Warning to anyone having a car shipped using Accelerated Services - Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community

flashburn · 01-19-2014, 06:15 PM

So about a month ago I had my car shipped using Accelerated Services. I made a few mistakes, so I'm hoping others can learn from them.

I had decided that I'd rather not have the dealer wash my car before hand because I didn't want to have to do paint correction as soon as I take delivery of a new car. My car arrived in the pitch dark at around 8:30PM (they were about 12 hours late). Because of the fact that it sat in and went through some horrible weather, and because I asked for no wash, it was extremely filthy, so I could only do so much to look over the car before signing for delivery. The next morning, as I started washing the car, I noticed couple giant gobs of grey paint (around 1/2" maybe) on a few spots of the car. I tried just wiping it off at first, before I realized it was paint. I did my best to clean the car, and as I did, I started noticing that every single panel of the car had drops of paint all over it. Most of them were extremely small specks, but occasionally there would be bigger spots. Literally hundreds of specks. So I finished washing the car, pulled it in the garage, and figured I'd start working on removing them.

On top of this, I also noticed fine scratches on almost every panel of the car as well! After I found both of these discoveries I contacted the salesman to inform him of the issues. The salesman told me that the scratches are "normal" for a new car they receive, and that if they washed it, they would of seen it and polished... gee it would of been great if he told me that BEFORE hand. Whatever, I've never seen that when buying a new car before. He told me to contact Accelerated Services right away, which I then did (and had to leave a message). So anyway, I went on with trying to clean up my car.

First thing I tried was a mild polish + porter cable. This unfortunately did absolutely nothing to the paint specks. Next I bumped it up to using Goo-Gone, which was working, but was taking a bit too much elbow grease, as it would've taken me days to remove it all. Finally acetone-free nail polish remover did the job. I was in a race against time however, as later that day I had an appointment to have a clear bra installed. In total I spent about 3 hours working on just the front of the car (basically where I was having the clear bra installed).

So my clear bra guy gets here, I tell him about the issue, and he brings in his super bright lights and we start looking, and of course there are spots I missed. So he pulls out this cleaning solution for cars to remove gunk, and it worked like a dream. He spends an hour or so cleaning it, and unfortunately after putting the clear bra on, he starts noticing some really small spots that are now noticeable after being magnified by the clear bra. Unfortunately at this point, it's too late, you can't remove it and re-install, you'd have to get new film.

So finally a day or two goes by, and I'm able to speak with someone at Accelerated about this issue. I give them basically the entire story above, and sent them a bunch of pictures. At this point, I told them, I just wanted to be compensated for the cost of the clear bra being redone (~$700). They told me they would start their investigation and get back to me.

* Funny Side Story *
So when I'm talking to their claims guy, he asks if the driver who brought the car to Georgia to hand off to the guys who delivered it to me can give me a call, because he lives near by and wanted to take a look. Against my better judgement I agreed to this. So I get a call about 30 minutes later from the driver, and the first thing he does (literally, the first sentence) was tell me how this is his first week (or maybe month) on the job, and that they will make him pay for any damages that occurred. He was hoping I lived closer to him, so he could come over to my house and "use some polishing compound" on my car to remove it. Luckily, he actually lived 4-5 hours away, so that wasn't going to happen. I sat on the phone nicely with him for 30 minutes while he kept apologizing and saying how careful he was with the car to make sure nothing happened to it. The whole thing was just so awkward.
* End of Side Story *

Finally a week goes by, and I get an email from their claims manager, who tells me that it was the clear bra installers responsibility to make sure that the surface of the car was clean before installing and that the car wasn't prepped properly. They said they would give me a $150 "goodwill" check but offered no apologies or admittance to any responsibility. My argument of course is that it shouldn't be expected that a new car has paint specks all over it and it wasn't simply a matter of a car that needed to be washed better. They basically told me "tough luck" and the $150 "good will" was all they could offer me. I begrudgingly accepted it, because at this point, I just wanted to move on from this frustration.

So I'm hoping if anyone took the time to read this ridiculously long story, they got from it the following things:
1. If you're getting a car shipped, you might be better off having it washed first. Hard to say how much of the filth was there before it left on the truck.
2. When you accept a car, make sure it's in the day time where you can METICULOUSLY go over the entire car before signing for it.
3. If you go with Accelerated Services, be prepared for them not to take responsibility for anything that happens to your car, especially if you don't notice it until after you sign for it.

Anyway, that was my fun "new car" experience. Luckily the buying process couldn't of been easier, but I think for me, this might be my last time buying a car and having to deal with it getting shipped in.

N1rve · 01-19-2014, 06:37 PM

When they said that new cars come "scratched"... unfortunately, yes that's true for some...

My first FRS had some blemishes on the bumper, a small bubble if you will, and a chip.

As I waited for the sales person to drive down another FRS, I found a black one with all the plastics still on it except the quarter panel, I noticed there were some HEAVY scratches to the car. It JUST got off the truck.

What usually happens to these cars is that they try to correct the paint, and it that doesn't work, it gets sent to a body shop for a full repaint.

flashburn · 01-19-2014, 06:44 PM

That's pretty ridiculous. It's amazing how poor the paint quality is with every car manufacturer nowadays. Luckily I was able to buff out the majority of them, there are some left on the upper part of the hood that wasn't clear bra'd that I still need to work on a bit more, but I think they should come out.

Pete156 · 01-19-2014, 06:48 PM

My motto: Never ship a car unless you are doing it yourself.

vhx1 · 01-19-2014, 07:21 PM

Sorry to hear about your experience. I had a positive experience with the same shipping company and purchased from the same dealer. I guess this is the risk that is taken when having a car shipped cross country to you.

flashburn · 01-19-2014, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vhx1

Sorry to hear about your experience. I had a positive experience with the same shipping company and purchased from the same dealer. I guess this is the risk that is taken when having a car shipped cross country to you.

Luck of the draw. I'm sure most people don't have any issues. The problem is if you do, be prepared to have a company that is not fun to deal with and ultimately doesn't take responsibility for what they should have.

Ganthrithor · 01-19-2014, 07:52 PM

If you're gonna ship spend the extra money and go with a reputable company that does enclosed transport. I had mine shipped from MA to CO by Intercity Lines and had no issues whatsoever. I do recommend having the car cleaned right before transport though, since they drape a few layers of covering materials over the cars while they're being transported. As the driver was telling me, if the cars are covered in dirt then the covers shifting / rubbing during transit can cause swirls.

flashburn · 01-19-2014, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ganthrithor

If you're gonna ship spend the extra money and go with a reputable company that does enclosed transport. I had mine shipped from MA to CO by Intercity Lines and had no issues whatsoever. I do recommend having the car cleaned right before transport though, since they drape a few layers of covering materials over the cars while they're being transported. As the driver was telling me, if the cars are covered in dirt then the covers shifting / rubbing during transit can cause swirls.

Do you mean that an enclosed transport ships with covering materials as well? Accelerated Services unenclosed transport does not cover the car. If they did, I definitely would of had them wash the car before hand.

Enclosed transport is double the price from what I've been told from others after the fact.

LeeMaster · 01-19-2014, 08:45 PM

I went to go take a look at a couple FRS at the local dealerships and noticed that all of them had swirl marks on them. Pretty ugly and yes it does happen to newer cars.. unfortunately both parties have no proof of what happened but at least they gave you some reimbursement for something that can happen to ANY shipping company.

Ganthrithor · 01-19-2014, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flashburn

Do you mean that an enclosed transport ships with covering materials as well? Accelerated Services unenclosed transport does not cover the car. If they did, I definitely would of had them wash the car before hand.

Enclosed transport is double the price from what I've been told from others after the fact.

Yeah, my car was draped in soft cloth and then that was covered with a plastic sheet (inside the enclosed transport).

Enclosed costs more but so does having to have the car detailed / have films replaced. IDK I read a few horror stories on here of budget, unenclosed shipping companies damaging cars, so paying another $500 or whatever it was for enclosed made sense to me. I looked around on Rennlist to see what companies people were using and found a lot of people had good things to say about Intercity. I just didn't want to have to worry about dealing with damage on a brand new car.

Not that it really matters in the end anyway... unless you're an utter Nazi about who does what to your paint you're gonna get swirls. If swirls are what you're trying to avoid, good luck. I just didn't want shit plastered all over the car / parts of the underbody damaged etc (some unenclosed company put tie-down hooks into somewhere they shouldn't have and literally ripped bits of metal apart on the bottom of one poor forum member's car last year... looked kind of horrifying).

Silverpike · 01-20-2014, 08:22 PM

When Accelerated Services dropped off my BRZ, I had to sign a form saying I received and inspected it for issues. Did you do this? Your had your chance to inspect the car. If it were me, I would not have signed for it unless I saw it in broad daylight and the car was clean.

ZionsWrath · 01-20-2014, 08:47 PM

Audi's ship in car covers ^_^

flashburn · 01-21-2014, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silverpike

When Accelerated Services dropped off my BRZ, I had to sign a form saying I received and inspected it for issues. Did you do this? Your had your chance to inspect the car. If it were me, I would not have signed for it unless I saw it in broad daylight and the car was clean.

I don't blame you for not reading my entire post (or even the end), but yeah, I already talked about this.

Formula Vee · 03-02-2014, 06:34 PM

I had my BRZ shipped from Colorado in early February by Accelerated. A few days after taking ownership I ended up with a flat tire. Removing the wheel/tire (winter set from Tirerack arrived that evening, thankfully) revealed a ring of abrasion/wear around the entire inner side of the tire, along with a 1" tear along that wear line. Brought the issue to the dealer, who reached out to Accelerated. They asked for a quote to replace the tire, but then decided to deny my claim based on their 48-hour claim window and the fact that I signed the Bill of Lading. Keep in mind that I received the keys in a Walmart parking lot, in NJ, in the dead of winter, and the car was filthy dirty. I would have also needed to remove the wheels from the car to see the damage.

Now I have to replace the tire with my own money come Spring. I would imagine most people will not have any issues with Accelerated's transport, but if you do they will probably screw you over.

01-19-2014, 06:15 PM	#1
flashburn Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Drives: 2014 Subaru BRZ Limited 6MT Location: Central Florida Posts: 131 Thanks: 15 Thanked 47 Times in 19 Posts Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	Warning to anyone having a car shipped using Accelerated Services So about a month ago I had my car shipped using Accelerated Services. I made a few mistakes, so I'm hoping others can learn from them. I had decided that I'd rather not have the dealer wash my car before hand because I didn't want to have to do paint correction as soon as I take delivery of a new car. My car arrived in the pitch dark at around 8:30PM (they were about 12 hours late). Because of the fact that it sat in and went through some horrible weather, and because I asked for no wash, it was extremely filthy, so I could only do so much to look over the car before signing for delivery. The next morning, as I started washing the car, I noticed couple giant gobs of grey paint (around 1/2" maybe) on a few spots of the car. I tried just wiping it off at first, before I realized it was paint. I did my best to clean the car, and as I did, I started noticing that every single panel of the car had drops of paint all over it. Most of them were extremely small specks, but occasionally there would be bigger spots. Literally hundreds of specks. So I finished washing the car, pulled it in the garage, and figured I'd start working on removing them. On top of this, I also noticed fine scratches on almost every panel of the car as well! After I found both of these discoveries I contacted the salesman to inform him of the issues. The salesman told me that the scratches are "normal" for a new car they receive, and that if they washed it, they would of seen it and polished... gee it would of been great if he told me that BEFORE hand. Whatever, I've never seen that when buying a new car before. He told me to contact Accelerated Services right away, which I then did (and had to leave a message). So anyway, I went on with trying to clean up my car. First thing I tried was a mild polish + porter cable. This unfortunately did absolutely nothing to the paint specks. Next I bumped it up to using Goo-Gone, which was working, but was taking a bit too much elbow grease, as it would've taken me days to remove it all. Finally acetone-free nail polish remover did the job. I was in a race against time however, as later that day I had an appointment to have a clear bra installed. In total I spent about 3 hours working on just the front of the car (basically where I was having the clear bra installed). So my clear bra guy gets here, I tell him about the issue, and he brings in his super bright lights and we start looking, and of course there are spots I missed. So he pulls out this cleaning solution for cars to remove gunk, and it worked like a dream. He spends an hour or so cleaning it, and unfortunately after putting the clear bra on, he starts noticing some really small spots that are now noticeable after being magnified by the clear bra. Unfortunately at this point, it's too late, you can't remove it and re-install, you'd have to get new film. So finally a day or two goes by, and I'm able to speak with someone at Accelerated about this issue. I give them basically the entire story above, and sent them a bunch of pictures. At this point, I told them, I just wanted to be compensated for the cost of the clear bra being redone (~$700). They told me they would start their investigation and get back to me. * Funny Side Story * So when I'm talking to their claims guy, he asks if the driver who brought the car to Georgia to hand off to the guys who delivered it to me can give me a call, because he lives near by and wanted to take a look. Against my better judgement I agreed to this. So I get a call about 30 minutes later from the driver, and the first thing he does (literally, the first sentence) was tell me how this is his first week (or maybe month) on the job, and that they will make him pay for any damages that occurred. He was hoping I lived closer to him, so he could come over to my house and "use some polishing compound" on my car to remove it. Luckily, he actually lived 4-5 hours away, so that wasn't going to happen. I sat on the phone nicely with him for 30 minutes while he kept apologizing and saying how careful he was with the car to make sure nothing happened to it. The whole thing was just so awkward. * End of Side Story * Finally a week goes by, and I get an email from their claims manager, who tells me that it was the clear bra installers responsibility to make sure that the surface of the car was clean before installing and that the car wasn't prepped properly. They said they would give me a $150 "goodwill" check but offered no apologies or admittance to any responsibility. My argument of course is that it shouldn't be expected that a new car has paint specks all over it and it wasn't simply a matter of a car that needed to be washed better. They basically told me "tough luck" and the $150 "good will" was all they could offer me. I begrudgingly accepted it, because at this point, I just wanted to move on from this frustration. So I'm hoping if anyone took the time to read this ridiculously long story, they got from it the following things: 1. If you're getting a car shipped, you might be better off having it washed first. Hard to say how much of the filth was there before it left on the truck. 2. When you accept a car, make sure it's in the day time where you can METICULOUSLY go over the entire car before signing for it. 3. If you go with Accelerated Services, be prepared for them not to take responsibility for anything that happens to your car, especially if you don't notice it until after you sign for it. Anyway, that was my fun "new car" experience. Luckily the buying process couldn't of been easier, but I think for me, this might be my last time buying a car and having to deal with it getting shipped in. Last edited by flashburn; 01-19-2014 at 06:53 PM.

01-19-2014, 08:45 PM	#9
LeeMaster Red wine Join Date: Oct 2012 Drives: Subaru BRZ(R.I.P) Location: Denied Posts: 1,176 Thanks: 1,268 Thanked 342 Times in 240 Posts Mentioned: 13 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	I went to go take a look at a couple FRS at the local dealerships and noticed that all of them had swirl marks on them. Pretty ugly and yes it does happen to newer cars.. unfortunately both parties have no proof of what happened but at least they gave you some reimbursement for something that can happen to ANY shipping company. __________________

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
GTA VENDORS/SERVICES&PARTS	joergasm	CANADA	10	11-22-2012 12:39 PM
Car Transport Services	iBRZ	BRZ First-Gen (2012+) -- General Topics	0	11-10-2012 06:51 PM
toyota financial services	encity5	Scion FR-S / Toyota 86 GT86 General Forum	29	10-28-2012 11:17 PM

01-19-2014, 06:37 PM	#2
N1rve Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Drives: 2019 BMW ///M4 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,332 Thanks: 102 Thanked 1,167 Times in 714 Posts Mentioned: 28 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	When they said that new cars come "scratched"... unfortunately, yes that's true for some... My first FRS had some blemishes on the bumper, a small bubble if you will, and a chip. As I waited for the sales person to drive down another FRS, I found a black one with all the plastics still on it except the quarter panel, I noticed there were some HEAVY scratches to the car. It JUST got off the truck. What usually happens to these cars is that they try to correct the paint, and it that doesn't work, it gets sent to a body shop for a full repaint.

01-19-2014, 06:44 PM	#3
flashburn Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Drives: 2014 Subaru BRZ Limited 6MT Location: Central Florida Posts: 131 Thanks: 15 Thanked 47 Times in 19 Posts Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	That's pretty ridiculous. It's amazing how poor the paint quality is with every car manufacturer nowadays. Luckily I was able to buff out the majority of them, there are some left on the upper part of the hood that wasn't clear bra'd that I still need to work on a bit more, but I think they should come out.

01-19-2014, 07:21 PM	#5
vhx1 Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Drives: 06 AP2 S2000 Location: San Diego,CA Posts: 64 Thanks: 1 Thanked 37 Times in 22 Posts Mentioned: 5 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	Sorry to hear about your experience. I had a positive experience with the same shipping company and purchased from the same dealer. I guess this is the risk that is taken when having a car shipped cross country to you.

01-19-2014, 07:52 PM	#7
Ganthrithor Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Drives: '13 BRZ, '06 997, Other Things(TM) Location: Santa Barbara, CA Posts: 1,078 Thanks: 1,715 Thanked 670 Times in 351 Posts Mentioned: 9 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	If you're gonna ship spend the extra money and go with a reputable company that does enclosed transport. I had mine shipped from MA to CO by Intercity Lines and had no issues whatsoever. I do recommend having the car cleaned right before transport though, since they drape a few layers of covering materials over the cars while they're being transported. As the driver was telling me, if the cars are covered in dirt then the covers shifting / rubbing during transit can cause swirls.

01-20-2014, 08:22 PM	#11
Silverpike popular among the JDM Join Date: Dec 2011 Drives: 2014 BRZ Limited Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 88 Thanks: 7 Thanked 31 Times in 14 Posts Mentioned: 1 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	When Accelerated Services dropped off my BRZ, I had to sign a form saying I received and inspected it for issues. Did you do this? Your had your chance to inspect the car. If it were me, I would not have signed for it unless I saw it in broad daylight and the car was clean.

01-20-2014, 08:47 PM	#12
ZionsWrath Thanks Join Date: Apr 2013 Drives: BRZ Location: NY Posts: 4,163 Thanks: 5,989 Thanked 3,100 Times in 1,498 Posts Mentioned: 38 Post(s) Tagged: 3 Thread(s)	Audi's ship in car covers ^_^

03-02-2014, 06:34 PM	#14
Formula Vee Lando.Ricciardo.Hamilton. Join Date: May 2013 Drives: 2014 SWP BRZ Limited (MT) Location: New Jersey Posts: 91 Thanks: 85 Thanked 31 Times in 19 Posts Mentioned: 2 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	I had my BRZ shipped from Colorado in early February by Accelerated. A few days after taking ownership I ended up with a flat tire. Removing the wheel/tire (winter set from Tirerack arrived that evening, thankfully) revealed a ring of abrasion/wear around the entire inner side of the tire, along with a 1" tear along that wear line. Brought the issue to the dealer, who reached out to Accelerated. They asked for a quote to replace the tire, but then decided to deny my claim based on their 48-hour claim window and the fact that I signed the Bill of Lading. Keep in mind that I received the keys in a Walmart parking lot, in NJ, in the dead of winter, and the car was filthy dirty. I would have also needed to remove the wheels from the car to see the damage. Now I have to replace the tire with my own money come Spring. I would imagine most people will not have any issues with Accelerated's transport, but if you do they will probably screw you over.

User Name		Remember Me?
Password