Review Report Review
Don't shoot the pianist!

Dmitry Submitted this review about Tri-Star Carriers
Review made Live: 11/7/2008 7:15:00 PM
I will try to describe it in as many details as I can, so please, read carefully.
I ordered delivery of my Corolla from Cedar Rapids, IA to Seatac, WA. The order was posted in more then a month in advance.
At the time of accepting the order everything seemed to be just great. I was promised to be called back in about 2 weeks before the pick-up date.
But time passed and no one seemed to care to do that. After my call I was assured that everything will be all right and the driver will contact the broker and then me in a few days.
But even a day before the pick-up the situation was still unclear. I continued calling the broker and eventually contacted Gino (see another 3-stars rating for his number) who advised me to 'think positive!'.
I tried to do my best but got pretty nervous since I had to ship all my other stuff right after car's pick-up and then to buy tickets to fly to Seatac. I needed to do that in a strict date interval and everything seemed to be going down the drain.
Original quote was $950 but at one point of time Gino called me back and asked if I could pay extra $50 (for fuel, huh!) to have a driver to pick up my car. Otherwise they didn't have any other driver to do the delivery. Of course, I agreed since I was limited in time.
After that Gino sent me some 'driver contact info' which was a kind of BS (since it was not even the driver's phone number and the day when the driver should have contacted me was almost over).
Again, after trying to figure out what's going on the situation seemed to be pretty bad for me. There didn't seem to be a driver available to pick up my car.
Fortunately enough for me the driver I agreed to pay extra $50 was eventually found and gave me a call.
From that point till the end of delivery everything was pretty good. That's why I'm giving them 3 stars.

Now, to the point.
I could not help trying to call other brokers. And one of them was kind enough to explain me how the system works.
It turns out there is a pool of drivers accessing some 'delivery requests' database. Brokers simply send the customer's order to that database and then... just cross their fingers there will be a driver who agrees to pick up the car and deliver it in the time line and for the price posted.
So, if you're living in a city (doesn't matter big or small) close to a major route (which many truckers go by) then you're completely good. The chances are there will be enough drivers to serve your request.
Unfortunately for me, Cedar Rapids was far enough from any of those routes. That's why TriStar had hard time to serve the order smoothly.
And I personally believe it applies to all the brokers.

To wrap up the story: I would suggest to TriStar to be more open to the customer. I can't believe people are so stupid to understand the system and how it works. This way I would not be so frustrated and pissed off on the day when the driver should have contacted me just a couple of hours before the day was over.
Anyway, thanks to TriStar for eventually serving my request.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
Iowa
Pickup:
On Time
Destination State:
Washington
Delivery:
On Time
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
20941-SK
Quote or Order Cost:
$1000