I am writing this on behalf of my mother in law (74 years old) who was ripped off by Tristar. We wanted to ship a car from Colarado to North Carolina. The contract was that the car would be delivered for $675
with a deposit of $175. The car was pick up a week late and at the time of writing this - still not delivered. Despite our efforts to contact them - they dismissed our contact and were indifferent to our concerns. They made no contact despite promising that they would. Below is my mother in law's report on this debacle with Tristar. Please, Please - evryone do not deal with these thieves - they are the lowest scumbags on earth. They will take you money (deposit) and you will not hear from them again. Please check http://www.transportreviews.com/company/tristar-trucking.Asp for others with similar experiences.
This is the conversation/report from my mother in law:
Amanda, the rep, from Coastal Auto Transport called this morning and said my car would be delivered this afternoon. Sounds great (even after 14 days), right? She then said I'd owe $650.!!! The contract says $500 (in addition to the $175 deposit I already paid TriStar). When I told her this, she said she'd talked to Carl at TriStar (to whom I'd faxed my signed copy of the contract), and I should check with him.instead I called TriStar and asked for Harvey. He was "on the phone." So I asked for Sam. He was "on the phone" too. So how about Carl?"He hasn't been at his desk yet." I told the lady — that Coastal was demanding $650, not the $500 we'd agreed to. She said someone would call me back.
The contract, and it says the price can be raised in $50 increments but "the customer will be informed of amount of increase after pick-up of the vehicle." TriStar has NOT called me since I left Denver. She said it took four days for her to get TriStar to answer her messages asking for the correct number. Finally they did, which is how Coastal was able to reach me. I said I'll give TriStar another half-hour to call me back. If they don't, I'm going to tell that receptionist there that I'm going to
have to contact the U.S. Dept. Of Transportation and any relevant New York State authorities to complain about TriStar's failure to alert me to the additional charge.
Sam did return my call, said Amanda at Coastal was a liar re the wrong cellphone number, tried to blame everything — including the extra $150 — on Coastal Auto, again blamed the tornadoes for the two-week delivery, gave me lots of double-talk about how the $175 deposit was "only to make sure that you didn't run off and start doing business with nine other companies, " etc. Etc. He claimed that the contract spelled out all the additional fees, but changed the subject when I read to him the part saying "Any increase will be due at time of delivery and the customer will be informed of amount of increase after pickup of the vehicle." I asked why he didn't inform me in advance and he went off on another tangent. Then it appeared that he'd hung up on me — before I could hang up on him — but this wasn't the case; see below.
When I called Amanda back to report on this call, she corrected me on one point: All the additional $150
goes to Coastal. I told her that Sam said she'd lied about the cellphone number error, and she said she was looking at that moment at a printout of their e-mail with one wrong digit. While we were talking, Sam called her on another line, and she whispered to me that she'd let me listen in. I got an earfull: Sam told her that I was the one who gave him my wrong cell number (!!!), but when she asked where he got the right one, he said I called back and give it to him (crazy). He rejected her statement that for four days, no one at TriStar answered her phoned requests for the right number. He denied that he'd told me she was a liar, said I was the one she had to worry about. "Don't give her the car until you get that $650 — I don't trust these people!" [Same to you, Sam! ] He said Coastal's driver could take me to the bank, but she explained to him that this was impossible with that huge rig.
After Sam hung up, Amanda and I resumed talking about how sleazy and dishonest he is and what to do about my situation. Suddenly my cell rang — it was Sam calling back, saying there had been a phone problem at his end. He started in again about how confused and uninformed I was, that I hadn't read the contract etc. Etc. I quickly said that I couldn't use up any more minutes on my cell because I needed to be ready to take the call from the Coastal driver. Actually I'd given Coastal my landline # but I didn't want to waste any more time with this creep.
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