Overall a negative experience.
Ryan Chirnomas
Submitted this review about
Classic Auto Express LLC
Review made Live: 10/5/2009 9:30:00 PM
Basically, Classic Auto Express sub-ed out to a company called Roll Over Transportation to move my car from Oregon to the Washington DC area. The driver (a Russian guy named Stephan who could barely speak English) made two big mistakes:
First, he messed up the front airdam when pulling the car off the trailer, catching the passenger side of the airdam on one of the ramps and causing it to separate from the bumper by an inch or so. The car has fairly low clearance, but certainly no lower than other street-legal sports cars (Corvette, etc). The driver then monkeyed with the airdam to get it sort of back in the right position although still not quite right. The airdam was not in perfect condition prior to shipment, but I was concerned that the driver may have further damaged it by bending brackets, etc.
Second, and perhaps more worrisome, he totally screwed up the paperwork. This caused serious problems. Apparently, he was delivering two different BMWs (different models, I presume) and my bill of lading was signed by some OTHER person who I presume received the other BMW. Additionally, the driver was extremely argumentative and tried to pressure me into signing either (i) the bill of lading for the other BMW (not my car) or (ii) a new bill of lading that he made up on the spot (neither would be accepted by an insurance company). Since I wanted to record this damage for a possible insurance claim, it was very important to me that the paperwork was properly in order. Also, on the bill of lading, the VIN information was not filled in. This is the most important data field...no wonder he mixed up the cars and paperwork!
The whole delivery process involved about an hour and a half of arguing with a sketchy Russian guy in a parking lot and probably 7 or 8 telephone calls to Classic Auto Express (who were as helpful as possible in such an insane situation). He kept saying "No damage no damage," "sign paper sign paper" and "Give me money I give you keys", etc. At one point, he refused to let me write about the damage on the bill of lading. He also threatened to take the car with him and put the car in storage rather than stay and properly resolve the problem that he caused by his two mistakes. At another point, he refused to let me keep the original "white" copy of the bill of lading (he wanted to give me a photocopy- fortunately there was a Kinkos in this shopping center!) as was instructed by his superiors (note that since he messed up the paperwork, the form was longer a two-part paper since he gave the "pink" or "yellow" carbon copy to the wrong person). Honestly, I considered calling the police. Long story short, Classic Auto Express helped out on the phone and the end result was me driving away with the car and original paperwork with the erroneous signature, my signature, my comment about the possible damage, and the driver's initial of my comment. However, it was a very, very unpleasant and stressful experience. It felt like I was dealing with the KGB or something....certainly not what I had in mind.
Unfortunately, this was an extremely negative experience for me. The bad part of my experience was not directly the fault Classic Auto Express. And certainly it would have been MUCH worse if they did not provide the telephone support they did on delivery day. However, Classic Auto Express sub-ed it out to a company whose driver was unable to (1) properly handle extremely simple paperwork and (2) properly load and unload a car with relatively low (but not unusual) ground clearance. Stephan of Roll Over Transport was about as unprofessional as one can be. I don't know why he was so argumentative. An insurance claim would not come out of his pocket. He could have just dealt with the situation patiently and professionally. That would have taken 15 minutes. Instead, it was an hour and half saga that 99% of customers would not have the stomach for. So, in sum, most of the blame lies with the sub-ed company, and I am thankful for the support that Classic Auto Express provided me on the day of delivery. However, Classic Auto Express put me in a very bad position which I should never have been in. So, therefore, 1 star (instead of zero).
