Southerland Auto Transport, Movingmycar.com Defrauded by them Anderson California

On August 20, 2002, I was searching for various car shipping companies on the internet and found a company called Southerland Auto Transport. I submitted an email to request a price quote from Southerland Auto Transport and received an email response prompting me to call the company by phone.

I called Southerland and a gentleman quoted me a price of $595 to ship my car from California to Texas. I read all the information on the site and the company advertised that they had 99% on-time delivery. After reading all the information, I concluded that Southerland sounded reputable, so I called the company back and spoke to a customer service representative who assured me that since I am placing my order 4 weeks in advance, Southerland would have no problem delivering my car on time.

On September 10th, I went ahead and placed an order to have my car picked up on October 3rd to arrive in Texas on October 10th. Two weeks prior to October 3rd, I called Southerland as well as emailed them to make sure everything was ready to go as scheduled. Lynne, the office manager, assured me that they would have a truck available to transport my car. Two days prior to the pick up date, on October 1st, I called Southerland to check on the delivery and Lynne told me that they would have a truck there to pick up my car as scheduled.

On October 3rd, after waiting all day, I called Southerland and Lynne told me that they were still trying to find a truck to pick up my car. She then said that I should call back tomorrow. The next day I called Southerland and left messages on the companys answering machine with no response. One of my phone calls was finally answered by a gentleman that rudely answered my call and hung up on me.

On Wednesday, October 9th, the truck still did not arrive, so I phoned Southerland. Lynne told me that Southerland itself charges $200 for the delivery service and the remaining amount goes to a trucking company that actually delivers the car. She said no trucking company is willing to ship my car for the remaining $395 and if I wanted my car to be delivered, I would need to pay more since $395 was too low of a price. I told Lynne that if she knew that no trucking company would deliver my car for $395, then why did Southerland quote me such a price to begin with. She answered there was nothing she could do.

I then waited for almost another two weeks and still did not hear anything from Southerland. I sent Southerland an email saying that I have waited over 2 and a half weeks for my car to be delivered and cannot wait any longer because I need a car for transportation. I asked Southerland to please refund my money if they cannot have my car shipped, so I could get another shipping company to deliver my car. The next day, I received an email stating that my order was cancelled. I then called my credit card company to have my charges reversed. Approximately six weeks later, I received a letter from my credit card company regarding my request for the reversal of charges.

The credit card letter stated that Southerland had refused to refund the full $295 amount Southerland had charged on my credit card. Southerland only refunded $95 out of the $295. Southerland told my credit card company that the $200 was a nonrefundable amount charged for processing the order. After I received the letter from my credit card company, I contacted Southerland twice asking them to refund my money and both times they refused to refund my money stating that the $200 was a nonrefundable processing fee.

Southerland did not process anything. They did not even assign my car a truck carrier. I waited more than 2 weeks after the scheduled pick up of my car before I contacted Southerland for a refund.

Tom
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.

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