26 Days From California to Minnesota
Benjamin
Submitted this review about
Stateway Auto Transport
Review made Live: 10/7/2015 10:29:00 AM
26 days. 26 days is how long it took Stateway to move my vehicle from San Diego to Minneapolis.
I chose Stateway because of their high ratings on various sites. I’m not sure if they write positive reviews themselves or pay people to write them, but my experience with them was so terrible that I can’t imagine how they could have a rating higher than 1.
IMPORTANT: As it turns out, the carriers get the last word on negative reviews on TransportReviews.com, so don’t trust any carrier’s rating on their site. Google “NY Times - Transport Reviews” for an article that explains this further.
Quick points:
1: After you book your pickup, don’t ever expect them to return a call or an email. They’ve got your money, and now they don’t care about you.
2: They will book you at a low price, THEN ask for more money to “get a driver’s attention.” After my vehicle sat idle for more than 12 days, they started repeatedly asked me for $100-200 more.
3: Until your vehicle is actually picked up, they will lie however they can to prevent you from canceling, i.e. “your vehicle is at the top of the list,” “a carrier is in the area,” “we’re just confirming insurance,” “sometimes the truckers have trouble going through the mountains,” etc.
Now, my story: I live in Minneapolis and bought a vehicle in San Diego. Shortly after I bought it, I sold my only other car. Because Stateway told me that my vehicle would be picked up 1-4 days (not business days) after the “ready date,” I didn’t panic. Little did I know that I would be in for a continuous web of lies and deceit that would ultimately result in my having to get rides and/or rent a vehicle until my vehicle finally arrived. Because I had sold my other car, I called on Ready Date+3 Days to check on the pickup status. It was then that I was told that whoever told me it would be picked up 1-4 days after the ready date was mistaken and that I should have been told it would be picked up 1-7 days after the ready date. Red Flag #1.
I was told not to worry because my vehicle was “at the top of the list” and that a carrier would pick it up soon. A carrier? When I booked, I was told that STATEWAY was the carrier. Nope, as it turns out, they are a broker…just like all the other brokers. They told me that they do have some of their own trucks (which, for all I know, may be a lie), but that the majority of their business is done through brokering.
Every business day, I called for an update. Most days, I either spoke with a Susie or Bill. While very friendly on the phone, Susie has no idea what she’s doing and will lie directly to you to put you at ease. She supposedly wrote many emails to “dispatch,” each email more useless than the last. Eventually, I asked to speak to a manager and was connected to a Rachel. On Ready Date+9 Days, Rachel told me that it would be picked up in the next two days. I called the next day. No pickup that day. Rachel then assured me that it would be picked up the following day (Ready Date+11 days). By the end of that business day, I had received no calls or emails, so I again called to check in. I called and asked for Rachel. “Rachel? I don’t think there’s a Rachel who works here.”
At that point, I was furious. I again asked to speak to a manager. After being put on hold for 15+ minutes, they hung up on me. I called right back and the call was disconnected while they tried to transfer me to a Tim. Called back again and asked for Tim. “He’s not here, what message would you like me to email him?” I told the rep that I wanted to talk directly to Tim and that I had NEVER received a call back or email the entire time that I had been working with them. Suddenly Tim was available.
Tim answered the phone and was very amicable, calm, and willing to help. He was the only positive part of my experience with Stateway. Unfortunately, it was far too little, far too late. Tim reassured me that they were doing everything they could do to get the vehicle picked up. He then asked if I would be willing to add another $100-200 to get a driver’s attention. This was the 6th or 7th time one of them had asked me to pay more for my delivery. I told Tim that it was it ridiculous for them to ask me for more money, and that they should instead offer me a discount. After a brief hold, he said that they would take $100 off their $145 fee to add to the $800 the driver would get, in the hopes that it would get picked up sooner.
Fast forward through couple more days of inactivity: Again I called and spoke to Tim. Again, he asked me to pay more money, making the point that they “need to at least make something.” I explained that given my horrible experience thus far, no, they do not need to make any money on the deal. Sometimes in business you make 30% margin, sometimes you need to take a loss. This was one of those times. I asked him to speak with whomever he needed to make this happen. After a hold, he came back on the line and told me that they would use the rest of their deposit plus add $50 to get the vehicle picked up “faster.”
At long last, I received an email saying my vehicle had been dispatched and giving me a date for pickup. The email also said it would take 7 days to arrive, which was disappointing because since I had placed the order, I had always been told it would take 2-4 days from pickup.
The pickup date (a Tuesday) came and went. After all this, they still couldn’t pick it up when they promised. Fortunately, the pickup was only delayed one more day. Of course, another wrinkle: The driver who arrived to pick up the X3 didn’t have a Bill of Lading, so the dealership couldn’t release the vehicle to him. More phone calls and more time needed on my part to address the problem. Once the vehicle was picked up, I assumed everything was fine. I called a couple days later (Friday) to check the status/location of the vehicle. After having it in their possession for two full days, it had only traveled 120 miles (from San Diego to Los Angeles).
The day before the scheduled dropoff date, I thought I should call the actual carrier and make sure that I only needed to give them $800 on delivery. Nope. They said $995. Okay, so I checked my bank account. As it turns out, Stateway hadn’t yet charged me the $145 deposit. So that still leaves me $50 short (the same $50 that Stateway promised that they would provide to the carrier). After texting Tim, he explained that all of their deposits are $195. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t know that my deposit was $145 or if that was an outright lie, so I sent him a screen shot of my confirmation email that showed my deposit being $145. A short time later, he texted me back and said they’d send me a check for the $50.
Promised dropoff date #1: After five calls to Stateway’s contracted carrier (Interstate Roadrunner) I finally found out that the driver had run over his hours and that the vehicle wouldn’t be delivered until the following day. They seemed very sheepish to tell me this, and like I said, it took five calls to get that information.
Promised dropoff date #2: When the vehicle finally arrived, the dropoff went fine and there were no surprises. Finally, something in the awful experience actually went as it should have.
I sold my car during all of this, and the person who bought it had chosen to go through Stateway for shipping (He chose them on my recommendation before I had gone through this awful experience). After seeing what I was going through, he canceled with Stateway and went with another carrier. Ten hours AFTER my car was picked up by the other carrier, Stateway’s contracted carrier called me to coordinate the pickup. Apparently, Stateway didn’t listen to the buyer’s multiple voicemails or emails telling them he was cancelling.
Their so-called “Vehicle Tracking Service” is nothing but an archaic, simple online chat system…which wouldn’t be so bad if it actually worked. I tried multiple times and no one ever responded.
TIP - If you DO make the mistake of booking with Stateway and you need to contact them, do not select the customer service option when you call. You will likely be automatically put on hold for 3-4 minutes then transferred to voicemail. I’d suggest selecting the “I’ve already got a quote and would like to schedule pickup” option. EVERY time I selected that option, someone answered immediately (of course).
Main thing to take away from this review: If you are considering using Stateway, please reconsider. Save yourself countless phone calls, emails, and hours of wasted time. Run the other direction and never look back.
