Yes, that is all obvious except thankfully the car will be stored somewhere I hadn't driven to yet (hidden lair?) that is climate controlled with good security. So someone might come to my home looking for an S2000 but they're just going to find an old pickup truck, farm tractor, and farm implements. That might be a fun confrontation though. I am skeptical there is enough incentive to steal a garden variety S2000 to setup such an elaborate scheme, but who knows. They didn't try very hard to hide the tracker. Unless that was just a decoy and the real tracker is still in the car somewhere...

 

I will say that i the last car i purchased. I used uShip to ship from NJ to CA without any issues so it can happen… this was 6 years or so ago

 

It's a crooked, dishonest business.

 

There are tracker sanner apps. One for apple, another for Tile. Easy to just let app look for another one.

Before you got to storage area.

Agree its a bit much of scheme for such a car. But since its so easy to rule out...

 

Why are brokers involved in many of these problems?

If I had no experience transporting a car, how could I determine if a company is good or not? Just by word of mouth or trial and error?

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the video. This exposes something I never knew about. Very disheartening.

Looks like the OP needs a lawyer if he wants to get his car back and repaired (if necessary).

 

When you use a broker, you do not get to pick your transporter. You are relying on your broker to do that. You could get a great transporter at a great cost, but you could also get an awful one. Unless you know the broker, the broker may pick the cheapest transporter to maximize the broker's profit. I'm sure there are some good brokers, but I do not know any. Supposedly there is a good one some guys on RennList use. I haven't used him so I can't vouch for him.

I started my search from word of mouth. The two companies recommended to me were Intercity Lines and Plycar. I ended up using Intercity because Intercity was able to travel to the location. The vehicle I bought was in a very remote area. I was also aware of Intercity's reputation. Intercity transports cars worth millions of dollars. If uber wealthy owners of rare Ferraris trusted Intercity, I figured I could trust Intercity to take care of my relatively cheapo cars.

If you use Interciy, expect to pay a premium. The first time I used a transporter, brokers quoted me around $500-$600 while Intercity quoted around $2600. The premium was well worth it to me as I did not want to risk anything happening to my cars. I was happy with Intercity the first time I used them and continued to use them every time I needed a vehicle moved long distance.

 

In light of what the OP is going through, the extra money is well worth it.

Thanks for posting this!

 

This is like selling a house. Brokers like real estate agents advertise the job based on the shipper's desires and bring the bids to the shipper. Nothing more exotic than that. You're not obligated to use the broker's initial pick. The transporter works for you not the broker who only finds one (or several) willing to do the job. The broker, of course, gets a fee for providing that service. Specialized cargo often works this way as well and individual haulers (hot shot truckers) scan the load boards and try to eliminate their dead mileage/time between loads.

As I no doubt indicated earlier my S2000 was picked up by an independent driver with an enclosed trailer who normally hauls nice furniture from NC to OH and my OH to VA job enabled him to avoid back hauling an empty trailer at his own expense. He was willing to meet my requirement for a week day pickup in OH and delivery the next weekend in VA. I needed to be back in OH right after delivery.

-- Chuck

 

What ever happened to transporting vehicles by train in enclosed cars?