DAMAGED car!!! Dishonest and inefficient!

Jesus Cedeno Submitted this review about Stateway Auto Transport
Review made Live: 8/31/2011 11:28:00 AM
To start off the delivery was simply past late. It was supposed to arrive on Thursday. I called the driver and he gave me all this excuses about issues on the way and that he was going to deliver by either Thursday night or Friday morning. The car arrived on Friday late afternoon (6:40pm). I kept calling the driver during Thursday night and early afternoon Friday and he did not pick any of my many calls. I called my contact person over at stateway telling him to please get a hold of the driver and called me back and he never did. I called again and left another voice mail and this lady called back. I told her to please contact the driver while I waited on the other line and she told me the driver is not picking up. I asked her if the driver was not theirs, since their motto says "This means that we own our own trucks and that we cut out the middleman for our customers." This is a TOTAL LIE since the lady gave me as an excuse that they hire a driver available in the pick up area that is heading towards my state area. And what kind of company hires a driver who they CANNOT have control over!!! All the lady could tell me was I am sorry just keep trying calling the driver. Total SHAME on their motto. The WORST part is yet to come. The driver finally calls me and tells me he is close by and asked me if where I lived had enough space to take down the car, I said yes there is enough space for the truck and to my big surprise the driver took down the car somewhere else where I could not supervise and he arrives driving my car pulling over real quick so I could not notice a front damage!!! As I received the car the driver was being real eager to leave soon avoiding any long time, pressuring me to sign the release form totally NOT mentioning please check your car to make sure it is ok like they should all do. I completely forgot to check before he left and he made sure with the pushing to avoid the topic. The driver leaves so fast like a mad man. When I take a walk around my car the front grilled was scratched with yellow paint from their truck and the logo of the car was missing. Furthermore, the front bumper was not perfectly aligned and it looked like they tried to fix it. No wonder he did NOT want me to presence the long procedure of taking down the car. I started calling him like crazy and you could only imagine that he did NOT pick up. I drove off his way to see if I could catch him and could not find him, I saw a police officer and stopped to talk to him and explained the whole situation. I wrote down the officer's information since he said he would testify against the driver that the car is damaged since there is no way that in the 15 min period between receiving the car and finding the police, that I hit a car and a yellow one. I called and left a voicemail to my contact person at stateway and you can only imagine again that I haven't gotten any answer from him. I am a college student so you could imagine my anger towards this expense that I expect the company to respond for. I feel like this company and their supposed driver took advantage and fooled a minor. Almost forgot to mention, the driver's hand and general appearance was real dirty so picture how he left my car after he took it for ride!!!

Company Response
Anna from Stateway Auto Transport Submitted this response.
Response Date: 8/31/2011 1:39:00 PM
Dear Jesus, we apologize that you are dissatisfied but it appears as if you are very confused about what happened with your shipment. Stateway was NOT the carrier on this shipment. The company that shipped your vehicle is called Mavitt Services Inc. (If you look on your Bill of Lading that is what it will say). Stateway Auto Transport is a broker/carrier which means that we use our own trucks and sometimes we subcontract depending on the season and route. Your first time shipping with Stateway was done through a Stateway truck and that shipment went flawlessly as you told me yourself over the phone. This one unfortunately was not handled as well by the subcontracted carrier. This is specifically why we have a carrier rating system set up. If a carrier does something wrong we mark it off and if we have three complaints in one year then we simply do not use that carrier again. Another important factor is that you failed to follow the recommended procedures on delivery and did not inspect your vehicle and file a claim on site. It is VERY important to carefully inspect the vehicle on pickup and delivery before signing the Bill of Lading. That way, if there is damage, insurance will cover it right away. Otherwise, the insurance company has no proof that the damage was not caused AFTER the vehicle was in your possession. This is an industry standard. We ALWAYS make sure to point this out to every customer and it is clearly written on our Terms and Conditions. All in all, we apologize that this happened to your vehicle but we are also very bothered by the fact that you are taking your frustrations out on Stateway when we had nothing to do with the damage. When we offered to contact the carrier and get this situation resolved for you even after you did not file any claims with the insurance company, you declined our offer and said that you rather pay for the damage yourself and that you did not have time to wait for the insurance claim. Jesus, we wish that you would understand that Stateway was not in any way responsible for ANY of your grievances and that we in fact did everything honestly and efficiently. Your vehicle was dispatched out in three days after placing the order. ALL OF YOUR ISSUES ARE WITH THE CARRIER WHO IN THIS CASE WAS A SUBCONTRACTOR. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. We would still be glad to work with you in getting your repairs paid for by the carriers insurance. If there are any first time customers reading this, PLEASE MAKE SURE TO ALWAYS INSPECT YOUR VEHICLE ON PICKUP AND DELIVERY AND IF THERE IS ANY DAMAGE TO FILE A CLAIM WITH THE CARRIERS INSURANCE RIGHT AWAY. Thank you for your time.