Students hire company to ship cars from Seattle to Atlanta; cars end up in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — It started in Seattle. Rene asked not to use her last name. She says she and her roommate were moving from there -- to Atlanta -- for graduate school, Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke says.

They hired a company to ship their two cars. She says the price: $2,300. But when the truck driver arrived in Atlanta, he told them the price was now more than $5,000. Rene refused and the driver drove off with their cars and brought them about 250 miles to a tow lot in north Charlotte.

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Rene, her roommate, and her roommate’s parents all hit the road, came to the Queen City, and called police. Stoogenke was at the scene watching the situation unfold.

“I am a little bit overwhelmed … A lot overwhelmed,” Rene said.

Rene and her friend showed Action 9 paperwork. It looks like they hired a company -- a middleman or broker -- Aspired Auto Sales in San Diego -- to ship their cars and that Aspired worked with T7 Trucking in North Dakota. The total price: $2,300.

But they say -- when the cars got to Atlanta -- the driver gave showed them different paperwork. It says they hired a broker -- Major Auto Transport USA in New York -- to ship the cars and that Major Auto contracted with Adults Trucking, based in Charlotte. The price: $5,100.

Adults Trucking shared the same paperwork with Action 9 and said that was the price all along. It’s still not clear why there appear to be competing documents.

Either way, the company says -- when the students refused to pay in Atlanta -- Major Auto instructed the driver not to offload the cars and that law enforcement there even said the driver was free to leave with the vehicles.

“This is one of those things where you kind of just don’t believe that you’re in this,” Rene said. “I really just want to get answers. I want the car back. I want my friend’s car back as well. This is something that we (are) both in this.”

Stoogenke asked why the driver brought the cars to Charlotte.

Adults told him, “My driver brought the cars to Charlotte because this is my company home base and a place where I could better monitor and retrieve the vehicles, if needed, until the customer fulfillment of payment. Also, sir, my driver had another load which he didn’t fulfill due to this situation. My company lost out on a load and time waiting to be compensated by this customer.”

The company added, “Our company was contracted by MAJOR AUTO TRANSPORT USA INC MC # 1726137 298 MORELAND ST # 1 STATEN ISLAND, NY 10306 to provide a delivery service spanning from Newcastle, WA 98059 to Atlanta, Georgia. Upon delivery, the customer refused to pay the total contracted fee, we were instructed by the broker not to offload until the full balance was paid, which my company have documentation of. It’s unfortunate the customer had to pay additional fees; however, all this could have all been avoided at the time of delivery in GA. The driver was instructed by the GA state trooper and police that he was free to leave with the vehicles due to non-payment. We have all the documentation, videos before and after of both vehicles arriving safely to the Charlotte impound yard. The customer even tried to tell the Charlotte police the cars were stolen, after the police here in Charlotte did there due diligence, they also instructed the customer to pay or the cars would not be released. As a business owner we do not perform services for free. It is our desire to satisfy each and every customer and to ensure a timely and quality delivery, however, this situation is rare and unfortunate where a customer refused to pay. Once they paid in full, both vehicles were released from the impound yard into the possession of the customer.”

After a lot of back and forth, Rene and her roommate did get their rides back. But they say they still had to pay impound fees and that the final bill was around $7,000.

Action 9 reached out to all five companies involved in this case. Adults Trucking was the only one that responded in time for this report.

Advice:

It’s ok to use a broker. Just make sure you research them first. Make sure it’s easy enough to get in touch with them if you have a problem.
You may prefer to cut out the middleman. In that case, again, make sure you find a shipping company you trust.
If you run into a problem -- like these students did -- remember: law-enforcement tends to view this as a civil -- not criminal -- issue. But still call officers if you feel you need to.

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