Do not deal with freight center!!!
I recently had to ship a large industrial machine from my office in Staten Island, NY to a buyer in Detroit. After doing a bit of research for an affordable, reasonable and company, I came across Freight Center online.
Big mistake.
At first, everything went smoothly. I contacted them for a quote and almost immediately received a callback. The representative was very friendly and was readily available to answer any and all questions. The pricing was affordable. Within three days of getting a quote, the paperwork was done and my item was picked up for shipment that I was GUARANTEED would take no more than 5 business days to arrive at its location. Then things changed. While in transit, my shipment was lost. I did not discover this until about 10 business days after, when I had to repeatedly call to find out what was going on. The answer I always got was "it's still in process'.
After finally confirming the shipment was lost, it was almost impossible to get an answer as the the status of anything. Messages and emails were not replied to. Representatives I did speak to brushed me off or said "I don't handle this". The original representative, who was once very helpful, was non-existent. Whereas in the beginning they reached out to me (until they received payment), now I had to constantly go after them.
After 6 weeks of waiting and being told more or less "we're still looking into it", I decided to go ahead and file an insurance claims. I provided them with all the necessary documents to prove the cost of the machine. I had sold it for $6000 when it originally cost over $14000. The representative told me they had never dealt with a shipment being completely lost, so I would definitely be getting AT LEAST the cost of the machine back (which turned out to be another lie). After another 6 weeks of waiting, I finally received a judgement: $35. Yes, you're reading that correctly. I would receive $35 for my lost machine, which was sold for $6000 and originally cost over $14000.
I blame myself for not reading the fine-print of the contract I signed. Their contract covers damage ($0.10 for every lb) but says NOTHING about shipments being lost. I am now looking into legal action and seeing what else I can do. I am completely under the assumption that they stole my machine.
I will NEVER deal with Freight Center again, and urge everyone to do the same.
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