Shoutout to the dispatcher who had my car sitting in a Kansas lot for 11 days
I paid a broker $850 to move my Civic from Denver to Chicago back in April, and the pickup window was supposed to be 3 to 5 days. Day 6 came and went, so I called and got some guy named Ray who kept saying a driver was "locked in" by Friday. That Friday turned into the next Tuesday, then the next, and my car was just parked at a yard outside Topeka the whole time. Has anyone actually gotten money back from a broker after a delay like that, or do you just eat it and leave a bad review?
Guess I will be the one to say it, but a 3 to 5 day pickup window in the broker world is more like a wish than a promise. Brokers don't own trucks, they just post your car on a load board and hope some driver grabs it, and if the rate you agreed to is on the low side, nobody bites for a while. That yard outside Topeka is probably a holding spot where drivers drop cars between runs, so your Civic sitting there 11 days is not crazy, it just means your load kept getting passed over. Reading that contract you signed matters way more than the phone calls, because most of them have fine print saying dates are estimates and not guaranteed, which is how they keep your $850. Getting money back usually only works if you paid by credit card and can prove they flat out lied, so a chargeback is your real shot, not a refund from Ray. Leaving the bad review feels good but it won't put a dollar back in your pocket, so skip the feelings and go after the payment itself.