Ship a Car Direct

I called up the girl, her name is Jennifer, and told her what I want to do. She was awesome. I called her and she’d answer. If I emailed her, she answered as well, and that was tough. In addition, she was honest and she didn’t bash any other car shippers as everyone else did. She was just, “Here’s what we got,” and she didn’t put anybody down. She even gave me a price deduction. She was like, “Hey, we’ll only charge you this amount of fees.” Within less than a week, I had a driver. I talked to the driver and brought my car. He too was awesome. I called and he’d answer right away. I text him, he’d text me back. I have no anxiety about where my car is at. I was at the gym and so he dropped it off at the gym.

Since I live literally down the road, I asked him if he can help me drive my car and he helped me out. Back when I bought the car, I told the people there to be honest with me. I asked them to walk around the car and if there's minor damage, I need to know. After all, I'm expecting scratches. And they’re like, “Nope, there’s nothing wrong with it.” But when the driver got here, he brought all the scratches out and there was a lot more than I thought. But he already had them marked down and had the car lot sign off on them.

So, it’s nothing that he had later. It was before, like a pre-delivery check. The driver probably did it to cover his own. He didn’t wanna see something not on there and then get here, and then I see it and he can get blamed for it. But he did a good job. I had an excellent experience with Ship A Car Direct. I’m happy with them, 100%. They did a good job of finding me the right driver and interviewing them. If I have to use Ship a Car Direct again, I would call the same person back. I would definitely recommend them.

They had videos on their website explaining various components of areas where consumers would have questions probably, along the way. So, they obviously have done this for quite some time and learned from past experience as to create all these videos to make the situation less challenging, because it's a difficult process. I'm a person who plans ahead of time and when you ship a car, you can't plan these things ahead of time the way you normally would. If you call and say, "Okay, I'm giving you eight weeks now, so you had plenty of times to set things up,” the broker doesn't get the information until 24 to 48 hours prior by the driver saying, "Okay. I'm going to pick up the car.” Everything is last minute.

One of the things that Ship a Car did was they said they were gonna need a three-day window to make sure that this was all handled properly. I gave them a five-day window but didn't need it. So, that was a good thing because they were able to get the driver in contact with me, within that three-day window that they said they would. And they gave me the driver's number direct. I got to choose whether I wanted that driver or not. Also, they did not take deposits until I authorized that and accepted the driver they assigned. So there were all factors that played into as opposed to some companies that won't take the deposit upfront.

The pick-up went well. It was a 93-foot truck. I had anticipated because I wanted an enclosed vehicle for my two vehicles that I was shipping. And I didn't realize it was going to be a soft cover enclosed. But I could have asked the driver. I just assumed that it was a hard shell enclosed. He came into my development and for a 93-foot truck, that was not an easy task. He manipulated part of the way into the development and then he called me and said he was not gonna be able to get all the way to my house but he was only two blocks from me. So I was able to drive the car to him without difficulty.

The loading of the vehicles, everything went smooth on that end. There was a complication on the delivery end and it was considered on his end that a claim might be put into the insurance company. This would have affected somehow his standings with driving and he got very agitated. I have a Corvette that had 3,000 somewhat miles. It was nearly mint car and there was a very, very small paint chip. On the original bill of letting, he put marks on all the areas he saw. And on his bill of letting, he had this area marked and on our copy, it wasn't there. Now, all the other areas were. He said he would give us 50 bucks and they would call. My wife said the broker said if this happens, she'll pay him in full. There's no holding of payment. But she had to get a note from him saying that this was on the original bill of letting and he just went ballistic.

He started putting the cars back up on his truck and pulled the bill of letting out of her hand. Ultimately, the nephew of the driver held our copy up to the sunlight. Although you couldn't see anything, you could see the impression of PC which was paint chip. And as soon as that was pointed out to her she said, "Fine," and the deal was finished and he drove off and we got our cars.

But the bottom line is, in all honesty, the driver did a good job of getting the cars here. He got them here too early because we told them when we would be here and he was going to drive around with the cars on his truck. So, it was just a miscommunication in the end but I thought the driver was good and the company that hired him was good. Ship a Car Direct did everything they could and they did it well.

I was skeptical about what was going to work because I was also talking to another shipper. But finally, I decide to commit to him just based on his email and the list of emails changed. It looked like that the process is little bit streamlined. I also looked at the comments about them from various sites. And then he said that, “Once you committed, I’m going to find the shipper. But once I find the shipper, you have to pay this amount of money, that first phase, and then rest of the money you pay directly there.”

And then he called me and said that, “Afternoon Saturday, you are ready to go, and this is when the guy’s going to come, this car is going to be shipped.” And then I also got the shipper’s details, who the contact person, then he emailed details. I was feeling little more comfortable because now I was getting the responses one after another. The driver called and said that, “I’m going to come in the afternoon. I said that, “Great.” And he said that, “Probably, I’ll come in the afternoon because I don’t want to have traffic.” And he didn’t come. I called him, and he said that, “No, no, I think there are issues there, traffic today. I’ll come tomorrow.”

He said that he was going to come at 3 o’clock. Probably he came at around 4 o’clock. Me and my son went there, dropped the car. He inspected the car and checked every single thing, and he said that, “Here’s the number, and this is the day.” And I told him that, “I need the car on Monday, and I’m going to call you.” He said not to worry and that my car would be there. I booked another rental car for my son just in case, based on the comments that it takes very long time.

I called the driver and he said it was our choice when we would pick up the car. I realized that he was already there, and I canceled my rental. I told him that I could pick up the car. I gave the office address of my son, where he works. And I told him where he was staying and it was in a hotel. He said that he could drop it there and just make sure that there is enough area where the vehicle could go. He went there around 8 o’clock and this was one day early because I thought that my son could use that vehicle.

Everything was pretty smooth. In between, we also got a text and email messages regarding, “Hey guys, you could upload the car’s photos and every single thing just in case if your vehicle is damaged. So, we have the details and then we could do it.” I was feeling very much comfortable, and then the process just worked right on the money. I was extremely, extremely happy. And I never thought that it could be this easy. I will definitely recommend eShip again and again. If I will be using a transport company tomorrow, I’ll just use them.

Initially, the cars were in Suisun, which is close to Fairfield, and she was emailing me that they got no drivers yet, but she said that she would keep me posted. However, I got nothing for about a week. Some activity happened over the weekend where I said that I was moving the vehicles. I ended up moving the vehicles to my home in Elk Grove and had the transport driver pick up the vehicles from there. I changed the order a bit and she updated her file very quickly. Once I changed everything, she was in communication via email or text to my phone. I was assigned a driver within a day. Jennifer contacted me and said that she found me a driver and that the driver should be calling me.

I called the driver and had to let them know that I couldn’t drop what I was doing because I was at least half an hour out from home, but I would be there. The driver was patient and he worked with me. The gentleman arrived at my home and there was not a problem loading up the vehicles. I was amazed at how those things loaded up. Unfortunately, one of the vehicles did not ship because I could not get it started and the driver could not take it because it had to be up and running. He tried to help me get it started, though.

When they arrived at the drop-off location, there was also no problem. The driver called prior to their arrival. He called my family in Louisiana and said that he was about half an hour out. He also called me to let me know that he was half an hour out and to let me know that he was dropping off the vehicles. He also asked if someone was going to be there to receive them and I let him know. I called my family and he subsequently called them and said that he was about 20 minutes out. He also asked where they wanted the vehicles parked. All the cars were received in the condition in which they left and my family was very happy. I spoke to my nephew and there were no problems with the vehicles.

I prepaid the driver, so I paid him for the contract I had agreed to, which was taking five vehicles to be transported. He only took four, so I have one in which I made contact with him last week and I said that I’m in the process of getting the vehicle repaired and that as soon as I get it repaired, I will call him. I let Jennifer know and she is in the loop at Ship a Car Direct. She told me to let her know if I have any problems. Hopefully, by the end of the week or next week, I’ll be shipping the vehicle on my way.

I did some research online with other transport companies and saw some bad reviews, even with the broker or the transport driver. I did not have either one of those experiences with Ship a Car Direct and none of those were on them when I looked around. I would recommend Ship a Car Direct immediately. They are very customer service-oriented, and they will keep in touch and keep you updated.

Still, I worked with them and they were very communicative with all kinds of reassurance and help with understanding how the process would work. They also had an online app to take pictures before and after, on pick-up and delivery. And they'd get back to me as they said they would when there was an open issue that I had. So, it was a very positive experience and I loved it.

They picked the car up pretty much as scheduled and I used the app to take pictures of my car before it was loaded on the truck. Then, they arrived in California at our drop-off point a day early, which worked fine for us because of certain scheduling issues. I also took pictures with the Ship a Car Direct app afterwards, which again was reassuring to me that I had documentation of the condition of the car before we shipped and after. It was perfect and there were no problems with any damage to the car. Also, there were no hidden fees. I got a verbal notice about the price and they followed it up by an email confirmation. The price was very competitive from the beginning and my final payment was what I expected. In fact, it was exactly what we agreed to.

I was planning this move for six months and I didn't know if I had a carrier until a week before. So there was tension there and I didn't know that there was a solution, but if they could do something to ease that tension for their future customers, that would be nice. I know it's difficult, but maybe Ship a Car Direct could produce an app that the carriers could use to notify the customers that they're gonna be at this place by this date with this percentage of confidence. And maybe they could have several people lined up, a Plan B kind of thing, in case the first carrier couldn't meet his schedule. Then that information comes to their customers and they feel more comfortable that there's a plan A, B, and C in case the first one or two carriers don't meet their schedules.

Other than that, I'd recommend Ship a Car Direct in a heartbeat. It was a great experience, especially the customer service people that were in communication with me over several months leading up to the transport. I pestered them but their attitude was good. They were responsive and consoling for my fears. Over the weeks leading up to the transport, because of the way they communicated, the apps that they had, and several emails from their quality control people and so on and so forth, I began to build confidence that they were a competent, dependable organization.

When we checked in with the driver several days later on the Thursday morning before my son's flight, the driver asked if my son could meet him that afternoon at a truck stop where he was resting rather than dropping the car off at the residence where my son was staying. My son agreed, not realizing that the truck stop would be 40 miles from his residence. After my son picked up his car (which arrived in perfect condition) and drove over an hour to his residence, I let Stefan know what had occurred. He was very apologetic and the company made things right by me by refunding my fee.

I am giving them 5 stars because their customer service was excellent. Their communication with me throughout the process was excellent. Although the driver seemed like a very nice guy when he picked up the car, he took advantage of our lack of knowledge of the location of the truck stop relative to my son's residence. I would use Ship A Car Direct again... but I would not allow Wayside Trucking to transport my vehicle. Hopefully Ship A Car Direct will be evaluating their use of this transport company as well.