Company Response Review Report Review
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Doug H Submitted this review about AutoStar Transport Express
Review made Live: 6/26/2013 2:24:00 PM
The sales process was smooth. Sean McBride was knowledgeable, helpful, and professional. Upon agreeing to the price and service, a driver was promptly assigned. Upon assignment, I got an email with the assigned transport company’s contact information (it was CHK Express – remember that name and DO NOT allow them to move your vehicle). This was actually the last communication with AutoStar that was not initiated by me. Incidentally, this communication coincided with the point at which their fee had been earned.
The interaction with the driver at both pickup and delivery was a complete nightmare. The driver changed pickup days 3 times and ultimately showed up 4 hours late without ever calling. Delivery changed several times. On the day of delivery, the driver wanted to deliver with a one hour notice (a minimum of 3 is required). Then, instead of coming to my house, he arbitrarily picked a gas station parking lot 5 miles from my house and unloaded my vehicle there. When I refused to meet him there, he hung up on me. I had to get AutoStar involved and they also couldn’t communicate with him effectively. I called his dispatcher, who had a voicemail greeting that instructed callers not to leave voicemail messages! Through another 2 hours of back and forth calls, he finally delivered the vehicle to my home as originally agreed upon. He had the nerve to be irritated about how all of this impacted his schedule. His lack of effective communication (both quantity and quality—he could barely speak English) was the root cause of each of these issues. Customer service is all about communication.
AutoStar promises 5 star service. I’m still not sure what that entails. Their “tracking” function on the website merely creates an email to their customer service group. Each time I used it (when they actually did respond), I found out that they had difficulty reaching the driver. Each time I was also told that drivers (not just this one) can be very difficult to get in contact with at times. Still not sure how this is “better than GPS” as described on their website (that’s a direct quote—check it out).
From reading reviews here, I’m certain that I’ll see a response here stating that all was done within permitted timeframes. I’m also fairly certain that they will say the responded to each of my requests—that is not the case. They were certainly apologetic about the poor communication with the transport company—they admittedly experienced the same issues that I did. According to them, they have now blacklisted CHK Express and will not use them again. Not sure of the process for selection of transport companies that they will use, but it appears they will use any other than the ones they have blacklisted. I can’t say that AutoStar was horrible, but certainly not a 5 star experience. With all of the other brokers out there, try another one before you pick this one. I feel you are almost certain to have a better experience.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
Washington
Pickup:
Late
Destination State:
Texas
Delivery:
On Time
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
442148_MI
Quote or Order Cost:
$875

Company Response
Mike Cannon from AutoStar Transport Express Submitted this response.
Response Date: 7/2/2013 1:28:00 PM
From Autostar Transport And Logistics Firstly we wish to thank Doug for the feedback. We appreciate all responses from our customers and we view any criticism of our service as an opportunity to improve our future dealings with customers. As was alluded to in Doug's review we have black listed the carrier we assigned to carry out this particular transport and as such we will not be using their services in the future. We empathies with the frustration some people may feel when entrusting people with the transport of their vehicles but to a degree customers must also appreciate that by the very nature of this job with regard to logistics and the long distances being travel led carriers can not always make deadlines. In this case the assigned carrier had arrived a day later than estimated which is not uncommon and we always let our customers know in advance that this is a possibility. Having been a day overdue Doug had contacted me to inform me that the driver had not shown up. In this regard I do empathize with what Doug has had to say as I found it difficult to reach the carrier but I persevered and eventually learned that the vehicle had been picked up. I contacted Doug immediately and also provided him with the ESTIMATED delivery date. My customer service department is first class and had always responded in kind to Doug's vehicle tracking requests however we came up against the same barrier you had when attempting to contact the carrier for up dates and the short comings of CHK Express should not be seen as a reflection of our own service. Just to reiterate we will discontinue our services with this particular carrier but we worked with you to ensure that the vehicle did arrive within a very reasonable time frame in the exact same condition it was picked up in.