Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Never pay deposit on reservation..this is how they get you!

The story below is real, the names are fake...

we received a call from a lady name Jenna, she was almost in tears. " I can't believe the company I hired screw me like that" (that was her exact words), she reserved her car transport  a month before with another company who gave her a price that was right on her budget (from MA to GA for $350) . What she didn't know is that the "price or her budget" was too low. This company policy is 50% deposit on the reservation and the rest on delivery, she went ahead and paid the first half a month ago. her timing for pick up was between 11/7 - 11/10 - she claims no one called her few days before or even on the date that it was suppose to be picked up. She called them to check the status and the answer that she got was " We don't have a driver yet - we working on it" - that was still OK since she have until the 10th. when the 10th came and there was still no driver on site - she called again to see what's going on, the dispatch that answered told her that the money is not enough, it's the snowbird season and no driver want to take it so they need an additional $250. At that point she lost it,  screaming, crying, talking to the owner - nothing helped and the deposit is not refundable!! she was so mad, she canceled them and called her credit card company to complain. If she knew before, she might from the beginning pay more, but now was too late for that with them.
She called us, broken, disappointed and stressed - the following day she had a flight!  - We have drivers that runs this route regularly, so I offered to check with them for her to see if one of them can pick up the same day, if not I offered to find her a terminal to drop off the vehicle. She agreed and from than on things started to work better.
I quoted her $645 and told her I will let her know in hour if we can do it or not. of course when the price is right and you explain all to the customer from the start, the chances to have problems are near to zero! I called her after 20 minutes with a driver that can pick up the vehicle in 2-3 hours, deliver 3 days later for a total price of $595. She couldn't believe that a company that is 2 months in the business, that she called in the last minute, was more professional then the other company who is 8 years in the business and she booked a month ahead!!!!

This is how we work! we NEVER take deposit before we have a driver for sure.
We always give the price and explain that we negotiating with the drivers and the final price will be when we find the driver. We prefer to give quote on the high end then low-ball!! to hide the real price from the customer and to wait until the last minute to ask for more is very WRONG!
Even when we do have a driver assigned, we only charge $100-$200 from the total and the remainder is due on delivery location. So most of the money, the customer paying in the END of the job not BEFORE we even started!
There are so many companies some good , some bad, some better, some worst. You can never really know until you into it but at least you can protect your self.
If most quotes you got are in a certain range and then one or two is very low...that should be a red light! always go on the middle rates...usually those are the correct ones.
Never pay on the reservation, deposits are always not refundable. Deposit should not be 50%.
We work for FREE until we have a driver for you.

If you need a quote or have questions, please don't hesitate to call and speak with one of our specialist.
our toll free 1 800 516 3440 or check our website.