Complaint Review: Richardson Auto Transit - Lebanon Missouri

While Julie seems pessimistic about the transport companies I have a comment to those who buy cars online. When you book a car for transport, it is not up to the transporter to call you and say "do you know what a piece of junk you bought"? Their job is to move the vehicle in a safe manner from point A to point B. That is what you hire them for. They should normally do an inspection upon pick up of the vehicle but unless you request they fax it to you, they will not. If a fax is not readily available, they cannot until after the vehicle is loaded and they get to a truckstop. If you want them to do a "pre-inspection" then you need to tell them WHEN you book the transport. Most people will not do this because companies charge extra for this service and people are just too cheap to pay for it. They do so because if they call you and you tell them NOT to load the vehicle onto their truck, they are out the money for a transport and will not be able to fill that spot at the last minute. Also, most cmpanies charge a deposit and when you cancel, you lose that deposit, bet many would get right on this site and boo-h*o about that too... "those evil trucking companies stole my money because I was stupid!" Before purchasing a vehicle online, you might want to take the time to take a trip and actually LOOK at the vehicle. YOU are responsible for what you purchase, not the trucking company or the truck driver. If they damage it, they should pay for it but if you buy something just by looking at a picture, then you have only yourself to blame when it is not what was represented to you. Everyone is always ready to blame someone else instead of blaming their own stupidity or laziness. Even dated pictures should be suspect if they are online, it is too easy to manipulate a photo on a computer these days.

I would pretty much believe the victim, not the "business". If this is such a rampant problem, why haven't measures been taken to reduce your liability in these 'sight unseen' car shipping cases? Like having a car inspection done prior to shipment, AND faxing this paperwork to the receiving person, so you could have them verify the condition of the vehicle BEFORE shipment. If they do not like what they are reading, tough. At that point it would be between them and the seller to hash out their differences. But as far as "poor us, always getting screwed in these deals" I don't buy it. Business are always set up to protect their best interests, am I to believe that these shipping companies (which I have used numerous times) are the exception? I think not. Shipping companies rarely want to make an HONEST OFFER to get damages fixed that happened during shipping, even when the 'customer' has an intake inspection sheet proving damage. I know who I would tend to believe.

As a former owner of a car hauling company this report on the internet disturbed me. People are now buying cars sight unseen on the internet and then blaming the trucking company when it does not measure up to what it was suppossed to be. Here in this instance the customer believed the selling dealer as to the condition of the car and totally blamed the car hauler. They say they have pictures but do they stop and wonder just when these pictures were taken. I have a four year old car and have pictures of it when it was new. However now it has scratches and normal wear and tear. Being an old Porsche, I rather doubt that it was driven. These companies would be afraid of doing something mechanically and then having to pay for the damage done. Also in Missouri in December and January who wants to drive an old car you know nothing about and worry about being stranded in cold weather or also being out in an ice storm. Believe me it happens here.