Updated Review: Avoid This Company
Darren Kozinski
Submitted this review about
TD Auto Transportation LLC
Review made Live: 1/15/2018 7:38:00 PM
This is an update to my earlier review. I figured it's best to update my review. Below is a detailed description of my negative experience as well as replies to their false lies and statements about me and what actually happened. Any decent company that gets a negative review should spend the time trying to solve the problem, but instead they choose to bash their customers. Anyways, on to the issues in a detailed timeline.
#1. After my initial review, TD Auto Transportation claimed "I was not a customer" in order to get the review removed and keep their rating up. Unfortunately, they failed miserably as I have 2 receipts. Transport Reviews approved my review, allowed me to write a new one, and also noted their account about an unsuccessful non-customer review. So right off the bat, the company is trying to lie and hide my review.
#2. I was originally quoted $1,400 from Lori, a person who works for TD Auto Transportation. After I told her I had a quote from another company, she bashes them and tells me why they are better. According to her, they handle everything. My father previously used this company with success so I figured why not. I cancelled my other pick up and went with TD Auto Transportation. A few days later Lori tells me she secured a driver to pick up the car in Montana, enclosed trailer, and the price was $1,500. Well I already told the other company to go fly a kite, so if I wanted my car I had to go with them.
#3. The car gets picked up from the dealership in Montana and my salesman sends me pictures of the car on the trailer. I can see that the car cover used on my $84K 2017 Corvette is ripped, torn, and covered in spots. Basically a dirty and torn car cover was placed on my car. I have pictures to prove this. The salesman was not left with a condition report. Meaning the driver had him sign a report and then did not provide him with a copy.
#4. The car arrives a few days later. I will say they were quick with delivery and polite while delivering the car. I go out back and this Ukranian guy who speaks little English and his son are unloading the car. The son had to translate much of what I said which was fine, I don't care. I notice the car cover used was thrown in the street and another one laying on the floor of the trailer. Any car person knows the a car cover shouldn't be thrown on the ground, let alone the street as rocks and debris can get into the cover and then move around on the paint. Again, I have pictures to prove this. It was also at this time I noticed that the "enclosed" trailer I got was nothing more than an exposed/outdoor trailer with curtains all around it. It was not a true "enclosed" trailer. Therefore while driving back from Montana, dirt, debris, wind was all flying around inside the trailer. While on the trailer I noticed the car was filthy and had debris all over it. The car above mine was rusted and old. Once again, the ripped car cover did nothing to protect the car. I have pictures as well as to how filthy the car was and debris laying on the hood. So then the guys son begins unloading the car. He gets to the bottom and stops because the front splitter was going to dig into the street. Most car transport companies have wood or race ramps to help get a low car off the trailer. What did this guy use? 2 hammers under the left and right wheels. Yes, hammers to unload my car because he was unprepared.
#5. Now the car is off the trailer and I am looking it over. Again, the car is filthy and parked in the street under trees. The car by the way was not delivered to my house, but to the street behind my house. Looking it over I immediately notice scratches and debris on the stripes. This is a Corvette with vinyl stripes running down the middle of it from the trunk to the hood. I point out to the man the scratches and chunks of debris stuck to the stripe. He and his son proceed to run their hands over it and "pick" at the debris with their finger nails. He then goes to his truck and gets a spray bottle with some wax and a dirty rag/towel and sprays the stripes and begins trying to clean them, further making more scratches. I am telling him to please not do that because I have to wash the car. I used to detail cars for a living years ago and my father detailed cars for 30 years, so I know how to take car of a cars paint. The last thing you do on a dirty car is use a dirty rag and some wax and rub the dirt and debris into the paint. Anyways, the rear stripe on the trunk and the stripe on the hood now have blemishes and scratches. I tell the man's son to please indicate on the condition report damage to the stripes. He speaks Ukranian, the father writes something down, I sign it and away they go. I was not given a copy of the condition report. The men were pleasant while they were there.
#6. Immediately I drive the car into my driveway, take a hose, and wash it off. I use a 2 bucket car washing method with a grit guard and brand new wash mitt to gently clean the car. After it's all done, I notice swirls and scratches on the rear trunk and the stripes in worse condition then when I saw them. Again, you are looking at a car with a layer of dirt on it, in the shade, under trees. In 15 minutes it is impossible to inspect the car 110% until it's clean and in the sun. I immediately email Lori and tell her the trailer wasn't enclosed and she apologizes and tells me a full enclosed would be like $2,500. She should have told me that up front. She asks for pictures of the damage. I go ahead and email her the pictures. She mentions "we have used this company before and no issues, maybe it was a bad driver". Anyways, she asks me to take a picture with a measuring tape on all the blemishes on the stripes, I do that and send that to her. She asks for an estimate for the damage, I provide that to her. I gave her the price of the stripes which were $650 (per General Motors), the cost to remove and install the stripes I was quoted $250 (from a reputable shop in Charlotte), and then the cost for a professional detailer to remove the swirls and scratches is close to $300. Total cost is $1,200 and I sent all that information to her. She asks me to send her a copy of the condition report. I tell her I didn't get one, only the receipt that I paid.
#7. I follow up with her for the next few days and we exchange emails, and then her attitude totally changes and her answer to all of this is to call the driver and work it out. Why on earth would I want to call the man that damaged my car by using a crappy car cover and running their hands over the paint while its dirty and picking at the debris stuck on? If you went to Lowe's, bought carpet, they assign someone to come to your house and install it. If they did a terrible job, you call Lowe's, you don't call the installer. I tell her that she is the broker and should be handling this. What did I pay her for? Scheduling a pick up and that's it? I could have done that. I worked for a broker. Clients call us, we go to the carrier and resolve the issue for them. If I told the client to go call the carrier themselves, what do they need us for? Anyways, eventually her email tone changes to being nasty such as "what do you want me to do, I told you to call the driver and you refuse to".
#8. Days go by and now Lori just refuses to respond to my emails. The last email I get from her is only after I tell her I am getting a lawyer to go to court to sort this out. Then she forwards a response from Anthony, the owner, who basically says we aren't insured or liable for damage, contact the driver. So I finally call the driver and tell him my name, the car, and start talking about the damage. Immediately he begins yelling at me, saying im looking for insurance fraud, take him to court, curses, tells me to never contact him again, and hangs up on me. This is the person Lori's been begging me to contact. After that phone call, I immediately call Anthony and leave him a voicemail explaining what just happened. I then email Lori and told her what just happened. I got zero response from either of them. I even called Anthony to tell him about my negative experience overall, never returned my call. What kind of owner ignores your cars and emails? And not once was I yelling, nasty, or anything on the phone despite whatever TD wants to portray. And even if I called up and was pissed off, as an owner, wouldn't you take the time to pick up the phone and talk? Instead he has hidden behind Lori this whole time.
#9. This week I decided to post about my negative experience on some websites, including this one and Better Business Bureau. Again, once I posted about my negative experience, TD tried to get it taken down claiming I wasn't a customer. Then, whether Lori meant to or not, she sent me an email that was addressed to Tony (assuming it's short for the owner Anthony), in which she bashes me, claims I damaged the car myself, am "acting like a 2 year old who didn't get his way" and a "compulsive liar". She then mentions she strives for great customer service. Last I checked, ignoring customer emails, not returning phone calls, being snappy and rude in emails, and then bashing a customer in an email and calling them names is not even remotely close to good customer service. Unfortunately for TD, I have the receipts and Transport Reviews has approved and published my review and marked their account and allowed me to post an updated review.
#10. TD then responds to the Better Business Bureau which Lori basically just copies and pastes her nasty email to me into the reply accept she excludes the part she calls me a 2 year and a compulsive liar. TD then refunded me the $200 deposit they took, which I do appreciate. It doesn't cover the hundreds of dollars I have to lay out to fix the stripes and paint.
In conclusion, the claims made by TD against me couldn't be more wrong. As their response said "a racist rant", they need to look up what that term actually means. Saying someone is a foreigner (which they are) or a Ukranian (which they are) are not racist terms. Yes, I signed the condition report, but what else are you supposed to do when the car is sitting their? Was I not supposed to pay the driver? Tell him to take it back to Montana? The car's filthy, you can't see the paint condition until it's cleaned. And I told the driver and his son about the damage to the stripes which they acknowledged. They also failed to leave a condition report with the dealership. To date, 1/12/2018 and it's been almost 2 full months, I have not received a copy of the condition report. The driver and TD refuse to provide it to me. In the end, all I wanted was for Lori or Anthony to try and make this right. Proper customer service is finding out what went wrong, how to fix it, and provide a resolution. Instead, they lied about the cost initially, lied about the type of trailer I was getting, failed to return phone calls and emails, the owner wasn't man enough to pick up the phone, and then bash and blame me for the issues instead of holding THEIR driver responsible. They are the ones that assigned him. And once they got paid they asked me to jump through hoops and provide all this information and then do absolutely nothing with it. And only did they start responding once some negative feedback got posted and now they want to play the blame game and bash their customers. In a 1,000 years I couldn't make this stuff up. If anyone would like emails, pictures, please let me know I have no problems providing them. TD Auto Transportation's only response is to blame and name call instead of apologizing and trying to make it better. Not once have they apologized on the driver's behalf or tried to do anything to rectify it. All they want to do is make false claims but I can provide all the proof necessary to prove I am in the right and they are in the wrong. If someone left me a negative review, my first reaction would be to reach out to them either by phone or email and say "hey, we saw your negative review. What can we do to make this negative a positive or at least make the situation better." That is proper customer service.
I would not recommend TD Auto Transportation because they will lie to you and provide poor customer service. Lori especially has been nasty and Anthony has not acted like an owner of a company. They care about money and their positive reviews and when they get a negative review, unsuccessfully try to get it taken down. I appreciate the $200 refund but does not change my experience or opinion of their company. There are a lot of transportation companies out there. Should something go wrong, be prepared for a battle because they accept no responsibility and want to just pass you off.
