Company Response
Arthur from
Auto Transporters Online Inc. Submitted this response.
Response Date: 8/6/2008 6:52:00 PM
Fortunately, there are more honest people than those who blatantly lie about events. Drew Schneider supposedly purchased a vehicle and then contracted with ATO to ship the vehicle. He completed a contract with this company and provided all of the relevant pickup and delivery information.
ATO corporate policy, without exception, is that we do NOT charge an administration fee before we secure transport for the client. (Securing transport means that we have a signed contract with a specific trucking company to pickup a vehicle for our customer.)
The contract was submitted by Schneider on 7/29 and dispatched for pickup by ATO administration on 7/30. The pickup was scheduled for 7/31. ATO billed Schneider the administration fee after dispatch as per the terms and conditions of our contract.
The driver was sent to the adress of Holly Carter on the designated day only to find that she did not know anything about the vehicle that Schneider contracted with ATO to transport. Holly gave the driver her cell phone number just in case she could help in any way. Schneider was called immediately to tell him what was happening. He reacted angrily to our agent, used foul language and slammed the phone down. We are not sure which of his expectations were not met by our personnel. The only thing we know is that we were sent on a wild goose chase to find a vehicle that was not located where he said it should be.
We eventually managed to contact him again at which point he denied giving ATO the wrong address (which we have in writing in a contract from him) and demanded his administration fee back.
The truck driver had driven approximately 100 miles to pick up the vehicle and was understandably angry. As a measure of good faith, ATO sent the truck driver a check to cover part of his gas expenses for wasting his time.
In summary: ATO did everything we could to assist this customer based on the contract that Schneider completed. The truck driver drove to the pickup point as scheduled. Schneider has called everyone liars, cursed our colleagues and issued threats. We have documentry proof of all calls made, and emails sent directly to Schneider and Carter even though he claims that no-one ever contacted him.
We do our best to provide excellent customer service at all times - no exceptions. Our record speaks for itself. As with any reputable business we charge for our service after we have done what was requested of us.