A lot of auto transport brokers will try and get you to pay the full amount of the transport up front, beware, this should raise a RED flag. Think of it this way, why would you go to Wal-Mart and pay for your items a week in advance. Brokers who take full payments up front are usually trying to scam you in some way, they are trying to get your money so they have leverage over you. Most of the time the auto shipping brokers who do this will also be the lowest quote you’ve gotten, they will low ball you on purpose in hope of you choosing them, once they secure a payment from you they got you. There contracts state the price is subject to change, and you are subject to paying the increase of the transport, these companies know the low ball price they gave you will never ship your vehicle, they simply do it just to get you off the market so legate transport brokers will not have the time of day to explain the proper process to you and most of the time the customer will “mock” the legit companies by saying there prices are way to high, thinking they got the best price in the world, but in reality the low ball price they got will never transport a vehicle.
Now once you pay the total amount up front, usually this is what happens, the day comes for pick up and no driver calls you, no one picks your vehicle up, so your wondering why you haven’t at least received a phone call from this nice broker, so you decide to give them a call. If your lucky enough for them to answer they will give you some excuse, something like this: ” where so sorry, but the driver has broker down” or ” this is a tough route and we are doing are best to find a driver” or ” the driver is running behind, but he will be there tomorrow or the next day, to NO prevail” or ” we will call you back once we get a hold of a driver” All these excuses are simply that “excuses and lies”, they just need to by more time to try to find a driver, and the way they do it is as followed.
Lets say your transporting a car from Florida to California, and the price they gave you was $600,with a $150 deposit,then they will post your order on the dispatch board offering drivers $450.00 to pick your car up, they know that $450 will never get it picked up, but they don’t care, because they already got the payment and will increase the price little by little until a driver calls them, once a driver calls and says I’ll take it for the increased price of $750, they will call you and tell you they found a driver and they want $300 more, now either one of two things will happen. One you will either be in such a bind for time, either your flight is leaves today, or tomorrow, or your just fed up with all the lies and problems you just give in and say do it for the new price, or you decide to say I want to cancel my order, because they changed the price on you, but this is where the scam comes in. The transport broker will tell you no problem we will cancel your order, but the deposit you left you will lose, because that deposit you leave is there brokers fee for helping you try to find a driver. And if you have paid the full amount up front you will go though hell and back to get it, most of the scammers will never pay you back, they will just ignore your calls and hope you just disappear, and forget about your money.
Here’s a great tip, they can’t do that, if a auto transport broker has not picked your car up, and they refuse to give your money back all you have to do is contact your credit card company (Visa, MasterCard, Discover or Amex) and they will gladly dispute the charge and you will have your money returned. Please feel free to email us if you need help getting your money back, we will do our best to assist you with every step. [email protected]
Just to recap on what you just read, never leave a deposit up front, and never under any circumstances pay the full auto transport fee up front, never, only pay the full amount upon delivery of your vehicle and if they require a deposit only pay one once your vehicle is picked up and it should be no more than $350
Written by TransportScams.com
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