A friend through a bad experience and bad idea
Chris A.
Submitted this review about
Auto Shipping Group LLC
Review made Live: 8/21/2015 1:30:00 AM
We shipped our Mazda sedan from Kentucky to California as part of a relocation across the country. I contacted ASG, and met Chell, many months before the actual move. I wanted some info, and some answers to some basic questions. I ended up spending a half hour on the phone with Chell, joking and taking notes on many of the details I had not thought of. My anxiety of sending a car across country was eased for a great time. Chell was fantasticly friendly and made a great first impression for ASG and this process.
When the time to ship our car came to, we spent a few weeks waiting for the request to be picked up by a carrier. We ended up finding a carrier (LLD Trucking in Illinois) who were a few hundred over the original target price. We shipped covered, to protect the vehicle, and knew our costs would be higher. We went ahead with this higher price, as the time slipped uncomfortably close to our move, and this carrier had "stellar reviews and ratings".
On pickup day, we were already in California. I was coordinating with my father, who would be dropping off the car. He was waiting at a Target parking lot for the carrier to arrive at the written and agreed upon time, but after an hour he had to leave to pick up family. The carrier was nearly 3 hours late, and had confused time zones, so they said. This made us realize Chell's position was one just somewhat ahead of our own once the car hits the skids. Neither Chell nor my father were able to reliably contact our carrier.
What followed were nearly 2 weeks of literally no updates from our carrier. We escalated the situation demanding photographic proof the carrier still indeed had our vehicle. Throughout, Chell was doing her absolute best to reassure us and keep in touch. Again though, she had very little ability to make demands of the company. The position she and ASG is in plays very much the match maker for customer and carrier, but once those contracts are exchanged, you are at the mercy of the carrier.
LLD Trucking apparently had stellar record before this transaction, and so I can only believe we were all taken by surprise by the ordeal. Our car arrived about 12 days after shipping, when we were quoted faster than a week. We ended up driving an hour out of the city to meet the carrier (LLD), who was over shooting the 3 hour delivery window they (LLD) gave us. Meeting the driver in San Jose nearly 4 hours after they originally said they would be there finally brought this nightmare to an end. The car was fine, but we hoped for the stress and time spent on both mine, my father's, and Chell's end, that some discount would be arranged.
Chell and her boss believed a steep rebate was certainly in the discussion, given the absolute embarrassment to everyone's reputations and reliability that we endured. As is though, we were kicked back $100. We had been given informal, verbal hints that the team at ASG would continue to hammer on LLD for a refund of some of the cost, but we didn't hear back. We only really heard about the ask to submit a glowing 5 star review for our experience.
I have looked for LLD Shipping listed on ConsumerReports and BBB.com to leave reviews on, but have found them unlisted.
At the end of the day, I don't think Chell could be any better at her job. She was one of the most knowledgeable and patient people I have worked with. I felt better every time I talked to her. She earns her salary many times over, if my time with her is any indication.
Unfortunately, the industry she is managing is one that is a massive headache, and truly unreliable. I read the stories of poor auto shipping experiences (in general, not specific to ASG) and did not want them to be true, but our experience was not one that will be forgotten any time soon. Honestly, I do not believe I will ever ship another vehicle, here or elsewhere.
