AmeriFreight

As soon as we got the actual driver, we reached out and wanted to talk to him and make sure that everything was good to go. But conversations went south because he never returned our call. We just figured out what was going on and we called AmeriFreight back to figure out which way we were gonna go. But it was getting to the point where they were trying to ask if we could leave our car with our neighbor. I didn't know my neighbor. Why would I wanna do that? I’m sure that AmeriFreight was just trying to work options out but none of the options was working for me or my wife.

I guess AmeriFreight was trying to call the driver too, and they did everything they could but it was getting down to hours and we were actually getting ready to depart. Then AmeriFreight came back and said the driver's truck broke. But the great thing would’ve been if the driver had called us back and let us know what was going on so we could definitely know what the hell was happening. At the time, it was just frustration between my wife, myself and with AmeriFreight.

At the end of the day, it worked out. AmeriFreight was pulling tricks out of their hat so we were able to get somebody who could take our truck from Florida to Arizona. But up to the minute of, it was really stressful on us because we were trying to figure this thing out. Other than that, the move went great. They picked the truck up on a Tuesday and I got it on Friday. We were already driving cross-country so we were already here in Arizona when the truck showed up. It was three days from the time I gave them the truck and when it arrived, everything was good to go with the vehicle.

I got several calls and emails from the lady at AmeriFreight and the reps were pretty good. They called in and checked to see how things were going at certain points. The process took a little bit longer than anticipated though. The vehicle was originally supposed to be picked up two days before it got picked up, and it was supposed to be delivered two days before it ended up being delivered. From the point I contacted AmeriFreight to the point that it got delivered, it was a little over two weeks.

The process wasn’t flawless, but it wasn’t AmeriFreight’s fault, it was the vendor's. When they were scheduled to show up and they didn’t show up, I ended up having to call them to find out what was going on. They told me that their driver got hang-up in Cheyenne, Wyoming and told me the new date. The same thing happened going back. I was trying to get ahold of them. I left voicemails, but they never called me back. In the end, the driver was like, “Well, next time, ask for my number directly.” instead of working with the people who route them where to go. But that guy never called me back. So, unfortunately, the communication there was pretty poor. But the vehicle l got delivered all right.

AmeriFreight could tell the customers that when they’re dealing with the vendor, to make sure that they get the phone number for the driver specifically and not just the people routing them. If they have any concerns about where they are, they can talk to that person directly rather than trying to talk to a second party to get ahold of them. But overall, AmeriFreight did a good job. They kept up their end of the bargain.

The quote changed in the end but it didn't go up much. The initial quote was in the 900s, which was why I initially called them, and then the end up quote went up a couple of hundred bucks. But that was probably because it was specific for the actual people doing the driving. The guy I dealt with, Richard, was awesome. He was very knowledgeable and he explained everything to me. He said it would've been cheaper if I would've waited a couple of weeks, but I was trying to get the car then. We had some communication issues with the shipping company and the way they were doing the order, shipping and communication stuff seemed very loose.

There seemed to be a mix-up on the shipping end itself. I was supposed to pick the car up at a side of the road dealer and I was making sure it got done correctly. I bought the car blind so I told my salesman that I needed to make sure that the car gets loaded correctly. They had to ship my car from outside San Francisco up to L.A, then the car got loaded somewhere else from there and it was taken across the country. That leg of the trip was the questionable part. It seemed confusing and frustrating at the time, but Richard was on his game. I called him then he asked me to give him a few minutes. He called me back and said he talked to someone who would talk to the driver. He also gave me an update.

Once the car got put on the other transport vehicle, the gentleman that delivered it to my guy here in Maryland said that it was great and everything was professional and smooth. When the car actually got shipped, it still made it there in the time that they said it was gonna be there. I wish that the way the truck drivers bid on the price was done more accurately. Overall, I was happy and I would ship again with AmeriFreight, but I definitely wouldn't ship whatever company that delivered my car. On the other hand, Richard was always pleasant. He was professional, respectful and still very understanding even when I vented out to him.

They just need to make sure that the drivers that they get actually deliver what they said they're gonna deliver on time, and are reputable drivers. I have a lot of communication between the receiving party and the driver itself. That way, it kinda takes us, meaning the dealer and AmeriFreight, kinda out of it because we're just the facilitators of it. But the last one, was kind of a unique situation. We were sending it to Washington state because the customer that we sold the vehicle to was stationed in Washington, in the Air Force, and we couldn't actually take it on base. So we thought we could send it to a Toyota dealership in Washington state.

Come to find out, the dealer in Washington state wouldn't accept it, so the driver rode around for three days with this vehicle. In that case, it wasn't even the driver's fault. It was just if we had known that three days earlier, we could have communicated with the customer. The customer could have gotten in touch with the driver, and they could have worked out some way to get him his car, and that's what it was

But me and AmeriFreight finally got in touch with the driver three days later, and that's when we found out that information. But anytime I had a issue at AmeriFreight, and I picked up the phone, I called Samantha, which was my contact at AmeriFreight. She was Johnny-on-the-spot. She handled any issue I had, so I don't have a problem with AmeriFreight at all. In any transaction that you have like that, when you send something across country like that, you're gonna have issues. It's just one of those things you gotta work the kinks out. But other than that, everything else was perfect.

The quote was higher than I was expecting. Last time, it cost me about $1,000 to get the car cross-country and that was during the winter season. But given that it has been four years and gas is expensive, I wasn’t too terribly put out with the increase. The rep was also fairly upfront with what the end dollars would be and there weren't any additional fees that I had to worry about. AmeriFreight also still offers additional insurance for anything that the carrier operator's insurance would not cover if the vehicle were to be damaged by storms in transit or on its way to us off the rig.

When the rep contacted me after I had signed the contract, I thought that it would be pretty instant to the carrier. But when I called the carrier to confirm some details, they had only just gotten the information. So I was a little ahead on that one. But for the pickup, I was told that getting a pickup vehicle down was hard so the location ended up being a parking lot. But it was the same location as last time and it was easy to follow. I had a family member on the East Coast handling the pick-up and he didn’t have any issues. The route was approximately the same and there was an establishment of communication. I was given the carrier’s information if I needed to follow up with them. But I wasn't stressed out about it at all and it was pretty hands-off this time.

For the drop-off over here, I got a call a couple of hours in advance. The carrier had also given me a call before that, giving me the range so we could expect the drop-off. Last time, they ended up delivering three days in advance of what they had quoted me and I had to scramble a little bit. But this time, it was right on the nose from the estimate. So that was reassuring. You can expect to wash your car at the end unless you're getting covered transport. But the experience was on par with my expectations and I would certainly use AmeriFreight again or recommend them to others if they had to do a similar coast-to-coast route. Harry, the agent I worked with, was very helpful, upfront and prompt. So I’d recommend him in particular.

Lecia ** started a contract but was not working every time I called and asked for her and she did not return calls. Sam was her sub when she was on leave, and she used high pressure tactics such as cancelling our contract interest with less than 24 hrs notice when we did not respond to a shipping offer on Labor Day, a holiday. Her offer price was high and we had to think about it. So when we learned she cancelled us, we signed up again to request shipping with them. That was a mistake. We should have trusted our instincts when we experienced high pressure and unethical business tactics.

Kathryn ** was the next sale rep who took our new contract interest. She gave us a better rate and we immediately accepted. I called to make payment but there was confusion with another sales rep because Kathryn could not be reached. The next day Sam/Lecia called to asked if we still wanted to ship. I said yes but am working with Kathryn since they cancelled my initial contract. She told me that she was going to talk to Kathryn and quickly got me off the phone. Kathryn told us that we can only ship at the higher initial rate and not the lower that she found for us. We weren't in a hurry for the vehicle and there was no reason for the high rate and pressure.

Despite the frustration, we finalized the shipping with them just to be done and to get our vehicle booked. This was the worst vehicle shipping experience. I would never use AmeriFreight again or recommend them to anyone. After they took our money, we couldn't get service. We were sent directly to voicemail and didn't get any call backs from Kathryn, Lecia, or Sam. Manager Jorge didn't respond to initial emails; he only responded when there was a sale rep with enough compassion to go to him on our behalf because our shipping date was upon us and we said that we couldn't tell if AmeriFreight double booked us because we didn't know what the competing sales reps booked.

Certainly not everyone at AmeriFreight has self-serving business practices because I was able to find two people who explained what should have happened and was empathetic. However, there is no compensation to the customer for their poor coordination and practices. I never heard if the manager spoke with the sales rep to correct these inappropriate practices. There are numerous emails and phone calls that documents and verifies these events.