| We recently had our car moved from Tacoma, WA to Arlington, VA. We contracted through MLAT, who stated they were tops in the industry. Their website looked professional and the Customer Service rep (Mr Gilles) seemed (important word) helpful and friendly. When we set up the agreement the terms were pick up Friday or Saturday (Dec 08 - 09) and delivery Saturday (Dec 16). Initially there was concern with the delivery date not early enough for the truck company, so I offered to have my father give them the vehicle on Tuesday or Wednesday (Dec 12-13). MLAT stated they would call the truck company and see if they could make it work with the earlier pick up date. They called me back the next day and said everything was taken care of the early pick up date was fine and everything was taken care of. Sounded great, life was good, that's when the good times ended. Wednesday afternoon, as me and my family were driving across country, we get a rather rude call from the driver stating he was going to be in VA that night and wanted to know where to drop of the vehicle ??? I explain to him the previous conversation with MLAT, he states it's not in his contract and he can not wait around, told him to contact his company and that I would contact MLAT. I tried calling MLAT and left messages 3 times with no call back, that day. Called 3 more times the next day till I got a hold of my rep. Explained the situation, he stated he would fix things and get back to me. 4 hours later I get a call from ??? (who I later find out is the owner). Explain the situation to him (obviously nothing had been done in the mean time), states he will fix it. Recieve a call from him a couple hours later stating everything was fixed the vehicle would be kept in storage and someone deliver and go over the vehicle with us when we got there, just give the transport company a call when we get to VA. Sounded great and that everything had been resolved. Well when we got to VA we called the transport company, they tell us our car was left at a storage lot, no company representative would be there to deliver the car and they won't tell us the location / address until we pay them by credit card and we have to fax the info into them ??? Asked them so despite the agreement that we would pay them upon delivery of the vehicle and there would be a representative there to go over the inspection of the vehicle and to put an immediate claim into them, instead we had to just trust them ? (which got rude on both of our parts) After going round and round with them I called MLAT and spoke with the Owner who was surprised but kept telling me this was a great company they do a lot of business with them and we should trust them. Told him I was very uncomfortable and very unsatisfied with the fact that the terms of what had been agreed upon keep changing, but if this was normal and the method... Called the transport company back to coordinate credit card info and to find out where vehicle was when I was told I would also have to pay the storage charge, now I was angry, never was I told this could happen. What pissed me off more than having to go through the hassle of going to pick up the vehicle up and not having someone there if things weren't right with the was not I had to pay $125 more (basically 10-15% than I was quoted). The fact is if MLAT had properly coordinated it or taken me up on my offer to have my family deliver the vehicle at a later time this would have never happened. In speaking with the owner of MLAT (sounds like a two or three person business) he stated this rarely happens, pushed the blame on the tranport company and then defended them as a reputable company (???). Explained to him the fact are: The money I paid them was to be my experts and my advocate, instead they were partially to blame for the situation and the additional moneies / fees, and had done a lousy job taking care of me. I thought pretty clear, but the owner kept arguing that this transport company is usually never early and always later, how his company did everything it could to help and rectify the situation (except refund thier commision that is), it actually went round and round because he could not see how any of this was more that unfortunate circumstances and his company nor the rude at every turn transport company was the issue.
Final note the car is safe and sound, no damage we could see, although that storage facility turned out to be a muddy tow yard, my wife BMW a little dirtier but OK. |
