Phone and text spam after a car shipping quote form
A quote form that sends your phone number to many companies produces the burst of calls and texts people complain about. The number is the product. RideShipper shows a price range before it asks for a phone. If you ask for quotes, you give your name, email, and phone and tick a consent box. Licensed auto transport companies that serve the route then contact you.
Key facts
- Why the phone rings
- Comparison and lead sites are paid by companies that want to call the person who asked for a price. A form that does not name those companies can send one number to many callers.
- What RideShipper's flow does
- A price range before any contact details. A quote request then takes a name, email, phone, and a ticked consent box. Licensed companies that serve the route contact you.
- What you can stop
- You can ask RideShipper not to contact you. That request does not erase a number you already gave to other sites or to a company directly.
- What the form is not
- Submitting a request is not a booking, not a deposit, and not consent for every shipper on the internet. Read the consent sentence on the screen. It should be unchecked until you check it.
The sources are listed on this page.
The calls and texts start because the form sold your phone number. A car shipping quote site that asks for a number before it shows a price, and that does not name who will call, can hand that number to many brokers and carriers at once. Each of them treats the number as a job to win. You experience it as spam. They experience it as a lead they paid for.
RideShipper is one of those businesses in a narrow sense. Companies may pay RideShipper when a person asks for quotes. RideShipper is not a carrier and not a broker. The difference is that you see a price before anyone asks for your number, and a quote request is a choice you make after that.
Why one form becomes a dozen texts
A lead is a person's contact details plus a shipment they described. The company that buys the lead calls or texts because that is how it gets the work. If the form's privacy line says "partners" and does not name them, you cannot tell how many phones will ring. Customers describe the result as a burst of calls after a single query, then a low price from one of the callers, then a higher price later. The calls are the first harm. The price change is often the second. The bait-and-switch page is that second part.
FMCSA's June 16, 2023 guidance (88 FR 39368) says that merely making information about potential shippers publicly available, even for a fee, does not require broker authority, if the business is not otherwise involved in the transaction between the shipper and the carrier. Publishing a lead is not the same thing as arranging the load. It can still feel like a broker blast, because the people who buy the lead are often brokers. The guidance also says it is not a binding law. It explains why a comparison site can exist without being your carrier.
What RideShipper's request does differently
RideShipper's quote flow is three steps.
- You enter the route, the first date you can release the car, and open or enclosed transport. You see a button to show a price range. No phone number yet.
- You enter the vehicle. You see a range, from low to high, with the date of the estimate. You can email that estimate to yourself. Emailing it does not create a lead and does not start calls.
- If you want quotes, you enter a name, email, and phone, and you tick a consent box that starts unchecked. Licensed auto transport companies that serve the route then contact you. RideShipper does not show a list of those companies beforehand, does not let you pick them, and does not say how many will respond.
The consent sentence is on the page. The wording you agreed to is stored with the time. The details live on calling and text terms. You can also ask for quotes by phone at (800) 989-8833, 24/7.
You can later ask RideShipper not to contact you. That request covers contact that came from this request. It does not reach a company you emailed yourself, or a form you filled in on another site. Those callers need their own stop.
What the calls are not allowed to pretend
A company that calls from a RideShipper request is not RideShipper, and it should not say it is. It may not pretend to be the carrier if it is a broker. 49 CFR 371.7 requires a broker's advertising to show broker status. Ask which role they are in, and ask for the USDOT or MC number before you talk about a deposit. The role guide separates the comparison site, the broker, and the carrier.
A call is also not a review and not a rank. If a caller says RideShipper ranked them first, look for that label on the page you used. How the site is paid is on how RideShipper makes money. The Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, 16 CFR part 465, prohibits a business from writing or buying fake reviews and from suppressing reviews because they are negative. The eCFR shows that part from October 21, 2024. Its source line is 89 FR 68077, August 22, 2024. A caller reading you a star count is not that rule. The page you can check is the company profile.
How to thin out calls you did not expect
- If the text or call cites a RideShipper request, ask RideShipper not to contact you, and reply STOP if the message tells you that word works.
- If you do not recognize the company, do not argue and do not give a card number. Ask for the legal name and a USDOT number, then look it up later. Or simply say stop and hang up.
- Write down numbers that keep calling after you said stop. You will need that list if you complain to the company or, for a marketing text you did not agree to, to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
- Do not fill a second "free quote" form to compare the first one. That form is often another sale of the same number.
A range you only emailed to yourself should not produce calls. If it does, report it through the contact page, with the time you chose email. The quote request page is the path that shares your number with licensed companies that serve the route, and only after you tick consent. Comparing the prices those companies send is a separate job, covered in how to compare quotes.
Questions
I only wanted a price. Why are brokers calling?
Because the form you used sold or shared the number as a lead. The companies that bought it call to win the shipment. A price range does not require your phone number. If a site asks for the number before it shows any price, that is the design people describe as spam.
Does RideShipper sell my number to a long list?
You see a price range before any contact details. If you request quotes, you give your name, email, and phone and tick a consent box. Licensed auto transport companies that serve the route then contact you. Companies that receive a request may pay RideShipper. That is a sale of a lead. It is not a promise that your number stays private.
How do I make the texts stop?
Ask RideShipper not to contact you, using the contact page or the reply path in the message. Reply with the stop word the sender shows, if it shows one. Ask each company, in writing, to stop. One request to RideShipper does not bind a company that got your number somewhere else.
Can I get quotes by email instead?
Yes. After the price range, you can email yourself the estimate without creating a lead. That path does not ask a company to call you. A quote request, the third step, does. Pick the one you mean.