Southerland Auto Transport taken from consumeraffairs.com

Lorraine of Chester VA (5/19/03): My daughter was given a quote on line to transport her husband's vehicle from Richmond Virginia to Boise Idaho. As they are newlyweds, young and serving in the Air Force their money was tight. She paid the initial deposit via Western Union of $499.00 and was told that upon receipt of this deposit the vehicle would be picked up within 2 weeks.
When this did not happen I contacted the company and was told that they would put it on a "priority list" however when calling back a week later I was told that it was never put on any priority list. I was then told there still was no pick up date assigned to the vehicle. I enquired if there was any other way we could expedite the order and was told in turn that if they paid an additional $200.00 then it would be picked up within 3 to 5 days. We agreed to this, I faxed through an agreement to upgrade the order and again waited.
The 3 to 5 days expired and I telephoned the company again. I was put onto Bill who was aggressive, abusive, made racial comments towards me, made personal comments towards me and continued to tell me that if they "had a crystal ball then he could tell me when the vehicle could be picked up". I enquired if we cancelled the order if the kids could get their deposit back as they need the vehicle and he told me he would love to cancel the order and keep their deposit. He told me he could run his business any way he wanted to and continued to be abusive and rude. Finally he told me he was cancelling their order and hung up on me.
The result of this company's unscrupulous business manner is that two innocent people, one who is serving his country, are now out of pocket $499, don't have their vehicle after a month. The stress on both my daughter and sone-in-law and myself has been enormous. The time it has taken out of my day on numerous occasions to contact this company is precious to me considering I am running a very reputable company who would never deal with my customers the way this company has, does and continues to.
Bob of Rochester MN writes (7/13/01): I was given a quote of $795 for the transport of my Porsche 911 from Lemoore, CA to Rochester, MN. This quote was for an economy shipment which was described as follows: "economy shipments will be picked up with the next available carrier".
The contract stated the company would contact me prior to any charges being made and to confirm the approval of the contract. This was sent in on July 2nd. The company never contacted me. I contacted the company on July 7th because I had not heard anything. At that time I was told that they were working on it and no date was available as to when it would be shipped.
He also told me that I could add another $200 to expedite the shipment. I refused to do so and he told me that they would keep working on finding someone to ship it. After another week of not hearing anything I contacted the company on 7-13 and again was told they are working on it but no date is available. I was again told that if I gave them another $200 that they would expedite the order. When I refused to do so and stated that I didn't think I was getting the service as it was described, Bill told me he didn't have time to play word games and that he was going to hang up. I told him not to hang up and that I didn't want him shipping my vehicle and he said send me a cancellation and hung up.
I now believe the initial quote is lower than the accepted rate in the industry for this shipment. Southerland is just a broker and has to find a shipper willing to ship the vehicle for the price they quoted. Therefore, because the rate is lower than what is normal to the industry no shipper will accept this rate. At this point it is a losing situation for the consumer because you can either pay the additional $200 and hope someone will take the job at that price or say forget it and lose your deposit.