Watch Out!
Jennifer
Submitted this review about
Viking Auto Transport
Review made Live: 7/2/2013 7:10:00 PM
Viking Auto Transport
Do NOT do business with this company!
A little over 2 years ago, my husband was about to enter the fleet (Navy), having completed the training, he had received orders to the East Coast for his first tour. We had our hands full, as many military families do, and decided it would be best to ship one vehicle and drive the other. After searching and shopping around, we came across Viking Auto Transport, out of Florida.
Viking offered reasonable rates, ease of setting up shipment, and even allowed up to 50 lbs of goods inside the vehicle we were shipping! This was perfect for us, we were shipping the vehicle to my parents, and were able to store away some additional items that we didn't need at the time and that my parents could use. Viking emailed us a service agreement to sign and fax back, we were contacted by a carrier within days, and the vehicle was picked up and on it's way. The driver contacted both my parents and us during the transport, updating us on his location and giving updated estimated time and date of arrival for drop off. We were all very pleasantly surprised by the ease of shipping a car, the hassle-free set up, and the timeliness of the drop-off. The driver was professional, polite, and the car arrived with zero issue.
So naturally, when the time came again to ship a vehicle, we immediately recalled the ease and affordability of Viking Auto Transport and without hesitation decided to have them ship our car. We shipped the same vehicle, a 1998 Toyota 4-Runner, this time from Virginia to Indiana. We received a quote from Viking, once again, very reasonable, and had originally set the pick-up date for late August. About a week before the car was scheduled to be picked up, there was an issue with the car, and I had called to request a change in the date. That's when the red flags started going up.
It took me about a day to contact Tony at Viking. When I finally got in touch with him, he assured me this was no problem and he emailed me an updated service agreement to sign and fax back. The date was changed to 12 September. 12 September came and went, and I called Tony at Viking to ask if he had an estimated date/time when I could expect the carrier to arrive. Tony was very unprofessional, stating (in a demeaning tone) that if I had paid attention when I originally set up the transport, I would have recalled that the carrier has "a few days" to pick up the car and that the carrier would contact me with plenty of time to coordinate pick up time etc. Keep in mind that the service agreement clearly states to "allow 2 day window" for pick up. Today marks a full week since the vehicle was scheduled to be picked up. I attempted to contact Tony at Viking Auto Transport by phone multiple times today, however each call was answered by the voice mail. I tried to email Tony at Tony@vikingautotransport.com, only to have the emailed returned to me saying that it was undeliverable due to host/ domain name not found.
I tried to google Viking Auto Transport, and when clicked on www.vikingautotransport.com from the search results, I was advised that the site didn't exist. The site is how I originally made contact to inquire about shipping this time around, a few months ago. Now, all of a sudden, the site doesn't exist any longer, the email doesn't exist any longer, no one answers the phone...hmm. Then I did a search for reviews for Viking and come to find out, within the past month or two, I am not the only person who has been taken advantage of by Viking Auto Transport. MANY people have reported reviews that the company "stole money", in the manner that they paid a deposit (just I like did) and they never received services (just like I didn't) and now they are unable to make contact for a follow-up (hmm, sounds just like my situation). My next step was to file a claim with the Better Business Bureau, which I did. As I looked through the claims, many others have filed claims against this company!
Moral of the story: Even if you think a company is reputable, Even if you have done business with them in the past, EVEN if you think you know exactly what you are getting yourself into...ALWAYS check reviews, Always check with the BBB, Always do your research!
I was really fooled, apparently many were, by Viking Auto Transportation. Their site looked legit, I had used them before, They had invoices, forms, letterhead...the works. Sometimes you just never know when you're going to be taken advantage of.
