Do not trust Absolute Auto Carriers!!
PNO
Submitted this review about
Absolute Auto Carriers
Review made Live: 7/13/2008 3:38:00 PM
The short version first: They sent me a quote via email that they didn't honor, charged me the deposit TWICE (both times *before* the car had ever been picked up, contrary to what I had been told on the phone), picked up my car *AFTER* I had cancelled the pickup, and hired a shipper that could hardly speak English and delivered my car late. Great service, huh?
The long version:
To make a short story long, Absolute Auto came in with one of the lowest quotes I got to ship my Subaru, open transport, inoperable vehicle (dead transmission). The initial quote was low (~$1050), but that was their "standard" service, which means they'll pick up w/in 2 weeks. Well, I wanted the car on the way that same week (I talked to them on Tuesday), because it was sitting in a dealer's lot and I figured they didn't want it around. Not to mention my police officer brother had Wed/Thur/Fri off last week, so it would've been convenient for him to see the car off. So, I call Absolute on Tuesday, end up talking with Jimmy. He takes all my info, I tell him I want to pay the extra $300 for "expedited service" (= pickup w/in 3 busines days). I get off the phone, and maybe 30min later Jimmy calls me back - "PNO, we're all set, car will be picked up tomorrow morning."
Wednesday comes and goes, I hear nothing, so I assume that means all is well. Wrong. Thursday afternoon my brother leaves me a voicemail, "Hey, some lady that hardly speaks English just called, said they can't get the car until this weekend, but she couldn't tell me what day. I don't know if anyone will even be at the dealer, and I'm working. WTF?" So I try to get in touch with my boy, Jimmy, but have to leave a voicemail. Thursday late morning I talk to Jimmy again, he tells me that he has "directed" that the car be picked up that day, so we should be good to go. Friday I call again and leave a voicemail again. The following Monday I hear from my brother yet again, as he has once again been contacted by some barely-English-speaking person who is trying to pick up the car. Huh, so I guess Jimmy's "directing" the car to be picked up 4 days ago didn't work out so well!
So, I once again call Jimmy and leave a voicemail. He calls me back a bit later, "PNO, good news, the car is going to be picked up today. They actually tried to get it already, but they couldn't get it to move [uhhh, remember that broken tranny I told you about...?], so they're having to get another truck with a winch." I inform Jimmy that I'm not paying for "expedited service", since they didn't get the car w/in 3 days like they were supposed to. He asks what I'm willing to pay, I tell him $1300, he tells me that's what he's supposed to pay the trucking company (leaving nothing for his company), so he can't do it. I tell him that's not my problem, he shouldn't send out quotes if he can't honor them. He says he'll cancel the job, I happily concur because I don't want to deal with him anymore. I thought I was done with Absolute Auto at that point, but I was wrong!
That Wednesday I got a message from my brother - the car is gone! It had been at a Subaru dealer, and when the deal (supposedly) got cancelled, my brother called them the next day to arrange to have it towed out of there by a buddy of his with a wrecker. The service guy's like, "You're all set, they came and got the car yesterday." Say WHAT?! "Yeah, we helped them load it on the truck."
So Wednesday I once again talk to my best buddy, Jimmy. He tells me, "Well, I figured you'd be happy your car was on the way, so I didn't tell them to take it back." You also didn't bother to tell me you had picked it up! Jimmy tells me the shipping company will call me 24hr prior to delivery, which I was figuring would be sometime early this week. I'm a submariner, and that Saturday I was on the sub working all day so I couldn't receive calls. I got off the boat about 5pm, turned on the cellphone on and I had 4 voicemails, all from 2 different barely English speaking guys who were on their way to drop off my car. Yeah, thanks for that 24 hour heads-up I was promised!! Needless to say, I didn't get the car Saturday. I did get in touch with one of the drivers, and they had taken the car a few hours away to store it, and they wanted to deliver it that Tuesday or Wednesday. Well, I was getting underway that week, so neither day would work, which meant the car was delivered 10 days after it got to town.
When I finally got the car and talked to Jimmy again I pointed out that we still hadn't worked out how much I was paying for this. "Well, we'll be giving you a refund." And how much will that be? "We're still working that out." When I checked my CC statement online, they charged me not once but TWICE for the $200 deposit!! And just to add insult to injury, the deposit, which they weren't supposed to charge me until they picked the car up, was first charged on the 15th (4 days before pickup) and then on the 17th (2 days before pickup). I had my CC company wipe out the 2nd, duplicate charge, but the first charge I had to wait 30 days so Absolute Auto had a chance to respond. They've done nothing, so I"ll be contacting my CC company to get that $200 back, too.
