Terrible choice...bad decision.
James
Submitted this review about
Rite Way Auto Transport
Review made Live: 3/17/2011 1:08:00 AM
I spoke with Gary after I got my quote from him via email. Among other things, I told him specifically that my car was low to the ground and he said if the car can start on it's own, the driver can get it on the trailer. At that point, I agreed to pay the deposit. After signing my contract, my emails got no replies for a week. I was told that the reason for this was he was traveling. I left him a voicemail about a change to my point of contact who was storing my car at it's pickup location. I expected some type of confirmation that this information was noted. I got no call back or email reply for another week . Finally, I was told by someone else at Riteway that Gary was sick. That person had no information as to the status of my car's pickup date nor could they confirm who my point of contact that had my vehicle.
I then got an email that my vehicle was dispatched. My deposit was taken at that time as per the contract. The driver arrived and said that he couldn't move my car because it was too low. I immediately called Riteway to speak with Gary. I was put on hold and told by someone else at Riteway that the reason why my car wasn't moving was because it was too low. I then asked for my deposit back and was told that I couldn't get it back because I never told them it was low. I told her that I in fact did mention that specifically to Gary. The person I was speaking with mumbled to someone in the background and got back on and said that Gary remembered me saying that. I still wanted my money back and they wouldn't refund it even though my car was no longer dispatched. I asked to speak to the owner. He was in a meeting on several occasions. After a day I began to call every hour on the hour and finally got to speak to the owner, Jeff. He was sure to tell me that, in the scheme of things, he really doesn't need my money and this is no big deal to him. However, he still didn't want to refund my money. He said that he would look in to the matter further and call me back. He didn't. However, another person did. His name was Steven. Steven told me that it's not their fault that the vehicle was too low for pickup. I agreed with him. I explained to him that it was their fault for 1) agreeing on a quote under specific circumstances 2) taking my money on a failed dispatch and 3) not refunding me even though they advertise otherwise. I also explained to Steven that from Riteway's perspective, my car was dispatched and regardless of wether it needed to be dispatched again, I wasn't getting my deposit back. By this logic, this company can essentially "dispatch" your vehicle, take your deposit and regardless of the reason for not transporting the vehicle...they can keep your deposit because it was dispatched at some point in time. At that point, Steven got irate. I demanded that he and/or Riteway email me their take on this situation and to specifically the reasoning behind not refunding me my money. Not only did he not want to do this (I wanted their justification documented), he attempted to belittle me and then hung up on me.
I ended up paying $400 more then my quote and still had a 2nd failed pickup attempt. On the 2nd attempt, my car was loaded on to the top rack of an enclosed trailer. The top rack then broke and my car landed on to an SUV. My car was not damaged but the SUV was. I spoke to the driver and he said that if he kept my car in the trailer, it would most likely travel fine but the SUV would become more damaged. This was perfectly acceptable to him and he ensured that his insurance would cover the damaged SUV. I told him to get my vehicle off of that trailer because I don't like "most likely" and I don't want my car driven to me by someone who was that non-chalant about someone else's vehicle (the smashed SUV).
On the 3rd attempt to pickup my car, the driver was re-routed twice. After the 1st re-routing, the driver told me that, per his contract, he had 10 days to deliver my car. I thought, ok, no biggy. After the 2nd re-route, I got my car 12 days after pickup. It would have been longer if I didn't beg the guy to bring me my car.
After it was all said and done, I got my car 9 weeks after I signed a contract with Riteway. That would be approximately 7 weeks after the 1st scheduled pickup. Needless to say, this is the worse company of any type that I have ever worked with. They advertise "we do not charge you until the car is loading onto the truck and you can cancel with us with no fee". This is not the case, not even close.
