Geralds57

I sold a barn find 61 a couple of weeks ago and the buyer needed to hire a transport carrier to pick it up. He goes through uship for the transport and then gets 25-30 phone calls from transport companies with shipping cost. He settles on one of them and they tell him they will pick up the car this week. Wednesday afternoon I get a call from the driver that he will be here Thursday morning to get the car. A couple of hours later, the carriers office that he originally told to pick it up calls me to see if the driver has picked it up yet? I told him he’s picking up in the morning at 8am, not knowing that he is not his driver. He’s right on time yesterday morning, and he’s carrying 6 other car with one more to pick up in St. Louis. We load it up and he’s on his way. I text the buyer with the info. This afternoon he calls me and he talked to the carriers office but his driver hasn’t been here yet. WHAT? It seems that another transport that gave one of the estimates, swooped in and picked up the car. The buyer talks to uship and finds out it happens all the time. The buyer talks to the driver that has the car, and he jacks him $200.00 more for the delivery. Uship tags him for a $200.00 cancellation fee. He initially had tp pay $600.00 up front for the first carrier but uship kept $200.00 of that. This is the first time I’ve dealt with this, so be careful if you’re shipping a car. The cheapest price doesn’t always work out. He’s supposed to get the car next Tuesday, hopefully.

6T5RUSH

Wow! What a scam. Sure hope the car arrives in one piece AND no more upcharges.

Jim
In God We Trust!

68hemi

Good lesson for buyers to make sure they get the name of the actual transporter that they contracted with and to pass it on to the seller so they make sure they have the correct company actually picking up the car. Nearly all of these "transport companies" that are on the Internet are really just brokers and not really transport companies. When I had my 57 transported I would not proceed with the broker until I had the name and phone number of the "actual driver" that was going to pick up my car and made it clear that no money would change hands until I had it and was actually able to speak with the driver.

warrenmj

Sounds like auto theft to me.

Robert61

I've used them on a few occasions and had no problems.

Frankie the Fink

TPIC427

I Bought a 64 coupe in Mn. and had it shipped through a Uship partner, They jerked the seller around for about a week before they actually came to get the car and then it was in transport for about another 10 days. When it finally arrived in CT. they drove right past my exit and continued to Springfield Ma. because it was "too late" to drop the car at my house. When I asked about final destination delivery I was told that I could pick the car up at their Ma. location or pay an extra $200.00 to have it brought back to Ct. the next day or wait until they passed through Ct again which they did not know when that would be. After about an hour on the phone with them the car showed up that afternoon with no additional charge. Lesson learned-Pay a bit more and deal directly with a reputable shipping co.

rick1542

Pay both companies with your credit card than do a charge back on both companies. If they want to fight for the money they will have to explain to the credit company their position, CC companies usually side with the card holder.

ejboyd5

With something as emotional as shipping a car, it is probably far better to deal with one of the well known, recognized companies that trying to shave a few bucks by dealing with an unknown.

Easy Rhino

^This^

I have shipped numerous cars coast to coast and overseas and back, but, and this is a big but, they were daily drivers (including a C6 - pretty new at the time), and I had the selling dealer ship my C2 under his contract.

But I would never send a classic car through a lowest bidder open contract carrier.

Never.

Railroadman

Pretending to be someone they are not, and taking a car they had no right to, Since the seller was there for the loading you might not get actual theft, but is there some sort of "theft by deception" or fraud charge that would apply?

3JsVette

Is this another pitfall of while the internet gives us several options at our finger tips it also allows others to see what service we're looking for allowing the scammers a feeding frenzy?

cor66vette

Good post. Thanks to the OP for the heads up.

dahogan

....great thread too.

jrm5657

i tried to use U-ship once, got slammed with competing phone calls, low ball bids that they later tried to increase. It is a waste of time and high risk. I never used them and never will. I would never trust a collector car to those bozos.

Steve59

Sounds like something the Feds would be interested in, say the ICC. You probably need some kind of license to do interstate transporting. I'd give them a call.

bosshog8

I have used uship, not for a car, and it was fine. I'm not sure how the "other" company knew where to pick up the car at. If I could not get a quote with just the city and state then I ended the conversation. I only gave the address to the one I hired.

65hihp

I've used UShip a lot, always with great results, but never to move a car. UShip doesn't move anything. Just like eBay doesn't sell anything. UShip is a virtual place to allow actual movers to find people that need something moved. If the UShip program is used correctly, no one but the mover you make an agreement with should know exactly where and when the pick up is to occur. And I have never had one phone call from anyone while making the agreement within the UShip program on line. Contacts are always done by email. The only mover to get your telephone number is the one you make your agreement with. I often recommend UShip to others. I have had nothing but excellent results from all the movers I've found through UShip.

Whoops, I'm sorry bosshog.. I think I just wrote the same thing you wrote.

Brian VH McHale

I don't think we heard the last of this story. Good Luck.

vettebuyer6369

After watching the way UShip is used to hire the idiots on “Shipping Wars,” it’s tough to consider the concept of letting one of those clowns move a valuable car.

I made the mistake of requesting a quote once from one of the brokers and ended up with unsolicited nonstop calls and emails for weeks.

After getting comfortable with a reputable, well-known transport company I would not consider a UShip one time contractor or a broker, regardless of the lower estimated costs.