From the outset with their lowball quote - which appears to be the "industry standard" bait-and-switch trick - this was a nightmare. They quoted $475. Then began the barrage of phone calls. By Monday, they were saying they could guarantee a pickup for $625. We told Move Wheels that if they could find a driver to pick up Monday morning, we would give them our load but I told them that my break-even between driving the car and flying home was calculated at $550. If it went over that, I'd just drive the car myself. They even tried haggling to get another $25, wanting $575. "It's only another $25" - RIGHT... no, ACTUALLY it was ONE HUNDRED more than the price THEY quoted. They then began to make excuses like the lowball quotes were based on old rates and they didn't know what the new rates in my area were going to be until they offered up my load, and the evil drivers all wanted more money! Right. Blame it on the drivers. I finally had heard enough and told him to stop trying to urinate down my back and tell me it was raining. I explained that my ex and I were owner-operator truckers, and I knew what a load board was and was sure they knew darn well what rate per mile was likely to get the load, and they "quoted" far below that thinking they'd get me to agree at that low rate. Of course this is done only to find out days later (I suppose hoping that the customer would be more impatient and thus agree to more money) that the load couldn't be moved at that rate for some new excuse. They said we were too far away from the "corridor" at first, if this car was in Raleigh it would be that rate. I then said "The car is driveable. I will drive it to Raleigh if that's what they need me to do." So began the back and forth, with them trying to get me to accept the higher rate because the driver was asking for it. I flat out told them if they didn't have a driver that could move it for $550 TOTAL, by noon, I was going to back my bag and head to Illinois driving the car myself. Finally at 9:39 on Monday they claimed they had a driver in the area that agreed to the price, and he be there to pick up the car yet that morning. He wanted me to immediately sign a contract, but I told him unless I had a drivers name and phone number, I wasn't signing anything. He did do a conference call with the dispatcher of the company who gave me the drivers name and information. They then agreed to the rate of $550. They took our credit card information and stated that $100 would be billed when the car was picked up, and $450 when it was delivered for the total of $550. The driver arrived late Monday evening only after I'd made several heated calls to their (Move Wheels) voicemail. I believe it was around 7:30pm or so by the time he got there and got the car loaded. The car was easily loaded onto the trailer and he stated it would likely be there Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. (Move Wheels stated it would be picked up Monday and delivered Tuesday). Wednesday morning, the driver was not there. Finally, as Wednesday AFTERNOON was approaching, the person the car was going to had several doctor appointments and needed to leave just after noon (NOT morning!). We called the driver and he stated he'd had some problems with his other pick-up (understandable) and was running late. He said his GPS said ETA to deliver was just before 1 pm. I then informed him that no one would be there to get the car, and they wouldn't be back until 4-4:30 pm. He stated he'd go deliver the other car and come back, arriving back between (his estimate) 4:30-5pm. At 8:44pm our time, 7:44pm at the destination location, we spoke to the driver who said his GPS said he was 40 minutes away. I relayed this information via text message. Finally, at 10:22 my time, 09:22 at the destination, I got a phone call from the recipient of the car. The driver was FINALLY there, and demanding the $450 in cash, stating it was a COD load. Nothing was ever said about it being a COD load. We expected payment to go fully on the credit card. This created not only additional stress but additional charges necessary to move money to the TRUCKING company WHO WILL NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS. These brokers (Move Wheels) are VERY dishonest and will say anything to get your business. I caught them in several lies. Don't believe ANY of brokers when they give you these low-ball quotes that they know good and well will never entice a driver to take the load. It's just a ploy to get you to choose them out of the rest of the flock of greedy vultures. They will do this then tell you every lie in the book (oh, fuel went up... oh, you aren't on a popular route (end point was near St. Louis and Effingham), oh, we don't get loads in your area often and the quote was based on rates maybe three months ago, but the price is based on today... RIIIIIIIIIGHT) to jack up the rates as high as they can. Beware!
