Showtime Auto Transport

This was the worst car shipping experience ever. It makes me never want to move again just so I don't have to go through this process again. First, Showtime Auto quoted me at $950 (which I think is their standard quote). Then they said they would have a driver to pick up my car on 5/4/12. Not only did they fail to pick it up on time, but they kept making me promise after promise that they would have a driver the next day and the day after that. My car was not picked up until 5/17/12 after I had directly contacted the manager and the owner (who neither seemed to really care) and then finally directly contacting the driver myself.

On top of all that, they made me drive my car an hour up the road to meet the driver and charged me an extra $75?! Does that make any sense? So I basically paid $1025 and had to do all the work myself. Why should they get the $150 deposit I put down if they didn't hold up their end of the deal? Also, beware of the contract they use. It is an open-ended contract, meaning they could make you wait a year and never provide service because there is no "hard date". This company was terrible and the people behind it are nothing more than lying thieves. Do not use!

Showtime Auto Transport came in cheapest when quoting to move my mother's Camry from TX to FL (she had passed away 4 days prior). The contracted driver picked up on schedule, was very friendly but when he got to FL, it was discovered that he had driven the car for personal use for over 400 miles around East Texas, leaving receipts for his cigarettes, beverage and dinner in the car. Nowhere in the agreement was he authorized to use the vehicle. When asked why he did this, his excuse was that he had to offload in Dallas and drive to Mabank. The problem is that Mabank is maybe 50 miles, not 404 miles and the receipts covered several days. The driver has agreed to refund an agreed upon amount, but payment has not yet been received.

Lesson: Do thorough background check before hiring any company for any reason.

I needed a transporter to ship my car from Massachusetts to California by a certain time. I decided to go with Showtime Auto transporters because they have a great sales pitch and (I'll admit it) I got suckered. From there, things went downhill fast. I was promised my car would be picked up on Monday, but I did not hear anything about it until I called. Then I was told that there were no trucks around to get my car, but I could help that if I paid a little more money than I was quoted. The dispatcher, Conrad, always said exactly what it took to get me off the phone, often promising to return my call and never following through.

After about two days of increasingly frequent phone calls about the situation regarding my car, I gave in and got a friend of mine to drive it cross country. On the last possible day required by the contract they required me to sign, he called me up to inform me that in three days (a full eight days after promised), a truck would be able to pick up my car. After further inquiry, he revealed that the total would be $100 more than the agreed upon price. Do not deal with these movers. They will not move your car when you need it or for the price you agreed to.

They quoted me to transport my car. Started very well with Sarai who provided the quote. Went downhill from there. They never picked the car up when they said. They told me they were in contact with truck driver. Later they told me they had not yet found a driver for my car. I could not believe the number of lies that were told. I ended up in frustration flying out and picking up car myself and drove it back. To make it worse, they would not refund my deposit. Stay away from this company!

My car was not picked up and the company then was closed. Finally, I reached the company two days later but my car was still not able to be picked up until the following day. The driver told us that he couldn't pick it up so we had to drive an hour away; car then arrived 16 days later.

The company is full of lies. They aren't members with the BBB and they also have not been in business for 25 years like their website claims.

I just got back from an overseas deployment two weeks ago. After one year serving in the Middle East, I finally arrive home to the States and have to deal with issues such as this one with Showtime Auto Transport Inc. I was shopping around for a transport company who would be able to transport my vehicle from Gainesville, Florida to my home duty station here in Fort Bliss, Texas. After speaking with Showtime Auto Transport on the 14th of December, I figured they would be the ones to go with as they were ensuring that their price could not be beat. I was told by their representative named Kay that they would have my truck picked up either same day or the next being the 15th of December. Kay also ensured me that a $150 deposit would ONLY be debited once my vehicle was picked up by their driver. I made the mistake of giving this company my debit card information and realized it was a mistake the following day when I saw that my account was debited and yet my vehicle was never picked up.

When we called to verify why my vehicle was never picked up and why we were debited we were told that their driver and his truck were having computer issues. As for why I was debited, I was told that they run the debit as soon as the vehicle is dispatched which is a completely different story than what I was promised. A few days passed by and I did not hear from Showtime, so I decided to call. After a few people hanging up on my face and being placed on hold for hours, I decided to call them again and request a cancellation due to dishonest practice and serviced never rendered. I was then told by the supposedly owner of the company named Johnny that my contract was void due to me signing another contract with another carrier cause what called a double booking. I explained to Johnny that I am not familiar with their industry and that I do not know what a double booking means but that I do know that I only signed one contract and that was with then, Showtime Auto Transport.

Johnny have me the name of the other company which I then contacted and was simply told that I did not have any contract with them. They went as far as to state that in this vehicle transportation industry, there are a lot of companies who simply open shop for a couple of months, steal peoples deposits, then close show and that they believed I was dealing with such a company.

I contact the owner of Showtime again and informed him that I spoke to the said double booked transporters and that they confirmed that I had not contract with them. Johnny pretty much said that in his system, he saw me as having two contracts, one with his company and another with some other company which automatically voids any refund returns. I did a little research and found out that this double booking if correct would have displayed in what is called Central Dispatch. http://** which is where all brokers connect to. I went ahead and contact central dispatch and as expected was confirmed that I was not double booked or double contracted in their system.

After realizing that I was dealing with a dishonest company, I went ahead as suggested by Central Dispatch and posted a review on their website detailing my current experience with Showtime Auto Transport. A few hours later, I received a phone call from Johnny at Showtime Auto Transport who in a very vindictive manner stated to me the following: So Robert, you want to write a bad review about my company, huh? Well, now 100% for sure you are not going to get your deposit back. And then he hung up on me.

If me losing $150 will ensure that no one else lands victim to this dishonest and unprofessional company then I will feel like my deposit was worth something. I am disputing this debit of $150 for two reasons, one because it was not supposed to be debited until my vehicle was picked up and two because of services not rendered or received.