I was forwarded through Ship A Car Direct to West Coast Auto for the transport of an older Ford across country and was given a reasonable quote and an astoundingly quick pickup time. As it turned out, my car was picked up not by the multi-car hauler I'd expected based on Ship A Car's website, but by a single car trailer, whose driver (Ben) kindly explained that given the condition of my car as discussed over the phone with their dispatcher, would be brought to their terminal for loading. Understandable, ultimately, as my car decided to start acting up as we transfered it off my trailer to his due to a malfunctioning choke.
Four days later I got word from Ship A Car that the transporter had set out, and six days after that, I got a call from the dispatcher that my car would arrive at my house in about 90 minutes. Not long after that I got a second confirmation call from the driver, Eugene. And in as much time, he was coming down my street, car on the back of the trailer. Offloading went a bit more smoothly than loading the first time around, Eugene was very professional with the unloading procedure, and all said and done I paid our initially agreed upon price.
All in all, not a bad experience, save some chagrin from being told on pick up that they in fact *do* use a terminal service, which ultimately is more a dig against Ship A Car for having a statement on their main page saying:
"We don't use the "terminal to terminal" process. With us, you get ONE carrier who picks your car up right from you and drops it off right to you(...)"
Which both is and isn't true, the expectation to be taken from that being that it would be the primary car hauler that would do the pickup as opposed to multiple moves, albeit all by the same transport company. Given the circumstances, I can understand this; however it would have been nicer to have this laid out at the outset, but again that's less on West Coast and more the broker.
Car came in the same shape it was given to them, just dirty from a cross-country drive through multiple snowstorms, but that's to be expected on an open carrier.
(Not to mention the more than a little anxiety from seeing the sorry state of most of the reviews on here. I got over that through a combination of accepting fate and concluding that for a company with about 11 tractors to last 2-3 years, they probably move a lot more cars for customers who might never leave reviews. Maybe I'm one of the few customers who actually decided to leave a good review instead of nothing, maybe I'm just a lucky one. Your mileage may vary. Just know what kind of transporter you want and know the risks that might come with it.)
