Easier Than Expected
Hannah
Submitted this review about
Ship a Car Direct
Review made Live: 9/1/2021 12:14:00 PM
I reached out to Ship a Car and one other highly reviewed service found on this website to ship my boss' car from NYC to CA. We ended up going with Ship a Car as they were easy to get in touch with, gave an honest estimate on what we could expect to pay for the cross country trip, charged less ($250 broker's fee as opposed to $350), and had a better cancellation policy (if they don't ship the car they don't take payment, whereas the other place said their fee was nonrefundable). They also sent a bunch of informative emails on how the process worked which ended up being extremely helpful.
All that being said, I was still extremely concerned about the whole process, especially as we'd never done it before and it seemed the list of possibilities of things that could go wrong was extremely long. I like to have things booked and confirmed at least a few weeks in advance, and that's just not an option shipping a car this way - I had to trust that the "last minute" process car shippers operate on was going to work. I was also told most operators don't pick up cars in Manhattan, so we were also trying to plan for an unconfirmed pick up date at an unconfirmed pickup location (not so easy, to say the least). And then, of course, there's all the anxiety about the car actually making it unscathed across the country and being delivered when promised.
I am pleased to report, however, that it all went SHOCKINGLY smoothly (I usually expect at least one thing to go sideways).
I grew a little concerned when it was the day before our first available pickup day and we hadn't heard anything about a pickup being scheduled, especially as we were expecting to have to transport the car out of the city. However, the morning of our first available pickup day, David at Ship a Car let us know there was a shipper who could pick up that afternoon, for a price that was within the expected range, and that they would pick up right in Manhattan. We accepted the offer, got direct contact info for the driver, and he was able to locate and pickup the car with minimal fuss. Ditto with the drop off in California - driver was able to do the drop off a day earlier than estimated, he contacted the person he was supposed to contact about the drop off, he accepted Venmo just like Ship a Car said he would, and the car arrived unscathed.
All in all, a very positive experience. It helped that we were able to be flexible with pickup and drop off (I had requested at least 24-48 hrs notice for car pickup, but the last minute pickup ended up working out quite well). Ship a Car was generally quite available for questions, etc which made me feel more secure. I'd use them again!
