DO NOT USE SHIPLY....you are gambling with your money!

The company Shiply connected me with have taken £200 from me, which I paid upfront to them at their request, because they’d “been messed around too many times in the past”. This seemed plausible, they had all my information regarding the job and although they had some negative feedback, the recent feedback from similar jobs they completed was good. The company I went with LD Transpory, had been with Shiply for over a year and had been ‘Verified’ by them. They agreed to transport a vehicle for me but after accepting the job and taking my money, they were evasive on the date and time they could do it and the communication which followed was poor and came from various mobile numbers different to those on their Shiply contact page. I also received poorly written emails from a different email address. They would only ever text or email. They never answered any of the calls I made. On the day of collection they didn’t turn up so I contacted Shiply, who told me that the transport provider LD Transport, Cumbria had had their account suspended due to complaints. This left me in a terrible position, down by £250 and with no way of collecting the car I had put a deposit down on, within the timescale agreed with the seller. I was immediately facing losing the car and my £500 deposit, and had no option but to pay for a train ticket, take 2 days holiday from work, travel for 9 hours, incur the cost of staying in a b&b 300 miles from home, and all this during the week before Christmas! I have not been able to contact the transport company and have little hope of getting my money back. My bank will try to recover the money but have said it’s very unlikely. The Shiply ‘manager’ I spoke to could only offer me a £50 refund, if I filled out their claim form, and simply said “we’re sorry, there’s nothing we can do”. Is far as I can see, they will not accept any responsibility for the actions of the companies who use their website and I cannot believe that Shiply are allowed to operate as a ‘broker’ in this manner, leaving customers high and dry when things go wrong. I will never use Shiply again and feel people should know that Shiply cannot be trusted as a transport broker...they simply do not check the companies on their website and you are taking a huge gamble with your money. Don’t make the same mistake I did, use a local company, with a good reputation, who you can check out yourself.