the formal complaint

Customer Service Manager:

My name is Ethan Chambers and your company delivered my Jeep yesterday. My tracking number is PL30K071110. When we initially made the request, your representative told us that there would be no problem with your company picking up my vehicle in a parking garage, locating the car key in the exhaust pipe, and taking that vehicle without anyone needing to sign it out. We then scheduled the pick-up for January 4. We then had to cancel that pick-up because we were now being informed by your company that we would need someone there to sign the vehicle out. We were able to have a friend meet with your company any day before 8:00 am, which your company said would be okay and a new pick-up date was scheduled. For the next two weeks however, your company cancelled these pick-up dates, saying "the driver does not get in until around 10:00 am so those times would not work. The only times he would be available was from around 11:00 am until 3:00 pm. I'm not sure about your own hours of business, but most everyone else in the world has to work during this time so we were forced to hire an errand company to meet with your driver to pick up the Jeep. I believe this took place on January 16.

I was informed by your customer service representative today that the vehicle sat at a Maryland terminal until February 1. The vehicle was finally taken to your Tempe terminal where it has sat until February 10. We were told by your customer service that the vehicle would be delivered a number of times in January and February to our location in Utah. The vehicle finally left your terminal on February 10 and was delivered to me on February 13.

Here are the issues that I have:

Your customer service representative initially advised us that we needed no one to sign out the vehicle. This delayed the pickup by about a week because of this incorrect information that your employee gave out.

Your representative told me today that we were charged $90 for a guarantee pick-up. The reason for this is because we were sick of your company cancelling on us for two weeks and any day longer than January 16 and the vehicle would have been towed from its location. We gave you two weeks to pick up the vehicle and in that time we learned that your company is the most inconvenient business we've ever dealt with. Had we known from the start that someone had to be there to sign it out and that your driver's pick-up times are in the middle of the day, we could have planned accordingly and gotten it picked up when we initially requested.

Why did my vehicle sit in a terminal in Maryland for two weeks before a truck could pick it up? Your representative told me of the time line of the truck that finally did pick it up, and described a truck that criss-crossed the country for that given month before picking my vehicle up. For a company that "ships 30,000 vehicles per year," why was there only a single truck that was able to pick up my vehicle? I cannot believe that there was not a single truck that went from the mid-Atlantic states to your terminal in Tempe during the month of January. I understand that your contract states a 14 day estimated time of arrival, however sitting in a terminal for 14 days before it even gets picked up is unacceptable.

Why did my vehicle sit at your Tempe terminal for a week before it was sent to Utah? Your representative talked about how the trucks need servicing and it was possible that it had to be serviced. However, he gave that reason as one of the many reasons why it took so long to get picked up from Maryland in the first place. So are you saying that the truck broke down on the way to pick up my vehicle in Maryland, drove with my vehicle to Tempe, then broke down again before it could be sent to Utah? Very unlikely. You would think that in your computer you would have a way to see which vehicles are extremely behind schedule and you would find a way to escalate that vehicle's delivery, instead of having the attitude that you'll deliver the vehicle when you get around to it.

Why does it take your driver three days to drive from Tempe to Provo, UT? He left your terminal Friday morning, called me Sunday night, and delivered it Monday morning. Your representative told me that I should expect the delivery possibly the night of Friday or sometime on Saturday. Instead, a fourteen hour drive somehow turned into 72 hours later. What the hell was he doing between Tempe and here? It makes sense that your company hires such incompetence so as to match your own.

The next issues I have are more of an administrative thing. There is no way of knowing the status of my vehicle unless I call or look at the status on your extremely vague website, which leads me to my next issue. Not that you give a shit, but the website is crap. Under Deliver Status, the Avail Date shows 1/4/06, which is the date we made our vehicle available for your pick-up. This date is pointless because in reality, you picked up my vehicle two weeks later. And nowhere does it say on the website that my Jeep has been picked up and is sitting in a Maryland terminal for two more weeks. Next is the Est Pickup from Terminal of 2/1/06, which I assume was when your company would pick up my vehicle from your Tempe terminal and drive it to Utah. What this really means is that this is the date my vehicle was picked up from the Maryland terminal and driven to the Tempe terminal. Your terrible customer service rep today expected me to know this. Finally is the Est Deliver at terminal on 2/8/06. I had no idea what this meant, but as a common sense customer, when I see Est Deliver, I think that is when your company will actually hold up its part of the contract and DELIVER the vehicle to me. But again, your rep expected me to know that this date was actually when my vehicle would finally leave your Tempe terminal for Utah. As you can see, the Delivery Status is about as worthless as your customer service reps. He treated me like an idiot for not knowing what all this vague information really meant.

My last issue is with whatever uncaring rep that I spoke with today. I realize that there might not be anything we can do at this point, but instead of apologizing and take credit as a representative of your company and owning up to the countless mistakes, this stubborn person chose to argue with me for a half an hour and try to make it seem like it was our fault.

Your "estimated 14 day delivery" ended up being 41 days and has been a complete inconvenience to me and my family, so I am more than happy to inconvenience you by expecting a response to these issues. Hopefully your response won't take as long as the normal service you provide to paying customers.

Your irate customer,
Ethan Chambers

the moral of this story today is, www.carmoves.com, aka A AAAdvantage Auto Transport, Inc. sucks ass like no other and should be avoided like the plague. this letter gets confusing, isn't my best work by far, and will most likely accomplish nothing. but it gives me a chance to vent. keep ya posted.