FreightCenter, Palm Harbor, FL

Did two loads for a guy named Dave Smith from Freight Center, Palm Harbor, FL. He's a schizophrenic, psycohpathic liar. He succeeded in not paying me extra labor and tarp charges as well as detention and tried to get away with paying me for just one of the two loads I did for Freight Center and his customer, Southern States Pavement Markings, St. Augustine, FL. Beware of them, too.

He tells me the customer has a broken down truck and they need to get this material to another job site and they need it bad. Initial cell phone conversations involved Dave bragging how his customer was his drinking buddy and he often spent weekends at his house. I called the customer to line up the first load and the guy who answered, Bruce, must have had his panties in a wad, because he began by yelling," I dunno what the **** you're talking about!" I told him about the load and he said, "this is the first I'm hearing anything about it"! I asked him if the load was there and he said, "Yeah, I'm sure there's something around here somewhere". I tried to ask him if the load would be ready but he cut me off and yelled, "I got another call coming in" and just hung up on me. I normally would have just figured, "no sense in working with this bozo" and just gone home, but I thought I'd finish out the week with a little extra work and take another shot at it. I finally got through to him after a few minutes and he was REALLY PISSED! After listening to his childish griping that he told me he was busy on another call, I quickly cut in, "All I need to know is if the load is ready?" He just hung up. I called Dave Smith back up and told him about this nutcase. He said he had no right to talk to me like that and he'd take care of it. Minutes later he told me to go ahead down there and they'd load me. The first load went well enough. Didn't have to see Bruce, the #######.

Strict instructions were on the rate con to call ahead with ETA's and broker enroute and at both ends. I tried calling Bruce again for the second pickup but he would never answer his phone. When I arrived at 11pm to pickup the second load, there was no one around. I got the lady at the motel to look up his room. We both walked down to his room and knocked on his door. She said (before I could) that the driver was here to load. He just looked at us and slammed the door without saying a word. After about 10 minutes of waiting outside and not seeing anyone, I knocked on his door again. He opened the door and when he saw me he began yelling like a lunatic that someone would be loading me and slammed the door so hard the whole outside wall shook. I thought, "Fine, #######, you'd be so much better off just communicating in the first place and then you wouldn't make these problems for yourself." After waiting another 10 minutes and nobody showing up, I went back to the truck and made a decision that if no one showed up at 11:30, I'd just go to the truckstop and they can have their stinkin' load. At 11:28 a guy came from around back with a forklift. He was much more pleasant and professional. It's amazing how many idiots are in supervisor positions!

The second load required much more time to load and needed tarping on a no-tarp load, then had two hours wait time for them to come and unload when they were supposed to be there waiting for me. I asked for extra pay, initially, for the extra load time and manual labor of breaking down loose pallets of bagged material (by myself) and loading more empty pallets on top of these adjusted pallets to make tying down easier and he agreed verbally to pay me an extra $75. He asked if it'd be OK to hold off sending a new rate con until we saw how much detention there might be for them getting there to unload this second load. I agreed, unaware that my wife had not even received the initial rate con for the second load to begin with.

I waited the two hours for the guy to arrive and in an hour he had me unloaded. When I called Dave Smith to let him know I was unloaded, he wouldn't answer his phone for the rest of the day (bad sign). I finally got him just before 5pm and said, "Man, you're a hard person to reach (holding back what I really wanted to say). He asked me what I wanted (really?).
I mentioned the two hours wait time and he snapped, "JUST TELL ME HOW MUCH I OWE YOU!" I told him $200 and he said, "FOR WHAT?" I began to itemize the charges (the $75 he agreed to and $65 hr for 2 hrs = $200 rounded off) and he just said in a plain, calm voice, "You know what? I'm not going to pay you anything." (SCHIZO!!) I said, "Oh, is that how you are huh?" He said, "Yeah."

I told him that he would be better off paying me what he owed me. He said "no luck". I said, OK, but that wouldn't be good for him and that I know how to take care of people like him. The discussion went south from there. He then says he wasn't even going to pay me for doing the second load at alI. I called back after awhile and tried getting a supervisor on the line and the lady told me he was unavailable. I asked what his name was and right after she told me his name was Ramon, Dave Smith suddenly picked up and yelled, "Oh, so now you're bothering my dispatchers, huh?" He wouldn't let me talk to Ramon and neither was I able to on Monday when I was home.

I finally went to their website and sent an email to the CEO, who copied me on an email that went to someone he directed to look into it. They maintained that the customer never authorized any extra payments and they would only pay me the originally agreed upon rate. I wrote back that Dave Smith did indeed agree to pay me the extra money and if they would check back on their recorded phone calls they would see it was true. They didn't bother to write back and that confirmed to me what kind of company they were - CEO and all.

I waited til I got paid on those two loads before I posted this.

For more detailed information on this, here's the email I sent to the CEO which includes the phone log details (which may be boring, so you might just want to skip to the story line).

I had an issue with one of your employees (Dave Smith) lying and going back on his word to me about 2 loads I recently did for him.

Basically, I agreed to do 2 loads at $550 each. Then there were additional charges which Dave initially agreed to but then went back on his word and would not even send a second rate con to us.

The details are below.

I tried to get this resolved at lower levels Friday by asking for Dave Smith’s supervisor, but he picked up the phone from the other person’s line and wouldn’t let me talk to him.

I tried contacting Ramon this morning a few times but wasn’t able to get through.

Now he has the audacity to send a $400 TONU to me. I have both signed BOL’s and pictures of the freight.

Dave embellished early on how his customer was his drinking buddy so it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out what he’s doing for his buddy at the expense and labor of a trucker.

I’m sure this is not the kind of reputation you want your company to have with your carriers.

So now I have to contact you directly.

I am an “A” rated carrier and have been trucking 35 years.


Instead of rewriting the whole story, I’m just going to send you the email that I initially was going to send to Dave, but realized that would be fruitless.



Dave,


Final reminder.

We agreed that I would do both these loads at $550 each.

On the first load, Thursday, I listened to your customers’ complaints & concerns about loading in traffic at Spartanburg (including several times law enforcement had to come out) and forfeited sleep so they could load me in the middle of the night – traffic & hassle free. That’s because I understand customer service and I take care of people (which gives you, the broker, a good name).

That was 11 pm to 2am Friday and this second load required extra work:

1. combining plts & restacking the loose product so it would be square and secure

2. last minute addition of 2 gaylords of beads that had to be tarped


When I called you and told you about this, you agreed to pay an extra $75 for the extra work and time. You also asked if I could wait on the rate con in case more time was accumulated on them arriving late to unload me and you would add in any other charges to the rate con. You asked, “Fair enough?” I said, “sure”. It seems my mistake was trusting you that you were a man of your word.


I called you every step of the way, the way your rate con informs us to, when loaded & empty and kept in touch with your customers with ETA’s at each end, as requested.


On Friday, I then informed you at

11:42 am - of my ETA on the second load’s delivery in Greenwood, SC

12:13 pm – I lv a vm for you to call me

12:17 pm – you call and I inform you that Jason wants me to unload & that Southern States will pay whatever it takes. You say NO, you don’t want me to unload, and tell me you’ll call him and get back to me (which you didn’t).

1:08 pm – I call Jason and ask what is going on. He never did get a call from you & didn’t know he had to come and unload me. He says he’ll have to work it out and will be another ½ hr or more.

1:11 pm - I informed you that I arrived at 12:15, was all untied, untarped and put everything away and Jason had not arrived yet and he would be later than expected

3:16 pm – I left you a vm that I was empty and that there was 2 hrs (12:15 – 2:15) wait to get unloaded and one more hr to unload (2:15 – 3:15)

I asked you to call me back but you didn’t

3:34 pm - got your vm

3:38 pm – left you a vm to call back

3:56 pm - tried you again, no luck


4:38 pm – 13 min. on hold for you – you didn’t answer

4:53 pm – no luck again

4:54 pm – you finally pick up and as I start to explain the details, you abruptly say “Just tell me how much I owe you!” I said $200 and you yelled, “FOR WHAT!” I carefully explained what I originally was trying to say ($75 for tarp, restack & extra time; 2 hrs detention @ $65 hr = $130 + $75 = $200 rounded) and you say, “Ya know what, I’m not gonna pay you anything.”


You claim the reason is I was lighting up your phone!

Yeah, because you weren’t doing your job of getting back to me and giving me a second rate confirmation (which I didn’t know my wife had only received one – otherwise, I wouldn’t have continued with the second one until I had it).

If you had a carrier on a load and he was supposed to pick up at 2pm and your customer calls at 2:30 or 3pm wanting to know where that truck is, you and I both know you’d be lighting up his phones until you had an answer. Hate to inform you, but it works both ways. I wouldn’t be calling you if you had had the courtesy of at least getting back to me or having someone pass a message along that you’d get back at a certain time. You’d be cussing up a storm if a carrier wasn’t returning your phone calls and your customer’s screaming for a truck!

I then called and asked to speak to the truckload supervisor and was told it was Ramon, but you suddenly picked up and wouldn’t let me do it.


A good broker knows his carriers are just as much his customers as his shippers & receivers.

Without good carriers (***and a good reputation***), your brokerage would be mud.

I hope you prove to be a man of your word and send a rate con by 10am Tuesday.


Matt, can you please look into this matter and get this taken care of?


Best Regards,

 

You're right, Rollin Coal.

 

Wow, they're even worse for their "customers":

http://www.yelp.com/biz/freightcenter-palm-harbor
Customer reviews are pathetic on here!

 

It gets worse for these scumbags:

http://freightcenter.pissedconsumer.com/

 

BridgettAnn, file a complaint with DAT/Transcore and Internet Truckstop. Once they have enough complaints against these coke addict scumbags, they won't allow them to post their ripoff loads anymore.

 

I'm filling out my report on DAT right now. Got frustrated and tired last night and didn't complete it. I'm referring them to your story as well. Please do report them to DAT as well so we can work together to get them off of the two main load boards. Did you see those consumer complaints on yelp and pissedconsumer.com? They really DON'T care! They're total scam artists and probably drug addicts.