UNimpressed with Passport Transport so far

[PDCjonny]

So I contracted on the phone with Passport Transport to pick up a car in the south and have it brought up to New York.
Car was picked up yesterday from dealer. I called dealer to be sure.
Today I called Passport to get their real time tracking information that they make a big deal about on the site.
Was one of the main reasons I went with them. They weren't cheap.
After being on hold literally 20 minutes, guy answers. I explain I wanted the tracking info. He says he will email it.
Email comes in 30 minutes later, completely blank. I call back, wait another 20 minutes.
Different guy answers. Looks up the order, says here is the tracking number. Okay great.
Plug in tracking number, get error. Try again several time, error. Call back Passport. Wait 20 minutes on hold.
New guy (#3) answers. Give him tracking number, he confirms it's not working. Puts me on hold.
Comes back and says the tracking device in transport must be broken. Oh great. I ask where is driver now.
Guy says he doesn't know, would have to call him. He suggests I call back maybe Friday. I ask if the tracking device will be working soon.
He doubts it, they would have to get a new unit to him.
I ask him when should I expect delivery. He says between 2-10 days.

I say should I just take off the next two weeks and look out the window?
Now that we have no idea of drivers whereabouts he might be here tomorrow
or a week from tomorrow.

They couldn't find my email or contact phone number either.

Unimpressed.

 

[Pythonpete]

Weren't they the official VOI shipper? Maybe someone here knows someone who can help out. Its terrible that you are getting that kind of run-around. Especially since a large part of why you went with them was their advanced tracking system. Hopefully someone can help you.

 

[JohnnyViper]

ask for a discount to get some money back

 

[01sapphirebob]

So I contracted on the phone with Passport Transport to pick up a car in the south and have it brought up to New York.
Car was picked up yesterday from dealer. I called dealer to be sure.
Today I called Passport to get their real time tracking information that they make a big deal about on the site.
Was one of the main reasons I went with them. They weren't cheap.
After being on hold literally 20 minutes, guy answers. I explain I wanted the tracking info. He says he will email it.
Email comes in 30 minutes later, completely blank. I call back, wait another 20 minutes.
Different guy answers. Looks up the order, says here is the tracking number. Okay great.
Plug in tracking number, get error. Try again several time, error. Call back Passport. Wait 20 minutes on hold.
New guy (#3) answers. Give him tracking number, he confirms it's not working. Puts me on hold.
Comes back and says the tracking device in transport must be broken. Oh great. I ask where is driver now.
Guy says he doesn't know, would have to call him. He suggests I call back maybe Friday. I ask if the tracking device will be working soon.
He doubts it, they would have to get a new unit to him.
I ask him when should I expect delivery. He says between 2-10 days.

I say should I just take off the next two weeks and look out the window?
Now that we have no idea of drivers whereabouts he might be here tomorrow
or a week from tomorrow.

They couldn't find my email or contact phone number either.

Unimpressed.

Maybe see if they can get you the drivers cell number so you can call him. I used Passport for VOI. 11 without a problem. The gentlemen that helped organize everything for VOI is Brett Price. If you want his number I can p.m. it to you.

 

[PDCjonny]

I'm going to call on Friday and try to get as much information as possible. If they don't have the tracking
working then I'll try to get drivers info. I'll bet thats the last thing they want is drivers getting called
by customers but thats the breaks. I need a delivery window.

 

[Pythonpete]

I wouldn't wait until Friday, I'd call again tomorrow and get the guy's phone # at the least.

 

[vipertanz]

I used them to ship my last Viper sort of a pita but the driver called me the day before and let me know about what time he would be in town and called a few times the next day to let me know exactly what the plan was. I will say the tracking worked great for me and it was neat to see all the places the driver stopped really too bad it isn't working for you.

 

[PDCjonny]

They contacted me by email and said that my drivers GPS is broken.
Lucky me.

 

[johniew398]

They knew tracking wasn't working probably when they picked up your car. May be they don't want you tracking this load for some reason.

 

[SSGSNAKE]

I sold a car and had them transport. The driver was not very easy when he pick up the car. Asked for top of the carrier there where no cars. He put the car on the bottom in the front. I then asked him to cover the car and he had a attitude. He also told me that the car would be unloaded and loaded as they change trailers as they go across the country. Not what I was told when we made the deal with them. when the car arrived at the persons house I sold it to the car was on the top and the car cover was in the trunk. We also could not track as they advertise. The car arrived in good condition. But after my experience I would not use them again.

 

[PDCjonny]

Called Passport a few minutes ago.
The car which was picked up in Houston has traveled all the way to......Dallas !
Three full days later.
Driver tracking still not working, not doubt deliberately. Passport never once called me to keep me informed
Of progress. I've had to call them three times.

This is the VCA recommended carrier?
Disappointing and totally unprofessional way to treat a customer.

 

[A1998]

Go to this website and post your review! http://www.transportreviews.com/ I purchased a new car this spring and thought I had a good transportation company also. All they did was lie to me. I posted negative comments. They took my comments down, I proved they lied to me and my post was re-posted. They called several times and apologized. Constantly asked me to remove my review. Even called me on the phone and offered me $75.00 to remove it. I left it. I was worth it to make sure people saw what kind of business they ran and how they lied to people. Sounds like this company is doing the same to you. I would highly recommend you do the same.

 

[Lespauldude]

VJ - Did you happen to give Intercity Transport a call for a quote? I would recommend them to anyone.

Scott

 

[PDCjonny]

VJ - Did you happen to give Intercity Transport a call for a quote? I would recommend them to anyone.

Scott

Hey Scott
Yes I did, regrettably they were like two weeks out for pickup.
And I'm the most impatient person ever...

 

[hou99gts]

I used Passport a few months ago. I was informed before hand it would be 2-10 days for pickup, then 2-10 days for delivery, which they did. They gave me the driver's cel number, who I called twice before delivery, he was very nice. Delivered around my schedule and showed up on time. One issue with my delivery was the GPS, it was working, but they did not switch them over correctly when my vehicle transfered trucks during the trip. I called and asked how my vehicle was going to get here in 2 days when it was WAYYY far away, and they fixed the situation immediately, and I tracked it by GPS from there. I'm sorry for your troubles so far, but I wanted to give you my experience recently.

 

[Roffey]

And I always heard they were held in high esteem

 

[PDCjonny]

I have had no contact whatsoever with them on day 4 that I have not initiated.
I have no GPS tracking ability, one of their promised services.
One would think, knowing that the customer cannot track his car that it would be noted and
an effort would be made to keep the out of the loop customer appraised of his cars whereabouts.
One would be wrong.

 

[shooter_t1]

Caution hijack

I used Passport a few months ago.

Broncee, Bucee, what is it?. I know.... Billee.

Think about it


Hijack over

 

[hou99gts]

Caution hijack



Broncee, Bucee, what is it?. I know.... Billee.

Think about it


Hijack over

BRONCEE: too long (7th letter not available now)
BUCKEE: available
BILLEE: not available

I will forward your suggestions to the rightful owner of said vehicle....

Double hijack, sorry!

 

[johniew398]

I have had no contact whatsoever with them on day 4 that I have not initiated.
I have no GPS tracking ability, one of their promised services.
One would think, knowing that the customer cannot track his car that it would be noted and
an effort would be made to keep the out of the loop customer appraised of his cars whereabouts.
One would be wrong.

This guys was not impressed either when the hired them to transport his Lamborghini:

http://www.transportreviews.com/review/00090087.asp

 

[PDCjonny]

Day 5.
No contact from anyone at Passport whatsoever. No tracking available.
Have no idea where my car is, and no ETA. Was promised on Thursday driver would call.
Needless to say, crickets.
Will update when and if I ever get my car.

Still punching up my review for all the car websites and transporters review site since I have
so much time on my hands.

 

[VIPER GTSR 91]

Glad you posted this as I was considering using them for transport when I move but may look at another company now. Hope you get the car in good shape.

 

[viper_itch]

I used them in early May to pick up my '08 from a dealer in FL and had several small issues with them that made the whole experience, which was good, a bit less than ideal.

First was the pickup date was suppose to be 3-5 days out. The driver would call the contact at the dealership 24 hours before pickup. This sounded fine at the time, but what is does is leaves me, the customer, out of the loop. So if I want to know if everything is on schedule I need to call someone. Either the dealer or Passport. If I called Passport it seemed like they didn't really have a firm answer and would repeat the plan for the driver to call the dealer. When I called the dealer I felt like I was imposing since it was my responsibility to arrange transport. So the dealer would say, "I've heard nothing" and so it would go.

Of course, this would all be unnecessary if they had actually picked up the car in 3-5 days as promised. It was really 8 days. Finally, I called on a Friday they said it would be picked up on Saturday, and I replied that I had no knowledge of the dealer's hours and that they really need to confirm with them. Sure enough, the dealer insisted they get the car that day, Friday, and that was what happened. I'm sure the dealer wanted the car gone as much as I wanted it home.

I had to call for the tracking number late Monday as it never came in email as promised. I finally got it and the driver's number several hours after calling.

The driver was a pro, the tracking worked really well once I got it, and the delivery time was spot on from when the driver call me to set it the day before.

What would make their service better is simple. Communication. Let me know if your schedule is slipping (pickup and delivery). Don't give out huge pickup/delivery windows. Keep me in the loop. Give out the tracking number and diver's number BEFORE pickup. email works great, use it!

Hope it all works out for you, I understand your frustrations.

 

[johniew398]

Just got my Viper magazine and they have a full page color ad on page 49. Maybe the editors and people that take classified ad should check out their customer service.

 

[AZTVR]

Will update when and if I ever get my car.

???................

 

[VenomSteve]

Sorry to hear about all your trouble. I used these guys before to move multiple cars. Service was great, they came to pick up the car exactly when I needed it and drop it off on the day of my request. I didn't ask for their GPS tracking, but they did give me the driver's cell number which I never had to call. Anyhow, you should definitely let thier owner know, about your lack of service and responsiveness. Good luck.

 

[PDCjonny]

Okay so here's the end result.
After having no contact with anyone from Passport for 5 days, the driver called me on Saturday 7/9 in the afternoon to tell me he expected to be in my area Sunday 7/10 late afternoon or evening. I was happy to hear from him, but concerned about the "night" part because I didn't really want to get my car delivered in the dark. Especiall a mostly black car.
As we know, once the transporter leaves any defects or blemishes are your problem. In fact, he actually was passing by my area on his way further out east then coming back my way. My car was behind the other so it had to be done that way.

Sunday rolls around and the driver calls me about 6:00 pm that he is an hour or so out. He need directions to get to me which I provided. Rather than have him come to my home, I thought I would make it easier on him to meet him in a large parking lot about a 1/2 mile from my home. He said his truck was huge and I thought it mgiht be a problem getting down my street with some low hanging branches etc. I just wanted to make it easier for the guy. So my wife and I hop in our car and go wait at the lot.

Driver calls about 1/2 an hour later, he made a wrong turn and was heading away from us. Now I'm getting concerned, it's 7:00pm and we have about an hour of good daylight left. I can't understand why he can't plug the location in his GPS and get to me? So NOW I tell hime to head back east and I will meet him somewhere along the way.

So now my wife and I go up to the main road I directed him to and wait for him. We are now about 4 miles from my home.
Driver comes along, huge truck. He pulls over on this main road and has obviously had a long day. Now this is a busy road. Driver wants to unload my car right there on the side of the road. I say no way. It's way too busy and I don't want to make a side show unloading a new Viper from a truck covered in Viper VOI wrap. I said we have to find a lot or a side street. The driver was basically refusing to go down to where I wanted to unload, he just wanted to unload anywhere as soon as possible. And now it's starting to get dark.

We pull off into a side street in a sketchy area and unload the car. Driver apologizes for being testy as if it was my fault he couldn't get there sooner.
Takes about 30 minutes to get car off and I'm doing the final inspection in semi darkness with my wife. Car looks okay and I drive it home 4 miles with no plates.

The car arrived unscathed which I guess is the bottom line in getting a valuable car transported. They have nice trucks. But the total lack of communication from Passport (despite knowing that I had no way to track the driver as they PROMOTE so heavily on their website) was a joke. The driver was quite surly and annoyed at God knows what. I went out of my way to help make the delivery easier for him by not demanding the "door to door" service I am paying a LOT for and he acted like I was busting his chops because I didn't want to unload my car on the side of a busy highway. I would think long and hard about using them again. AND they were the MOST expensive transporter I contacted, even with my so called VCA discount applied.

 

[Mutts02GTS]

I'm glad to hear that your car arrived in one piece! Time to go enjoy it and put this frustrating ordeal behind you. Have fun with your new toy! Jeff

 

[Jerz Viper]

I'm sorry Jon had this poor experience with Passport and I truly understand his frustration, but I still stand behind Passport overall. If you measured all the carriers out there moving cars (high End) Passport would be in the top 3.

They did one hell of a job for us at VOI , moving 26 loads of Vipers from all over the country with out a hiccup. NONE of the other Carriers came close to Passport when I did the RFP. Brand Orange was given the first shot at our business and basically blew us off for 6 months. When they finally came to the table it was a slap in the face to all of us as members of the VCA. Are they a reputible company? Absolutely, has anyone here ever had a bad experience with them? Absolutely!

Neil Pitt , the owner, is a stand up guy and a NO BS businessman. Anyone of us here on this board that owns their own business has had customers that have had a bad experience with their company. My family trucking business is 77 years old, and though we strive for perfection, some times my team F's up from start to finish. Yes, it takes years to build a good reputation and 2 seconds to ruin it. I understand based on what Jon wrote that his experience was not good, and thats unfortunate, but at the end of the day we have a great overall carrier and partner that had a bad move.

I saw someone mention that Passport took a full page ad in Viper Magazine and that we should revisit having them as an advertiser...


Just and FYI, Passport took out several full page ads in the DuPont Registry and at no cost to us added the VOI event to their advertising and did a photo shoot using VCA members cars in Ohio. I didnt get that offer from ANY of the other Carriers, nor did we get offered to have not one, but two 53' tractor trailers wrapped to advertise our event!

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Again, I'm not making any excuses for what happened to Jon and I'm truly sorry for the experience, and I can understand him venting, but at the end of the day Passport is still an excellent carrier and we stand behind them 100% !

 

[plumcrazy]

i just recommended a different car hauler to a friend cause of this bad (in my opinion) service from passport, passport had a good price too. Jon, my buddy thanks you !