Extremely dissatisfied
Julie Slavinski
Submitted this review about
Angels Moving Autos
Review made Live: 9/1/2005 2:12:00 AM
I contacted several auto transporters listed on this site and received several quotes. Although Angel Moving Autos was not the cheapest, their quote seemed reasonable and the good reviews lead me to favor using their services. I had a little over 3 weeks to arrange my car to travel from San Francisco to Buffalo, NY.
Karen, an Angels Moving Autos representative, promptly contacted me via phone with details of a carrier that was to pick up my car either the following day or the day after that. It was an arrangement that worked very well for me so I made the decision to commit to this carrier. Karen explained the $175 scheduling fee which I accepted and I looked forward to my car being on it's way.
However, later that same day, the carrier called and expected to be picking up the car immediately. Unfortunately, I was unable to provide my car at that time as it was 24 hours earlier than anticipated. I immediately called Angels Moving Autos and told them of this surprise development. Karen too was surprised and stated that her understanding was that the car was to be picked up at some point during the next 2 days and not the current day. That carrier was cancelled.
Several days later I received a new scheduling notification. I again spoke with Karen and she gave me the phone number and contact name of the new carrier. I was curious about the new carrier so I did a google search and found many unfavorable reviews of their company. I was concerned about their ability to provide me with prompt service and contacted Angels to ask about this. As members of the industry I expected them to have knowledge of the carriers they worked with and felt they could provide me with information to ease my concerns. Additionally, the scheduling notification delivery date was before the scheduled pick up date. I needed clarification as to the dates of this arrangement.
I again spoke with Karen. She stated the computer made an error with the dates and this error was quite common. She provided me with the correct pick up date. When I presented Karen with my concerns about the carrier, she stated she would have to speak with her dispatcher. I did not ask them to cancel the arrangement but rather explain their trust in this carrier given the large number of poor reviews. I didn't hear back from her for several hours so near the end of the business day I contacted her again. She informed me that the dispatcher was a brand new employee and that it was her first day on the job. As she was new, she was unaware of the "blacklist" of carriers that Angels Auto Movers refused to work with. The carrier they had scheduled me with was on this blacklist, thus the arrangement had been canceled by Karen. She stated that she had left me a voice message with this information, however I did not receive it.
The next day I called to get an update on their progress. I was informed that they had been trying to reach me all morning as they had a carrier in my area that was available to take my car. I informed them that I had been home the entire day and available to take calls, at which point it was revealed that due to clerical error, they had the wrong phone number for me. They would determine if that same carrier was still in my area and contact me if the arrangement was still possible. Unfortunately, it was not.
Later that afternoon, I received another scheduling notification with the pickup and delivery dates both stating August 31. I called Angels to clarify the order and was told the computer made yet another mistake. The actual pick up date was September 9th. I explained that, as I had previously stated, I was to leaving on the 8th and therefore this arrangement was not possible. They said they would make a note of my travel schedule within my record, although they had said they had done this previously.
At this point, I was beginning to question their professionalism. Why were my scheduling needs never taken into consideration and why was I almost scheduled with a blacklisted carrier? I spoke with Erin (another Angels representative) and explained I was beginning to lose patience and perhaps I should look elsewhere to find a carrier for my car. She said she would have Dina contact me, although she didn't explain whom Dina was.
Dina called me back quickly. She was calling in response to my questioning the ability of Angels to provide me with a carrier. She stated that it was necessary that I "work with them" on getting an agreeable arrangement. She then proceeded to go through each of the four previous arrangement attempts and manipulated the information to make it appear that I had thwarted each one.
She stated that in the first attempt, I was not available to provide the car when agreed upon. That was not the case. As previously mentioned the carrier arrived 24 hours early.
Dina stated that I cancelled the second attempt myself. That is not the case as this arrangement was canceled by Karen. I only called for information and did not make any demands on Angels at this time.
Dina stated that the reason the last attempt to schedule a pick up failed was due to my inability to provide someone to be able to make the car available. She seemed to feel that if I was not available myself, I should be able to have someone else meet the carrier with my car. That is unrealistic and not possible.
I felt that throughout the conversation with Dina she was rude and manipulative. I was unhappy with the interaction and thus sent an email to Angels Auto Movers to serve as notification of my cancellation. I expected to have to pay the $50 non-refundable administration fee. However, I have received an email stating that before I submitted my cancellation notice at 2:57pm today, Angels scheduled a carrier at 4:35pm. Although the contract clearly states that if cancellation notification is received before a carrier is arranged only the $50 fee is retained, Angels has stated they are going to retain my entire $175 scheduling fee despite the fact that the times of my cancellation notice and their scheduling do not support their position. I was never provided notification of the scheduling and have no proof that it even exists.
My entire interaction with Dina and Angels has proven to be a big disappointment. I feel they have not accepted responsibility for their role in the failure to arrange shipment of my car. Instead, Dina made every attempt to pass the blame onto me which I believe was unwarranted. Additionally, I am outraged at their intention to retain the entire scheduling fee. I have emailed her to express my belief that they are entitled to only the $50 administration fee. I will update the post or make a new posting once that issue has been resolved. In the meantime, I can only say that I am very unhappy with the service I received and I would not recommend them at all to anyone else.
UPDATE
As I stated in my previous posting dated 9/1/2005 2:12:28 AM, I would provide an update on my review and include how my issue with Angels Moving Autos was resolved.
I sent an email to Dina Gifford in an attempt to resolve the refund discrepancy. This morning I received an email from Dina Gifford in response. The contents are as follows:
From: Dina Gifford
To: Krista Slavinski
Julie
Had you not posted that review I would be able to work with you. You have slandered the company.
I have now filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
Julie Krista Slavinski
