- City
- Baton Rouge
- State
- La
First off a huge Thank You to everyone who made the weekend a success!! I won’t name drop except for Raymond aka Spanks, since he was the catalyst.
I had a tight deadline to have the 84 Garnet Scrambler picked up. The seller lived in a different state from the pickup and logistically I could not get a firm pickup date from any transport company. I went though Uship, which I have successfully used before, and found a guy that could pickup during the specified time. He was also significantly cheaper than the carrier quotes. Bonus!! I had the Uship guy pick up some items from the seller in his home state before picking up the Jeep in the other state. First mistake!! Uship guy was about a day late from when he said he would pick up the parts but at least he picked them up. Now I’m committed to him!! Most deadly mistake!!
So Uship guy was to be in Scottsdale to pick up the Jeep between the 18-20. The seller had flown in to meet him. Due to the most ridiculous reasons known to man the Uship driver missed this window. It took him two days to get from Burbank,Ca. to Scottsdale, Az. which is about a 5 hour drive. I would have cancelled him but he had my parts for this Jeep that I would have lost. He ended up in Scottsdale on the evening of the 21st to pick up the Jeep. Seller flew out that morning so the Jeep was left out to be picked up.
Now we are at Wednesday around 5:45 Central time.
Jeep is loaded. Uship driver already late but he is going to drive straight to me to unload. I was leaving to go to Marshal TX early Saturday morning with Spanks to meet a fellow forum member and get some items for this Jeep.
I was to expect the driver Thursday afternoon to deliver my Jeep.
Thursday night at 10:58 PM I received the following:
“Houston we have a problem but your Jeep is ok”
Broken U-joint. No worries Tommy I will have it fixed and be on my way.
This should have taken about an hour to repair.
The driver had driven 1 hour between Wednesday at 5:45pm and Thursday at 10:58pm when he broke down. Excuse after excuse after excuse. He did drop a pin and emailed Uship about the breakdown and gave half ass directions where he was.
Thursday-he didn’t move any further.
Friday- he mentioned to me that he got a ride to Autozone to rent the parts needed to fix his truck.
Around lunch on Friday he had still not moved so I contacted Uship which was useless. All they kept saying was let’s wait for him to respond to emails which he never did. He also never turned on his GPS tracking so I never knew where he actually was.
I started to worry that the Jeep was stolen due to lack of communication from the driver and him saying he had only moved 1 hour in 2 days. He would answer 1 out of 10 calls.
As of about five or six Friday night he has still not fixed the U joint. I had contacted a few area forum members and one agreed to try and find this guy on the side of the road and pick up the jeep for me then have it shipped.
That would have been too easy!!
Around 7 PM Central the driver texted me saying that he had everything he needed and was going to fix it and head my way. He just needed to drop off the parts at Autozone and retrieve his deposit since he needed it for gas money. Since Raymond and I were already headed to Marshall the idea was agreed on that we would load up my trailer and head towards the Uship driver meet him halfway and catch Marshall on the way back.
Raymond and I left Baton Rouge around 11 PM Friday night. As soon as we got on the road I called the Uship driver. Straight to voicemail. I continue calling him throughout the night and his phone was off. I was now convinced that this whole thing had been a scam and the jeep was actually stolen. We waited until 10 AM when Uship customer service opened and I called them. All they could tell me was that he had not responded to their emails and that maybe I should contact the authorities. After some phone calls I finally talked to the right person who’s going to try and send the state police to find the driver where said he had broken down. They were going to call me if they found him. I had the idea to google search nearby AutoZones in Az. Looking up in the system through his phone number we could not find anything rented to fix a U joint. Luckily I had a different number that he had listed on Uship and that was the number that the tool was rented under and he had not returned it yet.
SOOO...The fact that the tool had not been returned to AutoZone was the only thing we had to go on.
His phone was also never turned back on. We kept hoping we would see him on the way but that never happened either. We had never heard back from the state police saying whether they found the driver or not on the side of the road. I called my friend from this forum, whom I had never met before, that was willing to pick the jeep up for me and he was willing to go and see if he could find this guy possibly still broken down on the side of the road. All we had was a dropped pin and a half As description from like three days ago from where he said he broke down.
On Saturday evening after about 16 hours of straight driving I received a phone call from our forum member saying that the jeep was located in the same exact spot where the guy said he broke down on Thursday night.
This is how he was found. Poor guy didn’t stand a chance
The trailer was commandeered and we ended up meeting up where we finally took possession of the jeep
So after about 21 hours of driving we had the Jeep. Raymond and I took turns driving until we couldn't anymore then would swap. We never slept more than 1.5 hours at a time then would drive about 6-8 more hours then swap again. This was much easier in the beginning of the trip.
We were offered the opportunity to stay the night in Az but we had to get back. So after a two hour stop/break/meet and greet to pick up the Jeep we headed back. We still wanted to make it to Mashall in time to pickup the parts on Sunday. This added another 2 hours to the trip home since we were going back another route to be able to hit Marshall, TX. Few pics along the way
After all of this we weren't able to meet up in Marshall. We were already past the exit when contact was made but we just didn't have the energy to backtrack after about 30 hours of straight driving. We were both getting delirious at this point and our driving stints were down to about 3 hours max before we switched again.
Finally ,making it back to Baton Rouge about 6:50PM last night we were able to unload.
Poor Raymond had another two hours to drive before he made it home from Baton Rouge.
Sooo, with a small glimmer of hope from an Autozone supervisor, two dedicated Jeep CJ nuts, those loud ass interstate side strips that wake you up after you've fallen asleep, our forum member who went out of his way to locate the Jeep, take the trailer from the driver and meet up with us this almost 40 hour 2700 mile excursion was a success!!
I had a tight deadline to have the 84 Garnet Scrambler picked up. The seller lived in a different state from the pickup and logistically I could not get a firm pickup date from any transport company. I went though Uship, which I have successfully used before, and found a guy that could pickup during the specified time. He was also significantly cheaper than the carrier quotes. Bonus!! I had the Uship guy pick up some items from the seller in his home state before picking up the Jeep in the other state. First mistake!! Uship guy was about a day late from when he said he would pick up the parts but at least he picked them up. Now I’m committed to him!! Most deadly mistake!!
So Uship guy was to be in Scottsdale to pick up the Jeep between the 18-20. The seller had flown in to meet him. Due to the most ridiculous reasons known to man the Uship driver missed this window. It took him two days to get from Burbank,Ca. to Scottsdale, Az. which is about a 5 hour drive. I would have cancelled him but he had my parts for this Jeep that I would have lost. He ended up in Scottsdale on the evening of the 21st to pick up the Jeep. Seller flew out that morning so the Jeep was left out to be picked up.
Now we are at Wednesday around 5:45 Central time.
Jeep is loaded. Uship driver already late but he is going to drive straight to me to unload. I was leaving to go to Marshal TX early Saturday morning with Spanks to meet a fellow forum member and get some items for this Jeep.
I was to expect the driver Thursday afternoon to deliver my Jeep.
Thursday night at 10:58 PM I received the following:
“Houston we have a problem but your Jeep is ok”
Broken U-joint. No worries Tommy I will have it fixed and be on my way.
This should have taken about an hour to repair.
The driver had driven 1 hour between Wednesday at 5:45pm and Thursday at 10:58pm when he broke down. Excuse after excuse after excuse. He did drop a pin and emailed Uship about the breakdown and gave half ass directions where he was.
Thursday-he didn’t move any further.
Friday- he mentioned to me that he got a ride to Autozone to rent the parts needed to fix his truck.
Around lunch on Friday he had still not moved so I contacted Uship which was useless. All they kept saying was let’s wait for him to respond to emails which he never did. He also never turned on his GPS tracking so I never knew where he actually was.
I started to worry that the Jeep was stolen due to lack of communication from the driver and him saying he had only moved 1 hour in 2 days. He would answer 1 out of 10 calls.
As of about five or six Friday night he has still not fixed the U joint. I had contacted a few area forum members and one agreed to try and find this guy on the side of the road and pick up the jeep for me then have it shipped.
That would have been too easy!!
Around 7 PM Central the driver texted me saying that he had everything he needed and was going to fix it and head my way. He just needed to drop off the parts at Autozone and retrieve his deposit since he needed it for gas money. Since Raymond and I were already headed to Marshall the idea was agreed on that we would load up my trailer and head towards the Uship driver meet him halfway and catch Marshall on the way back.
Raymond and I left Baton Rouge around 11 PM Friday night. As soon as we got on the road I called the Uship driver. Straight to voicemail. I continue calling him throughout the night and his phone was off. I was now convinced that this whole thing had been a scam and the jeep was actually stolen. We waited until 10 AM when Uship customer service opened and I called them. All they could tell me was that he had not responded to their emails and that maybe I should contact the authorities. After some phone calls I finally talked to the right person who’s going to try and send the state police to find the driver where said he had broken down. They were going to call me if they found him. I had the idea to google search nearby AutoZones in Az. Looking up in the system through his phone number we could not find anything rented to fix a U joint. Luckily I had a different number that he had listed on Uship and that was the number that the tool was rented under and he had not returned it yet.
SOOO...The fact that the tool had not been returned to AutoZone was the only thing we had to go on.
His phone was also never turned back on. We kept hoping we would see him on the way but that never happened either. We had never heard back from the state police saying whether they found the driver or not on the side of the road. I called my friend from this forum, whom I had never met before, that was willing to pick the jeep up for me and he was willing to go and see if he could find this guy possibly still broken down on the side of the road. All we had was a dropped pin and a half As description from like three days ago from where he said he broke down.
On Saturday evening after about 16 hours of straight driving I received a phone call from our forum member saying that the jeep was located in the same exact spot where the guy said he broke down on Thursday night.
This is how he was found. Poor guy didn’t stand a chance
The trailer was commandeered and we ended up meeting up where we finally took possession of the jeep
So after about 21 hours of driving we had the Jeep. Raymond and I took turns driving until we couldn't anymore then would swap. We never slept more than 1.5 hours at a time then would drive about 6-8 more hours then swap again. This was much easier in the beginning of the trip.
We were offered the opportunity to stay the night in Az but we had to get back. So after a two hour stop/break/meet and greet to pick up the Jeep we headed back. We still wanted to make it to Mashall in time to pickup the parts on Sunday. This added another 2 hours to the trip home since we were going back another route to be able to hit Marshall, TX. Few pics along the way
After all of this we weren't able to meet up in Marshall. We were already past the exit when contact was made but we just didn't have the energy to backtrack after about 30 hours of straight driving. We were both getting delirious at this point and our driving stints were down to about 3 hours max before we switched again.
Finally ,making it back to Baton Rouge about 6:50PM last night we were able to unload.
Poor Raymond had another two hours to drive before he made it home from Baton Rouge.
Sooo, with a small glimmer of hope from an Autozone supervisor, two dedicated Jeep CJ nuts, those loud ass interstate side strips that wake you up after you've fallen asleep, our forum member who went out of his way to locate the Jeep, take the trailer from the driver and meet up with us this almost 40 hour 2700 mile excursion was a success!!
Last edited: