Complaint Review: Autotrail Transporters

I got in touch with Autotrail through a web referral; this was my first mistake as one should never go without a reference. The lady sweet talked me into signing the contract and asked for an upfront payment of $980 + $20 = $1000

I agreed to give an advance of $250 through my credit card. We did all the paperwork including the credit card authorization for $250 ONLY. I signed this contract on 2/7/06 and they were supposed to pick up my car on 2/09/06.

My card was charged for $250 on 02/07/06 and then without even taking any authorization they charged my card again on 02/10/06 for $750 and they did not even bother to inform me about this illegal charge.
I started to call them from 2/13/06 to check about the pickup date this is when my nightmare started, the people on the phone were extremely rude and unprofessional. They kept their conversation short and always gave me a date for the next day and when the week came to an end it used to be next week. Any talk of delay was coolly met with a contract threat of charging me for $250, at one it seemed to me that they were in no mood to ship the car and were more than happy to pocket the $250 for doing nothing. With each passing call the experience was getting worse, on 02/23/2006 they told me that it will be picked up some time next week which in essence was any time after 02/27/06. At this time I demanded an explanation for the delay, my genuine question was met a fury of verbal assault and this person now clearly asked me to cancel the contract and pay the $250 fee, after conveying this slammed the phone down. After this insulting behavior I called my credit card company and disputed both the charges as I still had not been provided any service and it was very clear that these people were in no mood to ship the car and were only interested in keeping the $250 deposit and give me heartburn for the illegal $750 transaction, as I am sure the refund of $750 would have been next to impossible.

Now I am depending on my credit card company to get my money back and I would advise EVERYONE not to do business with these people.

Due to this delay I am paying a car rental of $20/day, this was the cheapest I could get for a compact car. I have already paid for one week and due to this hiccup I foresee paying for another two weeks. The total would of this car rental would come around to $420 and it involves lot of hardship as I get this rate from the airport and I have to go their every week to renew my rental contract.

Amir
Waukegan, Illinois
U.S.A.