Not quite as easy as I'd hoped for...
Mike Boruta
Submitted this review about
Specialty Mobile Systems
Review made Live: 8/22/2008 5:11:00 PM
When making my decision to select an auto transport company I valued the glowing reviews on this site and chose Specialty Mobile Systems. Incidentally, now that I finally have my vehicle I have learned that SMS solicits reviews from their customers by offering to refund $20 to their credit card. Perhaps this is one of the reasons they have so many good reviews.
Regardless, my problems with SMS mainly involve communication and honesty. I was trying to move my vehicle from Arcata, CA to Grand Haven, MI. While Arcata is near a major highway (US 101), it is a fairly remote location and their are no major cities nearby. I worried that this might make shipping difficult but after calling SMS they made it sound like it would only take about 10 days to arrange for a carrier. Just to be safe, I stated the first available day for pickup as being about 2 weeks before my moving date. After about a week I called them to see how the process was going. They reminded me that the ten day mark hadn't arrived yet and to just be patient.
As the stress of preparing for a cross-country move mounted, the tenth day came and went with no word from SMS. I called them again to find out the status of my transport. They said that they were having a difficult time finding a carrier due to my location and to be patient - "Fridays & Mondays are the best days for getting a carrier" was what they told me. So, I went back to packing the truck and cleaning the house. Soon, it was the day before moving day and I still hadn't heard from SMS. I was about to leave California and I needed to know what was going to happen with my vehicle. I called SMS again and was transferred to someone named Cory. He acted shocked that nothing was happening with my vehicle and seemed eager to help me. To their credit, he offered to add the $220 deposit to the money that the carrier would receive in order to increase my odds for a pickup. I told him that I was heading out the next morning and that I'd leave my vehicle with a friend who could be trusted to turn it over once a carrier was found. I gave him my friend's name, home phone, cell, work phone, address, etc. since I would be on the road for the next week and I might not be reachable. Cory said that they would get right on it and that they would be calling me throughout the next few days to update me on the status of the transport.
So, then I spent a week driving the big rental truck cross-country and neither I nor did my friend hear from SMS. Upon arriving in my new town I called SMS again and got the same story - Arcata, CA is not a ideal location for pickup. I now had a new phone number and when I gave it to them I also asked to verify the phone numbers of my friend in Arcata who had possession of my vehicle. Much to my surprise, they had no record of him or any of his contact info. I said "You seriously don't have the number of the person in charge of handing off the car?" and the response I got was a snide "Seriously, we don't." This made me lose hope of seeing my car anytime soon. So I started calling other transport companies. The first one I called was the other top-rated transport company, Angels Moving Autos. Whoever I spoke to there was really upfront in telling me that moving a car out of Arcata would be difficult, if not impossible. Her suggestion was to see if I could convince a friend to drive the car to a major city, like Sacramento or San Francisco (both 5+ hour drives, each way). Since SMS had already offered to pay $220 towards the transport I didn't want to ship companies just yet. So I started brainstorming as to who I could possibly convince to take an 11 hour road trip to move my car to the city. I called SMS again and asked them what I could do to increase my odds, besides driving the car to a city. They said I could add more money to the carrier fee, so I added $100 and waited a few more days (with no response).
After some begging, I got a friend to drive the car down to San Francisco. Between gas money, a rental car back, and a thank you gift certificate, this added considerable cost to me. I called SMS and told them that the car was on its way south and would now be shipping from Oakland, CA. Upon this news, they seemed very excited and enthusiastic about moving my car. Within hours (before the car was even in Oakland) they called me back to tell me they had arranged for someone to pick-up the car THAT DAY! Not only was I excited to have this whole thing moving forward, I was also excited to finally have SMS call me. Yup, in the whole 5-6 weeks that I'd been dealing with this, they had NEVER ONCE called me. Anyway, whoever I spoke to was extremely friendly and helpful. Within a week I received my car and it was in fine condition.
So, I'm assuming that if I had originally shipped my car from Oakland I would probably be giving SMS a glowing 5-star review. But if I had to do it over again I would go with someone else for the following reasons:
1. They were not up front in telling me that it might be really difficult to find a carrier to go to Arcata, CA.
2. They never once called me to let me know what the heck was going on, even after they (Cory) had told me that they would be calling me to update me on the process.
3. They apparently "lost" the contact info of the person responsible for turning over my car. This would've been a big deal if they HAD found a carrier while I was unreachable as I drove cross-country and it just made me lose faith in their trust-worthiness.
To their credit, they did do the following:
1. Added the $220 deposit to the carrier fee.
2. Once I finally got the car to Oakland, they were VERY QUICK to make things happen and contact me.
I hope this review helps those considering a transport company. If you are trying to move from a rural or isolated area, beware that the whole process might be a lot more difficult than you (or the transport company) thinks.
