Don't confuse the names!
Diane D
Submitted this review about
Capitol Auto Transport
Review made Live: 6/24/2011 3:53:00 PM
Andy called me when I accidentally called his company, Capitol Auto Transport, instead of Capitol Transport & Logistics (CTL). CTL was the company I had originally contracted to transport my car and I was calling them to complain. Not only had they not picked up my car on the specified date, they didn't deign to call me and let me know why they hadn't picked up, or when I might expect them to show up. Several calls to their offices got me to a voice mail that said they would call me back.....which of course, they never did.
Thinking that perhaps I had been misdialing the number, my boyfriend and I looked up Capitol on the website. We saw many, many rave reviews about Capitol's service on the site and were baffled by the apparent inconsistency. So, I called again, this time using the number listed on the website. I got another voicemail but left a message anyway. Ten minutes later Andy called me back and the first thing he said to me was, "Look, it sounds like you've been left high and dry, but it's not our company that did this to you. There is another company called Capitol
Transport and Logistics and it's no accident that they have a business name that is very similar to ours." He asked me if CTL had given me a very low quote for the transport....As a matter of fact they did. CTL's quote was $400 to $600 lower than any other quote I received....Did they take a deposit from you?....As a matter of fact, they did. $150.....He said, "Go back and have a look at the website. You will see our two companies. The one with the pages and pages of great reviews is mine. The other blokes take advantage of the similarity in our company names and our reviews to reel in customers like you with very low quotes." Sure enough, the rave reviews my boyfriend and I had seen were for Capito Auto Transport, not CTL.
Then Andy explained how the business works:
Basically, these transport companies are brokers. They sign you up, take a deposit, and then put your car on a bid system with independent trucking companies. If they give you a very low quote like CTL did, they know that there is very little chance that a trucker will be willing to take the transport at that price. That's why they have the clause in the contract that says that "rates may increase or decrease after an order has been placed." (I doubt they "decrease" very often.
If they see that there are no truckers willing to go for the lower bid, they will increase the rate until one of them bites. So essentially, no matter what price you think you are getting, that price is subject to change until the car is actually picked up.
Andy showed me the list of cars that were currently in line for bids. Sure enough, my car was on there, and at the very bottom of the list! He said, "That explains why they didn't come to pick up the car when they said they would. They don't have a truck for you or your car would not still be on this list." He then gave me names and phone numbers of corporate customers that use his company and urged me to call them to make sure he was telling me the truth. He said, "If you're satisfied with those references, and the other blokes don't call you back (and they won't because they don't have a truck for you), then call me and I will help you out."
Bottom line: references were stellar; Andy waived the deposit for his company until the car was actually on a truck; I talked to Andy on Saturday and he had a truck pick up my car on Monday. The car was delivered on time (actually a little earlier than expected) and the driver gave me plenty of notice as to his arrival time. (He was also a very nice man who worried that I didn't have enough gas in my car to get the filling station. He waited in his truck until I got back from filling the car up, just in case I needed a lift if the car ran out of gas).
Yes, it cost me more than the original quote, but the service was worth it. The next time I need my car transported, I will just dial the right number - Andy's number - the first time.
