Have you hired a bike shipper?

[MarkT]

Hired Haul Bikes to ship a Valk from MI.  Have you hired these guys?  Good or bad?  I'm regretting this already.  They protect themselves with an ironclad contract but nothing for the customer and they are SLOW, have ridiculous size limits,  build in extra charges for a myriad of excuses, won't deliver to a cul-de-sac, dead end roads, gated communities, on a dirt road or "etc", want the option to start and run the bike "at the sole and absolute drivers discretion" but then are irresponsible for any damage they cause; Any damage they do to your bike must be "DOCUMENTED IN WRITING TO THE DRIVER AT THE TIME OF DELIVERY OR YOU WAIVE ALL RECOURSE" even though I paid for $15,000 insurance with zero deductible. They won't commit to when this is going to happen, other than to tell me it "will be 28 days".  Their CS agent, Linda Lohn, is also very negative - "so you want to cancel then?" I can see why now.  I wish I had. Lastly they took their payment in full up front and we still have no idea when they will actually start the transit.  Two bikes my seller sold after this one have already been picked up by "you-haul" another bike shipper, who also appears to be far more customer-centric. Now it appears my seller got the name wrong - not finding a bike shipper with a name like that.  I hired haul-bikes on the recommendation of a friend but it appears to be a bad referral - I don't think he has any actual experience or a completed shipment with them.  It appears their only plus is their sale price, $499.  Plus an extra $50 for a zero deductible on the insurance.  Plus whatever extra charges they succeed in padding onto the bill.  They also want to charge the card without further authorization, and have you sign and initial that you won't dispute the charge.  Appears they have pissed off a lot of folks - now put all the BS on the contract.

If these guys come through I'll give them a kudos here but at this point I'm not feeling good about them.

[Oss]

I believe, but subject to verification, I used them twice on Valker's suggestion


Once to ship my Valk home from Seattle as I was taking a cruise to Alaska with Bonnie from Seattle and was plum out of riding time  Think it was $600 door to door. The driver had a goldwing that belonged to him sitting on the truck so he could ride  as well  It was a 2 floor setup and a BIG RIG  Bike arrived perfectly and I was in no rush so time was no issue

The 2nd time shipped the police bike from Santa Monica Ca area to my home was $550.00  arrived in perfect condition

You cant ride coast to coast at least 5 days riding for that price  when you add in motel gas and food

[Alien]

I used them or rather their subcontractor to ship the Mothership to Hawaii and back in 2011.  I read a lot of stories that had me worried but there were no issues at all.

[CaribouHunter]

I used UShip to get my '03 from Utah to Arlington, Texas, with no problems.  $276, on my trailer. The first bid was $1,500.  Had no complaints, did a great job. 

[old2soon]

Mark-from what you are relating here sounds like a stacked deck-AGAINST you!  BUT if yer already committed-don't know what to tell ya. And I KNOW you will let us know good bad or indifferent. I hope there are NO Issues with the shipping. RIDE SAFE.

[NEHI]

      I have used them 6 times with no problems.

[Tailgate Tommy]

Mark - here's an update on the shipping of my bike from New Orleans area to my house in Fort Collins, CO. Picking up the bike was put off a week because the truck broke down. The agent did call me right away and told me of the truck drivers issue and gave ma a new pickup date which was met. They did pick it up yesterday and the driver called the previous owner as promised to schedule the pick up. My seller (thanks Gary!) was kind enough to meet the truck at an agreed upon parking lot just off the interstate close to the owners home. The transfer was without incident and my bike is off to me and should be delivered in about 3 weeks. We shall see. One thing that was required was that the extended height windshield needed to be removed as it was about an inch over their max overall height. Thanks to Gary (and Dennis   for removing it!

So far I'm happy with the $550 price and their communication, which has been excellent. My agent Chris has been very professional and courteous. It is however very stressful for me to know that it's all in someone else's hands totally out of my control. Hopefully I won't have the need to ship a bike again!
Tom
 

[Valkjerk]

Now that I've had time to think of it, we should have called for Trump to send his helicopter to pick it up and carry it to Tom. He'd do it for a vote!

Mark, I've used Haulbikes a couple times and my only issue with them is the amount of time I had to wait to receive my bike. It was shipped in the middle of the winter and roads were iced over which caused delays (six weeks). The bike was in good shape when it got to me. They picked it up in Phoenix and brought it to Penn. and you know they had to go through New Orleans or at least close and dropped it off but that didn't happen. All bikes get picked up and brought to their hub for area shipment whenever they can get a load coming your way. OTS know how all this trucking stuff works. Right, OTS?

[Pete]

Last one I used was FEDX. Everything went smoothly and was here in less than a week, From NE to SE USA.

[hairyteeth]

My last Valk was purchased in Texas, I used haul- bikes. It took about 3 weeks, it was January in Ohio so I didn't care. They did a good job, bike arrived without an issue.
I hope yours does also, I wish I had known I would have gladly rode it out to you!
HT

[GiG]

Broken Spoke used to hire a lot of biker strippers....

[Rams]

Wish I had known, I transport all over the US, mostly cars and trucks but, if the destination is somewhere I'd like to go, the price will decrease depending on how bad I want to go there.    I would have loaded up your bike and my bike and brought both to Colorado just to do a little riding out there.    Of course, it would not have been free, otherwise I would have just volunteered to deliver it.   Can't afford to do that but, I guarantee it would have been cheaper and you'd already have your Valkyrie.

Ron

[MarkT]

Wish I had known, I transport all over the US, mostly cars and trucks but, if the destination is somewhere I'd like to go, the price will decrease depending on how bad I want to go there.    I would have loaded up your bike and my bike and brought both to Colorado just to do a little riding out there.    Of course, it would not have been free, otherwise I would have just volunteered to deliver it.   Can't afford to do that but, I guarantee it would have been cheaper and you'd already have your Valkyrie.

Ron

Thanks Ron.  Nice gesture. Same to HT - thanks for the good thought.  Maybe I should have thought of such a thing and posted here.  I had a situation back in 2003 when I broke my ankle and couldn't ride my Gold Wing back from Green Bay.  Went to a lot of expense to fly the wife out, rent a truck, find a local biker who could load it on the truck, and then deal with a wife with no truck driving experience and didn't want to learn.  Had a friend in my club, airline captain and GW rider, who said she would have gladly taken a route to Green Bay and ride the bike back for free if she had known.  

There are some outstanding rides around here, particularly in the foothills - great fun twisties.  Without even getting into the great rides in the mountains.

Meanwhile, thanks everybody else.  I feel much better about haul-bikes now.  I'd say, their sizzle sucks - but apparently (per you guys) the steak is good.  They definitely need to work on their customer facing skills.  I would fix that if I was management over there.  Kurt - my seller on the other end - an experienced retired top level executive - is appalled by the same things I see over at Haul-bikes.