Complaint Review: U.S. Transport - Pico Rivera California

I contracted with All States Worldwide Shipping to transport three of my cars from Sterling Virginia to Alpine California. They assured me that they had full insurance with no deductible in case of damage to the cars.

All three cars were delivered with damage and All States refused to help me and referred me to a sub contractor who transported the cars. The sales person did not tell me that three subcontractors would move the car when they sold me the service. The subcontractor, US Transport in Pico Rivera California, refuses to pay for damages because they claim I did not sign a document that their driver never gave me even though I followed their procedure for claiming damages.

US Transport also charges a $200 deductible for each car which is something else All States did not tell me at the time the service was sold. To date, All States has done nothing to help resolve this matter except give me the name and phone number for US Transport. US Transport can be reached at:

8313 E. Slauson Avenue

Pico Rivera, CA 90660

(562) 654-3644

My three cars were picked up on the day and time specified by All States but that was the only thing that went as planned. The first problem I had was that the cars were delivered four days later than U.S. Transport claimed they would be delivered. I flew in from out of town to receive the cars and for four days U.S. Transport told me that the cars would be delivered that day. On the day the cars finally did arrive, the driver called me and told me that it was too far for him to drive all three cars out to where they were to be delivered. He told me that he could bring two cars one day and then bring the third car the next day unless I agreed to let him drive one car to the delivery point. I was livid! I had already taken four days of vacation I hadn't expected to take along with four extra days spent in a hotel. I reluctantly agreed to let him drive one of the cars down so I could go back to work.

On the day of delivery, U.S. Transport's driver did not arrive until well after dark. I had to inspect the cars under a street light, with a flashlight, and with the headlights of another car. U.S. Transport's driver missed the turnoff for the delivery so I had to drive after him to turn him around. As was stated earlier, one car was being driven and another was on the platform of a roll-back and the other was being towed with the rear wheels on the ground.

I was led to believe that my cars would be transported off the ground to their destination. When the driver attempted to turn the tow truck around in the middle of the road, I watch as the car being towed on the rear of the roll-back scraped the ground five times as he tried to negotiate a hill. That hill caused the back of the truck to rise that forced the exhaust system of the towed car into the ground. During the period of time it took for the tow truck driver to turn around, I noticed that the car being driven had the spare tire installed on the right rear side of the car. When we finally arrived at the delivery address, I asked why the spare tire was installed on the car being driven.

I was told that the tire just went flat and they had to change it on the way. I looked at the tire and the tread had come completely off both sidewalls. The tread surface of the tire had also melted. I showed the tire to a tire technician and he told me that it was very unlikely that a tire would fail like that in normal driving especially since the tire had a V speed rating (for sustained speeds up to 130 mph). The tire experienced catastrophic failure due to extreme heat. He said it probably happened when they loaded the car onto a car carrier and spun the tire for an extended period of time.

I inspected the other cars and noticed a gash in one cars bumper and a dent in the other car'' driver side door. The driver was adamant that my cars were damaged before I shipped them. I turned his attention to the inspection report that the tow truck driver filled out before the cars were picked up for shipping and it showed none of the damage that we observed at the time of delivery. The driver became very belligerent and insisted that I needed to speed up my inspection of the cars because he wanted to go home. I asked him how do I claim the damage and he told me to note it on the inspection report and sign it before calling All States in the morning. I did just that and called All States the next day.

All States informed me that they were not responsible for the damage and that I would have to contact U.S. Transport to file a claim. I contacted U.S. Transport and talked to Sue Letino who told me that she needed to send me a damage report form to fill out and that I needed to send her pictures of the damaged areas of both cars along with two body shop estimates. I did this and heard nothing from U.S. Transport for three months. I called U.S. Transport again to find out the status of my claim and got an Ali Bahratti on the phone.

I asked for Sue but Ali would not forward my call to her and was extremely rude. He insisted that he could help me. I told him that my cars were damaged in transport and that I talked with Sue earlier and that I was calling to check the status of my claim. Without knowing who I was or the particulars of my case, Ali stated that U.S. Transport was not responsible for any damage on my cars and that they must have been damaged before I shipped them.

I immediately asked to speak to Sue but Ali refused unless I explain the whole story to him, which I did. It was then that Ali said that U.S. Transport was not responsible for damages because I did not sign a bill of lading at the time of delivery. I explained that I was not given a bill of lading at the time of delivery and that I did everything the driver told me to do in order to claim the damages. Ali argued with me for five minutes over what went on at the time my cars were delivered even though he was not there.

I called All States Customer Service to find out what I could do about this matter and they gave me the insurance information for U.S. Transport and suggested I contact their insurance company directly. I contacted the insurance company and they told me that U.S. Transport never submitted any of my information but they would look into it. About two weeks later I got a letter from a Glenn Williams with U.S. Transport's claims department. Glenn's letter stated that my claim was denied because I did not sign a bill of lading at the time of delivery. I called Glenn and told him that I was not given a bill of lading by the driver and that I followed the instructions given by the driver and Sue Letino for filing a claim.

Glenn explained that he doesn't know any of the particulars of my case and that his job is just to accept and deny whatever claims they tell him to and that he'll request my packet and look into it and give me a call back. He also explained that they've had trouble with the driver who delivered my cars and that they had fired him some time ago. I didn't hear from Glenn for three weeks so I called him back.

Glenn told me that he had been on vacation so I had to explain all of the details of my case to him again because he had forgotten everything. Glenn called me back a few days later and told me that he would have to resubmit my claim again and that I would have to go through the process again and start from the bottom of the heap in the claims department.

I was furious at this point. I've been going back and forth with U.S. Transport over this issue for almost five months and I was still no closer to a resolution. It was then that I decided that I would have to take legal action against U.S. Transport and All States in order to close this issue. A week after I secured legal counsel, Glenn Williams contacted me and stated that U.S. Transport would either settle with me for $300 or I could have U.S. Transport pick my cars up again and have them repaired at a body shop they have a contract with. This was entirely unacceptable to me since the damage done to my cars totaled almost $1000 and I was not about to have U.S. Transport touch any of my property ever again.

This offerer was followed up by a letter from Fernando Arrellano, General Manager, that stated what Glenn had said and asked me to call the office to expedite the matter. I called Fernando and was once again met with an extremely rude person. Fernando stated that he interviewed the driver (the driver that Glenn Williams told me had been fired) and that the driver said that I ran straight to the damage in the dark without a flashlight so the cars were damaged before they had been picked up.

He went on to say that he would present this evidence in court and tell the judge that I was trying to claim damage that was there before shipping and press criminal charges against me. In all my years on this earth I've never heard anything so absurd. Now more than ever I realize that I must peruse legal action in order to protect my rights since it is very clear that I'm dealing with unscrupulous and dishonest people.