DAS Auto Shippers / Ebay Rant

[Porsche-O-Phile]

The price quote I recently got for FedEx was literally 2.5X the next lowest. No thanks.

[widebody911]

Another issue is if you happen to be off the 'beaten path', it will take longer to get your car shipped. I had a bus shipped from ABQ to Sacramento, and it took 3 months.

[McLovin]

Yeah, FedEx is pretty expensive.

I did a lot of research on all these companies, because over the past few years I've been involved with shipping a dozen or so cars. Both me hiring a company to deliver a car to me, and others hiring a company to get a car from me to them.

That's how I came to conclude Intercity is the best. Their prices are very competitive (even competitive with the "brokers" like DAS), I found them to ALWAYS be lower than FedEx (usually by quite a bit). FedEx is good, IMO, but too expensive. There are actually many really good companies that car collectors use all the time, but they tend to be very expensive.

Intercity is owned by a guy named Dave Wilson and his wife, it is a family business. They have a few employees (I think they have 3 or 4 dispatchers or coordinators), all of whom they supervise closely. They run their own trucks, and never, ever hide from you. While being a family business, it is a fairly substantial business (not some "Mom and pop" with one broken down truck who may be gone next week).

Just wanted to share my experience to hopefully help someone avoid a lot of headache. Unless you've experienced your car being "lost" in shipping, subject to weeks and weeks of delay, calls not answered, etc. you don't know how horrible of an experience that is.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

John, Man I guess I was lucky it did not go further........................................Kin da reminds me of other "moving" companies IE: furniture, goods, etc

I remember a story about a familys' belongings held hostage when the mover jacked the estimate up after arriving

If that happened to me, I'd be posting on here from the prison computer.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Damn straight. I'd have either paid them with a check and then immediately stopped payment on it once I had my stuff, or paid by CC and fought the charges, or sued. Or all three. If that failed, I'd have been looking to go down and beat some ass. That level of scumbaggery shouldn't be allowed to exist at all.

[cashflyer]

I didn't realize FedEx's prices were that much out of line.
I have not shipped with them; they were recommended to me by car collectors.

[tchanson]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

I didn't realize FedEx's prices were that much out of line.
I have not shipped with them; they were recommended to me by car collectors.

FedEx (what used to be Passport Auto Transporters before FE purchased them) were not significantly higher than other comparable, enclosed, door to door shippers in my recent experience.

They were higher than Intercity for a cross country move, but only by $150 or so.




Tim

[Britwrench]

We usually use Reliable Carriers for both East-West and South-North, never had a problem.
The crews and trucks are very professional and on time.

Noted that FedEx, Intercity, Horseless and Reliable prices are always pretty close.

[asphaltgambler]

For what it's worth Fed-ex quote was 1100

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

For what it's worth Fed-ex quote was 1100

$1100 for under 250 miles? I take it that was an enclosed single-car haul? And even that would be high.

[Paul K]

DAS does suck. I got a quote from them to haul my '96 993 from TX to OR and I specifically requested the car be hauled enclosed the whole way. (This was in February). Yeah yeah, no problem, we can do that. We get the whole thing set up, and I ask one more time, "So the car will be enclosed the whole way, right?" "No, just part of the way. The TX to the hub it will be open then the last 100 miles (over a mountain pass, I might add) will be on an open carrier, after sitting outside for 4 days waiting for the next truck." No way.

I'll never do business with them. Ended up going with Transport Services, and it traveled enclosed, and in the same trailer from door to door.

[Talewinds]

Not much to add to help the original poster, but I suppose there were two things that I conceded on to protect my investment. I needed a Carrera shipped from San Diego to St. Louis, I followed the advice of the dealer I purchased from when they told me that they could arrange shipping that would have the car picked up in the same week. But they were adamant that those shippers would simply take it to some lot and it could very well sit for weeks until other cars were arranged for transport to a similar zip code.
I paid more for shipping and had to control my anticipation for just about a month so that the car could be picked up from the dealers indoor warehouse and be brought directly to my house. The waiting was tough but probably worth it.

[Looking_for_911]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

For what it's worth Fed-ex quote was 1100

I think something may be wrong with that figure.... that's about what Fed-Ex quoted me to bring a car from Miami, and to bring one from California to Alabama it was only about 4 to 500 more. Maybe timing had somehting to do with the costs.....

Some say that kind of money is not worth it or out of line. True, it's a lot of money. But so was the money I paid for my 28-year-old SC.
It's all realtive. How important is it to have a guaranteed, door to door, enclosed carrier? For me, if It'd been to where I had to have shipped the car I would have done it rather than gamble on a broker letting it sit on various and sundry lots for days before delivery.

[SgtTurbo]

DAS sucks. I used them and will not again...learned my lesson.