Over the summer, I shipped my car to Los Angeles so I could drive myself to work (If I took the bus, my commute would have taken nearly three hours.) I contemplated renting a car, but since I am under 21 all the prices for renting far exceeded the cost of shipping my car to California.
My car (whose name is Heidi because she's German and looks like a supermodel) arrived in California with a little trouble -- she was picked up a day late and arrived at my Uncle's house in San Diego a couple days early -- but overall, things went alright.
When it came time to ship my car back, my mother and I opted to use a different shipping company because of the previous ordeal. Things started out fine: although I was perturbed by the company's 7:00-10:00a.m. estimated pick up time, the driver called 30 minutes before he was to arrive and loaded Heidi onto his truck around 8:00a.m. He told me the car would arrive in two weeks and handed me an order receipt with a tracking number he said would allow me to locate my car whenever I pleased. This transaction occurred on August 10th.
On August 15th my parents received an email from DAS Autoshippers -- the company we hired to ship the car -- alerting them that my car has been put in transit and to begin making arrangements for pick up.
We then heard nothing from them for over a week.
On August 24th -- the day DAS said the car would arrive -- my mom called to inquire about Heidi's whereabouts. Their customer service said she could not tell my mother where the car was, but claimed it would arrive on time. When my always prepared mom provided the tracking number and informed her that the car was supposed to arrive that day, she told her they could not track the car and that two weeks was more of an "estimate than a guarantee." Their website, however, advertises that a car can be tracked "anytime."
On August 25th, my mom called DAS twice and was again told that the car could not be tracked and that it would be arriving late.
On August 26th, she called in the morning and received the usual response from customer service. She also emailed the customer service worker's boss in the morning and he said he would "follow up with her," but he has not responded to my mom's latest email from this afternoon. My very devoted mother then called the customer service worker three times in the afternoon and left multiple messages only for her to again respond that she has no clue where the car is.
Finally, my mom also called the delivery terminal in Manassas, Virginia, which had no information on Heidi's whereabouts. When my mom told me she went to all this trouble, I called two separate numbers for DAS -- one once, and the other three times -- on August 26th and was either told by an automated response that my tracking number was invalid or sent to voicemail.
No one has called back.
So Internet, I have a challenge for you: help bring Heidi home.
Heidi is a 2007 BMW X3. She is white with tan seats and a black interior. She has two bumperstickers -- one for Baylor School and the other for UVA -- on her trunk window. She was last seen on August 10th at 8:12a.m. on the corner of Riverside Drive and Van Noord Street in Sherman Oaks, California. Her hobbies include driving to the beach with the windows down and transporting dogs in her back seat. Heidi can be seen in this video at approximately the 9:20 minute mark and in the following photos:
Heidi, after the car wash, pursuing her passion for car modeling.
Heidi enjoying one of her favorite pastimes: driving my bulldog Dorothy.
Please keep Heidi and her family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. Feel free to tweet, Instagram, or rant in general using the hashtag #HelpFindHeidi or call 1-800-826-1083 to complain excessively to DAS Autoshippers.
