Bad quote and zero service

Kristin Wallace Submitted this review about Mercury Auto Transport
Review made Live: 4/6/2010 1:27:00 PM
DO NOT BELIEVE THE GOOD REVIEWS FOR THIS COMPANY!!! I recently solicited quotes to move a pickup truck from Tennessee to California. After contacting several companies and looking them up on the BBB, I decided to go with Mercury Auto Transport based on their competitive (but not cheapest) quote of $825 and their excellent rating. They told me that they expected the truck to be on a transporter in 2 to 4 days, but could guarantee it would be loaded in 1 week. I was happy with that and gave them my credit card info; they said that it would not be charged until the vehicle was loaded.

That occurred at the beginning of March. It is now April, and my truck is still in Tennessee. A representative of Mercury contacted me 3 times in the past month with an offer to transport, but at a much higher rate than the original quote. Around March 30, they told me they could get it on a transporter for $1100; this is 20% higher. Extremely frustrated, I agreed to pay that price. Mercury told me that the dispatcher would contact me; the dispatcher never called. I called Mercury back the next day, and they again said that the dispatcher would contact me. They never did. However, I was notified by my credit card company that Mercury had attempted to charge my card (I had placed a hold on it). So I called them again, since they said the card wouldn't be charged until the truck was loaded; they apologized and said again that the dispatcher would call me, but that they had no current information on when it would be loaded. The next day (Thursday) I received an email from the dispatcher that said the scheduled pickup day for the truck had been the day before (Wednesday). I called the people who have the truck in Tennessee; of course, the truck had not been picked up, and they had not been contacted by either a dispatcher or anyone from Mercury.

I contacted another transport company 3 days ago. They agreed to transport the truck for $1100. It was loaded on a transporter today and will be in California by next week.

My complaints are:
Mercury Auto Transport obviously under-quoted the cost for moving the truck, then tried to get a higher fee
They attempted to charge me for a service that had not been provided
Poor communication and customer service