Before you can understand why lowball pricing is dangerous, you must first learn about how auto transporters do their job. The auto transport industry is run almost entirely by brokers. The job of a broker is to find a driver that will do a move at the price that he and the customer have agreed upon. The most important to realize about this relationship is that the broker must hire independent drivers to do the job. Brokers do not own their own trucks, no matter what they say.
What brokers do is act as a middle man. In order for them to get paid, they need to find someone else that can do the service for them. Any reasonable broker will provide accurate prices so that they can get paid. But at the same time, customers are often resistant to paying even a single dollar more than they think they have to. This creates an incentive for brokers to drive their estimates lower and lower so that it’s easier to attract potential customers. One of the most common ways to both attract and scam customers is lowball pricing.
Lowball pricing is essentially a bait and switch kind of scam. What some companies will do to execute the lowball is to send you a quote for a price that is hundreds of dollars under the average price. This kind of deal will be naturally attractive to most customers, and a good many of them will call back and get more information on their services.
From here, the lowball is a confidence game. A broker who is low balling will sound totally confident in his ability to move your vehicle for the said price. He may even throw in terms like “guaranteed” to make himself sound more believable. From here, there are a few different ways that a lowball scam can proceed. The broker might ask you for money they proceed to find you a driver, even if you’ve already contracted. A more nefarious way is for the broker to have a driver pick up your vehicle and
then charge you more on delivery. If you’re the victim of this kind of scam, then you could potentially be on the hook for hundreds of dollars more than you thought you’d have to pay and could risk forfeiting your vehicle if you don’t pay. In short, don’t go for the lowball price.
It is extremely important that you have the sense to understand the difference between a good deal and an impossible deal. A good deal should be about $50-100 below the average price of the quotes that you’ll get. An impossible price is anything less than that. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you; always use your best judgment when having your vehicle shipped.
So use a company that can get the job done the right way. Use a company that wants to work with you and for you, not against you. Use a company that you can trust.
Below are a few real reviews from real customers for your reference:
“Don’t trust this company. They are so nice to you until they got your credit card number. Everything they tell you will be the complete opposite. No receipt when they run the credit card.They will tell you any prize just to get your business and when the driver comes the prize will be like 400$ more.Worst experience. They are a Big joke!!!”
Link to actual review: http://transportreviews.com/Review/00176148.asp
‘Well it all started with a call from Kate from State by State Transporters offering to pick up my F250 from Florida. I spoke with Kate over the phone and told her I needed that truck to be picked up within that same week to which she replied that if I went ahead and signed the contract they would pick it up within that time frame. Well that time came and passed and my truck wasn’t picked up. They did not return most of my emails and the ones they did they supposedly had someone on their way when I had yet heard of a driver. 10 days passed and on about the 12th day I finally get a call form a driver asking for more time which was unacceptable. I cancelled my transaction and had a friend pick up the truck instead after I had quite a bit of storage fee I owed due to State by State’s bad service. I called and spoke with someone at their office and explained to them the situation and they said they had mailed me a check. All this taking place back in February mind you. Well call after call was met with excuse after excuese from “The check is in the mail and headed your way” to “we sent the check to the wrong address well cancel and mail you a new one” Was even given a voucher number ( #6524) Well I finally got tired of getting the runaround and opened up a case with the better business bureau almost 3 months of hassling with these people. I just don’t understand how a business will burn themselves over a $175.00 deposit they decide to keep for a service they never provided. Steer clear of these individuals and if you still decide to do business with them DO NOT believe a word that comes out of their mouth. Make sure you get everything in writing, pickup dates and everything, as they are known for their dishonesty. Don’t just take my word for it do a little research and you’ll see there are many others going through what I am. Matter fact this is a quote taken from the Better Buisness Bureau’s web site “Our files contain a pattern of complaints from consumers alleging State by State Transporters fails to secure a driver, per broker agreement. These consumers have also reported difficulties receiving a refund from State by State Transporters.” On top of that, State by State contacted the admin of this site and had my review removed claiming I wasn’t a customer. Faxed all my paper work to the admin proving I in fact was another VICTIM of these crooks. If you already dealt with them and are in the position where they are supposedly sending you your refund, DON’T. You will never receive anything. They do this so you grace period to dispute a charge on your credit card will expire and they can keep your money. Call your credit card company immediately and dispute the charge and get your money back. Don’t become another one of the piling victims of these crooks.
Link to actual review: http://transportreviews.com/Review/00175898.asp
Written by Transportscams.com
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