Review Report Review
Tough Business

Tom Thurber Submitted this review about Specialty Mobile Systems
Review made Live: 8/4/2005 1:53:00 PM
I recently arranged to transport an older Mercedes from Southern California to Upstate New York. Transportation of goods, whether it be furniture or cars, is a tough business filled with unethical people. If you deal with a carrier direct, the chances of that company dealing with you again is slim so there is no reason to perform.

Using a reputable broker like SMS is decidedly better than going to a carrier direct. The carrier WILL deal with SMS many times if they are dependable.

The end result of my story was acceptable; the car arrived in the same condition as when it left. There were several glitches along the way; however. After no carrier accepted the transport contract during the 10 day maximum wait defined by SMS, SMS suggested adding $100 to the transportation cost in order to get someone to accept the job. While I don't like bids that aren't firm, SMS offered to pay half and I believe their attempts to find a carrier were sincere.

The car was picked up promptly but took the full 14 day maximum to arrive. Although this was a prepaid move, the transport driver elected to leave my car at a storage location with an annotation to that I was responsible for all storage costs, which happened to be $45 per day!

No attempt was made to contact me at home but I received two voicemail messages from Friday evening at my office when I came in on the following Monday morning.

Cory offered to reimburse me for the storage charges and planned to back charge the carrier which, in my opinion, was fine.

Having SMS as my representative was very helpful. I am certain the carrier would not have reimbursed for the unnecessary storage and who knows what other problems might have arisen had this been a direct customer to carrier transaction. Just read some of the posts on this site.

This business needs to be cleaned up and maybe the entry of large players like FedEx will help. FedEx charges considerably more but they are dependable.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
California
Pickup:
Not Provided
Destination State:
New York
Delivery:
Not Provided
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
0505090105
Quote or Order Cost:
$1095