Two Georgia Tech graduate students say they hired a company to ship their cars from the west coast to Atlanta.
When the truck driver got here, they say he demanded more money than they were expecting, and they refused.
They told Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray that the truck driver got back on the downtown connecter and drove their cars to Charlotte.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“I really just want to get answers. I want the car back. I want my friend’s car back as well,” said Rene, who asked her last name not be used.
It all started in Seattle.
Rene says she and her roommate were shipping two cars from an internship there back to Atlanta for school. The price: $2,300.
When the truck driver arrived, he told them the price was now more than $5,000.
Renee and her roommate followed before dawn the next morning, and police were there at the impound with them. They shared the paperwork they had showing the price.
They hired a middleman, or broker, Aspired Auto Sales, to ship their cars. It shows Aspired worked with T7 Trucking in North Dakota.
The driver had different paperwork. It lists the broker as Major Auto Transport USA and says Major Auto contracted with Adults Trucking. The price: $5,100.
Adults Trucking showed Channel 2 the same document and says that was the price all along.
“This is one of those things where you kind of just don’t believe that you’re in this,” Rene said.
Adults Trucking said they took the cars to another state because Charlotte is the company’s “home base and a place” the business “could better monitor and retrieve the vehicles” until the customers paid.
The company added police never took any action against them.
Channel 2 has reported on pricing problems when using a broker to move before.
Mover’s refused to deliver Angela Forte’s belongings for nearly a year until Channel 2 Action News Investigates got involved.
In that case, the mover demanded thousands more on delivery than she had agreed to with the broker.
For Rene and her roommate, the trip to charlotte and impound fees brought the cost for their cars even higher. They paid more than $7,0000 to get their cars back
“I am a little bit overwhelmed. I’m a lot overwhelmed,” she said.
It’s important to research movers beforehand. If you run into a problem like these students did, remember that law enforcement tends to view this as a civil issue, not criminal.
Channel 2 reach out to all five companies involved in this case. Adults Trucking was the only one that responded.
Their statement in full:
“Our company was contracted by Major Auto Transport USA INC. MC # 1726137 298 Moreland St. # 1 Staten Island, NY 10306 to provide a delivery service spanning from Newcastle, WA 98059 to Atlanta, Georgia. Upon delivery, the customer refused to pay the total contracted fee, we were instructed by the broker not to offload until the full balance was paid, which my company have documentation of. It’s unfortunate the customer had to pay additional fees; however, all this could have all been avoided at the time of delivery in GA.
“The driver was instructed by the GA state trooper and police that he was free to leave with the vehicles due to non-payment. We have all the documentation, videos before and after of both vehicles arriving safely to the Charlotte impound yard. The customer even tried to tell the Charlotte police the cars were stolen, after the police here in Charlotte did their due diligence, they also instructed the customer to pay or the cars would not be released.
“As a business owner we do not perform services for free. It is our desire to satisfy each and every customer and to ensure a timely and quality delivery, however, this situation is rare and unfortunate where a customer refused to pay. Once they paid in full, both vehicles were released from the impound yard into the possession of the customer.”
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
