AA Auto Transport/Ship by Rail
Written: Sep 16 '03
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Pros: none found
Cons: extremely slow delivery; consistently incorrect info. about
car's location & delivery date; staff evasive, impolite
The Bottom Line: AA Auto/Ship by Rail does not seem, by any measure, to be
a reputable company, in my experience. It is WORTH paying a
little more to avoid using this company!
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| chelangat3's Full Review: A-A Auto Transport |
AA Auto Transport, also doing business as Ship by Rail, is
a San Diego, California based company whose advertising statements strongly encourage customers to believe that it ships private autos across the U.S. in a maximum time of 21 days.
It has taken AA Auto/Ship by Rail 54 days to deliver my car from southern California to Maryland, from July 21, 2003, when AA Auto/SbyR took possession of the car in the Los Angeles area, to September 13, 2003, when it was finally delivered in Maryland, nearly 8 weeks later.
For 50 days, from 7/21-9/9/03, AA Auto/Ship by Rail never
contacted me to give me any info. about the car's location or delivery date. In each case, I had to contact
AA Auto/SbyR by calling its 800 number in an attempt to learn where it was and when it would be delivered. In addition, all such info. I received from AA/SbyR about the car's location and delivery date between those dates
proved incorrect.
I didn't start contacting AA/SbyR to seek info. on my car's whereabouts until my car had been in that company's possession for 21 days, since that is AA/SbyR's maximum stated time for shipment and delivery.
So on 8/11/03 I first called AA/SbyR's 800 number to ask when the car would be delivered. A woman there quickly and confidently told me that the car would arrive in Maryland on
8/13 or 8/14.
On 8/20/03, not having received the car or any word from
AA/SbyR, I again called the company's 800 number and was told by a man who identified himself as Dion that my car had, by that date, left Chicago, passed through Cleveland, was due in Selkirk, NY that evening and would arrive by rail in Newark, NJ the following day, 8/19, and be delivered by tow truck to Maryland by 8/21/03. This man, Dion, I believe is Dion Saks, Vice President of AA Auto/Ship by Rail.
Later in the week, when I first spoke with railroad company
customer service reps, who were able to correctly track my car's rail progress for me, I found that the info. given to me by Dion on 8/18 was 100% incorrect, since my car had
actually been in Chicago August 16 to 19, due to rail car problems.
On 8/20/03 I again called AA/SbyR and talked to Melissa, who said the company's computers were down so she couldn't check on my car's location. I called back an hour and 45 minutes later and, told that the computers were still down, I asked to talk to a supervisor. A man who identified himself as Isaac and who, I thought, sounded a great deal like Dion, came on the phone.
I asked Isaac whether there were not some other way that he
could track my car's location without using a computer, perhaps by telephone. Indeed, the rail car number provided
me by AA Auto/SbyR, which was supposed to allow me to track my car's progress online, hadn't worked either, though I had tried it on more than one day.
Isaac finally said that he could check by phone and would do so and call me back, which he did much later that day.
However, during this conversation Isaac also engaged in a verbal outburst against me, confusing me with another customer who, in another phone call, had used an epithet during a conversation with another AA/SbyR staff member, to describe Isaac's behavior. Isaac repeated vehemently several times, mistakenly, that I was this customer.
That's how I, an already long-suffering customer, found myself in the position of having to calm Isaac down in order to proceed with the business at hand, that of locating my already well-overdue car, which Isaac's company was supposed to be delivering to me.
A friend of mine who works in customer service pointed out that, in a reputable company, anyone who engaged in such a verbal outburst against a customer, for any reason, would probably be fired. This incident strongly confirmed my already growing suspicion that AA/SbyR is a company that doesn't mind operating outside the normally-expected bounds of professionalism.
I finally resorted, on 8/20/03, to personally contacting
railroad company customer reps, from a railroad company which did not even actually transport my car, to try to find out my car's location, during the many hours I was waiting for Isaac to call me back with that info. This is when I first learned that all such info. previously given me by AA Auto/SbyR was wrong.
Railroad company personnel were unfailingly polite, helpful & professional, in stark contrast to AA Auto/SbyR personnel. It was a railroad company customer service rep
who finally called me, to my surprise, on 8/22/03 to let
me know that my car had arrived at its rail destination in
Newark, NJ. AA/SbyR never contacted me with this news.
So I again contacted Isaac at AA/SbyR, who said that the car would be delivered to Maryland by tow truck from New
Jersey on 8/25 or 8/26.
At the end of the business day on 8/26, with the car not delivered and no word from AA/SbyR, I called AA/SbyR to ask for the name and phone number of the person or company who would be delivering the car by tow truck. The original paperwork received from AA/SbyR gave the name and number
of a company called Accurate Towing in Maryland, from which the car was to be picked up, but since AA Auto/SbyR had now
said, that through "management overrride", it would be delivering the car directly to home, not to a pick-up location, I wanted to check whether the same company would be handling the delivery.
So on 8/26 I spoke to Judy at AA Auto/SbyR, who refused to give me that name and phone number. She would not say why she wouldn't given it to me. I asked her if it was company policy. She wouldn't say whether it was or wasn't. She simply refused to give it to me, for no stated reason. This I did not like at all. Why the evasion, I wondered? This didn't seem to me to be how a reputable company conducts itself.
However, on 8/26 my relative awaiting the car's delivery
on the east coast also called AA/SbyR requesting the same phone number and was given a New Jersey phone number. This phone number, though, proved to be out of service!
AA/SbyR promised delivery of the car on 8/30/03, then on 8/31/ then on 9/1. Each of these days we had to call AA/Sby
R to ask for and receive a delivery date. And each of these days, when the car was not delivered as promised and no one called us to say why, we had to call them again.
At the end of the business day on 9/1/03, I filed a complaint with the Better Bureau of San Diego through their website (www.sandiego.bbb.org) and learned through the site that several complaints about AA Auto/Ship by Rail have been
received by the BBB of San Diego.
On 9/2/03 another phone call to AA/SbyR resulted in Isaac giving the following reason why the car had not yet been delivered as promised: Isaac said the car had been lost in the parking lot at Newark for 4 days. Later in the week, during another phone call, Isaac would say that it had been lost for 6 days. Before it was lost, however, it was not delivered, according to Isaac, because the tow truck had broken down.
Isaac next promised delivery of the car on 9/3, then on 9/4. Each of those days the car was not delivered and no one contacted us about it. When AA/SbyR was called on 9/3, Isaac said that the tow truck driver had to go to the dentist. When AA/SbyR was called on 9/4 Isaac said that the tow truck driver was sick from the dentist and was at home, but that another tow truck driver, called "Mike",
would call "soon" to deliver the car. Mike never called.
On 9/5/03 a railroad company rep contacted AA Auto/SbyR's
Vice President Dion Saks on my behalf and was told by Dion that the car would be delivered on 9/6 or 9/7. If the car
was not delivered by 9/7, the railroad company rep told me to call Dion. The car was not delivered by the evening of
9/7, so I left a message for Dion.
Dion, however, did not return my call the next day. Dion didn't call me until 9/9/03, when, prompted by railroad company personnel, he finally left me a message. His message questioned why I was even inquiring about the car, rather than my relative, who was receiving the car. Dion
obviously hadn't checked his records. If he had, he would have known that I'm the car's registered owner.
Dion's message also questioned why railroad company personnel were calling him about my car. So I pointed out to him that I hadn't contacted them until my car was well overdue and AA/SbyR had been unable to provide me with any accurate info. about it. I also told Dion Saks that I believed that the railroad company had chosen to become involved because they are a reputable company that takes
integrity and customer service very seriously.
My relative on the east coast awaiting the car's delivery called Dion on 9/8 and Dion said that the car would be delivered on 9/9 or 9/10. Dion also said that the car might simply be DROPPED OFF, WITH or perhaps WITHOUT a phone call first, and with the keys left, to quote Dion,
either "on top of the wheel" or "in the gas tank".
Since the person receiving the car lives in a multi-story
apartment building with a locked garage and streets parked heavily with cars for blocks around, this "drop off" plan, for a car already weeks overdue for delivery,
championed by the company Vice President Dion Saks, seemed to me to be a low point of customer service worthy of including in the Guinness Book of Records. I may submit it to Guinness to see if they are interested.
Isaac later denied that anyone at AA Auto/SbyR could have said this. Yet in fact it was V.P. Dion Saks who said it.
AA Auto/SbyR continued to extend the delivery date, first to
9/11, then to 9/12, then to 9/13, with no explanation give as to why the date needed to be extended.
It seems to me that perhaps after using as excuses the tow truck breaking down, the car being lost in the parking lot for 4 (or6?) days, the tow truck driver going to the dentist and the tow truck driver being home sick, all during the previous week, they probably just couldn't think of any more excuses.
The car was finally delivered to Maryland and received 8/13/03. It is undamaged but the front seat was inexplicably soaking wet. The battery was totally dead after 8 weeks, so the battery had to be replaced before it could be driven away.
Dion Saks has verbally promised a refund of the amount paid to ship the car. However, it should be clear that the word of anyone associated with this company has not been shown to be reliable...so I hope that the BBB will monitor such exchange of funds...."the check is in the mail" clearly will
not suffice from such a company as AA/SbyR.
I will enter another comment here on eopinions immediately when that promised refund is received from AA Auto/Ship by Rail. If no such comment is found here, let readers know that the refund has not yet been received.
Recommended:
No
Punctuality: Showed up late
Ease of Filing Claim: N/A
Lost Goods: No
Amount Paid (US$): 795
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Epinions.com ID:
chelangat3
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Location: California
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
I'm just an ordinary person who appreciates companies that
value customer service and integrity.
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