Car Service in Italy
Oct 26, 2014, 12:29 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: SFO, VCE
Programs: AA EXP >4 MM, Lifetime Plat
Posts: 2,881
Car Service in Italy
I very rarely use a car service but I had to use one this past Saturday, and got burned. It's the second time this has happened. It's frustrating to arrive at an airport around midnight, see a bunch of drivers with signs waiting for various people, yours is not there, and emergency number listed on their website goes to an answering machine.
With a no-show you may not yet have a phone activated to call them, you can miss your boat, your connection, be stranded at the airport, etc. I looked into why this has happened, and maybe this can help someone sometime.
I've seen previous posts where people asked for car service recommendations in various cities. Often the response is, "I used so-and-so, and they were prompt and reliable. I highly recommend them." I'm not sure that one experience with a company can mean that much.
What I found out is that usually the car service doesn't actually exist. There's no building, no manager, no secretaries taking reservations, no fleet of cars, no drivers. These days you can make a living by just having a website. Someone develops a website, puts up pictures of cars ranging from standard to a luxury Mercedes, testimonials, etc. When you reserve online they take the order, they send an email "do not reply" confirmation. Then they get on the phone and start calling different taxi companies, different drivers, different limo companies, and try to find a car for you. They are brokers, and they take a commission.
When I looked into this I said, "You mean these businesses are just a guy in his bedroom with a laptop?" They said, "Not even that. It's usually just a guy or a couple of guys with just a cell phone." If they cannot find you a car, you are out of luck. Or, if the only one they can find is already taking someone somewhere and they will be 45 minutes late, they don't tell you.
If something goes wrong since there's no actual physical company, there is no one who you can hold accountable. At best, you can dispute it with your credit card company when you get home. From now on, when I need one, I'm going to let my hotel handle setting up a car service. It will cost a little more than just doing a search and picking one with a nice website, but if there is a problem at least you can call the front desk, there will be a hotel manager, there is accountability, and good hotels will not trust unreliable companies.
There are websites that say that they can take you on a tour of the Amalfi Coast or of Rome, and the telephone number indicates it's someone in Pisa. There are agencies that have a website saying they can drive you from Naples to Positano, pick you up at the airport in Paris, transfer you from Gatwick to Heathrow, or give you a tour in Rome, but they have no cars, and are located in Madrid.
This isn't the car service that I used, and I wasn't in Rome. But if someone thinks this doesn't happen, or that the consequences aren't that serious, see this link. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...o.html#REVIEWS
BTW, the above TA example has a slew of people saying how great that company is. It doesn't matter if they show up 95% of the time. That means it's going to be a disaster for one out of 20 people. The first time it happened to me, which was in Rome, I thought it was just bad luck. Now that it's happened twice I'm going to be much more careful.
With a no-show you may not yet have a phone activated to call them, you can miss your boat, your connection, be stranded at the airport, etc. I looked into why this has happened, and maybe this can help someone sometime.
I've seen previous posts where people asked for car service recommendations in various cities. Often the response is, "I used so-and-so, and they were prompt and reliable. I highly recommend them." I'm not sure that one experience with a company can mean that much.
What I found out is that usually the car service doesn't actually exist. There's no building, no manager, no secretaries taking reservations, no fleet of cars, no drivers. These days you can make a living by just having a website. Someone develops a website, puts up pictures of cars ranging from standard to a luxury Mercedes, testimonials, etc. When you reserve online they take the order, they send an email "do not reply" confirmation. Then they get on the phone and start calling different taxi companies, different drivers, different limo companies, and try to find a car for you. They are brokers, and they take a commission.
When I looked into this I said, "You mean these businesses are just a guy in his bedroom with a laptop?" They said, "Not even that. It's usually just a guy or a couple of guys with just a cell phone." If they cannot find you a car, you are out of luck. Or, if the only one they can find is already taking someone somewhere and they will be 45 minutes late, they don't tell you.
If something goes wrong since there's no actual physical company, there is no one who you can hold accountable. At best, you can dispute it with your credit card company when you get home. From now on, when I need one, I'm going to let my hotel handle setting up a car service. It will cost a little more than just doing a search and picking one with a nice website, but if there is a problem at least you can call the front desk, there will be a hotel manager, there is accountability, and good hotels will not trust unreliable companies.
There are websites that say that they can take you on a tour of the Amalfi Coast or of Rome, and the telephone number indicates it's someone in Pisa. There are agencies that have a website saying they can drive you from Naples to Positano, pick you up at the airport in Paris, transfer you from Gatwick to Heathrow, or give you a tour in Rome, but they have no cars, and are located in Madrid.
This isn't the car service that I used, and I wasn't in Rome. But if someone thinks this doesn't happen, or that the consequences aren't that serious, see this link. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...o.html#REVIEWS
BTW, the above TA example has a slew of people saying how great that company is. It doesn't matter if they show up 95% of the time. That means it's going to be a disaster for one out of 20 people. The first time it happened to me, which was in Rome, I thought it was just bad luck. Now that it's happened twice I'm going to be much more careful.
