Premier auto shippers gave me a quote for shipping my car across states and beat out all other companies. On the day of the move, the driver called and said that I have to pay 20% extra for delivery. Classic bait-and-switch scamsters. I talked with Ben Forrest about this breach of trust and Ben Forrest (the salesman) said that my car won't move unless I paid extra. Upon fruther argument, he gave me a written note promising a refund of 10%. After the transportation was done, Ben and Premier Auto Shippers began to ceremoniously ignore my phone calls and emails. On the rare occasion that someone picked up the phone, Ben would have always "just stepped out" or the Accounts department had "the day off". A total of 61 emails and 48 phone calls were made and subsequently ignored. 4-5 times the phone calls were answered rudely and dismissed without a proper reply. Only once was the email answered and the owner (Lee Paolino) said (and I quote): "Ben is a sales person and has no authorization to issue credit." He further said that they would not honor promises (even if written) made by their salesperson. I have screenshots of the emails and the written note from Ben which I can send to whomsoever might be interested. I have filed a complaint with the FMCSA and I urge others who feel that they have been wronged to do the same.
Do Not USE!! Very Bad experience. I contracted Anthony Chavez [email protected] with the company on Feb 6th 2015 to pick up a truck in Arcata, California on Feb 24th 2015 and have it delivered to Iowa. I paid the deposit and signed the DocuSign Document. I was told they would call me the day of pickup or the day before to arrange the final details.
The day of pickup came and no one called. I called Anthony and he was extremely rude and said he did not have time to talk to me and said he would have a driver call me. No driver called me so I called him again and he of course did not answer until I blocked my number and called him again. He was still rude and offered no explanation except for that they do not have a driver because of some issue. The next day came and still no call from the company, Anthony or a driver and of course Anthony would not answer my calls so I texted him instead. Anthony turned out to be worthless and was no help. I ended up calling the dispatch and they told me that they had a driver cancel and would have the new driver call me. NO DRIVER ever called me. This went on for a week. In short they had 20 days to get a driver, They never did and they had plenty of excuses. The truck sat for a week before I cancelled the contract with the company. The contract with the company states that if they do not have a driver dispatched to pick up my vehicle I can cancel the contract and get the full deposit back minus $5.99 for processing. I even received a email from Lee Paolino [email protected] on March 2 stating that they would refund my deposit. Guess again, I had to file a dispute with my bank to get the deposit back.
Do NOT TRUST this company!!!! They will lie to you and never get back to you once they have your deposit
I'm writing this review after I successfully recovered a $300 deposit with Premier Auto Shippers (PAS) through my credit card company due to PAS’ failure to perform as contracted and their flagrant attempts to fabricate records and falsify contacts. I have never dealt with a more dishonest and predatory shipping company, specifically Anthony and Lee, who proved they’ll go to any lengths to cover up unethical behavior (to include falsifying information). Like some other reviewers on various sites, I also had to threaten PAS with breach of contract in small claims court but ultimately I let the credit card company work on my behalf. The details of my specific dispute are similar to other complaints but aren’t as important as is what worked for me in recovering money when PAS failed to ship my vehicle and then submitted blatantly falsified information when responding to my credit card company’s dispute department.
**WARNING: I would never recommend using Premier Auto Shippers under any circumstances for any purpose, regardless of what price they quote you! This predatory company deserves to go out of business and legal prosecution…BUYER BEWARE!!!**
Here were the factors that allowed me to recover my deposit:
1. When PAS sends you a Docu-sign contract, read it carefully as PAS will attempt to beat you over the head with the terms and conditions in case of a dispute. Make sure they’ve actually written in the agreed upon special conditions, e.g. vehicle must be pick-up or dropped off within certain specific date windows, total price. They will make verbal commitments and then act in direct opposition. NOTE: if you cancel with PAS prior to the pickup date the contract states you must do it in writing, regardless of what they tell you on the phone.
2. Make sure you document the content of every call or email with them. Only through meticulous documentation could I prove to the credit card company that what PAS claimed in their dispute rebuttal was blatantly untrue. PAS’ level of fabrication and mischaracterization in attempting to retain the deposit was astounding in scope and showed what is often legally referred to as “acting in bad faith”.
3. Let your credit card company’s dispute department work on your behalf, as it’s better than small claims court and credit cards can involuntarily withdraw the money from the merchant’s account (as they did in my case). This also puts time pressure on the merchant as they usually have to rebut within 30 days or lose the money.
4. Don’t give up trying to recover your money. In my case it went relatively quickly once the credit card company became involved after I’d done everything possible to work with PAS on a solution, not that they were responsive or professional in any sense. Expect Lee the owner to be confrontational and combative once you express your displeasure and then to cease all communications, meaning PAS failed to take any steps to mitigate the dispute in the eyes of the credit card company.
I contracted Premier Auto Shippers to transport my car from Columbus, GA to Seaside CA. Agent called me 6 different times over the weekend 7 days prior 13 December (pick up date) and told me if I did not pay now shipping would difficult. (that should have been my first clue). I paid the 180 dollars broker fee immediately and NEVER heard back from Anthony Chavez again. A week went by and they did not answer the phone and finally responded my phone calls by telling me "don't worry your car will be picked up tomorrow" They did this for a period of four days and then they changed their answer to " don't worry the truck is in North Florida and your car is next, driver will call you this afternoon for specifics" after another 3 days of nothing they changed their answer to "didn't I tell you the truck will be there tomorrow" after a couple of days they told my wife " don't worry we are picking up a load of 6 cars at a dealership and your car is next, truck driver will call you this afternoon for specifics".
Today their dispatch officer told my wife that we should change our delivery location to San José, CA (which is about one hour and 45 minutes from my house) the dispatcher had the audacity to tell my wife that his truck drivers were scared to drive to Seaside because we live (according to him) at the edge of mountains and that drivers fear their trucks will fall to the ocean from the dangerous cliffs. Their ignorance is beyond comical and just plain ridiculous. Dispatcher did not know we shipped a 1977 Corvette with a different company from and to exact same location in October where we did not wait any days at pick up location and was delivered to California in record 5 days. We understand they depend entirely on the truckers performance but hiding, dodging, manipulating, inventing, lying, misrepresenting and avoiding is not a good practice. They simply take your money and once the money is in their bank they will ignore the customer completely not caring about their commitment to the customer. This is BAD company to deal with. If by COB today my car is not picked up I will cancel this order and will seek another broker with another carrier, more responsible and responsive customer oriented, honorable people. The reason I did not with the company that shipped my corvette in October is because their agent was not available the weekend I was persecuted by Mr. Chavez,.. If I would have waited one extra day until Monday I would have saved 15 days before my pick up becomes a reality. I’m fearing the transportation itself is going to be another nightmare judging by the quality of people I’m dealing with even before the pickup date. Transporting and delivering don't seem to promising!! Their irresponsibility has caused major economical distress as I needed to rent until mine is delivered as promissed. Also I had to cancel an expensive vacation coordinated months in advance because I'm forced to stay at delivery location until the car is received by this thieves on the internet.
Premier Auto Shippers Reviews
Premier auto shippers gave me a quote for shipping my car across states and beat out all other companies. On the day of the move, the driver called and said that I have to pay 20% extra for delivery. Classic bait-and-switch scamsters. I talked with Ben Forrest about this breach of trust and Ben Forrest (the salesman) said that my car won't move unless I paid extra. Upon fruther argument, he gave me a written note promising a refund of 10%. After the transportation was done, Ben and Premier Auto Shippers began to ceremoniously ignore my phone calls and emails. On the rare occasion that someone picked up the phone, Ben would have always "just stepped out" or the Accounts department had "the day off". A total of 61 emails and 48 phone calls were made and subsequently ignored. 4-5 times the phone calls were answered rudely and dismissed without a proper reply. Only once was the email answered and the owner (Lee Paolino) said (and I quote): "Ben is a sales person and has no authorization to issue credit." He further said that they would not honor promises (even if written) made by their salesperson. I have screenshots of the emails and the written note from Ben which I can send to whomsoever might be interested. I have filed a complaint with the FMCSA and I urge others who feel that they have been wronged to do the same.
Do Not USE!! Very Bad experience. I contracted Anthony Chavez [email protected] with the company on Feb 6th 2015 to pick up a truck in Arcata, California on Feb 24th 2015 and have it delivered to Iowa. I paid the deposit and signed the DocuSign Document. I was told they would call me the day of pickup or the day before to arrange the final details.
The day of pickup came and no one called. I called Anthony and he was extremely rude and said he did not have time to talk to me and said he would have a driver call me. No driver called me so I called him again and he of course did not answer until I blocked my number and called him again. He was still rude and offered no explanation except for that they do not have a driver because of some issue. The next day came and still no call from the company, Anthony or a driver and of course Anthony would not answer my calls so I texted him instead. Anthony turned out to be worthless and was no help. I ended up calling the dispatch and they told me that they had a driver cancel and would have the new driver call me. NO DRIVER ever called me. This went on for a week. In short they had 20 days to get a driver, They never did and they had plenty of excuses. The truck sat for a week before I cancelled the contract with the company. The contract with the company states that if they do not have a driver dispatched to pick up my vehicle I can cancel the contract and get the full deposit back minus $5.99 for processing. I even received a email from Lee Paolino [email protected] on March 2 stating that they would refund my deposit. Guess again, I had to file a dispute with my bank to get the deposit back.
Do NOT TRUST this company!!!! They will lie to you and never get back to you once they have your deposit
I'm writing this review after I successfully recovered a $300 deposit with Premier Auto Shippers (PAS) through my credit card company due to PAS’ failure to perform as contracted and their flagrant attempts to fabricate records and falsify contacts. I have never dealt with a more dishonest and predatory shipping company, specifically Anthony and Lee, who proved they’ll go to any lengths to cover up unethical behavior (to include falsifying information). Like some other reviewers on various sites, I also had to threaten PAS with breach of contract in small claims court but ultimately I let the credit card company work on my behalf. The details of my specific dispute are similar to other complaints but aren’t as important as is what worked for me in recovering money when PAS failed to ship my vehicle and then submitted blatantly falsified information when responding to my credit card company’s dispute department.
**WARNING: I would never recommend using Premier Auto Shippers under any circumstances for any purpose, regardless of what price they quote you! This predatory company deserves to go out of business and legal prosecution…BUYER BEWARE!!!**
Here were the factors that allowed me to recover my deposit:
1. When PAS sends you a Docu-sign contract, read it carefully as PAS will attempt to beat you over the head with the terms and conditions in case of a dispute. Make sure they’ve actually written in the agreed upon special conditions, e.g. vehicle must be pick-up or dropped off within certain specific date windows, total price. They will make verbal commitments and then act in direct opposition. NOTE: if you cancel with PAS prior to the pickup date the contract states you must do it in writing, regardless of what they tell you on the phone.
2. Make sure you document the content of every call or email with them. Only through meticulous documentation could I prove to the credit card company that what PAS claimed in their dispute rebuttal was blatantly untrue. PAS’ level of fabrication and mischaracterization in attempting to retain the deposit was astounding in scope and showed what is often legally referred to as “acting in bad faith”.
3. Let your credit card company’s dispute department work on your behalf, as it’s better than small claims court and credit cards can involuntarily withdraw the money from the merchant’s account (as they did in my case). This also puts time pressure on the merchant as they usually have to rebut within 30 days or lose the money.
4. Don’t give up trying to recover your money. In my case it went relatively quickly once the credit card company became involved after I’d done everything possible to work with PAS on a solution, not that they were responsive or professional in any sense. Expect Lee the owner to be confrontational and combative once you express your displeasure and then to cease all communications, meaning PAS failed to take any steps to mitigate the dispute in the eyes of the credit card company.
I contracted Premier Auto Shippers to transport my car from Columbus, GA to Seaside CA. Agent called me 6 different times over the weekend 7 days prior 13 December (pick up date) and told me if I did not pay now shipping would difficult. (that should have been my first clue). I paid the 180 dollars broker fee immediately and NEVER heard back from Anthony Chavez again. A week went by and they did not answer the phone and finally responded my phone calls by telling me "don't worry your car will be picked up tomorrow" They did this for a period of four days and then they changed their answer to " don't worry the truck is in North Florida and your car is next, driver will call you this afternoon for specifics" after another 3 days of nothing they changed their answer to "didn't I tell you the truck will be there tomorrow" after a couple of days they told my wife " don't worry we are picking up a load of 6 cars at a dealership and your car is next, truck driver will call you this afternoon for specifics".
Today their dispatch officer told my wife that we should change our delivery location to San José, CA (which is about one hour and 45 minutes from my house) the dispatcher had the audacity to tell my wife that his truck drivers were scared to drive to Seaside because we live (according to him) at the edge of mountains and that drivers fear their trucks will fall to the ocean from the dangerous cliffs. Their ignorance is beyond comical and just plain ridiculous. Dispatcher did not know we shipped a 1977 Corvette with a different company from and to exact same location in October where we did not wait any days at pick up location and was delivered to California in record 5 days. We understand they depend entirely on the truckers performance but hiding, dodging, manipulating, inventing, lying, misrepresenting and avoiding is not a good practice. They simply take your money and once the money is in their bank they will ignore the customer completely not caring about their commitment to the customer. This is BAD company to deal with. If by COB today my car is not picked up I will cancel this order and will seek another broker with another carrier, more responsible and responsive customer oriented, honorable people. The reason I did not with the company that shipped my corvette in October is because their agent was not available the weekend I was persecuted by Mr. Chavez,.. If I would have waited one extra day until Monday I would have saved 15 days before my pick up becomes a reality. I’m fearing the transportation itself is going to be another nightmare judging by the quality of people I’m dealing with even before the pickup date. Transporting and delivering don't seem to promising!! Their irresponsibility has caused major economical distress as I needed to rent until mine is delivered as promissed. Also I had to cancel an expensive vacation coordinated months in advance because I'm forced to stay at delivery location until the car is received by this thieves on the internet.