Company Response Review Report Review
Still not refunded...

Philip Lee Submitted this review about Specialty Mobile Systems
Review made Live: 8/28/2007 7:08:00 PM
As someone who was preparing to ship his car from California to Texas, I used this exact same review website and found that Specialty Mobile had mostly good reviews, enough to sway me to try using their service. I used their online system and got a quote, filled out an order form. Within the hour, Amy called me back to confirm, and we had a pretty good conversation considering my needs. I told her that I didn't so much mind pick-up date as much as I did drop-off, since I had a week to settle in Austin but needed to do a lot during that time. She assured me she would note it on my order. I was flying out to Texas July 6, and expressed a hope of having my car anytime between July 7-9. I was told that it would only take maybe 3-4 days, so I asked that they just let me know so I could prep my car. I agreed to charge $195 to my credit card as the initial deposit.

Unfortunately, this is where things went sour, and several days passed where I heard nothing from the company's end about progress of scheduling my shipping. I finally called in the Thursday of the week before to ask, only to be told that they were "swamped" and that my order was still far ahead, and not to worry. On June 30 Specialty finally called me, but to tell me that they found a shipper who was willing to take my car the very same day. Having absolutely no warning, I couldn't get my car ready in time, so I declined that shipper and the caller told me they would continue looking. A few more days passed with no communication, to the point I wrote an e-mail the morning of July 3, then called both phone numbers listed to find the office deserted in the middle of the afternoon. I was expecting offices to be possibly empty on the 4th, but have never heard of a company just closing a day earlier for the heck of it too. I had no response, and of course, the office was closed on the 4th. I finally decided that I had had enough. I called around for a local shipper, who agreed to take the car on the 4th and immediately called and left a voicemail saying I was cancelling my order.

Since my car had not been shipped, the agreement attached with the order page stated that minus a $50 charge, my money SHOULD be refunded. Of course, that didn't happen. The contract stated the cancellation had to be in writing, so I wrote an email saying I had cancelled a long time back (after I checked my credit card statement and saw nothing), and that if necessary that I would write in formally with a letter to cancel, but I wanted my money back since they did nothing. No reply of any sort, not to tell me the refund was on the way or to actually write in so they'd have something on file.

Moral of the story? They started great, but when push came to shove and actual things needed to be done, nothing happened and now I'm out of money exactly as if I had been scammed on eBay. Communication was poor and though one offer attempt to pick up my car was made, the manner it was presented made it seem like an afterthought and not a professional attempt from a company I trusted to move my car thousands of miles. I have recently mailed off a letter to try and get my refund credited back to my card, but they might as well have disappeared and made off with my money as far as I can tell. I highly recommend using another broker/carrier service.
Shipment Details
Origin State:
California
Pickup:
Never
Destination State:
Texas
Delivery:
Never
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
0706120109
Quote or Order Cost:
$895

Company Response
Amy from Specialty Mobile Systems Submitted this response.
Response Date: 8/30/2007 2:56:00 PM
Due to the fact we do not have terminals we strive for door to door service. Knowing this fact, we have to work with pickup windows. Some customers put their vehicle ready date the (first day they are willing to release the vehicle) the day they are departing so they have access to the vehicle up until the last second, thereby allowing someone else to release the vehicle in their behalf. Some customers backdate their vehicle ready date 10 days prior to their departure so the vehicle is picked up prior to their departure, in doing so putting a variable in the transport order that it can not arrive to the destination until after they arrive, unless of course there is someone else to accept the vehicle in the customer’s behalf. From a dispatch perspective, we look for carriers that fit the parameters that the customer has established for us to work around. If we assign the vehicle to the carrier and it will arrive too early (considering the amount of time it takes to get to the destination) it will not work. In this particular order, the customer’s vehicle ready date was 6/30 and could not arrive until 7/7 – 7/9. We attempted to dispatch the transport order for pickup 7/1 with a stipulation that the vehicle could not arrive until 7/7 which fit the customer’s needs. This customer refused this option, and waited until our offices were closed on July 4th and canceled his order over the voice mail. Due to the fact we had already dispatched this move and we were in our time frame for the pickup window we did not refund this customers deposit. We at Specialty Mobile apologize that this customer neglected to give us an opportunity to serve him. Amy/Specialty Mobile