedback we receive from our customers that choose to participateThey can do so through many forms, which may be why there was some confusion, and for that we apologize as wellI have personally spoken with *** to help clarify how she explains itFor those folks reading this complaint and response, there is actually a valuable lesson to be learned to help you avoid a similar experience, and one that I have spoken about on all of the various review sites, and that is - you simply cannot expect to get the lowest possible rock bottom price and also have the freedom to pick and choose your datesYou can shop based solely on the cheapest price (although I strongly discourage that because it only leaves the bottom rung carriers and usually leads to a bad experience) or you can shop based on being able to say 'You must pick up on this date", but the latter requires that we offer a decent payment to the carrier (remember, our fee is flat in either case) as that allows us to pick and choose through many interested carriers and select the one that best fits your needsWhen we are shopping based solely on price, it's a 'take what you can get' situationI'm sorry the this customer felt backed into a corner, but what she is not sharing is that she was offer the choice to take the carrier that met her dates but wanted $more OR keep searching for a carrier at her desired price, but that that meant her pick up would be after her desired dateHer move, her money, her choiceNo strong arm or any such methods on our part, just a simple, 'which would you prefer?' I also apologize that she feels that we conduct ourselves deceptivelyAs someone who has spent the last years of his life building a highly ethical team and leading a company through the crazy world of Auto Transport, that is the only point that I take issue withYou can dislike ***, you can dislike the company, but to imply that anyone at my company is dishonest or does not have their customers best interest at heart would be just plain untrueBut, as always, my apologies that you feel that way, I hope the $refund satisfies your complaint with our team
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/09/13) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
They have refunded my booking fee, which is what I requestedAs to personal feelings toward *** or this company, I have noneI am not sure that I would use them again, nor recommend them going forwardThe owner offered much explanation in the response he submittedSome of issues with transparency might be mitigated for future customers if initial communications are revamped to clarify information about booking and rebatesPerhaps, too, the booking agents need additional training such as *** receivedAs far as I'm concerned, the complaint is resolvedMy appreciation to the BBC for mediating

First and foremost, I want to thank you for your military serviceMy father and step brother are both graduates of West Point, and my step father served years on the California Highway Patrol, so I have the utmost respect for anyone who puts on a uniform and serves our countryI apologize that
this carrier has proven to be unethicalWith no prior issues with them, it was not possible to foresee this particular driver's behavior nor their company's lack of ethics in not taking responsibilityAs I've said before, situations like these are why I created our damage free guarantee programWe are the only auto transport broker to provide that additional $coverage at no extra charge to you as a buffer in the rare situations when a carrier causes damage and neglects responsibility for resolving the issueWe have removed the carrier from our roster and are still working to get the carrier to step up and resolve your repair issueWe are very sorry you have been inconvenienced, and we have refunded our fee and will refund the remaining $with the documentation of repair serviceIf for some reason you are unable to provide the documentation required for the remaining $275, please let us know and we'd be happy to discuss another resolution

This customer cancelled the order with us when we did not secure a carrier in time for herWe never charged her card for the order so there is no refund to be issuedWe apologize that this customer's calls were dropped and we will work on improving that

We just needed to make a minor change in the complaint detail, and are hoping you can help us Would you please change “***, the owner of * ***” to “*** from * ***”? We realized we accidentally listed him as the owner when he is notWe appreciate your assistance

I’m sorry *** that our communication has been lacking. We strive every day to create a smooth process of communications with our customers as well as the carriers that move cars for us. When that process becomes unsatisfactory to a customer we work hard to find out why The carrier
in your situation has not been responding as quickly as we would like I will have both our Operations Manager as well as our Claims Manager reach out to you today to make sure we can resolve your damage claim as soon as possible. Thanks for the feedback, it is appreciated

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:The service and what I was promised never happened and the company was not open during posted business hours. I received a confirmation of the order and then waited another two days for a response to almost a dozen inquiries of why my payment was suddenly stated as rejected when I checked with my credit card company and there was no issues or billing. Again - another company completed the task faster and better so I will not apologize since I am the customer. In the old days the customer was always right. I can imagine Ship A CAr direct doesn't do as well as they advertise. Likely another thing to look into.I reject and still wish to submit my complaint on the worst service and treatment I have ever had with any company. I am attaching my paid receipt from State to State which within an hour of me calling them had charged me and booked the car to be picked up two days later and arrived across the country 6 days later - THAT'S CALLED EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE & SATISFACTION! This is the furthest thing that I received from Ship A Car Direct.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

With all due respect, there’s so much in this complaint that is just plain untrue that (in my humble opinion) it really just needs to be thrown out. I’ve included many attachments including the signed bill of lading for her order and screenshots of our communications to show that not only were we...

polite, the customer was happy with our service until she damaged her car and decided to try to pin that damage on an innocent driver in what appears to be a ‘social media slander’ effort to cover her $2000 deductible.As accusatory as that sounds, it’s no different and slightly more politely done than what the customer is putting forth.Here are the facts. From the beginning the customer was well and politely informed about dates and timelines and that they can be requested but not guaranteed. All of which is also clearly put forth in our terms, which are readily available on our website and must be agreed to prior to placing an order request.Yes, her driver was assigned and wanted to get the car on short notice, which her contact person on pickup was able to accommodate. In filling out the inspection report, the driver found the car to be so scratched up that going over each scratch one by one would have taken a long time, so he circled the vehicle and asked the pickup contact to acknowledge that it was covered in scratches on a designated spot of the BOL, which the pickup contact freely did.The driver then delivered the car from SC to CA in only 6 days, a trip that normally takes 7-10 days on average. Yes, it was on a Monday, but he gave fast service and called her when it was time to arrange delivery. She was given an estimated delivery date from the beginning, so to expect him to call her with daily updates was unrealistic and never an expectation that we put forth. Also, had she contacted our 24/7 support team via any of the means they are reachable (phone/email/text) they would have retrieved her update and reiterated that drivers typically call the evening before a delivery.Upon delivery the customer was given the opportunity to examine the car, which she did, and asked to sign the BOL indicating that everything was okay and that she released the driver of liability. Which she also did. (copy attached) She now claims that she did not notice the damage that she presented in the photos, which, even with the car as scratched up as it is, boggles my mind. I don’t know about most folks, but even little new scratches on my car catch my eye immediately. But that’s me.Here’s the kicker; her battery was dead. So this nice driver (who she’s now trying to falsely stick with her damage claim) helped her by jumping the battery. Hood goes up, hood comes down. She’s very thankful and gave him a $40 tip. (he waived what is normally a $150 surcharge if your car doesn’t run, btw)Now, if the hood had sustained this damage in transport, surely it would have been tweaked enough for both of them to notice it at this point, no? I can’t imagine the hood opens and closes normally now that it’s been damaged, and neither of them said anything was out of the ordinary when he assisted her with the battery. Anyway, my performance improvement team contacted her on June 14th, the day after delivery, to see how everything went and they were informed by her at that time that everything went fine and that she was happy with our service. (a story which has now conveniently changed, because there was no talk of timeline or communication issues in our follow up). In fact, she was asked if she wanted to become a customer advocate and offered our $30 rebate for her time if she did, which they followed up on two more times, the last of which was on 6/25.Well, a full FOUR WEEKS after the delivery of her vehicle we get a call that she wants to submit a damage claim. My team was polite and professional and within minutes had provided her with the carrier’s insurance info and everything she needs.She then proceeds to tell us that she already HAS an estimate through her OWN insurance provider; an estimate that was run FIVE days prior to when she chose to contact us about this, on July 6th per the attached estimate.As a side note, in 14 years of shipping cars I’ve only had one previous experience where a customer went to get an estimate BEFORE contacting us and starting the claims process, and that claim was also bogus and that customer also went to social media to try to bully us into paying. But that didn’t work then, and it doesn’t work now. I tell my children and the kid’s youth sports teams that I coach about the importance of standing up to bullies, so when situations like these come up, I have to walk the talk myself.No one wants their insurance rate to go up, so contacting their own insurance is usually a customer’s LAST step, not the first.But back to the estimate. Yes, the adjuster said this definitely happened from the hood, but he made NO claim (and I’m sure is smart enough not to) that this was ‘definitely damaged during transport’ as this customer alleges.No one disputes that the hood caused it, but the hood damage came after delivery, which the CARRIER’s insurance pointed out. I’ve submitted the close up photo that the customer provided as their example. The photo shows the impact point of the cause of the window damage, and the photo was taken on July 6th during the estimate. The carrier’s insurance company pointed out the lack of any dust, dirt or debris on the impact point and that even if kept in a garage for 4 weeks, there would be SOME type of build up, but that this impact looked as if it had occurred within less than a week. (and, btw, all of the insurance people have been nothing but professional. Theirs is not a fun job, but they’ve been as ‘pretty’ as they can be) I, unfortunately, have to agree with the insurance folks and deny that this happened at the driver’s hand, so we are unable to offer our Damage Free Guarantee only because of the substantial lack of proof that the driver did anything other than a great job. As you’ll see on the submitted estimate, the customer has a $2000 deductible on a $2100 estimate and (again, in my humble opinion) she’s just trying to find someone to pay for it. So, five days after she received the estimate on 7/6, she (pure speculation here) probably thought, “why not turn to the nice folks with the great reputation and the damage free guarantee”. I say this because in the previous case, the customer was equally quick to turn to every review site they could find when the insurance adjusters rolled their eyes at the claim.The only thing that I will offer is a full refund of the $200 fee the customer paid for our service. Even though my staff has been nothing but professional and friendly and spent and inordinate amount of time trying every way they could to give this customer the benefit of the doubt, I need them to stop working on this and go back to assisting our other customers with their needs.If this customer would like to continue to try to make her very nice and professional driver the scapegoat on this claim, she has all of the contact info that she needs to do so, but we cannot continue to spin our wheels helping her, and for that reason, she can have a full refund of our fee.