Company Response Review Report Review
They should not be in business

David Troxel Submitted this review about Cascade Vehicle Shipping Inc.
Review made Live: 3/21/2009 11:23:00 AM
Using Cascade Vehicle shipping has been the worst experience in my life.
Customer service is non existent.
Before I get into my personal experience, let me start with a quote taken straight off of the
companies home web page.

"Thank you for visiting the Cascade family where not only do we provide a premium shipping service but an unsurpassed customer service experience. Time and time again you say to yourself "Customer service just isn't what it used to be!" Our goal is to not only streamline our vehicle transportation service but to bring back the one-on-one connection, honesty and to provide you with the results you deserve."

I am in the Military and was stationed on the Island of Guam. I needed to ship my vehicle from Guam via ship and then transport it from Long Beach CA to Chattanooga TN.

When I first contacted Cascade Vehicle Shipping, I spoke with a woman (I won't mention her name since she no longer works there) and expressed my concerns that I would not be able to be in California to take care of customs and arranging for a truck to transport the vehicle to TN. She assured me that Cascade was there to take care of everything all I would need to do is drop the vehicle off at the shipping company in Guam and then be available to pick it up from the driver in TN. She promised me that all broker requirements for getting the vehicle through customs would be handled by Cascade Vehicle shipping.

Everything went as planned for delivering the vehicle to the ocean shipping company in Guam. While the vehicle is in route to California, I get an email from Kimberly Freiley informing me that the woman I originally arranged the shipment with was away for personal business and that she (kim) would be handling all further issues with my vehicle.

Then the Bomb drops,
Kimberly calls me to inform me that my vehicle arrived in California, but the container my vehicle is in has been randomely selected by the coast guard for a xray inspection and that they needed me to pay an additional $125.00. I informed kimberly that this added expense was not my responsibility but Cascades. We went round and round over this and I asked to speak with the owner of the company. The owner refused to talk with me but had his worker (kimberly) tell me "It is what it is" and either I need to pay this extra cost or the vehicle would just sit in Californial with storage fees attached. Kimberly told me that they have never had this happen before so they didn't know what to do. I said "me either but hey that's what I am paying your company to handle" I asked to speak with the original woman I had worked with but Kimberly said that she no longer worked at the company and unfortunately all her records were probably destroyed and they have no idea how she handle the overseas shipments.
So basically they are passing their poor knowledge of their own business onto me. I ended up paying the coast guard just to get my vehicle and I will take up this matter later through my attorney.

At this point I thought my worries were over but then I get yet another phone call from a woman at the Ocean shipping company who said that she has been unable to get my vehicle through customs because Cascade said they were not hired as a broker to handle this. Not to mention that the phone number the Ocean carrier had was non working since the other woman no longer worked at Cascade (which I would think Cascade should have updated all the business contacts) which is now costing me an additional $200 to $300 in storage fees. This added cost should be Cascades problem since they didn't supply a new contact number which resulted in storage fees.

The big issue was that fact that I got this phone call on a Thursday Afternoon (19 March) and was informed that unless this vehicle got through customs by Monday (23 March) the Government would seize the vehicle (more cost added to me). Well I can't exactly get to California and take care of this in one day, so I am forced to hire another broker to handle my situation in California and hopefully this company will be able to get the job done before the government siezes the vehicle. Again Kimberly tells me they are not respnsible for any of this, and again the owner of Cascade refuses to talk with me.

So, I am waiting for customs and then I am still hopeful that Cascade will pick a truck driver that isn't going to add any extra problems to my already terrrible and costly experience.
So far Cascade had done nothing for the money I paid them, I have done all of the leg work to get this vehicle shipped. Had I known that all this would be on my shoulders I would never have hired Cascade.

In the long run it would have been less expensive to sell my vehicle in Guam and buy a new one here in the States.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
California
Pickup:
On Time
Destination State:
Tennessee
Delivery:
Late
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
#564050
Quote or Order Cost:
$3100

Company Response
Terry Williams from Cascade Vehicle Shipping Inc. Submitted this response.
Response Date: 3/21/2009 2:26:00 PM
David, We were hired to transport your vehicle from Guam to TN. We were not hired for Homeland security and inspections of the vehicle. The Coast Guard is the one who was hired by Matson and they are the ones who did the random inspection. What you hired Cascade do to was transport the vehicle by boat from Guam to California and then a truck from California to Tennessee. You had your vehicle shipping by boat, just as soon as all of the customs is cleared we will have a truck arranged to transport it to TN. That is our job, not clearing customs. Whoever dropped off at the port in Guam received paperwork from the port that stated the possibility of the inspection and customs broker. We have no control over this situation at the time. We were not hired to pay for extra expenses to come out of our business. You paid Cascade for the boat portion, the truck portion and our fee for arranging these two things. You did not pay us for anything to do with customs or any fees associated with that. We do not even offer these services. We are not going to go into the hole because its out of our control with the coast guard, we are sorry. We are doing everything we can with what we have to work with. We just happen to be the bearer of bad news for a few things right now, but you can not shoot the messenger. We had a truck assigned to your vehicle to remove it from the port, but we had to turn them away because customs was not completed yet. Again once its been completed you were instructed to let us know and we will proceed to look for a truck again. Like we told you on the phone, you need to let me know so we can get it out of the port as soon as possible so you do not accure any more storage. Timing is key here. Please let us know as soon as your vehicle has cleared customs. We will also be keeping an eye on it so we can get a truck there as soon as I can. We are sorry for all the problems that you have had, but a random inspection is just what happened. Random. These are circumstances that are out of our control.