Limo Service Recommendation
May 12, 2007 | 11:59 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Near Chicago and Under the MDW and ORD Flight Paths, IL, USA
Programs: UA recovering Premier
Posts: 948
Limo Service Recommendation
I'm ready to fire my limo service (again). It used to be locally owned, then got bought by one of the big companies, and it went in the toilet from there.
They offer online booking now, but you can't pre-pay, which is idiotic. Why do they want a credit card number, if I have to sit and pay the guy at the airport?
Most of the drivers seem to be Eastern European now (Polish or Russian), they all live on their cell phones, they only drive with the help of their GPS (which tells me they aren't learning the city -- just trusting the GPS to get them around), they drive like idiots... No offense to these guys, but if your job is driving, perhaps you should get to know how to get to the airport? (On my outbound trip, the guy was concentrating on his GPS to get to Cermak and the Tri-State, that he almost missed the fact that it was a left turn... I had one other driver who drove right over the 290 on 25th Ave. then asked me at North Ave and 25th where the expressway was -- and had no earthly idea of how to get from there to ORD. Yet another driver decided that Brookfield was west of the Tri-State on Ogden.)
I can almost deal with that... until last night. I arrive at ORD around 9:45pm. Wait for baggage (separate rant about UA and "Priority" baggage handling)... call the service at 10:25 for a pickup. They tell me "go to 'one-Charlie'... 9 minutes... car 949... a stretch". Okaaaaay. (I had pre-booked a sedan.)
So I wander outside. I know "9 minutes" means 15, but hey, they have surprised me before... at 10:45, I see a stretch limo stop at "1-Bravo". I squint and the number in the window looks like "949". But I see the driver loading passengers, so I must be mistaken. Everyone jumps in and off they go... as it passes, sure enough, it's 949. So I call back the company. "Oh you're in 599, a sedan". I tell the dispatcher, no, I was told 949, a stretch limo at 1-Charlie, ten minutes ago. "Well, you booked a sedan and 599 will be there in two minutes." And I'm supposed to know about this change how?
So I wait another ten minutes. Now I am hopping mad. Sure enough here comes 599. The driver hops out (a 50-ish African-American woman) and sees that I'm clearly unhappy. She's ready to apologize and I tell her that I'm not cheesed at her, but at her dispatcher, and relate the story. She tells me that she's been in the lot since before 10 waiting for her next customer and they dispatched her ten minutes ago. (She also tells me that they never pick anyone up at "1-Bravo", which seems correct to me because I had told the dispatcher when I called initially that I was at "1-Bravo" and she told me to go to "1-Charlie".)
She then proceeds down the Tri-State at a leisurely 50mph...
:::sigh::: My company's service tends to work up north and I have heard similar issues with that company, plus they charge me double for where I live. The service that I'd like to use (Boston Coach) is too pricey without a corporate contract. I really don't want to deal with a guy with one car or just a couple cars.
Any suggestions?
They offer online booking now, but you can't pre-pay, which is idiotic. Why do they want a credit card number, if I have to sit and pay the guy at the airport?
Most of the drivers seem to be Eastern European now (Polish or Russian), they all live on their cell phones, they only drive with the help of their GPS (which tells me they aren't learning the city -- just trusting the GPS to get them around), they drive like idiots... No offense to these guys, but if your job is driving, perhaps you should get to know how to get to the airport? (On my outbound trip, the guy was concentrating on his GPS to get to Cermak and the Tri-State, that he almost missed the fact that it was a left turn... I had one other driver who drove right over the 290 on 25th Ave. then asked me at North Ave and 25th where the expressway was -- and had no earthly idea of how to get from there to ORD. Yet another driver decided that Brookfield was west of the Tri-State on Ogden.)
I can almost deal with that... until last night. I arrive at ORD around 9:45pm. Wait for baggage (separate rant about UA and "Priority" baggage handling)... call the service at 10:25 for a pickup. They tell me "go to 'one-Charlie'... 9 minutes... car 949... a stretch". Okaaaaay. (I had pre-booked a sedan.)
So I wander outside. I know "9 minutes" means 15, but hey, they have surprised me before... at 10:45, I see a stretch limo stop at "1-Bravo". I squint and the number in the window looks like "949". But I see the driver loading passengers, so I must be mistaken. Everyone jumps in and off they go... as it passes, sure enough, it's 949. So I call back the company. "Oh you're in 599, a sedan". I tell the dispatcher, no, I was told 949, a stretch limo at 1-Charlie, ten minutes ago. "Well, you booked a sedan and 599 will be there in two minutes." And I'm supposed to know about this change how?
So I wait another ten minutes. Now I am hopping mad. Sure enough here comes 599. The driver hops out (a 50-ish African-American woman) and sees that I'm clearly unhappy. She's ready to apologize and I tell her that I'm not cheesed at her, but at her dispatcher, and relate the story. She tells me that she's been in the lot since before 10 waiting for her next customer and they dispatched her ten minutes ago. (She also tells me that they never pick anyone up at "1-Bravo", which seems correct to me because I had told the dispatcher when I called initially that I was at "1-Bravo" and she told me to go to "1-Charlie".)
She then proceeds down the Tri-State at a leisurely 50mph...
:::sigh::: My company's service tends to work up north and I have heard similar issues with that company, plus they charge me double for where I live. The service that I'd like to use (Boston Coach) is too pricey without a corporate contract. I really don't want to deal with a guy with one car or just a couple cars.
Any suggestions?
May 13, 2007 | 7:41 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 20,405
CTA isn't bad...definitely cheap! 
I use American Limo -- they're not the cute "Mom 'n Pop" operation, but that's what I like about them...they have a fleet waiting at ORD to do pick-ups, so the typically long wait (of limos) isn't as bad...
I use American Limo -- they're not the cute "Mom 'n Pop" operation, but that's what I like about them...they have a fleet waiting at ORD to do pick-ups, so the typically long wait (of limos) isn't as bad...