Courteous But Deceptive
Merle Krouse
Submitted this review about
National Transport LLC
Review made Live: 4/29/2010 2:06:00 PM
I contacted National Transport LLC to broker transporting my daughter's car from Washington state to Arkansas because they are a 5 star company. I will say each individual I spoke with was courteous and always available during business hours. My satisfaction with National ends there however. In fairness, most of the problems came from Mobile Transport, the carrier they chose to transport the vehicle. But since National is in control of the carriers they deal with they need to accept some responsibility for the service provided by that carrier. The best advice I can give anyone considering National Transport LLC: READ THE CONTRACT THOROUGHLY and DO NOT BELIEVE OR RELY ON ANYTHING THEY TELL YOU OVER THE PHONE OR THEIR WEBSITE ABOUT THEIR SERVICE! I will be posting a complete rundown of ALL THE PROBLEMS I had with Mobile Transport LLC in their review so I wont go into all the details here but summarizing my primary complaint about National Transport is that their contract totally absolves them of fulfilling anything they tell you about their services when talking to them initially. They quoted me $895 to transport the vehicle and an average of 3 days to engage a carrier. That was April 7th. Seven days later after I said I would need to go to a different broker because no carrier was found, they suggested I pay an additional $100 to improve my chance of contracting a carrier. Later that day they did advise me that Mobile Transport LLC would be the carrier. When setting up the time for pick up and delivery I was specifically asked for the times I could not be available to have the car picked up and when my daughter would be available to accept delivery in Arkansas. I was given a date when the vehicle would be picked up in Washington - the carrier was 2 days late and I had to meet the carrier between midnight and 1:00 a.m. to accommodate their schedule. Despite leading me to believe (BEFORE I SIGNED THEIR CONTRACT) they and the carrierwould try to work around some generally confirmed time frame in pick up and delivery, I later discovered (IN THE CONTRACT) that we were required to be available ANY TIME AND ANY PLACE to deliver and pick up the vehicle. So much for convenience and the "door to door" delivery as stated on National's website.
I had previously read that many carrier/transporters will pick up your vehicle, drive them to another site and off load it to a storage facility to transport at a later date. I specifically asked National Transport if that was a possibility to occur with my vehicle and was assured that once the vehicle was loaded on the truck it would not be off loaded or stored anywhere - Two or three days after my car was picked up I called the driver to see if I could get an estimated time of arrival in Arkansas and was told by the driver he didn't have the vehicle. When asked where it was the driver told me he didn't know and I would have to call his office (Mobile TransportLLC). Upon trying to contact Mobile Transport by phone several times all I got was a recorded message with no opportunity to leave a message. The voice message said their mailbox was full "please hang up" (this was the situation every time I tried to contact Mobile Transport). I then contacted National Transport to have them find out where my car was. It was in Spokane, WA, being loaded on another truck that had not left the terminal yet. When I pointed out that Mobile had done exactly what I was assured they wouldn't do I was told that their "contract" did not make that assurance and sometimes that does happen.
As a side note, when they first told me that Mobile Transport LLC would be the carrier I immediately checked them out on this website and was shocked to find they were a two star company with horrible reviews by customers. When I told National Transport LLC that I did not want Mobile to do the transporting they assured me they used Mobile daily, never had any problems with them deilivering late, they were reputable and no problems with any major vehicle damage. Upon their assurance I decided to let Mobile transport the vehicle. Should have stuck with my gut feeling.
I was told by National Transport BEFORE I SIGNED THE CONTRACT that the average time for delivery would be 4 - 6 days. After it was not delivered by that time I was told 5 -8 days for delivery, and after that time passed I spoke with National again reminding them of the time line they had given me. They then pointed out in their "contract" they were not responsible for any delays and it wasn't late because they were talking about "business days" (again, no mention of that BEFORE I signed the contract or even in the contract). I was then told by National that the vehicle should be delivered around the 20th of April. On the 20th after hearing nothing from National or Mobile I attempted to contact Mobile Transport to see where the car was. Again I was unable to reach Mobile and I began to wonder if the car was even on the road yet or sitting in some parking lot so I contacted National Transport LLC. I was told they had just talked to the driver and he was in South Dakota and delivery now would be the 24th or 25th! This was also the first time I was given that driver's cell # and name. Having some suspicion that something wasn't right I called the driver that same day. The driver (who was very courteous, and understanding) explained that his truck was broke down, he was sitting in a motel because the auto shop was not able to get the part needed, and he was pretty sure my daughter's car would not be delivered by the 24th or 25th. Again, National never told me this even though they claimed to have talked with the driver less than an hour before I called him.
Getting to the bottom of this, the car was not delivered on the 24th or 25th, nor on the next scheduled dates of the 26th and 27th. My daughter received a call on the 27th from Mobile indicating that she had to be available to take possession of the car (including inspecting the vehicle for any damage and filling out any notice of damages) mid-morning of the 28th. She explained to Mobile that she was a teacher and could not simply abandon her classroom at the drop of a hat to take delivery of her car which is why we told National Transport and Mobile in the very beginning that she could not be available until after 3:30 pm.(to make things more frustrating, I had called the driver just the day before on the 27th and reminded him that she could not be available until after 3:30 pm and he was fine with that). So again, after attempting to contact Mobile Transport to discuss this problem- they didn't answer their phone- I called National to remind them of our initial discussion of available times and explain that Mobile was now insisting my daughter make herself available mid-morning. While holding, National called Mobile (strange how they could always talk to them when their customers can't get through) and relayed to me that my daughter had agreed to meet the driver mid-morning (later my daughter told me she finally gave in to Mobile's cajoling because she didn't want her car dropped off at some storage lot where she would have to pay storage fees and not have a chance to inspect her car before the driver left). Knowing that Mobile's contract required any claimed damages to be documented in the presence of the driver at delivery or they would not be honored, I asked the National Dispatcher (Donna) how my daughter would be able to inspect her vehicle if the driver did not arrive on time and she was pressed to just sign so she could return to her school obligations. This was now 15 minutes before National closed. She said she would call the driver and call me back. She never called me back. I called her back and was told she had left a message with the driver to call her. I pointed out to her that they would be closed in 15 minutes and would National try to get this straightened out after they closed. She told me they opened at 9:00 a.m (Florida time) the next day. I tried to make her understand that we had to resolve it today because tomorrow would be too late. Again pointing out that my daughter could not just leave her classroom at a moments notice and as late as the delivery was I thought someone could show some consideration and work with my daughter. That's when we got to the bottom line that it wasn't late and I was stuck with the terms of the contract which absolved them of any responsibility for anything that happens. On the following day, the "delivery date", I called my daughter after her car was to be delivered to see if everything was OK. No delivery!!! Mobile Transport called last minute to tell her they would not make the delivery until 2:30 p.m.!! At that point my daughter frankly told them she could not be available to pick up her car until after 3:30. They agreed the driver would wait for her with her car in a parking lot (door to door?).
I am very dissatisfied with National because the assurances of service they would provide while they were courting my business was totally contrary and retracted in their contract. If they had told me the terms of their contract when I first talked with them I would have no reason to be disappointed because I would at least know that I could not believe or expect anything they were telling me while trying to get my business. MY ADVICE, IGNORE ALL THE SUNSHINE AND BLUE SKY THEY GIVE YOU DURING THEIR SALES PITCH AND RECOGNIZE THAT THEIR CONTRACT DISAVOWS ANY RESPONSIBILITY AND GIVES YOU ABSOLUTELY NO RECOURSE. EXPECT TO TURN YOUR CAR OVER TO WHOEVER THEY PICK AND HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL OVER WHAT IS HAPPENING UNTIL YOUR CAR IS DELIVERED TO YOU WHENEVER AND WHERE EVER THEY DECIDE. The fact that they continue to use a company like Mobile Transport LLC that has a horrible history of complaints tells me they really aren't concerned with your satisfaction, just your money.
