Stateway Auto Transport Reviews

Overall, it was an excellent experience. The truck was in good shape, it came on time and the guy was courteous. They were brokering the job. Whatever they did, they did it right and the people were right. I was completely satisfied. The only thing that wasn’t perfect was it wasn’t free. They were professional and took care of me.

I ship twice a year for work from Nashville to Toronto and then back. The amount of organization required for such a move is demanding because the car needs to be either picked up or delivered to the border at a time it's convenient for me to meet and pay the driver. I haven't had to wait or reschedule my pick ups or deliveries yet. Stateway Trans always has everything perfectly aligned to fit my extremely hectic schedule. I just received my car on Thursday and everything went just as planned again, so I wanted to say thank you to Jessica and the entire Stateway Auto Transportation. Thanks guys. I'll call you again in October to do this all over again!

A few weeks later, when my car was already in transport, coordinated by the other company, Stateway contacted me to try and tell me that the other transport service or the carrier had dropped my shipment due to lack of insurance, and that they are taking over. I then contacted my transport service (Ship A Car Direct, and btw, they are great), and was told that Stateway was trying to fool me, and the shipment was going as planned and was not dropped. The car arrived in Seattle (coordinated by Ship A Car Direct and VNS Auto Transport) safely. I paid the carrier directly.

Everything was fine, until a few weeks later, Stateway contacted me again, saying that I owe them the deposit and the shipping fee, for which they had already paid the carrier for. All lies. Stateway really tries to scam you or get money out of you, even if you haven't used their service. Be careful with them... Definitely do not recommend going with them, as they make communicating with them tough (hard to get someone on the phone or get detailed email replies), especially if it doesn't help them gain business.

We next spoke by phone. He asked how I was doing and when I said not so hot since my car was not on a truck halfway across the country, he said, "If that's the worst of your problems you're doing okay!" Mind you, I had just told him I'd need to move the pick-up spot 3 miles away because a family member had been hospitalized. We were getting nowhere regarding movement of the vehicle and when I asked to speak to a manager, he said he didn't have one. There was no one who could handle a customer service complaint.

He later called excitedly, saying he'd gotten a driver. It would cost me $300 more and he would only go to Portland, which is 3 hours from Bend. I declined. If he could only get to Portland for $300 more than that's what his quote should have reflected. We returned to the daily calls and emails and promises of tomorrow and tomorrow. Finally, we had a definite pick-up date of 11/27 and we had the driver's name and cell phone number. When I called the driver to confirm, he seemed surprised we had been told 11/27. He said it would be the 29th.

When the vehicle was finally loaded on the carrier, it was as if we'd been released from a strange imprisonment. Stateway knows how to string you along; you become desperate to move your vehicle and you think starting over with another company will mean an even longer wait. The driver delivered the car without a problem within the promised number of days. THE COMPANY IS SLIMY AND UNDERHANDED. STAY AWAY! Also note that the only positive reviews here have the same syntax - grammatical errors of the same sort and odd language so that they appear to me to be written by one person.

Stateway Auto Transport is a broker company who sub-contracted my vehicle shipment to "Do It" Auto Transport which is why Stateway is mentioned in this review. Stateway Auto Transport needs to be held equally accountable for providing extremely poor customer service by sub-contracting vehicle transport requests to "Do It" Auto Transport.

During the transportation process, I encountered the following issues with "Do It" Auto Transport... My debit card was charged days BEFORE the car was delivered (The original email confirmation from Stateway stated the following "COD Amount: Must be paid to the carrier on DELIVERY in Certified Funds.") Delivery dates and times were CONSTANTLY CHANGED with the following excuses to the effect of "The driver is very tired," "My driver is stuck in traffic." (I was contacted by "Edgar" on 27 November stating my vehicle is "guaranteed" to be delivered on 28 November between 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm, only to re-scheduled for 29 November "either by 12:00 am midnight or between 8:00 am - 11:00 am.") (Note: My vehicle wasn't delivered until 29 November around 2:30 pm! My original delivery date was 24 November.)

Vehicle was severely damaged upon delivery (front bumper was scratched badly due to lack of handling and care) AND had an extra 50 miles on it! My vehicle had 13,901 miles on it PRIOR to pick-up, and contained 13,951 miles upon delivery. (If a vehicle is being TRANSPORTED, why were there additional miles on it???)

Several unreturned phone calls ("Paul" [Stateway]) & "Edgar" ["Do It"]) were terrible with returning phone calls. Unanswered questions ("Do It" Auto Transport completely failed to provide pertinent information updates on the location of my vehicle and delivery date/time throughout the transportation process.) "Do It" Auto Transport failed to provide their customer (me) with a peace of mind and sense of security that my vehicle was safely being transported throughout the process.

Due to the suspicious lack of communication (vehicle location updates), I felt as if I was experiencing a robbery/heist and informed "Edgar" I would call the police and report my vehicle stolen! Overall, my decision to conduct business with Stateway Auto Transport and "Do It" Auto Transport for the first time resulted in a significant amount of additional stress in conjunction with my PCS move, no peace of mind, lost of appetite and sleep, headaches and a MAJOR INCONVENIENCE!

It's truly sad and unacceptable for a company to treat their customers like this, especially an ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY MEMBER! Regardless of whether a person is military or civilian, I strongly advise NOT TO HIRE Stateway Auto Transport and/or "Do It" Auto Transport to transport your vehicle. Safe yourself from the lost time, inconvenience and unnecessary stress... I'll NEVER choose Stateway and/or "Do It" Auto Transport to handle/transport my vehicle again.

I received an email from Karla, she works in the Dispatch Office. Stating that my car will be picked up on Monday November 9, 2015, with assigned company as Auto Express as carrier. With a 2-4 HOUR WINDOW, sweet I think. I contact a good friend and ask her if she would do me a favor, by waiting for the 2-4 hour window for the driver to call and schedule time on Monday November 9, 2015 to pick up my vehicle.

I received a text message from Naviy from Auto Express Carrier. The following is a direct quote from Naviy, "Hello, is Naviy from Auto Express Carrier, is the company supposed pick up the 1996 Buick Regal. My driver picks up your car tomorrow. The driver calls you 1 hour before pick up." I was a little blown away, and asked the name of the company, phone number, and person he spoke to. Naviy says company is "STATEWAY AUTO TRANSPORT". Here's Naviy's response "The company sent to me the order for pick up tomorrow morning (November 10, 2015). Stateway will "jack you" and "jack you" and forget about your deposit of $145, that is gone. SO, IN CLOSING STATEWAY AUTO TRANSPORT SUCKS!!!

Then the next excuse was that the drivers do not want to drive over bridges. What? Semis drive over the Golden Gate Bridge every day. I also informed her that there are other ways to get here that are much more preferred by drivers than going through San Francisco (Hwy 80-actually saves time). She told me they had to go the most direct route, and won't drive over a bridge. She then told me that if I met the driver South of the bridge I could get my vehicle delivered sooner. I said there is no safe place to do that, and besides, I was quoted delivery to my residence/business. Next I was told that my vehicle could get picked up sooner if I would go with Open transport. I said no way. It's a Classic Vehicle and I was quoted for Enclosed. I was offered $100.00 off and I still refused.

Next we were being told the vehicle would be picked up on 09-08-2015. They charged my credit card on 09-05-2015 for $145.00 for the deposit without informing me. That was $100.00 less than they said it would be. A driver finally did show up on that date, but it was Open transport. When I spoke to Emily **, she said that they would also take off $100 more from what I was to pay the driver for a total of $200 off the original quoted price. I said no way, I wanted Enclosed and didn't care that they had $100,000.00 insurance. The savings they were offering would not even pay for the vehicle to be detailed and cleaned, let alone pay for any rock chips or other damage.

I asked when an Enclosed transport would show up, she did not know. I called elsewhere, and got my vehicle picked up in less than 24 hours. So, I called her back on 09-08-2015 (same day) and requested to cancel and a refund of my deposit. She didn't answer her phone, I had to leave a voicemail. As soon as I hung up the phone, I e-mailed her and stated the same thing and that I wanted a refund. They next day someone else called me back and was somewhat begging that I did not cancel and couldn't believe that someone else had already picked up the vehicle. I asked for a refund. She told me that it would take 1-2 weeks to show up in my bank.

It has now been nearly 4 weeks, and NO refund has showed up. On 10-03-2015 I sent another e-mail to Miss Emily, and told her that if I didn't hear from her by Monday (10-05-2015), that I would contact BBB and the Illinois Attorney General and be filing complaints. All I want is my money. No response from her. I even waited until today, 10-06-2015 and called them again and was sent to someone else's voicemail and I left a message stating that I wanted contact immediately from them and my money. No response, yet again. I am out my $145.00. I want my money! I have already filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and also with the Illinois Attorney General. BUYER BEWARE.

Quick points: After you book your pick up, don't ever expect them to return a call or an email. They've got your money, and now they don't care about you. They will book you at a low price, THEN ask for more money to get a drivers attention. After my vehicle sat idle for more than 12 days, they started repeatedly asked me for $100-200 more. Until your vehicle is actually picked up, they will lie however they can to prevent you from canceling, i.e. your vehicle is at the top of the list, a carrier is in the area, were just confirming insurance, sometimes the truckers have trouble going through the mountains, etc.

Now, my story: I live in Minneapolis and bought a vehicle in San Diego. Shortly after I bought it, I sold my only other car. Because Stateway told me that my vehicle would be picked up 1-4 days (not business days) after the ready date, I didn't panic. Little did I know that I would be in for a continuous web of lies and deceit that would ultimately result in my having to get rides and/or rent a vehicle until my vehicle finally arrived. Because I had sold my other car, I called on Ready Date+3 Days to check on the pickup status. It was then that I was told that whoever told me it would be picked up 1-4 days after the ready date was mistaken and that I should have been told it would be picked up 1-7 days after the ready date. Red Flag #1.

I was told not to worry because my vehicle was at the top of the list and that a carrier would pick it up soon. A carrier? When I booked, I was told that STATEWAY was the carrier. Nope, as it turns out, they are a broker just like all the other brokers. They told me that they do have some of their own trucks (which, for all I know, may be a lie), but that the majority of their business is done through brokering.

Every business day, I called for an update. Most days, I either spoke with a Susie or Bill. While very friendly on the phone, Susie has no idea what shes doing and will lie directly to you to put you at ease. She supposedly wrote many emails to dispatch, each email more useless than the last. Eventually, I asked to speak to a manager and was connected to a Rachel. On Ready Date + 9 Days, Rachel told me that it would be picked up in the next two days. I called the next day. No pickup that day. Rachel then assured me that it would be picked up the following day (Ready Date + 11 days). By the end of that business day, I had received no calls or emails, so I again called to check in. I called and asked for Rachel. Rachel? I don't think there's a Rachel who works here.

At that point, I was furious. I again asked to speak to a manager. After being put on hold for 15+ minutes, they hung up on me. I called right back and the call was disconnected while they tried to transfer me to a Tim. Called back again and asked for Tim. Hes not here, what message would you like me to email him? I told the rep that I wanted to talk directly to Tim and that I had NEVER received a call back or email the entire time that I had been working with them. Suddenly Tim was available.

Tim answered the phone and was very amicable, calm, and willing to help. He was the only positive part of my experience with Stateway. Unfortunately, it was far too little, far too late. Tim reassured me that they were doing everything they could do to get the vehicle picked up. He then asked if I would be willing to add another $100-200 to get a drivers attention. This was the 6th or 7th time one of them had asked me to pay more for my delivery. I told Tim that it was it ridiculous for them to ask me for more money, and that they should instead offer me a discount. After a brief hold, he said that they would take $100 off their $145 fee to add to the $800 the driver would get, in the hopes that it would get picked up sooner.

Fast forward through couple more days of inactivity: Again I called and spoke to Tim. Again, he asked me to pay more money, making the point that they need to at least make something. I explained that given my horrible experience thus far, no, they do not need to make any money on the deal. Sometimes in business you make 30% margin, sometimes you need to take a loss. This was one of those times. I asked him to speak with whomever he needed to make this happen. After a hold, he came back on the line and told me that they would use the rest of their deposit plus add $50 to get the vehicle picked up faster.

At long last, I received an email saying my vehicle had been dispatched and giving me a date for pickup. The email also said it would take 7 days to arrive, which was disappointing because since I had placed the order, I had always been told it would take 2-4 days from pickup. The pickup date (a Tuesday) came and went. After all this, they still couldn't pick it up when they promised. Fortunately, the pickup was only delayed one more day. Of course, another wrinkle: The driver who arrived to pick up the X3 didn't have a Bill of Lading, so the dealership couldn't release the vehicle to him. More phone calls and more time needed on my part to address the problem. Once the vehicle was picked up, I assumed everything was fine. I called a couple days later (Friday) to check the status/location of the vehicle. After having it in their possession for two full days, it had only traveled 120 miles (from San Diego to Los Angeles).

The day before the scheduled drop off date, I thought I should call the actual carrier and make sure that I only needed to give them $800 on delivery. Nope. They said $995. Okay, so I checked my bank account. As it turns out, Stateway hadn't yet charged me the $145 deposit. So that still leaves me $50 short (the same $50 that Stateway promised that they would provide to the carrier). After texting Tim, he explained that all of their deposits are $195. I wasn't sure if he didn't know that my deposit was $145 or if that was an outright lie, so I sent him a screen shot of my confirmation email that showed my deposit being $145. A short time later, he texted me back and said they'd send me a check for the $50.

Promised drop off date #1: After five calls to Stateway's contracted carrier (Interstate Roadrunner) I finally found out that the driver had run over his hours and that the vehicle wouldn't be delivered until the following day. They seemed very sheepish to tell me this, and like I said, it took five calls to get that information. Promised drop off date #2: When the vehicle finally arrived, the drop off went fine and there were no surprises. Finally, something in the awful experience actually went as it should have.

I sold my car during all of this, and the person who bought it had chosen to go through Stateway for shipping (He chose them on my recommendation before I had gone through this awful experience). After seeing what I was going through, he canceled with Stateway and went with another carrier. Ten hours AFTER my car was picked up by the other carrier, Stateway's contracted carrier called me to coordinate the pickup. Apparently, Stateway didn't listen to the buyers multiple voice mails or emails telling them he was cancelling. Their so-called Vehicle Tracking Service is nothing but an archaic, simple online chat system which wouldn't be so bad if it actually worked. I tried multiple times and no one ever responded.

TIP - If you DO make the mistake of booking with Stateway and you need to contact them, do not select the customer service option when you call. You will likely be automatically put on hold for 3-4 minutes then transferred to voicemail. I'd suggest selecting the I've already got a quote and would like to schedule pickup option. EVERY time I selected that option, someone answered immediately (of course). Main thing to take away from this review: If you are considering using Stateway, please reconsider. Save yourself countless phone calls, emails, and hours of wasted time. Run the other direction and never look back.

I tried to contact Stateway several times with no response for clarification as to why this happened, and why such a blatant lie was told to me regarding the pickup location. Had I known I needed to drive the car to another state for pickup, I would have either gone with a different service, or would have handled the scheduling differently so that I would have been available to do this. Instead, two other people were inconvenienced by this lack of professionalism by the Stateway team.

I was asked to give them until 5 p.m. At about 4:45 I received advising a driver was assigned and given his number to arrange pick up location. I call and was told he was only taking my car to Grand Rapids. I asked how am I to get the car to Arizona, he said I have to contract with someone else. So much for one driver assigned to transport the car. I call Stateway back and was told that I would be charged because a driver was assigned even though I cancelled the driver as Grand Rapids is not the destination contracted for.

Here are the details of the kind of nightmare you can expect: Confirmed on 5.12 with ** the original quote for two cars picked up on 6.08, drop off on 6.15 for $3000. We changed the quote a few days later to only the Jeep, for $1500. Same pickup/drop off dates. I had to email ** 3 times to ask for the confirmed updated quote with only the one car just to ensure no confusion. I finally received confirmation sent to me on 6.03. I received a call from Dispatch (**) on 6.06 to ask a few clarifying questions because there was confusion about how many cars were being picked up. I confirmed only the jeep and she said she would call me back with a time once confirmed, which I did not get a callback.

I called at 8:30 am local time on 6.08 (which is the pickup date) to confirm when the driver would arrive. I spoke to ** originally who told me the driver had backed out of the shipment and he was trying to find someone else. He said he couldn't guarantee that it would be picked up that day. I asked to be transferred to a supervisor. He sent me to **. ** explained that the driver backed out due to confusion thinking he was expected to pick up two cars for the price of one. She said she would figure it out and call me back. I called every two hours since then to get updates because they never called when they said they would.

Yesterday (6.08), ** told me that part of the reason they were struggling to get a driver is because the price was too low for a drop off in Charlotte (not much business out there). I told her that they need to increase the cost for the driver on their own expense to get someone to pick up asap. They did not confirm they did that until late yesterday, which was an increase of $300. I was left in the lurch last night and they left before updating me. Same scenario today (6.09) - calling every two hours, with no success in reaching anyone.

I finally called the main sales line and talked to ** and he said he would have Dispatch call me back. I refused to let him hang up and he put me on hold to then talk to **. ** came back on the line and he said that they are now removing the $500 deposit to give all the money to the driver to increase the chance they can get someone asap. Received a text message on 6/10 saying the trucking company would be there in an hour. No one showed up. Called in on 6/10 and spoke to ** who said he would call back in 30 mins. He never called. Called again on 6/10 and was sent to voicemail. Left message. Called again after no response and spoke to **. She refused to let us speak to a supervisor and then hung up on us. We finally called to cancel. It was only at that time that they were genuinely concerned.

This has happened with two different auto transport companies that I have dealt with. One of the callers called me and told me "you are stupid and I hope you have to pay 2,000,00 to have the car transported and besides that, that car is the ugliest car I have ever seen." It was my understanding if they agreed to transport the car it shouldn't matter what kind of a car it is.