Increased quote, LATE pickup, safe and on-time delivery
Xun
Submitted this review about
South Beach Transport
Review made Live: 9/14/2015 12:31:00 AM
Good: quick email response, safe and on-time delivery
Bad: original quote increased by 100$ and LATE pickup
I was doing my summer internship in California. In the last couple of days in CA, I was planning my trip back to Massachusetts. My wife and I decided to take a flight and ship our car with an auto transport company. This is the first time we ship a car.
We asked for auto shipping quotes online on Aug 27 and many companies replied. Among all these companies, this company South Beach transport has an excellent review. The quote from this company is also very competitive. It was 990$. (There are some other companies offering less than 900$ quote but they seem crappy in custom reviews..).
Not able to reach him by phone, we emailed the salesman and he was very prompt getting back to me. We quickly moved through the process and he was able to find a driver for me. He asked for 100$ more for shipping my car (total 1090$). I am not sure if increasing the quote is a common practice in car shipping industry, but this makes me slightly unhappy. Still, the price was reasonable and I accepted it.
The salesman agreed to pick up the car within a two-day window, on September 1st or 2nd. So we booked the airline on September 3rd. I was able to confirm pick up time with the driver on Aug 31st and the driver said it would be on September 2nd. On September 2nd, the driver said it will be in the late afternoon and then late evening and, the driver NEVER showed up on time. In the late night, the driver called me to reschedule the pick up on September 3rd!!! Generally, I would be OK with delay. However, I would be flying the next morning and how difficult would it be for me to reschedule a pick up the night before?? Also, both the driver and the salesman were aware of the situation and they did almost nothing to help. I understand that unexpected happens, but this situation did trouble me a lot.
Finally I was able to trouble my friend to take care of my car, urgently, two hours before the plane took off! I am not quite happy with what had happened.
The car arrived on time (as the salesman agreed, 10-14 days) safely.
UPDATE: after I posted this review, the salesman contact me and complained about the review I posted.
Here is the basic summary about our phone conversation:
The salesman did NOT deny the FACTs that I provided above.
The salesman said he is disappointed with my review and tried to convince me that I should NOT give him a three-star review. Here is his explanation:
He increased his quote price because 1090$ was the ACCURATE quote that he can give.
The delay was not his fault and that was something that he has no control over. The actual driver was from Illini Auto Transport Inc.
He also complained about the 2-star rating for the customer-service. I told him that in an emergency, I texted him at night and he is not able to resolve the issue. The next day when he replied, I was already at the airport. He said I should understand the phone number he provided was his personal phone number and I should not expect him to reply promptly. Instead, he suggested that I should call the customer service in his company, which he did not provide at all throughout our communication.
HERE IS THE MESSAGE IN HIS SCRIPT EMAIL (contact information replaced by XX for privacy):
"I’m currently on the phone with another customer or away from my desk, please rest assured I will respond to this email within 20 minutes. If you require urgent assistance that cannot wait, please contact me via text message at XX or via Email (XX) and I will respond within 20 minutes. My office hours are Monday-Friday 8am-6pm, if it is after business hours you can contact me via text message at XXX and I will respond within 20 minutes."
I will leave you to judge.
Finally: I am providing this review to reflect my feeling about this auto shipping experience. I am not saying anyone is officially responsible or at fault. If I did believe someone should hold responsibility for this incident, it would not be as simple as positing a review.
