DO NOT USE! They'll damage your car, then harass and lie to you
DF
Submitted this review about
SDM Transport
Review made Live: 4/21/2019 2:11:00 PM
What a nightmare company – this is the WORST company I’ve ever had to deal with. They never call you back, promise you they’ll “take care” of the damages they made to your car during shipment, then drag it out for 2 months before they finally DENY ALL. Worst experience I’ve ever had, DO NOT use them!!
They delivered my car on a rainy night in Feb, the driver Mike got angry at me for daring to inspect my car and take photos. He began verbally harassing me to stop taking photos and just give him the cash he’s due, calling me names and insulting me, while I was trying to balance holding my umbrella with one hand, while using the flashlight on my phone to see the scratches on my car, then taking photos. This was a pitch-black night, cold and raining, there were NUMEROUS scratches all over my car, and the driver was threatening and mocking me?! He even began recording a video of me, despite me repeatedly asking him to stop. I felt really unsafe nearly the entire time, but knew I had to document and take photos of the damage.
Finally, the driver called his manager Paul Bak to complain. Paul told me to write “too dark to see” on the BOL, and to take the photos tomorrow, which is “totally normal” given that it’s too dark right now to document the damages properly. I was cold, wet, and feeling unsafe, so I agreed. I watched Mike the driver type “too dark to see” into his phone app on the BOL, then signed and thought everything was fine.
Next day, I took clearer photos and emailed them to Paul, then asked for the BOL, which was never emailed to me. The BOL did NOT have the words “too dark to see” on it! But Paul assured me that “we’ll take care of it”, and their accounting lady Victoria will get back to me ASAP.
Thus began an endless cycle of 1.5 months, where I’ll call Victoria or her manager Dino for when they’ll respond to my claim for damages, and they’ll keep promising me they’ll take a look at the photos, or they’ll ask for a repair shop quote on how much it’ll cost to fix the damage – but never return my calls, and never actually spend any time on my claim. They’ll promise to call me back. They’ll promise to look at it “this afternoon”. But they never do. It took me nearly SEVEN WEEKS of nonstop calling and texting, asking for ANY kind of response – before Dino finally flatly even denied they caused the scratches, saying they were already on my car before they picked up, or it was just incidental “rocks” during transport. Um, NO. Rocks don’t make straight-line scratches on the roof of the car, top of trunk, or on the frames on both sides of the window. Those are from your transport truck ties.
It’s very clear now that they do NOT care about their customers at all, but in fact treat their customers like crap. From being verbally harassed, to being strung along, then repeatedly ignored for 7 weeks – this was a complete nightmare of an experience from start to finish. I felt like I wasted so many hours of my life, for nothing. It’s one thing to refuse to pay for damages done to your car – which is bad enough. It’s another thing entirely to do so in such a rude, derogatory, and classless manner, by threatening or repeatedly lying to you, or ignoring your calls completely.
Lesson learned – STAY FAR, FAR AWAY from SDM Transport, DO NOT use them to ship you car! And make sure you document ALL damages on the BOL before you sign, then take a photo of the BOL from their phone, because they might not email you the correct copy either.
