Stateway Auto transport Car arrived with 553 extra miles on it Wheeling Illinois

ORDER 974428

If they tell you they go the extra mile for their customers, THEY REALLY MEAN IT. In my case, it turned out to be an extra 553 miles extra, which was evident when the car was received...with the gas tank empty and the odometer with 553 more miles on it than when they picked it up.

This is a rather long story, but the bottom line is: USE STATEWAY AT YOUR OWN RISK. After reading this, YOU WILL HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The indications were there right from the start, and I should have been smart enough to recognize them. Upon receiving many different quotes for shipping the car from Rancho Mirage, California to Vero Beach, Florida, I picked Stateway, who was neither the highest, nor the lowest bid. They impressed me because they make a big deal out the fact that they use their own trucks. Yes they do HAVE SOME, but my suspicion is that most of their business is done as an aggregator, taking the business and giving it to another trucker. They make no mention of this policy, but imply that others who do offer an inferior service. This is from their website:

"What Makes Us So Different?
We Are a Carrier
Unlike so many of our competitors, Stateway Auto Transport is a fully insured and licensed carrier. This means that we own our own trucks and that we cut out the middleman for our customers. Why is this important? Being a carrier is essential in getting vehicles moved as quickly and efficiently as possible."

Huh!!??

First of all, the original agreement sent to me by Stateway was totally inaccurate. It had the wrong address on it; the cost for their service did not reflect what they had quoted me; the recipients phone number was incorrect; and the model number on the car was incorrect. This was important because they indicated that if the car was longer or wider than expected, there would be an additional charge. The car they cited incorrectly was 9 inches shorter than mine. Based on my experience with Stateway, once you have booked them, they will not answer any calls or respond to emails in any way, regardless of how many you send. It was only after I refused to pay the deposit that they attempted to correct the agreement, a process that took 4 attempts before they got it right. It was comical... they would fix one problem and not the others. Then they would correct the other problems and the first problem would revert to being incorrect again and so on and so on......

My brother-in-law had also originally contracted with them to pick up his car from the same location, but to be dropped off in Connecticut. I emailed Rachel to see if they could pick up both cars at the same time to save the housekeeper from having to go to the house twice. Her emailed response: "yes". Based on that response, we booked them, not realizing that they never planned to pick up both cars up at the same time. My brother-in-law, eventually canceled with them after waiting several weeks for a pickup.

They then, with no authorization from me, scheduled my pickup with an outside carrier. In fact they scheduled it twice before I authorized it. The third time, again without my authorization, they scheduled a pick up, but fortunately for them, the car was ready.

Because I was overseas, I scheduled them to contact my sister and drop the car off with her. She received a call one day from Stateway saying that the driver was two hours away from Vero Beach, and had been trying to contact her. She called the phone number they gave her, left several messages with the answering service, and canceled her appointments and waited to no avail. Not only did the car not show up on time, but it disappeared totally from the radar . Here is an excerpt from what I emailed to them at that point:

"Now, a few minutes ago, (my sister) received a call back from the driver that Sara (from Stateway) gave her the number for, and told her that there is no Lexus on the truck. Is there someone at your company that has any clue as to what is going on? More importantly, where is my car?"

As it turned out, the driver completely bypassed Vero Beach and took the car 4 hours south, to Miami, where it sat for two weeks in a "secure location", according to Susie, the manager at Stateway. She went into great detail with me describing all of the snafus that happened along the way with this job, including employee disruptions, incompetence, etc, etc. The car was finally delivered to me on around June 16th, nearly 2 weeks after they had originally committed.

THIS IS WHERE THE REAL PROBLEMS STARTED

I was still overseas and received an email from the estate of the previous owner saying that they received a bill for $4 due to my car passing through a toll without paying in Miami, Florida at midnight. The bill came with a photo confirming that it was indeed my car with the original California plates. HUH?

I immediately contacted the guy looking after the car to confirm the mileage on the car and it was indeed 553 miles higher than when it had left California and the gas tank was empty. I confirmed the extra mileage to Stateway by producing a Notarized document confirming the mileage prior to shipment when the sale of the car was made. Obviously, not only was my car NOT in a secure location, but it was left to be driven around by some idiot without my permission. Simply put, it is auto theft and someone will be held accountable.

I have since spent over $3000 to fix the car. It had only 9764 miles on the odometer when it left California, but 553 unauthorized miles later it had balding tires and the front end was out of alignment. The Battery was nearly dead and had to be replaced and the rear brakes were seizing, needing replacement. Based on this, I had to assume the unauthorized drivers were not babying the car and so I requested a full service in it also.

Stateway has not taken responsibility for any of this, other than the office Manager, Susie, committing to speaking to AIMEE TRANSPORT, IN MIAMI, who supposedly kept the car in "a VERY secure location". For the record, her promises were empty and it remains unresolved.

Believe it or not, this report is simply a summary of the problems we had. For the entire ugly story,based entirely on documented facts, we are in the process of building a website

(((link redacted)))

In it, I will document my adventure with them from beginning to end and it will allow others who have had similar problems to provide content. It is still under construction so be patient!