How Do I Know If A Car Shipping Company Is Legit?

What Is A Car Shipping Scam?

A car shipping scam is a scheme where the company or a person pretends to be from and belongs to a genuine and legitimate car shipping company and represents that they offer a car shipping service, but they do not offer any kind of car shipping service. These car shipping scams are of different types.

For example, They will show you a quote from some other company and convince you of the transportation of your car, and some may ask you to pay upfront before the shipping.

How Do You Find A Legitimate Car Shipping Company?

When planning to ship your vehicle across the country, you might feel worried about your car. Finding a reliable and reputed car shipping company might be difficult. Nowadays, shipping scams and delivery frauds are common, so finding a legitimate company for your car shipping company is more important.

There are some important tips that you can research to find the best, most reliable car shipping company. Here are some important points for finding a legitimate company.

Check And Verify The Company

Most people surf the internet to verify whether the company is legit or not. One way is to visit the company and enquire about it, but what if the company is in some other place you cannot go and visit it in that place? It's impossible. So, in that condition, you can visit the company website and verify their details.

You can visit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to check the registration and license of the company. On the FMCSA website, search for the company's USDOT number to ensure whether the company is licensed. 

Check The Website

You must visit the company website to learn about and verify its information. You should check whether the website looks professional and has proper company information like contact details, address, and company services. You must check that the company name, logo, and registration number correctly match the given details. 

Insurance Coverage

Car shipping companies provide insurance coverage to safeguard the safety of your car. You should check for the company’s insurance policy and coverage and ask for proof of their insurance service to avoid any dispute between you and the company.

Get Quotes And Compare

Do not rely on one company. You should always look and request more car shipping companies to find the best car shipping company. Enquire about the company's service, ask for a quote from different companies, compare their service and price range, and then choose the best car moving company for your vehicle.

Online Reviews And Ratings

For every company, customers are their most important, and you should not ignore the customers' reviews because they can help you identify more about the company and select the best one. Once you have selected the company, your next step is to look for customer reviews and ratings because it will help you get better insights about the company.

You should check on websites like Yelp, Google Reviews, and Better Business Bureau, which will provide you with the right information and reviews about the company’s reputation and let you know what the customer has experienced about the company.

Client Testimonials And Reference

Newly established companies want to promote their company on the market and build their reputation, so after completing their work and services, these new companies ask for feedback from their previous clients to highlight their expertise and skills. You can also ask for a reference to know about the company’s service.

Verify The Contact Details

Transportation scams are common, and scammers have fancy websites to fool customers. You must verify the company's contact details and address if you don't want to be scammed. You should contact the company and ask them about their service price, etc. If they are not answering your queries or having any issues with it, you should be aware and search for another company.

How To Find A Scam Car Shipping Company?

It is more important to choose a reliable and best car shipping company for the shipment of your car, whether you are transporting your car from state to state or over a short distance.

Many of them get scammed during shipping. You won't get your money back once you have paid the amount to the company. Below are some important key points you should never forget while hiring for a shipping company to identify whether the company is a scam.  

Unregistered Company

Before shipping your car, you should check whether the company is registered. You can check about the company on the FMCSA website because the United States doesn’t allow companies to run without registering on the FMCSA website.

Upfront Payment And Unverified Payment Options

Be aware if the company is asking you to make the payment without providing you with the complete details about the company and the driver by offering you a low price and saying that they are the best and cheapest car shipping company. You should not make any upfront payment or any kind of payment via an external link or unverified method because legit companies always ask you to pay the payment via credit card, visa card, or with a verified payment option.

Fake Or No Details On Website

Nowadays, scammers do have fashioned and professional websites to scam you. If you don’t want to be scammed, you should check and verify the website, like their logo, technical errors, and contact details, or if you notice any issues on their website because the legit company will have a technical and professional website without any errors.

Negative Reviews

You should never want to ignore the customer’s reviews. If you have found any negative or zero reviews online, you must verify the company, and some fake companies will write reviews by rating themselves. So, in that condition, you should check multiple sites to clarify and verify the companies.

Asking You To Sign Contract Without Reading

The companies planning to scam you will ask you and insist you sign a contract without reading in case they are doing this. You should always sign with reading and verifying. Once verified, you should request a written copy of your contract documents. 

Asking You To Fill Out Personal And Financial details

Legitimate companies will only ask you to fill in as many details as they require for the shipment; they will never ask you to share your financial information like security numbers, bank account details, etc., and then it may be a scam. 

How To Avoid Scam Car Shipping Companies?

Some important points will help you to avoid being scammed by a scam car shipping company. So, let us quickly look at these points.

1. The companies are unregistered auto transport companies and do not have carrier numbers.
2. Auto Transport companies are asking for information other than what is required for shipment, like your personal and financial details.
3. Do not answer calls and text messages from unverified websites or links. They may steal your data.
4. Companies pretending to be the best and the cheapest car shipping companies are too good to be and are making false promises.
5. They don't have a well-designed website or contact details and ask you to pay their deposit without providing the complete details about the driver and contract details.

How Do You Find Whether The Website Is Legit Or Not?

If you do not notice or ignore these points before selecting and shipping your car, you may lose a lot of money, and your vehicle FMCSA United States will provide you with complete details about the company. Therefore, nowadays, finding whether the website is legit is difficult, so you can relax. We will help you find the legitimacy of the website here. We have listed some essential points. Please read thoroughly.

1. Look for the web address URL “https” at the beginning of the website. 
2. Look for the website connection type; a website with a “secure” description is more secure and trustworthy.
3. Verify the website domain and check for the privacy policy.
4. To check for any technical errors on the websites and their design.
5. Check for the social media presence of the company and the payment gateway on their website.

Finding a reliable and legitimate company for your car shipping is most important. We hope we have explained to you and made you understand the process of finding the legitimacy of the company. We will provide you with the best shipping service, and we will assure you that you will have a great experience with us.