My Experience with Safe-Direct
Farhan
Submitted this review about
Ship a Car Direct
Review made Live: 4/20/2012 9:26:00 PM
Hello All,
March 4th, 2012: I was a given quote of $1,099.00 (after a $30 rebate) for shipping my car from New Jersey to California. After reviewing several other car shipping companies, I decided to go with Safe-Direct Car Shipping company because of their A rating on BBB, and not to mention their quote was competitive as well.
March 15th, 2012: I contacted David Franco from Safe-Direct to place an order for me. I requested a pick up date of March 30th, 2012. Reasonably so, David mentioned he would try his best but couldn't promise the exact pickup date. I asked him a few questions regarding Insurance and the length of time it would take from pickup to delivery etc...
April 31st, 2012: I flew from NJ to CA on April 31st but my car hadn't been picked up yet from NJ. I asked my roommate to help hand off the car, once we have a confirmed pickup date. David did mention to me to have a person available just in case we do not get the car picked up before I left NJ.
April 9th, 2012: After changing the pickup address and raising the shipping cost from $1,099 to $1,200, I finally get a call from a driver saying he would pick up my car next morning. I was confused as I had directly been contacted by the driver and not David from Safe-Direct, so I called David and left a voice mail saying someone had contacted me and they wanted to pickup my car next morning. I wanted to make sure the driver and Safe-Direct were in sync and I wasn’t handing my car over to some stranger.
After approximately a couple of hours later, David calls me and says he has found a carrier, which will pick up my car the next morning on April 10th, 2012. I asked David if he had heard my voice mail I left saying that the driver had already contacted me and that I wanted to make sure this was a legitimate offer. David tells me, "That’s because he reached out to you before I did."
Now, here's the scenario, I had already waited for exactly 25 days, since I had placed the order with David and had already talked to the driver who said he would pick up my car next morning, and in my mind I am thinking we are all set...but not really. David tells me I would have to raise the shipping fee from $1,200 to $1,250. What choice did I have at this point? None. I couldn't wait any longer as I absolutely needed my car to commute to work. I told David the same and asked him to book the offer @ $1,250. Now the next surprise, I asked David as to how I would make the payment to the driver and so forth. David tells me they will ONLY accept cash, cashier's check or money order. This was not mentioned to me at all during this whole process. If I wanted to pick one common theme from my experience with Safe-Direct, it would be that the information related to money was provided at the very very last moment, when you are left with NO CHOICE.
Here's why I feel dissatisfied with the service I received from Safe-Direct and what can be done to improve the service:
1) When you place an order for the quote you have given, pls explicitly and verbally mention that the customers may have to raise the shipping fee, if they do not have a carrier interested in picking up their car just yet.
2) Pls explicitly and verbally mention that if a pick up is not scheduled in a reasonable time frame, the customer may have to actually change the pickup address to attract the carriers (which I had to but was told at the very last moment).
3) Pls explicitly and verbally mention that the customers are not allowed to put any stuff (even in the trunk) in the car during the shipment. I had a couple of bags in the trunk only and driver calls me somewhere from Chicago asking me why I did not let him know, I had 2 bags in the trunk. I was told I would have to pay a fine, if the driver had to pay extra fee @ checking points.
Above all, pls understand that most of us are NOT familiar with the process of shipping a car and thus Safe-Direct should provide the necessary information as such. Anything and everything related to money must be communicated in advance and the customers must not be put in a position where they have no choice but to pay more to get their car shipped.
