Good price, Excellent Service
Dan S.
Submitted this review about
Ship a Car Direct
Review made Live: 12/6/2008 1:00:00 PM
First for those of you who don't know, always ask what the down payment is and what is due on delivery. The down payment goes to the broker (person your contracting with), the balance on delivery goes to the driver (or trucking company) that is actually moving your car. Remember a more expensive broker may not mean better service, and the more that goes to the trucker, the more attractive it is for them to transport.
That said, this is the second car I've personally shipped and the 5th car friends and I have shipped this year (this is the first we've shipped using Honesty First). This one (an 05 Audi A4) was the first car that was actually was picked up on time and delivered on time. Of the others, one never got picked up and we had to fly down and pick it up, two of the others were over a week late.
I talked to over a dozen companies looking for the right one and given my past experience I had to chuckle when saw the name "Honesty First". Some of the companies would not give me the down payment amount, others told me that the route was going to be a hard one to book, still others would tell me it should be no problem booking. In the end, based on price, down payment and a gut feeling after talking with Honesty First, I contracted with them. Soon after booking I got a call back from Michael asking if I had contracted with another company, seems one of the others listed my car without knowing... eventully we got them to pull it. Within about an hour of confirming that I did want Honesty First to get my car shipped I was emailed and called in person to let me know that the car was assigned to MPG Trucking and that it would be picked up that day or early the next day.
Well, early the next day came and went with no pick up. I called MPG and they said the driver was on the way and should be there any minute. I waited and waited and still no pick up. Seeing as this was the story we've gotten over and over again (we'll be there today, ten days in a row) I figured that it was happening again and I made the decision that I wanted MPG taken off the car and told Michael at Honesty First to find a different carrier. Michael assured me that they were going to pick it up. After many emails and phone calls, Michael telling me again and again that the driver was there waiting for it to be released for pick up and me pretty much telling him that he and/or the driver was lying, I finally called the company that the car was at and they said they were short staffed and had an unusually high volume that day so the driver was likely telling the truth and had been waiting for some time. Again I want to stress that I beat up Michael pretty bad and he spent a lot of time and effort making sure everything was OK. If you read this Michael, sorry again for doing that.
So.. finally the driver got my car released from the yard. According to the driver from MPG (Steve) he starts the car up and puts it in gear and it dies. He pulls in on the trailer with a winch, against company rules, cause he thinks it's just out of gas. He calls me to let me know this and that he is concerned because there is some damage on the car. I was aware of the damage but it was nice to know that he was that type of driver. Somewhere along the 13 day trip to my house (yes this is kind of a long time but I was made well aware if this by Michael and he asked over and over again if this was OK, my concern was that I needed to get it off the lot due to storage charges and was in no rush to get delivery) Steve put some gas in my car and it's been running fine ever since. On the 11th day after pick up the MPG dispatcher called and confirmed that they could deliver the car around dinner time the next day. Dinner came and went and the car never showed up, a call would have been nice. Keep in mind that because of a large winter stom that came though that day I figured that delivery wouldn't happen on time. Finally I got a call from Steve at 10pm that night and we sent up a 7am delivery the next day... due to the storm and him getting stuck at a different yard that didn't work out either. In the end he called when he was an hour away and the car was delivered at noon that day. I did note in the vehicle condition part of this review that car was dirty but if your transporting in an open carrier through a huge snow storm your not too bright if you think it's going to be delivered even close to clean. I also asked Steve what he needed for the gas he put in the car and he said "I'm not worried about that"... I made good with him.
In summary, Honesty First was actually that, Honest! Michael went above and beyond to make sure things were as I wanted. MPG could have been a little better with final communications but they were very nice to work with otherwise. The price was right!
